Hey everyone!

We hope your new year is going well so far! The ladies of Harlem KW Project are so excited about the 2012 year! We have some huge plans in store for the year including six stops on the Harlem KW College Tour. We’re so excited to bring our message of preserving local arts culture to the various educational communities around the nation. And of course, we’re super excited about this great opportunity to travel together.

If you are interested in bringing the show to your college or university, there’s still time! Email us at info@HarlemKWProject.com with the name of your school and contact information for correspondence. In addition to colleges & universities, we will also be performing at Phillips Academy, a privately funded HS in Massachusetts for Martin Luther King Day. Check out the full list of our college tour stops below:

·      Phillips Academy (Andover, MA)- 01/16

·      Williams College (Williamstown, MA)- 02/11

·      SUNY New Paltz (New Paltz, NY) – 02/18

·      Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) – 02/21

·      SUNY Oswego (Oswego, NY) – 02/23

·      St. Lawrence University (Canton, NY) – 02/25

Check back to the website for new updates! http://www.harlemkwproject.com/college-tour.html#/

Happy New Year!
- Harlem KW Project

Popular clothing store Jimmy Jazz, Souleo Enterprises, LLC, and Harlem KW Project, LLC are collaborating to do a special promotion for Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale. This Saturday, December 10, stop by the Jimmy Jazz next to the Apollo Theater at 12PM to have your chance at winning FREE tickets to our 8PM performance that night, December 10th! There will be a series of Harlem trivia questions asked and five lucky winners will each win two tickets to see the show! A selection from the show will also be performed so please come out and support! We want a huge crowd so we can really spread the word! Jimmy Jazz is located on 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (7th Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (8th Avenue). We hope to see you there!

WE ARE SO EXCITED TODAY!!!

We are featured in the New York Daily News today, page 43, cover of the Uptown News section! You can view the article on by clicking here. Our lovely feature article is written by the uber talented, Michael J. Feeney. He is a young, African-American journalist living in Harlem! He won the Emerging Journalist award in 2010 from the National Association of Black Journalists. Check him out on Twitter!

One of the things we are so excited about is that we have really been able to tap into social media! This entire play was created based on a Facebook status written by Jaylene Clark. Then we initially made contact with Mike Feeney by tweeting him on Twitter! The next day we happened to meet him in person at the FREE Harlem Business Alliance workshop, "Give the Media What They Want." 

If you have your own business we encourage you to definitely utilize the social media tools! For great advice look up Karen Taylor Bass, PR Expert! She taught the four Harlem Business Alliance workshops on marketing and she was incredible!

Another skill we learned was to always be prepared! Have your clear and succinct business pitch ready at all times and make sure it tells the story behind the story. That's what people want to know. They don't just want to know that you have a play. They want to know what makes the play special and unique. This is especially important when pitching your business to the media.

This is all a learning experience we are just so thankful for everyone who has supported Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale thus far. This is only the beginning!  

We hope to see you in the theatre within these next two weekends! December 2-11!

We are sooooo excited to be performing in Harlem and at the National Black Theatre! Thank you to all those who have shown support thus far! Our original run was scheduled to end today, Sunday, November 20, but we have extended! We will be at the National Black Theatre for the first two weekends of December, the 2nd through the 11th! 

We want to have those extra two weekends PACKED so please spread the word and bring lots of people with you! The closing performance of our November run was such a success tonight! The house was packed and the energy was electric!

Tell your friends and family, post about the show on Facebook and Twitter, and do what ever you can do to SPREAD THE WORD! 

Our 300th follower on Twitter and 300th "Like" on Facebook will win a FREE ticket to one of our shows! If you have yet to do one or both of these two things, please do! Want to win that ticket but the count is not at 299 yet? Get your friends to follow/like us first, and then you swoop in for the win! Happy clicking!

Thank you for the continued support!

New promo video coming soon! Stay tuned!

Thank you to all those you came out to Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale at Londel's Supper Club! It was truly a successful event! The food was delicious (shoutout to Kenneth Heatley, the executive chef of Londel's) and the performance was electric! The audience was very receptive and we really got a chance to "test drive" the new changes to the script! That was only a taste of what is to come this Friday! 

Be sure to get your tickets now for our run at the National Black Theatre! Saturday evening we will have our Opening Night reception, so if you don't want to miss it, be sure to come out to our Saturday, November 5th, 8PM show!

Today, November 1st, is a very special day for Harlem KW Project. It was on this day, November 1, 2010 that Jaylene sent the first email to Chyann, Hollis, and Janelle asking them if they wanted to be a part of this potential project at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Here is a snippet of the conversation:

Jaylene: 
My FB  Status: It's time to stop dipping a toe in here, wading in a little bit there. I need to jump back into this sea world of poetry like I'm Shamu...heavy. Too much gentrification going on in Harlem to get light. Time to spit killer lines with killer rhymes of killer tales. Cuz Harlem is looking more and more like the belly of a killer whale.

[She then showed them the conversation she had with Alfred Preisser where he asked her to do a 60 minute play based on this status with 2-3 other women]

What do you all think about this? I need 2-3 more women. I have my friend Janelle in mind cuz she's an actress and a poet. Hollis I know you are a poet and actress...but I know u are extremely busy...would you be interested? Chyann I know u have strong feelings about gentrification in Harlem. If you guys have any ideas on the project let me know!

Love yall.

Chyann: 

This sounds like an incredible opportunity! To have a performance piece at the Schomburg is the perfect venture for a young actress like yourself. I'd definitely love to be a part of it. Obviously I don't have much experience with the performance aspect of the production, but I can definitely contribute in terms of writing, editing, and just overall opinions and experience. Count me IN.

Janelle:

Wow j! This sounds absolutely phenomenal! I definitely would be interested in collaborating with you on this project! It sounds like so much fun. You can count me in, just let me know when, where, and the logistics but I'm in.

Hollis:

Hollis gave a verbal response so it is not in the email, but of course, she said she was interested and would love to be a part of it!

--

And so it happened that the four of us got together and began writing Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale! Through a series of workshops, freewrites, and emails, we created this play and debuted it as a play reading at the historic Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Now, a year later, we are so blessed to say that we had the opportunity to do two runs in Times Square, and are now having our play produced at the National Black Theatre in Harlem! We are extremely grateful for these opportunities and thankful to all those who have showed their continued support!

We hope you continue to support us on this journey!

Much love,
The Ladies of Harlem KW Project, LLC <3

We are so excited! This Saturday we will begin our College Tour by making our first stop at Ithaca College! Jaylene graduated from Ithaca College in May 2010. While there she founded a poetry organization called Spit That!. It is Spit That! that is sponsoring our trip to Ithaca, so this really means a lot to us, especially Jaylene! 

We are constantly looking for more colleges to visit so if you would like us at your school, please send us a message by visiting our Contact page. We would love to visit! 

This whole weekend is filled with great events because Sunday is the African-American Day Parade in Harlem! We are leaving Ithaca early enough to be able to attend. Maybe we will see you there!

That's right ladies and gentleman! We are BACK! Yesterday we had our Opening Night performance for our second run at the Times Square Arts Center and it was fantastic! The audience was very receptive and the performance was stellar! We truly hope that those members in the audience will go out and spread the word about the show so our theatre can be filled every night! We believe it can happen!

Be sure to check out Groupon because we are one of the deals today, July 19th and tomorrow, Wednesday, July 20th! For only $39 you get two tickets to the show, plus two drinks! To purchase the deal click here. We need at least 15 purchases to activate the deal, so purchase yours today!

We are only TEN days away from “Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale” being back on the stage!! Have you purchased your tickets? If not, what are you waiting for? Click here!

You can also take your chance at winning a FREE ticket by participating in our ticket giveaway!

For our Facebook users, we are giving away a FREE ticket to our 180th, 190th, and 200th Facebook “Like!” Visit our Facebook page here.

For our Twitter users, we are giving away a FREE ticket to our 100th follower! Visit our Twitter page here.

Happy clicking!

Remember, Monday, July 18th, is our Opening Night and Opening Night Reception. Our reception will feature mingling with the cast, music, the selling of our “Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale” t-shirts, and food from HSugarenSpice catering! Please join us!

If you have any questons, please feel free to contact us through our Contact page or email info@HarlemKWProject.com.

On June 6, our final performance of our first run, we had the honor of having former Governor of New York State, David Paterson, support our show! We hope you show your support as well for our summer shows! Here is a clip of the interview he gave with our videographer: