January 21, 2022 (Norfolk, VA) - Norfolk-based Teens With a Purpose, Creative Youth Development Organization’s artistry is being put to the test with their latest project OTU.
OTU - The Healing Quilt, is an interactive experience erected from intimate conversations, life experiences, family history, and the deepest feelings connected to race & racism in Hampton Roads as shared by youth and adults of the African Diaspora. This cultural arts endeavor bravely & tenderly stitches it all together in song, poem, dance, and through storytelling as a multimedia sensation.
Collaborating Partner Organization - Tidewater African Cultural Alliance’s leader, Rita Cohen helps bring the performance to life with beautifully choreographed dance and featured vocal & dance performance.
This important and powerful work takes place during a time when the Hampton Roads region and all of humanity, perhaps, are being called to a reckoning. OTU’s aspiration is to build understanding and healing.
Because transformation requires participation OTU’s audience members & cast, at each performance, will uniquely collaborate. Guests are invited to share their thoughts, write response poetry, dance, and sing along.
OTU - The Healing Quilt (OTU means ONE in the Igbo language of Nigeria) is funded in part by Hampton Roads Community Foundation & Virginia Humanities. Presented publicly:
- Sunday, January 23rd, 7 pm - 8 pm - Virtual Only
- Saturday, February 26, Chrysler Museum of Art Kaufman Theatre 1 pm - 2 pm Hybrid (Live/Virtual)*
- Friday, March 11th Wells Theatre 3 pm - 5 pm Hybrid (Live/Virtual)**
Link for tickets About Teens With a Purpose Mission to create a platform to empower young people to use their voice, creativity, reflection, and action to affect personal growth, impact peers and transform communities.
* (a cameo performance during Reckoning our History: The Untold Story of YWCA South Hampton Roads)
**(a cameo performance during ImmortALL Youth Poetry Program)