Barrio Alegría, a community engagement organization, hosted a fundraiser on October 8 to raise money to fund travel to Europe where they will perform their Storytelling Through Dance in November 2020. The program artistically presents tough topics, promoting engagement and empowerment in the Reading Community.
READING, Pa. — Barrio Alegría, an engagement through arts organization, hosted Barrio Lights on October 8, a fundraiser to raise money for their Storytelling Through Dance program. The event was at 5:30 p.m. in the Woman’s Club of Reading (WCR) Center for the Arts. They were hoping to raise $30,000 to fund this opportunity, according to a letter sent out to supporters of the organization.
Chief Operating Officer Arleny Pimentel said that although funds will also go to arts programming, most of the proceeds are to send the Storytelling Through Dance program to Europe in November 2020. The group was invited to Helsinki, Finland, to present the last three years of their performances. According to the letter sent to members, the performances will occur at the Oodi Helsinki Central Library.
Barrio Alegría is flying 20 community members to Europe for about a week, spending a few days in Finland to perform, then taking a few days to go to Paris. Pimental stressed that many of the community members going to Europe hadn’t even been out of the city before, much less the country, so this is a big opportunity for them.
The Storytelling Through Dance program is a “community engagement project that takes the shape of a community theatre production,” according to the Barrio Alegría website. “The project builds a space for community members to gain leadership skills, explore self limiting beliefs, occupy spaces they do not naturally see themselves in, and build a better world.”
Amber Mancebo, Barrio Alegría’s community engagement coordinator, explained that in the project they illustrate a social justice issue that affects the community at large. There are dances between the acts in the production, which further illustrate what is happening. In previous years their topics included toxic masculinity and sexual assault.
This year, they are performing Where the Trees Walk, which is about family separation and detention. This performance premiered in July on the Reading Public Library steps and runs until November.
Mancebo explained that the main objective of Storytelling Through Dance is to present tough conversations that people typically have a hard time experiencing. They explain these topics in an artistic way so their audiences can go home and reflect with their friends and family and ask each other what they thought the performance was about and how they should deal with it going forward.
Participants become aware of the issues they’re presenting before they hit the stage through “circle time” so they feel more engaged and empowered in their homes and positions.
Deborah Afolabi 