Now for Some Good News
Dear Friends of White Snake Projects:
We hope you’re enjoying your summer in good health. In these pandemic times where good news is scarce, we’re overjoyed to share with you some great news on the White Snake front!
White Snake Projects has received an NEA CARES Act grant for $50,000! YAY! We are honored and grateful to be recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a company doing work worth supporting at the national level. This was a very competitive process: There were 4,000 applicants and about 900 awards which included only 30 opera companies.
A second YAY! As you know, the Supreme Court handed Dreamers a victory when it held that President Trump’s revocation of DACA was arbitrary and capricious. To celebrate this seminal decision, we’ve partnered with the Immigration Initiative at Harvard (IIH) on events exploring Dreamers. On July 29, we’re streaming I Am A Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams for two weeks and launching a podcast produced by IIH on Dreamer and WSP’s activism. On August 6 at 5pm, we’ll host a Zoom forum with IIH entitled, “Immigration: Dreaming of a Real Future” to address the unprecedented racism and anti-immigrant sentiment exposed by the pandemic. Please stay tuned for links to both the Dreamer stream and the Forum.
A third YAY! Thank you to all who donated to the Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINA) in response to our Call for Support during Sing Out Strong: DeColonized Voices. We’re thrilled to report that the concert raised $2,255 for immigrant families. Richard Wheelock, the Writers’ Room Coordinator at the high school, wrote a heartfelt review of the concert.
Thank you, Richard, for validating our vision of music as activism. Your words are particularly impactful during these difficult times:
“For me, this year’s Sing Out Strong concert was a powerful reminder that art is one of the best survival tools we have as a community. While we fight a pandemic, digital concerts can bring people together. While we fight oppression, artists can use opera as a tool to amplify young activists.”
Be safe, be well,
Cerise and all of us at White Snake Projects, An Activist Opera Company
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