The Alexandria Singers - LLA's Newest Performing Arts Partner

Living Legends of Alexandria is delighted to have been invited to exhibit the 2012 Legend Portraits at the June 8-9 concert of the Alexandria Singers.

The Alexandria Singers will present "Red Carpet Pops" on June 8th at 7:30 p.m. and June 9th at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Alexandria, 2932 King Street.

Join the DC area’s premier pops chorus as they set out to see who will win the coveted “Blue Alex” award! The Spring show allows the Singers to entertain audiences with a fun-filled story featuring song, dance, staging, and costumes. Audiences will be treated to quality arrangements of a variety of American popular music -- from jazz to swing, to Broadway, to today's top hits -- comparable with what one would find in places like the Kennedy Center or in New York!  Three showtimes available! 

For tickets visit: www.AlexandriaSingers.com OR e-mail: tickets@alexandriasingers.com (please include "Red Carpet Pops" in the subject line.)

Living Legends/Alexandria Speaks

Two of Alexandria's Living Legends, Carolyn Griffin (2007-08), and Jon Liss (2010) were interviewed by students in the Alexandria Speaks class led by T.C. Williams High School teacher Todd Koren.  The assembly program was facilitated by Shawn Thorpe, Academic Principal on Assignment, Center for the Arts K-12 and Sydney-Chanele Dawkins, Filmmaker and Alexandria Commission of the Arts Commissioner.

 

Carolyn Griffin, producing artistic director, MetroStage

Jon Liss, Director, Virginia New Majority

Alexandria Speaks was created by Superintendent Morton Sherman as an opportunity to capture the human side of Alexandria's history.  Dr. Sherman opened the program with a video, Voices of Alexandria, featuring Fred Day, the first African American chairman of a public school board in Virginia.  Day was named a Living Legend of Alexandria in 2007-08.

Dr. Morton Sherman opened the program.

Nina Tisara, director of Living Legends of Alexandria said her hope in bringing the program to T.C. is to help the students understand that "history is not only the past, it is happening now and that Alexandria's Living Legends are part of a interwoven tapestry of movements that includes integration, women's rights, housing and economic issues.  By introducing Alexandria's Living Legends to the students, we are demonstrating that individual people can and do make a difference."
 
As part of the program, students had the opportunity to express interest in internships with Living Legends and MetroStage.  For information on internship opportunities, contact AlexandriaLegends@ninatisara.com.

Photos by Nina Tisara/Living Legends of Alexandria

Alexandria Speaks / Living Legends of Alexandria

Living Legends Carolyn Griffin and Jon Liss will participate in a program to introduce the Living Legends project to students at T.C. Williams High School.  Living Legends is working toward combining aspects of the project with the Alexandria Speaks class at T.C.

 

The program is scheduled for Friday, May 18, 9:30 - 10:15 a.m.  Griffin will speak on MetroStage and bringing professional theater to Alexandria; Liss will speak on Tenants United and the New Majority.  

 

2007 Living Legend of Alexandria Carolyn Griffin.  Photo by Nina Tisara

2011 Living Legend of Alexandria Jon Liss.  Photo by  Steven Halperson

Two  videos  created by the Alexandria Speaks class will be shown and following the interviews of the Legends, the students will have the opportunity to ask questions.

The program was facilitated by Shawn Thorpe, Center for the Arts K-12, Alexandria City Public Schools.

 

 

FLASH!
Living Legends of Alexandria will screen some of our past year's videos in this year's Artomatic on Thursday, June 14, 7-9 p.m. 

 

We'll be showing: 

(1) The Art of Photojournalism

(2) Living Legends of Alexandria - 2008-09 Interview Highlights

(3) Living Legends of Alexandria - 2010 Interview Highlights

 

If you haven't seen these videos, now's the time.  And if you have seen them, come anyway.  Let's have a party! 

 

Please come and invite your friends.  It's a great opportunity to spread the word about Living Legends.

 

About Artomatic

Artomatic 2012 (Artomatic.org) is an annual multi-week (May18-June24), multimedia arts event held in the DC area.  This year's location is:  851 S. Bell Street, Arlington, VA (Adjacent to Crystal city Metro).  The Film room is located on the 4th floor.

 

Artomatic creates community, builds audience and expands economic development by transforming available space into a playground for artistic expression. Unjuried events showcase creative work in visual art, music, film, performance, and fashion. Artomatic is a non-profit organization headed by a volunteer Board of Directors and is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artomatic 2012 opens to the public on Friday,
May 18 at 6:00pm
Wednesdays and Thursdays: noon – 10 pm
Fridays and Saturdays: noon – 1 am
Sundays: noon – 5 pm
Closed  Mondays and Tuesdays
Artomatic's Closing Night will be Saturday, June 23rd.

 

 

Info:   AlexandriaLegends@ninatisara.com or 703-625-2330.

Spring2Action for Living Legends of Alexandria

Spring2Action

We're 15 days away from the May 2 Spring2Action fundraiser.

Today, I'm asking for your help. How? 

(1) Make a donation!  Your donation, a minimum of $10, gives us a chance to win even more money through matching donations.

(2) Share this message with your own lists.

In addition to cash prizes for the organizations that get the most donors and most dollars, the organization with the most donors by 8 a.m. wins an extra $500.  The first organization to reach 50 donors wins $500 and the first one to reach $2500 in donations wins $500.  
Our goal is to reach 50 donors and $2500 by 8 a.m - that would give Living Legends an extra $1,000!  This seems infinitely do-able.  Let's do it!
Here's the link to use for donations.  Please share it on Facebook and Twitter and on your own email lists.  Remember, what counts is not only the total amount raised, but the total number of donations.

You can donate on May 2nd--or if early morning, before 8 a.m. is not a good time for you--you can go to the link now and schedule your donation for May 2.

To schedule a donation, click on the link that says, "Schedule one for Spring2ACTion 2012."   If you don't have a razoo account, you will be prompted to open one so your charge can be made on that day.

Later in the day on May 2, come back to the Spring2ACTion site,  www.spring2action.org  to see how Living Legends is doing on the leader board.  The leader board provides instant updating so you can see where we are in the running.

Spring2Action

Remember the date:  May 2

Spring2Action Fundraiser

This year, Living Legends will take part in Spring2Action, an innovative, on-line, city-wide fundraiser and we hope you'll take part too by sending your donation, as much as you can, as small as $10.

Your donation, no matter what the amount, gives us a chance to win even more money through matching donations.  What counts for this prize is the number of donors who participate and not the total amount donated.  So...when the call goes out to you, please make your donation on May 2 and forward the message by personal phone cal, email or tweets to your friends and associates.

Last year's top winners won prizes of $5,000, $2,600 and $1,500 respectively.  And that was in addition to the money raised directly.

Watch for details on how to donate.

Meet the Legends Reception

Meet the Legends Reception
Over 300 people attended the 5th Annual Meet the Legends reception honoring the Legends and nominees of 2012 and past year's Legends. In his remarks, Mayor Bill Euille noted the importance of recognizing, while they're still alive, those with the vision and energy to make Alexandria a great place to live and work. The "class of 2012" includes Bob Calhoun, Al Grande, Harry "Bud" Hart, Wendy McGann John, William "Bill" Kehoe, Allen Lomax, Jimmie McClellan, Pat Miller, Mike Oliver, Lillian Stanton Peterson, Joseph S. Shumard, the Steuerle Family, Dorothy Turner and Gwen Menefee-Smith.

Legendary Tastings

Our gratitude goes to the restaurants and businesses that generously provided the reception refreshments and to Shari Bolouri of Cardinal Events who organized the set up.  They did a splendid job.     

Alexandria Cupcake 

Alexandria Pastry Shop

 Barrett's of Alexandria

Bertucci's Restaurant

 Dishes of India

Hard Times Cafe

 Joe Theismann's Restaurant

Monterey Pizza

 Pork Barrel BBQ

 RedRocks Pizza    

 UnWined

And, a number of generous restaurants and businesses provided raffle prizes: 

 

The Burger Joint 

 The Carlyle Club 

 Potomac Riverboat Company 

Columbia Firehouse 

 Curcio Communications 

 Curcio Law 

First Night Alexandria  
The Fish Market 

Jackson 20 

 La Tasca 

Murphy's Irish Pub  

Click on the links to read more about these businesses and most importantly show your appreciation by dining and shopping at their restaurants and establishments.