On a spring night, this is not a school auditorium\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.<\/p>\n
Its imaginary transformation is courtesy of The Harlem Stories Project. Local middle schoolers spend several months getting to know their peers and their experiences, then they help create a show around what they learned.<\/p>\n
Sarah Bennett is the nonprofit organization’s founder and executive director.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Sarah Bennett’s “The Harlem Stories Project” teaches middle schoolers improv and an appreciation for their community
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Bennett has had a love for theater since she was a schoolkid herself
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This was the first year students went out into the community to interview neighbors about themselves<\/p>\n
“The mission of Harlem Stories is to make sure that kids are confident, creative and brave. And so there’s something about the agency of writing that comes in when it’s lit up by theater and by being in front of a stage that’s really important,” she told NY1.<\/p>\n
Bennett teaches improvisation at a middle school in Morningside Heights. She is a lifelong theater kid.<\/p>\n
“I like to make jokes. I’m funny. That’s sort of my thing. I’m the youngest of three,\u201d Bennett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The idea that you’re putting on someone else’s shoes, sure, it could be intimidating. A lot of people are like, ‘I’m afraid of public speaking.’ I’m like, give me something to say, and I will say it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Bennett first started Harlem Stories in 2013 and made it an annual project a decade later. She was inspired by a similar initiative in Chicago.<\/p>\n
What started as an ensemble of 11 children has grown into a troupe of more than two dozen.<\/p>\n
“So from Miss Bennett, I learned that you can make your dreams possible,\u201d said Nayeli Reyes, a participant in The Harlem Stories Project. “I’m going to take that with me, like, always make try to make your dreams come true.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time this season, the Harlem Stories troupe drew inspiration from their neighborhood. Earlier in the school year, the kids went to Marcus Garvey Park to interview people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After practicing after school five days a week, it is showtime. And Bennett gets to watch her young artists bring their hard work to life.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m glad for them that they had that \u2018cause I have so much love towards them. They made something that exists outside of them and I\u2019m so proud of them,” she said.<\/p>\n
For putting young people and their community center stage, Sarah Bennett is our New Yorker of the Week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a spring night, this is not a school auditorium\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. Its imaginary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7914,25,7913,9,24,55,54,7911,12,56,7912,27,200],"class_list":["post-250611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-app-new-yorker-of-the-week","tag-app-top-stories","tag-chelsea-katz","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-yorker-of-the-week","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-pat-kiernan","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}