Black at Yale & OffBroadway Dreams
Tax deductible
BLURGENT (Black and Urgent) BLERD GoFundME REQUEST
Fund This Black (NERD) Woman's Artistic/Academic Journey to Yale and Beyond #BlackAtYALE *Tax Deductible Donation!!
Why Me.. Why Now?
I am thrilled to be of service. It takes a village and I've been supporting underserved communities of color for over 15 years as an educator, lecturer and performer. My fellowship with Columbia University to support my fatherhood initiative called The PromiseLand Project, successfully launched a SOLD OUT workshop at Apollo Theater in tandem with their production of Ta Nahesi Coates' Between The World and Me. Families laughed, cried and learned new ways to tell their stories! It was truly one of the most magical days of my life!
I've been featured in U.S. News and World Report for my innovations in the classroom , my art featured in the New York Times and my lectures featured at Columbia University, Mad Museum of Art and Design and NYU. My art was also featured on the cover of the Village Voice!
I’m an award winning artist and educator with two HUGE opportunities: attending YALE and my show about race is featured in an Off-Broadway theater festival called ANT Fest at Ars Nova which The New Yorker Magazine called "....unusual—creatively, structurally, and otherwise. It’s not a traditional theatre company; it’s a finder, developer, and nurturer of unconventional artists working in hybrid forms! The rank and file of artists it has supported includes Lin Manuel Miranda of Hamilton!!!!!
As for YALE, I can't promise I won’t fall asleep in the common areas! I promise to challenge any cop calling on my behalf! I’ll livestream it, think-piece it and podcast it into infinity! I'll make YALE a part of my show!
I’ll make a scene so you can gif and meme to your heart’s content.
Seriously, I’ve been researching, writing and performing about race for over fifteen years and I’ve never been so inspired to create epic art that questions reality and inspires possibIlity as I am right NOW!
I’m poised to make the biggest impact of my life, but I need YOUR help! Beyond Trump, trolls and tweets, I’m creating a movement to pledge allegiance to positivity and posibilities.
For example my show about race at The Brooklyn Museum to honor the Creative Capital award winning artist Sanford Biggers . This SOLD OUT performance made me a finalist for Creative Capital. I've gotten multiple awards in the artists including Franklin Furance Fund for Performance Art, and multiple National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.
NOW: It’s an exciting time for this BLERD-woman starving-artist!
I’m thrilled that I was selected to attend Yale’s Thread writing fellowship and my political satire THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP will be showcased off-broadway at NYC’s Ars Nova Ant Festival. Both opportunities happening in June are huge honors and will assist my educational and artistic endeavors.
I’m living my dream of being a dynamic playwright, comedic performer and educator. I am living proof of opportunity meeting preparedness! I believe that “If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much space”. Roman Sinai. Again this is a BLURGENT request to support asap because I’ll need at least $1100 to cover all of my expenses at Yale by May 28th.
Fund My Dreams and My Future!
Not only will YOU be funding my dreams, but your donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!! *instead of your tax dollars funding endless war, why not fund Kanene- an award winning educator, artist, activist and all-around woke yet cool chica dedicated to social change and solutions!
I truly appreciate you reading, contributing and sharing this gofundme campaign. Your support will defray the cost of my ongoing education, resources for my high school students and my show THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOUCS GROUP TOUR off-broadway.
Fund Kanene’s Journey To Yale and Off-Broadway
Completing both the Yale fellowship and performing in the Ars Nova Festival will amplify my fifteen years of experience as an artist, educator and activist in #occupy, school reform, de-incarceration, immigration and the environmental justice movements.
Waking up every morning knowing I’m making a difference in the classroom and in public forums through my performances, workshops and lectures gives me an immeasurable amount of JOY! Along with teaching in underfunded schools for underserved students I’ve been moonlighting in the arts and public policy.
I’ve been writing, rehearsing, performing and submitting dozens of proposals for grants, fellowships and conferences to present my research on educational best practices, politics and popular culture all while working full-time. I recently successfully launched my fatherhood initiative called The PromiseLand Project at Apollo Theater for their theatrical debut of Between The World and Me and lectured at Columbia University about #blackexcellence from Obama to Wakanda.
Extra Good News... Read all about it!
Fortunately 2018 has been a banner year for me and my burgeoning production company SeriouslySilly including, not only being accepted into Yale’s Thread writing fellowship but also being awarded a scholarship of $750! However the program costs OVER $2200 and I will need to pay the balance of $1025 by May 24th to hold my spot and cover other fees and travel associated with my attendance.
Your blurgent tax deductible donations will ensure that I will be stress free and fully enjoy and reap the benefits of attending. Thread at YALE has an all star roster of mentors including Pulitzer Prize and Peabody winners and content producers at The New York Times and NPR. I can’t wait to learn, grow and improve my writing and also bring these skills and these experts back into my classroom in the fall! Your generous and blurgent tax deductible donations to send this BLERD woman to YALE will be much appreciated.
Ars Nova Theater’s ANT Festival is producing my show THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR so I don’t need to rent the theater, but rehearsal space and other production costs are on my own and will cost me at least $6000.
Both opportunities are happening in June and my participation will benefit the trajectory of my career immensely and amplify the positive impact I can have in communities of color and as a diversity training facilitator. Adding to the cost is that I’m still working full time as a teacher up until the day of the show on June 27th. Hence your BLURGENT donations will help ensure that I remain calm with all of the resources needed to create an epic show.
More about me *the BLERD woman who’s future you are funding
From a young age, I witnessed my father be of service. As an award winning teacher, I watched him positively impact the lives of hundreds of students. I vowed to do the same! Hence for almost twenty years I’ve devised curricula based on critical thinking and creativity.
I’ve taken students to Broadway plays and have had students present at Columbia University and most recently at the Museum of Art and Design. I believe in exposing students to the best NYC has to offer in the arts and academia, but that comes at a cost.
I’ve often had to come out of pocket and most recently while taking a student to the National African-American Museum of History and Culture last week. Also when devising a celebration of the Harlem Renaissance I had to pay a teaching artist to come in and teach costume design becuase the school refused to. These experiences transcend cost because they add value to the lives of students who need inspiration and alternatives.
Also over the years I’ve received multiple awards in both the arts and in education. I’ve received a fellowship from The Colin Powell Center for Policy Study, CORO for Educational Leadership, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Zora Neale Hurston and the origins of the slavery and abolitionist movements in Brooklyn.
An article about my intereactive classroom was published in US. News and World Reports and in my former professor’s book on urban education about parental involvement.
I received grants from Puffin Foundation for Activist Art, Franklin Furnace for Performance Art and I was a Creative Capital finalist. I've completed an artist fellowship at Bard College and developed new works with undergraduates.
My art has been featured in the Village Voice and the New York Times. I’ve performed at La Mama ETC, Brooklyn Museum, Symphony Space, The Schomburg and at Columbia University.
The Multiple Car Accidents..
Also unfortunately I’ve suffered two car accidents in less than two years. In both cases, I was a pedestrian and the drivers were at fault. I’m healing but it’s been difficult juggling my intense healing process and other priorities.
This BLERD Will Survive!
The good news is that I’m a fighter and a winner! The Yale writing fellowship will help hone my writer’s voice and expose me to leaders in the industry. I look forward to leveraging my relationship with Yale and the fellowship facilitators to help me launch a blog/storytelling program at the high school I am currently serving as the Art Dept. Chair.
Also SFGT being in the Ars Nova ANT Festival is an amazing opportunity to showcase my art and activism. SFGT focuses on structural analysis of justice missing in action #ajmia (#AmericanJusticeMISSINGinAction) and the production of original art, videos and oral histories to ignite dialog around solutions to societal ills. SFGT is a cross between Donald Glover’s This is America and In Living Color. SFGT is truly SeriouslySilly using humor to heal and inspire systemic change.
The SFGT SQUAD of actors, dancers and musicians are eager to engage in difficult conversation about race, class and gender while also generating solutions with a healthy dose of laughter too!
SFGT is incredibly important to us because it’s not just a show, SFGT is literally a focus group. My SFGT SQUAD will be asking questions throughout the show and incorporating feedback to better understand the issues of race, class and income inequality in a society that supposedly is upwardly mobile. I don’t want to showcase what I call #BlackAche, I also want to incubate solutions.
The SFGT SQUAD would be enormously grateful if you could be our hero with a contribution of at least $50 to our campaign. Of course, anything you can give will be very much appreciated and will go a long way towards making The SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR a reality."
“To help me get the word out, you can share my link to your Facebook Timeline!”
More About Ars Nova and ANT Fest
ANT Fest is Ars Nova's annual, month-long celebration of All New Talent, when New York City's premier hub for emerging artists throws open its door to a wide variety of artists to present dozens of cutting edge music, theater, and comedy shows, with a focus on blurring the boundaries between them.
Out of hundreds of projects submitted, Ars Nova has selected 28 shows (INCLUDING THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR!) for a jam-packed month filled with New York's most exciting emerging talent! Over the last ten years, ANT Fest has become known throughout the industry as a key stop to discover new talent, and several recent Off-Broadway productions including Underground Railroad Game, The Woodsman and Eager to Lose were all born out of ANT Fest productions.
More About THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR
SFGT was established in 2011 by several like-minded, long-time collaborator to devise interactive installations and multi-media poetic performances which, through monologues, mime, media and music, investigate injustice. What are the root causes of injustice? How can we reimagine and redistribute power in ways that respect our shared humanity? Who does the government protect? Who does the government serve?
SFGT is a collective of socially conscious activists, artist and educators, founded by Kanene Holder, dedicated to a structural analysis of justice missing in action #ajmia (American Justice MISSING in Action) and the production of original art including videos, oral histories, and performances to ignite dialog around solutions to societal ills.
The SFGT approach is academic and aesthetic, political and performative, as we shift consciousness though observation, analysis and creativity. SFGT is inspired by the master painter Degas’ assertion "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
SFGT re-contextualizes media-troupes, becoming tricksters who reflect obtuse and acute realties. We refashion the devil's advocate role through our oxymoronic characters that routinely break "the-forth-wall". In line with Boal’s work, audiences are galvanized into action, becoming spectactors, rather than spectators through dramatic irony and a refashioned Socratic Method- a 3Dimensional interface of data, debates and diatribes.
Pulling from archetypes and stereotypes, SFGT foments an amalgam of farce, existentialism and socio-political truth. We frequently attend art events together and engage in robust critical discourse on politics and pop culture to discover and transmute our opinions into expression.
SFGT focuses on structural analysis of justice missing in action #ajmia (#AmericanJusticeMISSINGinAction) and the production of original art, videos and oral histories to ignite dialog around solutions to societal ills.
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLURGENT request to send a BLERD woman to YALE and off-broadway! I can’t do THIS without you! Thank you so much for supporting and sharing!
Fund This Black (NERD) Woman's Artistic/Academic Journey to Yale and Beyond #BlackAtYALE *Tax Deductible Donation!!
Why Me.. Why Now?
I am thrilled to be of service. It takes a village and I've been supporting underserved communities of color for over 15 years as an educator, lecturer and performer. My fellowship with Columbia University to support my fatherhood initiative called The PromiseLand Project, successfully launched a SOLD OUT workshop at Apollo Theater in tandem with their production of Ta Nahesi Coates' Between The World and Me. Families laughed, cried and learned new ways to tell their stories! It was truly one of the most magical days of my life!
I've been featured in U.S. News and World Report for my innovations in the classroom , my art featured in the New York Times and my lectures featured at Columbia University, Mad Museum of Art and Design and NYU. My art was also featured on the cover of the Village Voice!
I’m an award winning artist and educator with two HUGE opportunities: attending YALE and my show about race is featured in an Off-Broadway theater festival called ANT Fest at Ars Nova which The New Yorker Magazine called "....unusual—creatively, structurally, and otherwise. It’s not a traditional theatre company; it’s a finder, developer, and nurturer of unconventional artists working in hybrid forms! The rank and file of artists it has supported includes Lin Manuel Miranda of Hamilton!!!!!
As for YALE, I can't promise I won’t fall asleep in the common areas! I promise to challenge any cop calling on my behalf! I’ll livestream it, think-piece it and podcast it into infinity! I'll make YALE a part of my show!
I’ll make a scene so you can gif and meme to your heart’s content.
Seriously, I’ve been researching, writing and performing about race for over fifteen years and I’ve never been so inspired to create epic art that questions reality and inspires possibIlity as I am right NOW!
I’m poised to make the biggest impact of my life, but I need YOUR help! Beyond Trump, trolls and tweets, I’m creating a movement to pledge allegiance to positivity and posibilities.
For example my show about race at The Brooklyn Museum to honor the Creative Capital award winning artist Sanford Biggers . This SOLD OUT performance made me a finalist for Creative Capital. I've gotten multiple awards in the artists including Franklin Furance Fund for Performance Art, and multiple National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.
NOW: It’s an exciting time for this BLERD-woman starving-artist!
I’m thrilled that I was selected to attend Yale’s Thread writing fellowship and my political satire THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP will be showcased off-broadway at NYC’s Ars Nova Ant Festival. Both opportunities happening in June are huge honors and will assist my educational and artistic endeavors.
I’m living my dream of being a dynamic playwright, comedic performer and educator. I am living proof of opportunity meeting preparedness! I believe that “If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much space”. Roman Sinai. Again this is a BLURGENT request to support asap because I’ll need at least $1100 to cover all of my expenses at Yale by May 28th.
Fund My Dreams and My Future!
Not only will YOU be funding my dreams, but your donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!! *instead of your tax dollars funding endless war, why not fund Kanene- an award winning educator, artist, activist and all-around woke yet cool chica dedicated to social change and solutions!
I truly appreciate you reading, contributing and sharing this gofundme campaign. Your support will defray the cost of my ongoing education, resources for my high school students and my show THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOUCS GROUP TOUR off-broadway.
Fund Kanene’s Journey To Yale and Off-Broadway
Completing both the Yale fellowship and performing in the Ars Nova Festival will amplify my fifteen years of experience as an artist, educator and activist in #occupy, school reform, de-incarceration, immigration and the environmental justice movements.
Waking up every morning knowing I’m making a difference in the classroom and in public forums through my performances, workshops and lectures gives me an immeasurable amount of JOY! Along with teaching in underfunded schools for underserved students I’ve been moonlighting in the arts and public policy.
I’ve been writing, rehearsing, performing and submitting dozens of proposals for grants, fellowships and conferences to present my research on educational best practices, politics and popular culture all while working full-time. I recently successfully launched my fatherhood initiative called The PromiseLand Project at Apollo Theater for their theatrical debut of Between The World and Me and lectured at Columbia University about #blackexcellence from Obama to Wakanda.
Extra Good News... Read all about it!
Fortunately 2018 has been a banner year for me and my burgeoning production company SeriouslySilly including, not only being accepted into Yale’s Thread writing fellowship but also being awarded a scholarship of $750! However the program costs OVER $2200 and I will need to pay the balance of $1025 by May 24th to hold my spot and cover other fees and travel associated with my attendance.
Your blurgent tax deductible donations will ensure that I will be stress free and fully enjoy and reap the benefits of attending. Thread at YALE has an all star roster of mentors including Pulitzer Prize and Peabody winners and content producers at The New York Times and NPR. I can’t wait to learn, grow and improve my writing and also bring these skills and these experts back into my classroom in the fall! Your generous and blurgent tax deductible donations to send this BLERD woman to YALE will be much appreciated.
Ars Nova Theater’s ANT Festival is producing my show THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR so I don’t need to rent the theater, but rehearsal space and other production costs are on my own and will cost me at least $6000.
Both opportunities are happening in June and my participation will benefit the trajectory of my career immensely and amplify the positive impact I can have in communities of color and as a diversity training facilitator. Adding to the cost is that I’m still working full time as a teacher up until the day of the show on June 27th. Hence your BLURGENT donations will help ensure that I remain calm with all of the resources needed to create an epic show.
More about me *the BLERD woman who’s future you are funding
From a young age, I witnessed my father be of service. As an award winning teacher, I watched him positively impact the lives of hundreds of students. I vowed to do the same! Hence for almost twenty years I’ve devised curricula based on critical thinking and creativity.
I’ve taken students to Broadway plays and have had students present at Columbia University and most recently at the Museum of Art and Design. I believe in exposing students to the best NYC has to offer in the arts and academia, but that comes at a cost.
I’ve often had to come out of pocket and most recently while taking a student to the National African-American Museum of History and Culture last week. Also when devising a celebration of the Harlem Renaissance I had to pay a teaching artist to come in and teach costume design becuase the school refused to. These experiences transcend cost because they add value to the lives of students who need inspiration and alternatives.
Also over the years I’ve received multiple awards in both the arts and in education. I’ve received a fellowship from The Colin Powell Center for Policy Study, CORO for Educational Leadership, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Zora Neale Hurston and the origins of the slavery and abolitionist movements in Brooklyn.
An article about my intereactive classroom was published in US. News and World Reports and in my former professor’s book on urban education about parental involvement.
I received grants from Puffin Foundation for Activist Art, Franklin Furnace for Performance Art and I was a Creative Capital finalist. I've completed an artist fellowship at Bard College and developed new works with undergraduates.
My art has been featured in the Village Voice and the New York Times. I’ve performed at La Mama ETC, Brooklyn Museum, Symphony Space, The Schomburg and at Columbia University.
The Multiple Car Accidents..
Also unfortunately I’ve suffered two car accidents in less than two years. In both cases, I was a pedestrian and the drivers were at fault. I’m healing but it’s been difficult juggling my intense healing process and other priorities.
This BLERD Will Survive!
The good news is that I’m a fighter and a winner! The Yale writing fellowship will help hone my writer’s voice and expose me to leaders in the industry. I look forward to leveraging my relationship with Yale and the fellowship facilitators to help me launch a blog/storytelling program at the high school I am currently serving as the Art Dept. Chair.
Also SFGT being in the Ars Nova ANT Festival is an amazing opportunity to showcase my art and activism. SFGT focuses on structural analysis of justice missing in action #ajmia (#AmericanJusticeMISSINGinAction) and the production of original art, videos and oral histories to ignite dialog around solutions to societal ills. SFGT is a cross between Donald Glover’s This is America and In Living Color. SFGT is truly SeriouslySilly using humor to heal and inspire systemic change.
The SFGT SQUAD of actors, dancers and musicians are eager to engage in difficult conversation about race, class and gender while also generating solutions with a healthy dose of laughter too!
SFGT is incredibly important to us because it’s not just a show, SFGT is literally a focus group. My SFGT SQUAD will be asking questions throughout the show and incorporating feedback to better understand the issues of race, class and income inequality in a society that supposedly is upwardly mobile. I don’t want to showcase what I call #BlackAche, I also want to incubate solutions.
The SFGT SQUAD would be enormously grateful if you could be our hero with a contribution of at least $50 to our campaign. Of course, anything you can give will be very much appreciated and will go a long way towards making The SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR a reality."
“To help me get the word out, you can share my link to your Facebook Timeline!”
More About Ars Nova and ANT Fest
ANT Fest is Ars Nova's annual, month-long celebration of All New Talent, when New York City's premier hub for emerging artists throws open its door to a wide variety of artists to present dozens of cutting edge music, theater, and comedy shows, with a focus on blurring the boundaries between them.
Out of hundreds of projects submitted, Ars Nova has selected 28 shows (INCLUDING THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR!) for a jam-packed month filled with New York's most exciting emerging talent! Over the last ten years, ANT Fest has become known throughout the industry as a key stop to discover new talent, and several recent Off-Broadway productions including Underground Railroad Game, The Woodsman and Eager to Lose were all born out of ANT Fest productions.
More About THE SITCHAASSDOWN FOCUS GROUP TOUR
SFGT was established in 2011 by several like-minded, long-time collaborator to devise interactive installations and multi-media poetic performances which, through monologues, mime, media and music, investigate injustice. What are the root causes of injustice? How can we reimagine and redistribute power in ways that respect our shared humanity? Who does the government protect? Who does the government serve?
SFGT is a collective of socially conscious activists, artist and educators, founded by Kanene Holder, dedicated to a structural analysis of justice missing in action #ajmia (American Justice MISSING in Action) and the production of original art including videos, oral histories, and performances to ignite dialog around solutions to societal ills.
The SFGT approach is academic and aesthetic, political and performative, as we shift consciousness though observation, analysis and creativity. SFGT is inspired by the master painter Degas’ assertion "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
SFGT re-contextualizes media-troupes, becoming tricksters who reflect obtuse and acute realties. We refashion the devil's advocate role through our oxymoronic characters that routinely break "the-forth-wall". In line with Boal’s work, audiences are galvanized into action, becoming spectactors, rather than spectators through dramatic irony and a refashioned Socratic Method- a 3Dimensional interface of data, debates and diatribes.
Pulling from archetypes and stereotypes, SFGT foments an amalgam of farce, existentialism and socio-political truth. We frequently attend art events together and engage in robust critical discourse on politics and pop culture to discover and transmute our opinions into expression.
SFGT focuses on structural analysis of justice missing in action #ajmia (#AmericanJusticeMISSINGinAction) and the production of original art, videos and oral histories to ignite dialog around solutions to societal ills.
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLURGENT request to send a BLERD woman to YALE and off-broadway! I can’t do THIS without you! Thank you so much for supporting and sharing!
Organizer
Kanene Ayo Holder
Organizer
New York, NY
Black Public Relations Society-Newyork Inc
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
