This season, we are grateful for the hard work and brilliance of the youth that we work with, the dedication of our staff, teaching artists and board, and the support of our community. Thank you for reading!
Dear Friends of YPT,
Nearly five years ago, YPT student Tomii told us, “If I could have one wish it would be that every student has the chance to work with YPT.” Little did we know that our response to the crisis of the past two years would teach us how to make Tomii’s wish a reality.
Today, we are serving our community through both in-person and virtual programming and productions that are relevant and broadly accessible. Our programs are providing essential creative outlets for young people who are processing the trauma of the last two years in real time. Our productions are highlighting the failures of traditional theater and embracing antiracist models for theater-making. Our new consulting initiative, AROW (Abolishing Racism and Oppression in the Workplace), is supporting organizations across our region in building safer, more just community spaces.
And yet, there is significant work to do. For the last two years, YPT has been a community-based organization physically separated from our community. We have grieved the loss of sharing space with students, with artists, and with you. As we continue to emerge from this necessary physical separation, we must reestablish and rebuild our DC community while also maintaining the new community we have built through virtual spaces across our city, region, nation, and even around the world.
At the same time, we are facing a year ahead that will require recovering from an emergency with limited remaining emergency funding opportunities, and a community of donors who are still reeling from the economic impact of the global pandemic. As a recipient of two Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans last year, YPT was able to sustain our staff, build new virtual opportunities, and maintain the administrative space where we created our online school and digital productions. As we look to 2022, we need your help to continue this work.
YPT has long celebrated the power of telling one’s story, and we are sharing our own story with you in the hope that it will inspire you to dream big with us. In the coming year, we dream of fulfilling Tomii’s wish by making YPT programming widely accessible, both online and in-person, by producing theater that both resonates with diverse audiences and prioritizes people over institutions, and by furthering the collective action of our community to face our failures and build antiracist, just spaces where all young people and their families can truly thrive.
Please, support YPT with a donation today so we can achieve these dreams together.
In gratitude,
Brigitte Winter
YPT Executive Director