May 7

May 7 Class Act II

The Creative Power of County Students Leaves Adults In Awe, Proud

PHOTOS BY AMIR STOUDAMIRE / PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA // PHOTOS & VIDEO BY LUTHER WRIGHT / LW ARTS & DESIGN

They did it again. In many ways, they did it even better.

Student artists, vocalists, filmmakers, actors and dancers of the Prince George’s County Public Schools System held center stage April 28 and they brought the house down.

Sponsored by the Prince George’s Public Schools System and the Prince George’s Arts & Humanities Council, The 2018 Arts Gala A Cultural Tapestry: Renaissance Through The Arts (now in its second year) showcases talent from around the county. From visual art to jazz music to theater and film, students dazzle parents, teachers, administrators and regional VIPs in a two-hour event that is on par with professional events in many respects.

Major sponsors included Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission's Parks & Recreation, Kaiser Permanente , Prince George's Community College, Quaver's Marvelous World of Music, University of Maryland University College, NAI Michael Companies, The Prince George's Economic Development Corporation, Davis Studios, GS Proctor & Associates, Old Line Bank, The Clarice, Sodexo Magic Educational Systems FCU and more.

All County High School Jazz Ensemble. PHOTO: AMIR STOUDAMIRE // PGS MAGAZINE & MEDIA

Among the highlights of the evening, the film “Mockingbird” was a magnificently compelling work offered by Oxon Hill High School dramatizing the impact of mental illness. The All County High School Jazz Ensemble and the Middle and High School Honors Dance performances were brought about through young talent truly matured to a professional standard. Middle and High School Theatre Ensemble delivered masterful performances as well.

Just as last year, Joe’s Movement Emporium and the Parkdale High School Dancers opened the evening. The Thomas G. Pullen Elementary Chorus pulled off complex vocal arrangements to provide one of the evening’s pace setting early performances.

Middle & High School Dance Performance. PHOTO: LUTHER WRIGHT / LW ARTS & DESIGN

The Ability Project. PHOTO: AMIR STOUDAMIRE / PRINCE GEORGE'S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

Konrad Herling, chair of the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council, delivered a heart-warming opening speech that captured the challenges of our time and the hope that youth creativity and activism offer.

“On behalf of a talented and visionary arts and humanities council board of directors and our incredible Executive Director Rhonda Dallas, our energetic and passionate Program Director Kristina Lyles and a woman of strength and resolve, our Operations Manager, Ethel Lewis, who has given so much to us over 21 years, we thank the Prince George's County School System and all of you for this opportunity to make a difference in the quality of life of our students,” he began.

“Together we have organized this event in our mutual effort to continue to build our school system's arts infrastructure program. But what does arts infrastructure mean?

It means opportunity, not only for gifted teachers and “talented” students, but for students in search of their full potential, looking for the best that's within them. Arts infrastructure and the arts in general give all of us an opportunity to open our eyes and widen our vision of what's possible and for our hearts to feel things not felt before.

It's appropriate that we focus on our youth. After all, it was a young generation of people 50 and more years ago who challenged our country to do what was right when it came to civil rights, though all of us recognize that that battle continues. It is a young generation of people who have challenged us to do what common sense and a common sense of decency dictates we do when it comes to guns, and violence. It is a young generation of people involved in arts infrastructure who give our schools and our communities a sense of purpose and place, that we can strengthen our communities, make a difference in our quality of our schools and our lives and, in the process, bring the people of Prince George's County closer together as one county.”