An Evening of Empowerment

By Jordan Staggs

VIE is incredibly honored and excited to have had the opportunity to attend the “Girl Redesigned” show on Friday, May 8, 2015 hosted by the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation of New York. The event, held at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, was the culmination of months of hard work and fun put on by about sixty students from inner-city schools. These middle school girls, ranging in age from about nine to fourteen years old, owned the stage in MoMA PS1’s VW Performance Dome as they showed off their creative talents in music, dance, fashion, and filmmaking.

Erica Garber, Marisol Guzman, and the rest of the SASF team worked tirelessly to help the girls prepare for their big Girl Redesigned debut, which also included workshops in poetry, spoken word, meditation, and more. The program is designed to build self-confidence and empowerment through a series of life lessons teaching the girls that art has the power to transform perceptions of identity and reality.

SASF’s Erica Garber couldn’t have looked more proud of her girls during the show!

During New York Fashion Week in February 2015, VIE had the pleasure of connecting with Trump Top Model Hartje Andresen, a good friend of Erica’s who told us about the Girl Redesigned initiative. VIE publisher Lisa Burwell and editor Jordan Staggs, along with writer Anne Hunter, photographer Aranka Israni, stylist Allyson Longshore, and designer J.D. Hollis, jumped at the chance to cover the Girl Redesigned/SASF story for the magazine to raise awareness of this fantastic program and to showcase the immense talent of its students! Look for the full story and more updates in VIE’s November/December 2015 Cultural Issue.

Friday night’s performance was beyond inspiring to all involved. The innovative creations of the SASF fashion students, the amazing vocals and musical ability of the all-girls rock band named The Beautiful Imperfections, the sheer joy of the ACAMP Dance and Drum Team and the steel orchestra, and the courage, strength, and honesty of every student made it a night to remember. Guest speakers included VIE publisher Lisa Burwell and Genevieve Ascencio, senior director at Factory PR in New York.

VIE is looking forward to continuing to follow the journey of the Girl Redesigned students, SASF, and all our new friends in the city! The creative team assembled for this project is strong and we are excited to move forward along with them to cover more stories in the Big Apple and beyond.

The Beautiful Imperfections

Thank you to everyone, especially the students and teachers of SASF, for letting us be part of your big night at MoMA PS1! Schools involved included 522K Mott Hall Eagle, PS 308K Clara Cardwell, PS 42Q R. Vernam, MS 61K Dr. Gladstone H. Atwell, JHS 151X Lou Gehrig, IS 116Q William C. Hughley, PS 134 George F. Bristow, MS 354K School of Integrated Learning, and IS 318K Eugenio Maria de Hostos.

Bravo, girls!