The annual Stand Up Speak Out Arts and Social Justice Festival took place Dec. 2 from 7:30-9:30 P.M. in the Judy. About 20 people attended in person, and 15 others joined on Zoom. The event featured works from the Bedford Hills College Program and collaborations with MMC’s 71st campus.
“Learning about Bedford Hills and the Program definitely gave me an empathetic feeling towards [the women]”, Lidiya Ryan said. Ryan, a senior, worked on many of the projects and worked directly with Greenwell.“The fact that [Greenwell] has put in this much work to let us collaborate is really cool and honorable that I get to be a part of that.”
The festival, an interdisciplinary share through many different mediums, allowed creators from both campuses to collaborate through shared prompts. Through creative expressions in dance, production, audio and theatre, students created visual and audio interpretations of a diverse array of stories.
“It shows so much about humanity. I think humanity is what we need to understand about the Bedford College Program because I think people get prison wrong.”
The Bedford Hills classes included Theatre Production Workshop and Projects in Digital Sound. Four classes at 71st Street collaborated with the BHCP: Stand Up Speak Out, The Arts and Social Change, Movement, Media and Theory and 2-D Animation. The festival also featured a showing of BHCP graduate Tami Eldridge’s commencement speech for the Class of 2024. A preview was provided in the form of an event trailer.
“Education gives us purpose. Their talent just overrides so much,” Ryan said. ““We’re all just humans trying to be humans.”
