Destiny Arts Center Presents 'Free: Voices From Beyond the Curbside'

Fri-Sat, March 25-26, 7:30pm; Fri, April 1, 7:30 pm, Sat, April 2 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm; Sun, April 3 at 2 pm

The internationally regarded model of youth arts and violence prevention organizations, Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, will present the world premiere of "Free: Voices from Beyond the Curbside", a movement/theater work created by the young artists of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company. Created in collaboration with Artistic Directors Sarah Crowell and Rashidi Omari, the full-length work features hip-hop dance and music, theater, spoken word, modern dance, aerial dance, video backdrop art, vocalists and a cast of 45 talented youth ages 7 to 19. "Free" asks the many nuances of questions about where we belong-and how we evolve our identities amid tumultuous times--in our cultures and society. A special benefit performance to support the Raising the Roof Campaign is scheduled for March 26, including performance ticket, reserved seating and post-performance dessert reception to meet the artists.

Destiny Artistic Director Sarah Crowell describes "Free": "This year's original production explores what it means to be free in all the senses of the word. And what it means NOT to be free. The show opens with a tableau of a few students scattered between discarded furniture and other household items left on the side of the road with handwritten signs taped to them marked "FREE". The young artists dig deep into intimate personal issues that affect them and their communities from pressure to have sex and drugs to how they feel about stereotypes that limit them in boxes of race, gender, sexual orientation and body shape. Then they use the lens of the personal to explore social and political issues from climate change to the plight of the public educational system. They touch typical teenage issues of searching for meaning and belonging and make them ageless and universal by connecting them to global issues that affect us all."