ATTN: TIME CHANGE: The South Africa Project, Feb 5th at 12:00 pm

Created under the Apartheid regime in the early 1950's, and situated about 30 miles northwest of Pretoria, the sprawling rural township of Winterveldt, South Africa (population of over 700,000) is plagued with the challenges of extreme poverty, including a 50% unemployment rate and 25% HIV/AIDS infection rate; family violence; teen pregnancy; lack of education and opportunity. Yet despite these problems, the community is actively working to heal and restore its population, with contributions from various civic and religious organizations and private individuals. One of the most effective community organizations, the Bokamoso Youth Center, works with at-risk youth to bring focus and hope to their lives, and to get them into school and training programs. Since 2003, Professor Leslie Jacobson and colleague Roy Barber from St. Andrews Episcopal School, often accompanied by several GW students on undergraduate fellowships, have worked with the youth from Bokamoso in Winterveldt, S.A. Each summer, they have developed plays and songs that address social problems in their community. Since 2004, youth from the Bokamoso Youth Center have traveled to the U.S., staying with GW students for three to four days, attending classes, and performing at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre of the George Washington University, to benefit the Center's Scholarship Fund. This past summer, three GW students, Elizabeth Acevedo, Caroline O'Grady, and Scout Seide, partially funded by Gamow and Luther Rice Undergraduate Fellowships, accompanied Prof. Jacobson to Winterveldt. Together with Roy Barber and the youth of Bokamoso, they created a new play about the meaning of success, Halfway to Somewhere. The Feb. 5th performance features this play, followed by the performance of traditional African song and dance, and a guest appearance by the GW Troubadours.

Sponsers:

GW Department of Theatre and Dance, with the support of the Department of Music, Africana Studies, Women's Studies, and the Multi-Cultural Students Association; and by St. Andrew's Episcopal School and The Seekers Church.

Where:

The George Washington University
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
Marvin Center 1st Floor
800 21st Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
(Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro Station, Blue and Orange lines)

When:

Friday, February 5, 2010 at 12:00 p.m.