viBe Theater Experience

viBe engages 250 girls each year through its 6 signature programs and school residencies. 9 out of 10 viBe participants are girls of color, and most live in under-resourced, low-income neighborhoods with poorly performing schools. In addition, 90% live in single-parent households. viBe's organizational and program objectives include the following qualitative outcomes for participants. In each of the programs, viBe encourages girls to:
• Amplify their voices, uncensored—first, in a small, nurturing setting and then before a public audience.
• Build self-confidence.
• Develop literacy and communication skills through writing and revising plays, lyrics, and poetry.
• Problem-solve through role-playing.
• Build leadership skills by working in a collaborative environment, and making key decisions collaboratively.
• Give and receive respect in a safer space.
• Create an artistic response to the societal issues that affect them most.
• Explore the power of the arts as a tool for crafting a message, and effecting social change.

Young women come to viBe from over 20 public high schools and countless social service organizations throughout New York City, hungry for opportunities to create and perform their own work. Girls attend tryouts (held multiple times in fall, winter and summer) seeking to find their passion through work in the arts. Through process-based creative methods and over 8-12 weeks of intense rehearsals for each new play, viBe's team of professional directors help to frame the stories, monologues, scenes, dances and songs that these young artists create about their collective and individual passions, struggles, hopes and dreams. viBe's girls take the lead as they craft the structure of each show, gaining leadership, literacy and organizational and dramaturgical skills as they integrate their words and ideas into the building of their play. Since 2003, viBe has served over 2100 girls, most of whom reside in Brooklyn. We have produced over 75 original shows and 10 full length albums as well as conducted dozens of creative workshops. viBe's unique pedagogy places girls at the center of the work that is created. We ask girls to respond to the world around them, and to work together to generate solutions to their challenges both personally, and societally. Increasingly, there are precious few "safe" spaces for girls to express themselves uncensored, and untethered to pre-existing ideas/expectations regarding their abilities. As has been noted before, recent studies have shown that black girls in particular are over-policed in school, under-protected in their own communities, and shut out of opportunities to lead. Rather than see girls of color as the "problem," or label them "at risk," we see them as an essential part of generating solutions. We acknowledge girls of color as the "experts in the room" with regard to their lived experiences, and we provide safer spaces for them to talk with each other about their challenges, and to respond to the stereotypes and misconceptions about what it means to be a girl/young woman of color. We acknowledge them as artists, activists, and leaders from the first day of program. All decision making is consensus based, and led by these young women, who are courageous enough to create art that speaks truth to power, and to perform it in front of audiences throughout the city. Through the performing arts, our girls are able to create their own narratives and posit their own solutions to the challenges that they face personally, and to advocate for the breaking down of systemic barriers to their social and emotional wellbeing. As an organization, viBe also provides opportunities for young women to receive training to pursue careers in the arts, and to work for viBe as an organization. We see the young women that we serve as part of our sustainability model, and by hiring young women of color to lead viBe programs, we are giving our constituents a reflection of themselves in every aspect of our work.

By having an organization led by, and for, women of color, viBe is providing for the girls/young women we serve a clear reflection of how they might be able to also contribute to the field. viBe is also committed to serving the LGBTQ and trans communities of color, and a reflection of that commitment is evidenced by our hiring of two non-binary staff members of color. Historically, the theater and music that is created by our girls/young women has provided a platform for them to come out to their families/friends, in a supported environment. Within the field, viBe hopes to inspire more young women of color to develop the confidence and leadership skills that can help them navigate through life, face challenges, and create their own agendas. We also aim to help young women who want to become practitioners of the arts programs that many of them benefitted from as teens. By giving viBe Alumnae the opportunities to lead, viBe will also be an active voice in increasing the diversity within other cultural organizations in New York City as well. In addition, the Executive Director is in a unique position to leverage her role as a “thought leader" by sharing the success and impact of viBe's work with the community at large. viBe is not only looking to create the next generation of leaders of color within its organization, but throughout the country. viBe contributes to, and advocates for, a shift in the way that girls and women of color are perceived, and a stop to the way that they are shut out of leadership opportunities. Because girls/women of color are too often seen as "at-risk" "needy" or lacking leadership skills, the organizational model (particularly here in New York City) tends to be one that affords leadership opportunities only to "NYU trained" women who work on behalf of girls/women of color. viBe sees its constituents as THE leaders and change makers that we need in order to truly shift cultural perceptions and norms. By providing our girls/young women with real leadership opportunities, and including them in every decision that is made within the organization, we "walk the walk" by providing for them a seat at every table. We also equip them with the skills that they may use to serve other organizations, or to start their own! We truly believe that the only way to combat the stereotypes and misconceptions that shut girls/young women of color out of leadership opportunities is to "be the change we wish to see." To that end, viBe is led by a woman of color, and is staffed by people of color. This contributes to a positive culture shift in New York City, and directly challenges the notion that girls/women of color are only useful as participants, not leaders. We instill in our young women the confidence to lead even if there has been no opportunity provided. In the words of Shirley Chisholm, 'If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.'

In FY17, viBe Theater Experience served 203 girls through 6 free after-school programs, and produced 5 full length plays (“Crown Heights: A Remembrance" “Little People, Big Voices" “Beauty Beneath the Surface" "The Truth About our World" and “World War III: Mad and Moody") through our viBeCompany, viBeStages and viBeSolos programs. We also produced one full length album (“VENUS" by Femme Fatale) through our viBeSongMakers program. Through these programs, productions, and other invited performances (The Women's Building Block Party, Poetic Theater Productions' Generation Now! Irondale Ensemble, JACK), viBe girls performed for audiences of over 1,000! In addition, we partnered with other community based organizations, (Groundswell Community Arts Mural Project, Irondale Young Company, PowerPlay NYC), and city initiatives (Council Member Cumbo's Women and Girls Initiative) to raise viBe's visibility and serve more communities through our programs. Additionally, in 2017 viBe became a member of the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance.
We are also proud of the fact that we have continued to train and hire more viBe alumnae to direct our programs through our viBe Leadership Institute and viBeApprentices programs. We also celebrate the fact that, in FY2017, viBe maintained a 100% high school graduation rate, and a 90% college acceptance rate, with 2017 graduates headed to schools like Hampshire College, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Buffalo, Brooklyn College, and SUNY Onoeonta.
Lastly, viBe's advocacy efforts, as well as our pedagogical approach have led our girls to address issues that affect them, and our nation, the most. Our girls have tackled racism, homophobia, sexism, sexual harassment, poverty, and police brutality head on In FY17. Each of our productions has placed at the center the voices of those at the margins, and given young women of color a platform and an audience to amplify their voices, and create their own solutions.