A program for teenage girls, produced by Jefferson Center in collaboration with Roanoke City Public Schools and Roanoke’s Refugee and Immigration Services

Look for Sisters of the Circle in the Spring of 2008. We will be visiting Patrick Henry and William Fleming High Schools to recruit participants for the program in November, 2007. If you are a young woman in the Roanoke area, age 15-18, and are interested in participating in Sisters of the Circle, please contact athomas@jeffcenter.org

Sisters of the Circle is an afterschool performing arts program for teenage girls. The program began in January of 2007 with 21 girls from six different countries participating in the program. The girls met on a weekly basis with facilitator Ann Kilkelly, did theater activities, dance exercises, and wrote their own script for a stage performance that was presented at the end of the program. Spoken word artist Toni Blackman joined the girls for one week of workshops in poetry and dance. The young women also worked with the Kusun Ensemble, a performing group from Ghana, and with Elise Witt, a singer from Atlanta.

The Sisters of the Circle have performed at Jefferson Center, at the Local Colors festival and at the Global Youth Village in Bedford, Virginia.

The Sisters of the Circle program has been featured in a variety of local media, including WDBJ-7, the Roanoke Times, WVTF's Studio Virginia, and "Urban Voices" on Cox Local Access channel 9.

Click here to read the Roanoke Times’ article on the program (printed March 8, 2007 in the Virginia section)

Click here to read the Roanoke Times' article on the program (printed May 19, 2007 in the Virginia section).

Funded by generous support from the Verizon Foundation and the Bank of America Foundation