In what has become somewhat a new Christmas tradition, Maroon 9 Community Enrichment Organization will hold its 7th Annual Arts & STEM Intensive and Gift Giveaway for children ages 9 to 17 on Saturday, December 17, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County-Nicholas & Louella Martin Branch, 3123 Avenue G, Fort Worth, TX 76105.
Participants who pre-register will enjoy a live DJ, catered lunch, giveaways, and a rotating schedule of performing arts and STEM workshops. Ages 9-12 will participate in exploratory workshops, while ages 13-17 will attend master classes in vocal music, theater, and dance at Urban Village Family Services, located directly next door. All workshops and classes will be led by industry experts and educators.
Participants should dress comfortably because all workshops will be interactive. To receive Christmas gifts at the end of the event, all participants MUST attend the entire day. Although parents are not required to attend, Urban Village Family Services will provide engaging and informational parent workshops throughout the day.
This event is in collaboration with Boys & Girls Clubs of Tarrant County and Urban Village Family Services. The event is supported by the North Texas Community Foundation, United Way of Tarrant County, Toys For Tots, and Arts Fort Worth.
Maroon 9 Community Enrichment Organization (Maroon 9) is committed to enriching the lives of youth and educating the community by providing free high-quality youth enrichment programs in Fine Arts, STEM, Life Skills, College & Career, and other areas. Our mission is to provide stable and safe environments for youth enrichment programs, special events, mentoring, guidance, and community support. Winter clothing, books, educational activities, boys’ hygiene items, and gift cards are all needed for the event.
Visit www.maroon9.org or Facebook.com/Maroon9SickleCell for more information on Maroon 9. For more information or to donate, please contact ShaVonne Davis, Program Director, at 682-200- 9261 or email info@maroon9.org.
The Academy of Visual and Performing Arts is now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year, with the goal of addressing a crisis in educational opportunity equity and fine arts-based education. AVPA is enrolling 6th and 7th graders in its inaugural year and will gradually expand to all high school grade levels. Located on the city’s south side, AVPA brings arts focused instruction to students who because of distance or financial constraints, are unable to attend private or fine arts schools.
AVPA is open-enrollment, tuition-free, open to all students and exists to ensure all students are provided with equitable opportunities to learn through the arts, in the arts and with the arts. The admissions application takes 5-minutes to complete and there are no audition requirements.
AVPA students will experience arts-integrated, project-based learning across subject areas and conservatory programming in dance, digital media arts, literary arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. The middle school program is an exploratory opportunity for students to learn and develop pertinent skills to make informed decisions about AVPA’s high school conservatory programs for which they’ll audition in the Spring of their eighth-grade year. Enrollment in AVPA provides children with access to a learning environment that is designed to meet their needs while also addressing the years-long deficits in literacy, art curriculums, and even culinary deficits that exist in public education. This is the direct result of Texas’ commitment to prioritizing school choice in educational program selection.
Another hallmark of AVPA is its dedication to personalized learning. This is bolstered by a commitment to provide a safe, challenging learning environment that cultivates, sustains, and promotes academic and artistic excellence. AVPA culture focuses on five tenets of well-being by addressing the needs of students enrolled. By addressing physical, psychological, social, emotional, and economic needs AVPA students are more apt to succeed academically and artistically.
Some of the world’s foremost entertainers the likes of Kirk Franklin, Major Attaway, Sedrick Huckaby, Leon Bridges, Tatiana Mayfield, Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, Channing Godfrey Peoples, and several others hail from Fort Worth, a city without a major school for the performing and visual arts in their home communities. Though proximity is not always the immediate crisis, opportunity equity, and impedances to fine arts-enriched programming, yet abound. AVPA seeks to fill this void and make futures in visual and performing arts a possibility for more students with the opening of their school.
AVPA Board of Directors
To schedule a group presentation or individual meeting, please email or call Dr. Stephanie Love at enroll@avpaschools.org or (817) 200-7299. Learn more about the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts today by visiting www.avpaschools.org or by connecting on social media using @AVPATexas on all platforms.
Brittney Holman is led by her life’s purpose and teaches her mentees to do the same. Holman lives a life of intentional impact and doesn’t rest on the laurels of her entrepreneurial exploits. While her classmates were only daydreaming about their future, Holman opened owned and operated the first of her three braiding salons in her hometown of Orangeburg, South Carolina at the age of seventeen. Holman knows all too well how easy it is to slip through the cracks and succumb to the limited access to opportunities in urban communities and strives to bridge the gap for young people through the Brittney LaShe Youth Mentorship program.
Each summer, the Brittney LaShe Youth Mentorship equips and empowers youth seven and up to build generational wealth using biblical principles. The mentorship costs an average of $500 per child and year-long fundraising efforts help offset the cost for children who can’t afford it. The three-part curriculum tailored to the individual needs of the student is titled “READY” “SET” “GO.” Mentorship can be a difficult concept for young people, so Holman employs a patient process that affirms the message, “with a covering (like Holman’s mentorship program), they can do big things in Christ!” The Brittney LaShe Youth Mentorship is a conduit of community betterment through youth mentorship and empowerment, workshops, and its annual summer camp.
This is the perfect summation of who Brittney Holman is; a life coach and certified lifeguard, rescuing at risk youth from the deep waters despair and a lack of resources and opportunities. Additionally, Holman is a serial entrepreneur, graphic designer and self-published author or numerous books with many new exploits on the horizon. Her pursuit of greater opportunities for youth is relentless, however Holman paused long enough to be honored for her efforts by the Orangeburg Rotary Club.
“I was born to serve. I love the fact that God uses how I overcame my struggles to inspire the youth. Empowering them empowers me!” -Brittney LaShe Holman
Holman’s success story is no fantastical escape from the throes of poverty. Rather, a testament to the arduous work that lifted her from her young life’s early challenges. Holman has triumphed over a painful past that includes molestation by her grandfather and paternity discovery that threatened the identity she knew. Holman’s mentorship program endeavors to provide a much-needed aversion to the hardship she was forced to as a child and teen. “Teens shouldn’t have to worry about surviving but focus on living,” Holman says. After putting the financial literacy lessons and independence encouraged by her stepfather into practice, the Brittney LaShe Youth Mentorship began with faith-based empowerment, courage, and entrepreneurship as its hallmarks serving youth in South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky.
Great plans are in the works for Holman and her annual youth summit. This immense undertaking is quite cumbersome, but through donations and the use of her own money, she provides a life changing experience each year. If you would like to be part of this year’s sponsorship class, you can email Brittney at: brittneyholmon@gmail.com.
It all began with the death of George Floyd and, now that former police officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of his murder, Sherilyn Bennett believes now is the time for a check-in with her two adult sons KJ and Devonte. She believes that her role as their mother includes the responsibility of providing emotional support for her sons and notes that the check-in may prove mutually beneficial.
Surprisingly, many parents remain unaware of how deeply the tragedy has affected their children. The suppression of traumatic responses is not healthy and parents shouldn’t take the lack of response for granted, assuming their sons are well. Ms. Bennett encourages parents to avail themselves to guide and comfort their children as they express anger, sadness, confusion, or other emotions. Bennett hopes to make parents aware of the angst their sons and daughters may experience due to heightened tension between citizens and police- some even feel targeted by police officers.
Last year, Bennett began compiling stories of systemic racism and police brutality from mothers around the country. The response was overwhelming, and she released, “boy: Defending Our Sons’ Identity in America” in January of this year.
“There is a history of black men being sacrificial lambs…it has to stop. The lynching, the shooting, the disregard of their humanity. They are our sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, uncles, grandfathers, and leaders. They were never American boys.”
Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, African-American historian and lecturer (historical contributor, posthumously)
The book chronicles the demoralizing and traumatizing encounters of black boys and men told by their mothers, sisters, and wives. Bennett added the story of her son who was detained without cause on his college campus. To this day, the future of that stop remains grimly unknown, but thanks to a coach who intervened, Bennett doesn’t have to think about it. Still, she knows many have faced this reality and, the scars yet remain.
Ms. Bennett also recognizes the irrational disparity of emotional safety in the black community. She cites the failure for black men to openly show emotion as the root of this issue. She says of her and her ex-husband’s efforts to check in with her two sons, “we will parent until we die!” and encourages parents of both sons and daughters to get involved in the process of making self care a priority in the wake of the trial and guilty verdict.
In her book, Ms. Bennett included legal and mental health perspectives for readers to consider. In her contribution to the book, Stephanie Brinkley Wellon, LMHC wrote, “..it is in our DNA to respond to trauma the way we do. Fight or flight mode does not work for us. We are simply stuck. It becomes hard to fight and we don’t have anywhere to go so we can become stuck in our emotional cages.” Ms. Bennett began the conversation with her sons and has encouraged parents to do the same.
Mrs. Gwen Carr (Eric Garner’s mother) contributed the foreword and has encouraged activists to families, friends and the general public to move “from demonstration to legislation.” Mrs. Carr has successfully taken the fight for justice from the street to the chambers where decisions are made and laws are passed, and she is far from done. Last year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the “Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act” into law. Before her untimely death, Erica Garner also worked to honor her father and avenge his death.
The nation is faced with officer-involved shootings (Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, Andrew Brown, Jr.) once again and as the details are sorted out; parents and their children of all ages have an opportunity to bond, not over trauma as we have in the past, but in comfort and support of each other.
The Maroon 9 Community Enrichment Organization presents its inaugural Virtual Fine Arts Competition, to be held on Saturday April 10th from 2 PM-4 PM. The competition is open to middle and high school students who will compete in one of six fine arts categories and a total of over $1,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded to winners. The competition seeks to provide youth interested in fine arts a viable outlet to display their talent, learn from professionals and win their portion of the cash prizes.
Student competitors will compete in the categories of theatre, dance, visual art, spoken word/poetry, vocal or instrumental music. Ever looking to impact the students beyond the competition, participants chosen to compete will have an opportunity to take part in a master class taught by a professional in their selected fine arts category. Applicants may apply for more than one fine arts category but can only compete in one. A maximum of 25 applicants will be selected to compete in each category.
The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 24th and selected students will be notified the following week. Once notified of their selection students will then pay the $10.00 registration fee. The required master class will convene virtually on Saturday, March 27th from Noon-1 PM. Additionally, Maroon 9 is offering a $500 scholarship for seniors attending an HBCU in pursuit of a degree in fine/performing arts. Essay submissions are accepted until Wednesday, March 31, 2021 and students must detail how participating in fine arts has impacted their life, and the personal importance of attending an HBCU. Students can submit their essay, here.
Acting With Mrs. Davis remains persistent in its resolve to bolster the community by impacting youth in fine arts. Founder and Theatre Teaching Artist ShaVonne Banks-Davis is paying it forward by donating $1000 towards the Virtual Fine Arts Competition and scholarship with proceeds received from a $10,000 grant received last year from Beyonce Carter’s BeyGOOD Foundation.
This event is the first of its kind from Maroon 9 which works to serve the greater Fort Worth community through youth enrichment programs, community events and Sickle Cell Disease awareness. Should you choose to volunteer or give a tax-deductible donation, you can do so, here.
2-weeks of free virtual workshops for Middle School and High School students
Theatre Educator & Program Director ShaVonne Banks-Davis is hosting the DFW Virtual Youth Enrichment Summit via Zoom from 4:00pm to 5:30pm until Friday, August 7, 2020. The online event features 2-weeks of free virtual workshops for middle school and high school students. The workshops are being taught by members of the Facebook Group, “DFW Black Mentors & Youth Organizations”. Over 50 students have registered and are participating in daily discussions and workshops on the topics of social justice, culture, leadership, and life skills.
“If the future lies in the hands of the young people who are attending the DFW Virtual Youth Enrichment Summit…we are good! They are so smart, ready, and aware.”
ShaVonne Banks-Davis, Organizer & Host
Through the support of Big Thought and the Dallas City of Learning, the event is free to all who register. Their support also provided the opportunity to give back to the community by being able to compensate the highly qualified Workshop Presenters for their expertise and contribution to the summit.
For full event details and registration, click here.
The DFW Virtual Youth Enrichment Summit provides a safe platform for youth to express themselves, meet other students, and engage in interactive workshops. The summit began on July 27 with a discussion entitled, “Being Black in the 21st Century” where students shared experiences and commented on topics such as police brutality, racism, and attending Historically Black Colleges & Universities. Over the duration of the summit, participants will explore areas such as creative expression, goal-setting, self-care, and healthy relationships.
“If only they knew how much I appreciate what this organization is doing to educate and inspire the next generation. Thank you Mrs. ShaVonne Banks-Davis and much success for the DFW Virtual Youth Enrichment Summit for years to come.”
Michael Guinn, MSW & National Spoken Word Artist
ShaVonne Banks-Davis with Acting With Mrs. Davis collaborated with the Maroon 9 Sickle Cell Support Organization to create the DFW Virtual Youth Enrichment Summit. Maroon 9 is dedicated to working with community partners to create free or low cost endeavors that support arts in the community, spread awareness about Sickle Cell Disease, and highlight important topics.
