Students participating in the Lift Ev’ry Voice Festival’s eLEVate program finished up their second printing at PRESS this week, taking the time to painstaking handset selections from their poems about culture. We were delighted that they spent two rich days at PRESS exploring identity and who they are in the world and their culture. Here are some of the highlights of the two days of printing at PRESS.

Project eLEVate provided opportunities for 20 participants, ages 13-18, to explore who they are, empower themselves, participate in the community, enjoy the rich arts and culture found in the Berkshires, and celebrate African American history, culture and heritage. Project eLEVate is partially funded by Mass Humanities. The program includes:

• workshops exploring “Who Am I?” through poetry, short fiction and art;
• an individual identity project using art;
• seminars on history and African Americans and women;
• a day of service, tours, museums, libraries and films; and
• optional family activities (a contemporary dance concert with live music, an R&B/jazz concert and garden barbecue, a 4th of July parade, the oldest African American festival in the Berkshires, and an outdoor concert of contemporary West African pop music, a globe-trotting family circus).