LITERARY WORK BY SOUTHERN'S KRISTOPHER JACKSON PERFORMED IN THE YOUNG VOICES MONOLOGUE FESTIVAL

LITERARY WORK BY SOUTHERN'S KRISTOPHER JACKSON PERFORMED IN THE YOUNG VOICES MONOLOGUE FESTIVAL
March 21, 2016 sphsalumni

 

One of South Philadelphia High School’s students, Kristopher Jackson, had his winning monologue performed by a Philadelphia actor at the Young Voices Monologue Festival at Bluver Theater at the Drake. Jackson’s “Wondering Why?” received professional production treatment thanks to a month-long rehearsal process preceding the festival. His monologue was chosen from entries from more than 400 students. The performance took place on March 17, and was attended by the following students from the AP English Literature and Composition course:

Alex Arce
Thiernoamadou Diallo
Athena Bolden
Kynan Chambers, Jr.
Illyria Feilke
Cameron Hudson
Diamond Harrison
Kristopher Jackson
Siyani Johnson
Ree Mar
James Quinn
Maria Teodoro

The Young Voices Monologue program at Southern is coordinated by English teacher Roberta Emanuel. Also involved in the program is Dwight Wilkins. Wilkins has been in Em­manuel’s classroom as a Theatre Ex­ile teach­ing artist. He’s helped pro­duced the Young Voices fest­iv­al for eight years. “It’s something I look for­ward to every year,” he said.

Steven Grav­elle is another Theater Exile visiting teaching artist aiding Southern’s program. “I feel that the work they do, giv­ing them a voice and giv­ing them a safe space for self-ex­pres­sion, is very im­port­ant in their lives. Build­ing com­mu­nic­a­tion skills as writers and per­formers but also as listen­ers, be­ing able to listen to one an­oth­er’s work and be able to re­spond to oth­er stu­dents’ work is one of the corner­stones of what we do,” says Gravelle.