Give the Gift That Warms the Heart, Stirs the Creative Spirit & Brings Our Community Closer Together

Happy Holidays from Silver Spring Town Center Inc.

Dear Friend of SSTCi:

This holiday season, we hope you will give the gift that warms the heart, stirs the creative spirit, and brings our community together.

You may have enjoyed one of the over 70 diverse arts and cultural events the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. presented this past year, including the Silver Spring Blues Festival, Plaza Performances and the "Tribute To America's Veterans" Concert. We were pleased to showcase many community groups like the Greater U Street Jazz Collective, Strings4Joy, Contradiction Dance, and the Titanes Salseros, the champion salsa dance ensemble from Albert Einstein High School. It is our goal in 2012 to continue engaging members of our community in making the Civic Building and Veterans Plaza our "community living room" and community performance space. While we have presented hundreds of visual and performing artists from our community and beyond, we aim to do even more as we continue to grow.


Your tax-deductible contribution today directly helps to support our mission to provide a vibrant, inclusive and engaging community gathering place that enriches the lives of residents throughout the Greater Silver Spring area. In fact, 100% of your donation goes directly towards showcasing local and international talent from a variety of creative disciplines, while at the same time building community and celebrating our diversity in the heart of Downtown Silver Spring!

Please click here to visit our fundraising page on Razoo, and make a small donation of $10 or more to ensure a successful 2012.

DONATE NOW!

Please help us reach our $10,000 goal by the end of the year so that we may continue to provide a vibrant, inclusive and engaging community gathering place-a "community living room"-- that enriches the lives of residents throughout the Greater Silver Spring area. Click here to donate online

DONATE BY CHECK

Alternatively you may mail your contribution to Silver Spring Town Center, Silver Spring Civic Building, One Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, MD 20910 with checks payable to "SSTCi."

We thank you in advance for supporting SSTCi and our vision of a creative and vibrant community for all.

Warmest Regards,

LISA MARTIN
Executive Director
Silver Spring Town Center, Inc.
lisa@silverspringtowncenter.com
www.silverspringtowncenter.com

Emmett Overstreet, Earl Williams & Paul Young on Silver Spring's Veterans Plaza - Silver Spring Town Center Video Clip of the Day!

Here's Comes the Sun - Silver Spring Town Center Video Clip of the Day!

Dimensionz of Bluz has been playing together for a year and live up to their name. Each of the members brings his own style of blues to synthesize a unique sound. Mike Baytop has a long history in the Washington area as a Piedmont or country blues musician. Tim Nolte comes from the Midwest and brings a Chicago / rock style of blues. Willie Leebel has long been a student of the delta style of blues. And Marcus Childs-Moore has a strong background in jazz providing an additional element to the group. Plan to hear some blues standards performed in an inimitable way. Here, Tim Nolte plays "Here Comes The Sun."

Poet Laura Shovan presents at the December Silver Spring Arts Salon, Thursday, December 15 at noon. Free

Topic: The Mask

Join poet Laura Shovan in a conversation about how artist of all disciplines use personae in their work. How can taking on “the mask” of a character or voice help us express deeper truths in our art?

Who’s invited: Fine artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, photographers, graphic designers, playwrights, poets, and anyone interested in the creative process.

What to bring: Ideas, questions, stories, business cards for networking, and a brown bag lunch and/or drink, if desired.

Where to show up: Silver Spring Civic Center Building; One Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, MD 20910 (We’ll meet in the Colesville Room, 2nd floor. The Civic Building is the new building across from the Majestic Movie Theater, near Ellsworth and Fenton.)

Guest Artist: Laura Shovan is editor of the art and literary journal Little Patuxent Review. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize in 2010. She is the editor of Life in Me Like Grass on Fire: Love Poems (MWA Books), featuring 50 Maryland poets. Laura is currently co-editing Voices Fly: An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the MSAC Artist-in-Residence Program for the Maryland State Arts Council, to be published in 2012.

http://www.facebook.com/events/302833086413712/

This program is a production of the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc.

Visit our blog at www.silverspringtowncenter.blogspot.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sstowncenter or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/8305814081/

The Rights of Butterflies

On Monday, December 5, Ghandi Brigade presented the new documentary film "The Rights of Butterflies" which tells the story of an undocumented college student named Katya in Montgomery County and her struggle to fund and continue her college education due to her legal status.

In the documentary, we learn about Katya’s personal sacrifices in coming to the United States, her transition into the Silver Spring Area, where she constructs a sense of home, and her perseverance to achieve her goals and dreams for a better life. The title of the film ponders a world where people could have the same rights as butterflies moving freely across borders with no need for legal status or documentation of any kind.

Over 200 attendees gathered in the Great Hall of the Civic Building for a public screening and post-film discussion. The subject of the film Katya was present along with filmmaker Laura Goya, who is a student of Montgomery College,

This event was co-sponsored by the Gilchrist Center and the Silver Spring Regional Center.

To learn more about the film and event, please call Gandhi Brigade at 301.588.1399 or visit their website at www.gandhibrigade.org/content/rights-butterflies

Strings for Joy! perform on Silver Spring's Veterans Plaza - Video Clip of the Day

The performers are Alexandre Paintsil, Jepthalyne Senas, Kevin Gopala-Rao, Stephanie Birmingham, Aniza Moore, Breanna Roth, Evonne Baasch, violins and Dr. Ekatrina DiPinto, cello.

Silver Spring Town Center Remembers Our History

Por primera vez en una tarima por cultivar sus raices - Univision

12th Annual MCPS Latin Dance Competition - A Great Success!

Congratulations to the After School Dance Fund, Inc. and supporters of the 12 Annual MCPS Latin Dance Competition that was held Monday, November 28, 2011 at Stathmore Hall. Hundreds of MCPS students, teachers, parents, friends and fans gathered to see talented dancers from many of Montgomery County's public high schools. Participating schools included Blake HS, Clarksburg HS, Einstein HS, Gaithersburg HS, Rocville HS, Seneca Valley HS, Walter Johnson HS and Watkins Mill HS. Teams competed in eight divisions: Salsa, Cha-Cha, Bachata, Merengue, Parent/Student, Alumni, Jack-n-Jill, and Best-in-Show.

The After School Dance Fund (ASDF) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization created in 2010 in order to offer a meaningful afterschool experience to all Montgomery County Public Schools’ Latin dance club participants. These programs promote cross cultural awareness; bridging the gap between communities, strengthening family values and empower students of all backgrounds, to share their heritage and culture which allows them to communicate better in school and at home, and continue their personal and educational growth in order to become healthy and positive members of our global society. For information about the After School Dance Fund, visit their website at http://afterschooldancefund.org/

Lisa Martin Named Executive Director of Silver Spring Town Center, Inc.

The Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Lisa Martin as Executive Director of Silver Spring Town Center, Inc.

“We are thrilled that Lisa Martin will be joining SSTCi as our Executive Director,” said Alan Bowser, President of the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. Board of Directors. “Lisa Martin shares our vision of celebrating diversity and creating community, and has the professional experience to creatively advance our agenda to promote cultural understanding through community arts & entertainment programming.”

Ms. Martin has over 10 years of experience working with arts and cultural events primarily in the Nation’s Capital, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as a wide variety of embassy events. Having worked on numerous arts festivals and other large community-based events, both domestically and abroad, she is skilled in all areas of program development, marketing and promotion, membership development, as well as event management. She also has a strong background in volunteer management having recruited, trained and managed hundreds of volunteers for city-wide events, including the 2004 International VSA Arts Festival, a four-day multi-arts event which brought together over 1000 visual and performing artists with a wide array of mental and physical disabilities from all corners of the globe.

For the last several years, she has managed the DC-Brasilia Partners of the Americas’ Lecture Series at George Washington University, which presents artists, scholars and other experts on Brazilian arts and culture. Previously, she managed the National Peace Corps Association’s Embassies Program, which featured an array of speakers and performing artists representing a variety of cultures and disciplines. In addition to this experience, she has an extensive background doing qualitative research and evaluation for museums, science centers, art galleries, historical sites and other places of learning.

"I am very excited to be working with the Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. and helping to create a vibrant and welcoming place where the arts and culture can shine, said Martin." "I look forward to collaborating with local visual and performing artists, area businesses, other non-profits, and members of our community to ensure that the Civic Building and Veterans Plaza serve as a real 'community living room' where everyone is always welcome."

Ms. Martin served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Estonia. She holds a Masters Degree in Performing Arts Management, a B.S. in Cultural Anthropology and a B.A. in Journalism.

The Silver Spring Town Center, Inc. has been very active in promoting the arts and humanities in Silver Spring and in greater Montgomery County. It has organized the very successful Silver Spring Blues Festivals at Downtown Silver Spring which have entertained thousands of neighbors and visitors, the annual benefit concerts in support of Montgomery County’s veterans, community dance classes, and its popular Plaza Performances on Veterans Plaza. This year, alone, SSTCi’s Plaza Performances have brought more than 50 free musical acts to the public, featuring jazz, blues, folk, classical, and rock music.

SSTCi is a 501(c)3 organization. The members of the SSTCi Board of Directors are: Alan Bowser, Aurelia Martin, Beth Wong, David Fogel, Don Berkemeyer, Graciela Jaschek, Harriet Weil, Jack Hewitt, Jon Lourie, Jose Dominguez, Mark Kozaki, Mary Ann Zimmerman, Reemberto Rodriguez, Sheryl Chapman, and Wanda Whiteside.

For more information, please visit SSTCi’s website at www.silverspringtowncenter.com, its blog at www.silverspringtowncenter.blogspot.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/silverspringtowncenter or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sstowncenter