| New York Family Arts Festival 2009 |
| Written by Dja Horry |
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posted by Dja Horry 11th Annual New York Family Arts Festival 2009 June 5, 2009 - June 27, 2009 Admission: FREE! The Riverside Theatre 91 Claremont At 120th street 212-870-6784 theriversidechurchny.org/theatre/   The vision for The Family Arts Festival is "to strengthen, empower and celebrate the family through culturally innovative performances and workshops, offering opportunities to share creative experiences and improve communication." New York City has an amazing array of ethnic groups. Our Cultural Villages, day-long celebrations of the culture and traditions of these groups, are superb testaments to the beautiful heritages we can all claim. Wonderfully interactive, attendees are taken on an engaging cultural journey of music and dance performances, arts and crafts workshops, storytelling, films and food specific to the traditions of that ethnicity. Some of our past Cultural Villages have been West African, Chinese, Spanish, Venezuelan, Polish, Peruvian, Jamaican, Hawaiian, South African, German, and Thai. In past years, The Family Arts Festival has featured outstanding performances by the likes of jazz pianist Eric Reed, Creative Outlet Dance Theatre, Forces of Nature, Orisha Tales Repertory Theatre, Children's Art Carnival, Impact Repertory Theatre, Harlem Opera Theatre, Ballet Folklorico de Peru, Eriko Daimo, Thai Classical Dancers, Polish Folk Dancers, ARC Gospel Choir, jazz trumpeter Joey Morant, tap dance artist Michela Lerman, and the National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique. The Festival is interactive, breaking down cultural barriers that often segment communities. Families tend to come and stay for several hours, moving from activity to activity, genuinely connecting with artists and traditions that may have originally been unfamiliar. Artists connect with Festival attendees as they share a significant piece of their cultural heritage. Creativity and artistic expression are threads of commonality that connect us all. |