Kuumba students to conclude successful academic year with June 10 presentation of ‘Cindoliesha’

Kuumba students to conclude successful academic year with June 10 presentation of ‘Cindoliesha’June 02, 2009Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Students in the Kuumba Project urban arts education program will celebrate the program’s year end with a performance of the play “Cindoliesha,” a rendition of “Cinderella,” on Wednesday, June 10, at 6 p.m. in the Syracuse Stage Black Box Theatre, 820 E. Genesee St.

The performance is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested by Monday, June 8, to Margie Gantt in Syracuse University’s South Side Initiative Office at 443-1916.

Developed, implemented and managed by the South Side Initiative Office, the Kuumba Project began in September 2007 with 22 middle-school children, ages 12-15, who receive daily instruction from professional artists in dance, studio arts, literary arts, music and theater (music and theater were combined into a musical theater offering in 2008).

The “Cindoliesha” performance will embody the talents of all of the students of the Kuumba program. The musical theater students wrote the play; the studio-arts students designed the flyer and the backdrops of the scenes; the literary arts students prepared the spoken word; and the dance students choreographed their performances.