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First lady recognizes Sphinx Music http://www.sphinxmusic.org/nahyp-award/
Detroit – Joselyn Hernandez, 12, along with President and Artistic
Director, Afa S. Dworkin, will be at the White House on November 15,
2016 to receive an award from First Lady Michelle Obama on behalf of the
Sphinx Organization. The Sphinx Overture program, which provides free
violins and lessons to all public elementary schools in Flint, MI as
well as several in Detroit, MI, will receive the 2016 National Arts and
Humanities Youth Program Award, the nation’s highest honor for creative
youth development programs. The Perfect Fourth String Quartet,
representing Sphinx’s educational programming, has also been chosen to
perform at the White House. Its members are Aidan Daniels, Maxwell
Fairman, Peirce Ellis, and Nicholas Reeves.
First presented in 1998, this award annually recognizes the country’s
best after-school and out-of-school-time creative youth development
programs for using engagement in the arts and the humanities to increase
academic achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment. The 12
awardees—chosen from a pool of more than 251 nominations and 50
finalists—are also recognized for improving literacy and language
abilities, communication and performance skills, and cultural awareness.
“I’m so excited to have the chance to accept this award from the
First Lady in the White House,” said Joselyn. “It makes me proud to be a
part of a program like Sphinx, which changed my life.”
The Sphinx Organization, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in
2017, is the Detroit-based national social justice and the arts
organization with the mission of transforming lives through the power of
diversity in the arts. Sphinx programs reach over 100,000 students in
200 schools nationwide, and Sphinx has provided more than $2.5 million
in scholarships to students and musicians.
“We hope this award will draw attention to the fact that access to
the arts is essential in the lives of our young people and in our
communities as a whole,” said Afa Dworkin, President and Artistic
Director of the Sphinx Organization. “We’re incredibly honored by this
distinction. At a time that is so divisive and turbulent, our young
artists symbolize promise, compassion and achievement. They are
empowered to change the narrative in our communities as well as our
field.”
The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award is the nation’s
highest honor for after-school arts and humanities programs. The award
recognizes and supports outstanding programs that lay new pathways to
creativity, expression, and achievement outside of the regular school
day. These programs excite and engage a range of students, cultivating
imagination, collaboration, discipline, and academic success—with
demonstrable results. They also provide safe harbors after school, on
weekends, and during the evenings for children and youth in some of our
country’s most at-risk urban and rural settings.
“These amazing programs prove how effective creative youth
development can be in changing lives and communities,” said Megan Beyer,
executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities. “They’re improving academic achievement and contributing to
high school graduation rates, and they’re providing the opportunity for
young people to build the 21st-century skills they need to succeed in
school and in life.”
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