::Celebrate with ALEGRIA::

Hola ALEGRIA Community

What an exciting week this is for ALEGRIA!

It’s ALEGRIA’s 3rd birthday! Three years ago at a celebration in New York City's West Village, a seedling of an idea was planted firmly in the ground and ALEGRIA proudly launched into the world. After much sunshine, rain and TLC, we have grown tall and thick, our roots stretching across the Americas from Peru to New York City.

In this time of great jubilee, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Sanctuary for Families, the leading nonprofit agency in New York State dedicated exclusively to serving the needs of domestic violence victims, sex trafficking victims, and their children. Sanctuary offers a range of comprehensive services including safety planning, counseling, legal representation, shelter, and economic empowerment services. Last year, Sanctuary provided services to 10,505 women, men, and children out of nine offices and shelters citywide.

We are honored to come alongside Sanctuary, an organization that envisions a world in which freedom from gender violence is a basic human right. Sanctuary is a leading advocate for positive change in City, State, and Federal laws and public policies. Their efforts have helped bring about major legislative and policy victories in areas including sex trafficking, family law, and immigrant issues.

This summer we will be empowering a group of Sanctuary’s kids in the South Bronx through visual art, photography and expression/movement intensives. These kids do not have access to the arts even though they live minutes from world-renowned artists, galleries and museums in the heart of NYC’s five boroughs. We have a strong local community of NYC artists envisioning endless possibilities to transform these kids’ lives through the arts.

Thank you for dreaming big with us and helping make change possible.

 

We're making MUSIC:: Join us.

Hello ALEGRIA Community

Happy Spring (or fall, if you're in Lima!). We hope this finds you well.

We just returned from Lima where we taught intensives to 300 children in La Sagrada Familia in the disciplines of drawing, theater, dance, photography, and...MUSIC.

You've probably heard about the fire in the orphanage community that destroyed the music program (if not, read about it here). In the days after the fire, we impacted the community of almost 900 youth with music resources we gave - a violin to symbolize our commitment to rebuild the music program, 15 Andean instruments, $2,000 to buy new instruments, and the giant violin painting that you helped create at our benefit last spring. Incredible.

Our team in Peru was astounding. 8 Peruvians and 5 New Yorkers collaborated to create what can only be described as magical. What we started is simply the beginning, and this summer, we'll continue teaching photography, music, hip hop, poetry, visual art, and more in a transitional shelter in the South Bronx and a shantytown in Peru.

This month, we have exciting announcements - new leaders, our NYC partner organization, details about programming with youth in the South Bronx this July +more. We have had a tremendous spring season so far, and we're just getting started.

Thank you for being a part of this. We are only as strong as our collaborative effort, and we are so proud of the ALEGRIA community we are building.
 
        With much joy,
    Shay Grabowski, Founder
Anna Caroline Owen, Director of Operations

GIVE HERE

P.S. We have lots to celebrate in May. Today is Shay's 30th birthday! Mother's Day is just around the corner. Also, ALEGRIA turns 3 in June! Join us and give $30 online (or $3, or $300, or more) to grow our programming in Lima and New York City. All funds support arts education in our partner communities.

P.P.S. Check out this incredible video created by Horacio and Jorge, ALEGRIA Percussion teaching artists.

Making MUSIC / Tocando MÚSICA

"Estoy muy feliz de ser parte de ALEGRIA: Hope through Art, estos momentos son las verdaderas razones por las cuales siento que siempre se puede hacer más, dar más, compartir más con estos increíbles niños. Horacio Cp y Jorge Benancio, mil gracias por reconstruir de golpe la ALEGRIA y la esperanza en los niños después del penoso incidente del incendio del área de música, es simplemente increíble :)

EN: I am really glad to be part of ALEGRIA, these moments (like the one below) are the main reason why I feel we can always do more, give more, achieve more with these amazing kids. Many thanks Horacio y Jorge for rebuilding our kids' joy and hope after the awful fire we had last week, this is absolutely amazing."

- Claudia Reyna Bacalla, Directora/Fundadora de ALEGRIA

Amigos, if you haven't seen this video floating around yet, you must. It represents all of the joy, hope, and creative collaboration that happened last week in La Sagrada Familia. We are so proud of all of the music we made last week, and the music that is happening right now in La Sagrada Familia because of our work and musical instruments. Gracias por su collaboracion... You should also be very proud. 

- Shay Grabowski, Director/Founder of ALEGRIA 

Updates from la comunidad **UPDATED

Hola and Hello!

All of us here in Lima have been having an amazing week with the the kids in the community. With workshops in dance, theatre, music, photography, and visual art, we have witnessed magical drum circles, movements, realizations, and lots of joy! Here are two videos that will give you all an inside view of the love and passion the teachers bring to the kids and the dedication the ALEGRIA team has to creating a joyful and creative community. Enjoy!

Todos aquí en Lima hemos tenido una gran semana con los niños de la comunidad. Con talleres de danza, teatro, música, fotografía y arte visuales, nosotros hemos sido testigos de círculos de tambores, movimientos, realizaciones y mucha alegría!... Hay dos videos que les dan una vista especial de amor y pasión que los maestros les transmiten a los niños y la dedicación que tiene el equipo de ALEGRIA creando una comunidad llena de alegria y creativa. ¡Disfruta!

There was a fire in the community.

DONATE HERE!

**We've raised $300 on top of the $1500 we have promised! Let's keep this number growing!

www.wearealegria.org/give

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ALEGRIA Update!

 

Fire Destroys Music Program in the Community

Hello, friends -

This is Nancy Mammana, Alegria Advisory Board member and Dance Teaching Artist for this year's Joy Project. 

Photo of the fire damage to the music building

We arrived at La Sagrada Familia today, approximately 24 hours after a fire, the first in the Community's history, ravaged its music class area and entire instrument collection, and damaged countless other books and personal items. Serendipitously, however, we arrived with armfuls of musical instruments, two incredible Peruvian musicians, and a 12' violin canvas, painted by a collective of Alegria supporters at our 'Exhibit of Hope' Benefit event last April.

The irony of the timing of our visit is not lost on us, and we feel blessed to be here at this sensitive time.  However, we know we can do more.  Alegria is prepared to present La Sagrada Familia with a $1,500 check before week's end, but we are calling on our friends and supporters to join us in helping us raise an additional $5,000 over the next 30 days, so the Community can completely rebuild and restore its music facility and collection. Whatever we raise by Friday, we will hand to Miguel during our final celebration of the week. After that, our Peruvian ALEGRIA team will come to the Community in a few weeks to give the rest.

Having seen the power and joy music brings to these children, as it does for most of us, I can personally say there is nothing more important we can do for the Community at this time. 

If you have any ability to give, please visit www.wearealegria.org/give. We thank you so much in advance for your love and continued support!

                                                                          Nancy Mammana ALEGRIA Advisory Board | 2013 Dance Teaching Artist

Photo at Left: Horacio and Jorge, ALEGRIA Teaching Artists, teaching music today