Fly By Light Summer Showcase to be held June 7, 2023
Washington, DC, May 2023 – One Common Unity (OCU) is thrilled to announce our annual Fly By Light Summer Showcase, to be held on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, at 6:00 pm ET in the atrium of Roosevelt High School.
Audience members will experience the arts in action as youth from various wards of DC give voice to the realization of fear and the power of standing in their truth through original music, poetry, dance, and other art forms. The theme of this year’s Summer Showcase will focus on The Glory In Your Story where our students will be celebrating their progress, personal growth, and authenticity through art.
Come join us at Roosevelt Senior High School for an evening of dazzling, original performances from Fly By Light students, Performance Troupe artists, and alumni artists. Plus, we’ll be joined by special guest artist Patrick Washington, who has spent over two decades performing and conducting interactive workshops, spreading love for the spoken, the written and the rhythmic word across this country. His most beloved collaboration by far will always be his 20-year-long partnership as one-half of the hip-hop/spoken word duo the POEM-CEES.
The Fly By Light youth program is an innovative extracurricular program that emphasizes creative arts, leadership, compassionate communication, conflict resolution, and self-love as pathways to personal growth, health and wellness for today’s youth. Music and artistic expression are at the core of instruction to help shift our communities away from violence and poverty. OCU hosts the Fly By Light program both during and after school hours in 10 schools across DC.
“OCU showcases are the heartbeat or pulse of our work. They’re like gifts wrapped in sandpaper: each student or group unraveling their light onto the mic as they show how they grew, from beginning to end, from being with FLY BY LIGHT. The showcases give folks an active view of what it looks like to heal and express through the power of the arts.” – Princess Best, The HipHopMomma, aka “The Healacist”, FBL Program Facilitator & Creative Director, Performance Troupe.
Tickets for the Fly By Light Summer Showcase are available now on Eventbrite.
Tickets are free with a suggested donation of $15. We hope to see you there!
For more information about the event and to reserve your tickets, visit the Summer Showcase Eventbrite link: tinyurl.com/FBL2023SummerShowcase
About One Common Unity
For more than 20 years, One Common Unity’s (OCU) high-impact, holistic programming has engaged over 35,000 youth, families, and educators in the DC area to lead a shift away from violence through in-school and after-school programs, mental health services, citywide campaigns, teacher trainings, family engagement sessions, community concerts, and art showcases.
One Common Unity builds compassionate, healthy communities through the transformative power of music, arts, and peace education. The organization places highly skilled artist-facilitators and mental health therapists in DC schools to improve students’ behavioral health outcomes and provide trauma-informed care.
One Common Unity’s flagship prevention program, Fly By Light, trains the next generation of youth leaders in social-emotional literacy and non-violent communication. The Intention Room, the organization’s innovative model for restorative justice, offers an effective strategy to prevent in- and out-of-school suspensions and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.
Founded in 2000 out of concern for the epidemic of violence in Washington, DC, and the United States, today One Common Unity’s arts education and strengths-based youth programming has evolved to offer mental wellness, conflict resolution, leadership development, and community engagement opportunities in safe, culturally appropriate settings.
