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Stories and insights on excellent education.
Stories and insights on excellent education.
Success Academy – February 27, 2018
Last Wednesday, Success Academy Bronx 2 scholars Celya Bassinga, London Gordon, and Aminata Tall addressed an audience of hundreds, gathered at the auditorium of Success Academy Union Square, with a question: “Have y’all ever been to a party, where there was only one fool in the middle of the room, dancing harder and yelling louder than anyone in the entire place?”
They answered the question in unison: “Well honey, that fool was me.”
The group’s lively performance of a scene from George C. Wolfe’s play, The Colored Museum drew laughs and inspired reflection at the fourth annual Success Academy Performing Arts Showcase. The three helped the audience imagine the conversations of influential black leaders, from Nat Turner and Bert Williams, to Malcolm X and Angela Davis, at a fictitious party.
Throughout the Performing Arts Showcase, scholars fused their passions for dance, song, and theater, with strong social messages about racial equality.
Throughout the Performing Arts Showcase, scholars fused their passions for dance, song, and theater, with strong social messages about racial equality.
Success Academy Harlem North West’s dance piece, “A Journey of Passive Resistance,” was another highlight. According to SA Dance Teacher Mickey Sakai, the scholars’ performance reflected their desire to call for resistance to the subtle and overt racism that exists within the United States.
“The piece is a statement about peaceful protest,” said Sakai. “My students were interested in exploring what they could do as artists to resist racism, and we decided dance was the right way to channel these beliefs. We brainstormed about who we wanted to honor, people like Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., and Colin Kaepernick. We wanted to go beyond the hashtags associated with these movements, like #takeaknee and #blacklivesmatter, and make sure we engaged with these ideas in a meaningful way.”
Across the network, students rehearsed their pieces for over two months — scholars at SA Harlem North West even voluntarily gave up their recess period to get the piece just right — and practices that ran well after the end of the school day were commonplace.
“I don’t dance just to impress — I dance to express my feelings,” said SA Harlem North West seventh-grader Brianna Moore. “My team worked so hard to get this performance right. This theme was really relevant to what I read in the news about black rights issues. Performing this piece makes us feel like we’re part of the recent peaceful protest movement that Colin Kaepernick started — which is something bigger than ourselves,” she said.
The Performing Arts Showcase featured 11 acts — from musical theater performances and energetic dance routines, to upbeat choir songs and African drumming. Every group auditioned for the chance to represent their school at the showcase. We know you’ll be inspired as we were by their talent.
Success Academy operates 47 high-performing public charter schools serving 20,000 students across New York City.
Christian Mejia Herrera – March 13, 2020
Success Academy – February 27, 2020
Success Academy – February 26, 2020
Congratulations to all our middle schoolers who participated in the SA Network Basketball Championships, and a huge shout-out to the commitment shown by all of our coaches this season!
42 middle school scholars and 14 high schoolers from Success Academy competed in the 44th Annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament, where they faced hundreds of top-ranked debaters from around the country in policy debate. The tournament concluded with 36 wins for SA’s 19 middle school teams at the high school tournament. Our high schoolers performed exceptionally well — with SA High School of the Liberal Arts senior Sekou Cisse winning the Lincoln-Douglas division and his peers senior Aida Bathily and sophomore Tajaih Robinson making it to the quarterfinals and earning a trip to the Tournament of Champions in April!