Announcing The BEAT Alumni Network 👨‍🎓👩‍🎓

Today in Women's History

Chicana activist, Graciela Olivárez, was born today in 1928. Graciela had a varied and distinguished career, which included becoming one of the first female radio disk jockeys in Phoenix, directing the Office of Economic Opportunity for Arizona, earning a law degree at Notre Dame Law School, and serving in President Carter's administration as Director of Community Services. She became the highest ranking Mexican American woman in Carter's administration, a post she held until 1980.

Teaching Artist Spotlight

We would like to give a huge shout out to our BEAT Breakers instructor Christina "Miss CC" Cruz. Christina was born and raised in The South Bronx, NY. She holds a BA in Dance at Lehman College. For the past 2 years, she has held the position as Company Director for Hip Hop Theory: The Company as well as Director for Each 1 Teach One Dance Series. For the past year and a half, Christina has been working as a teaching artist through Bronx Arts Ensemble, teaching hip-hop dance in public schools to students of various ages throughout the tri-state area. Click here to follow CC on Instagram.

"Each program, educator, company member, etc. of BEAT Global plays an integral role in cultivating a great learning space for the youth to learn about Hip-Hop culture and is one of the many reasons why I enjoy working with them. Working with the youth allows for great daily challenges and taps into creating new synergies and energy between the student-teacher connection. It also leaves room for growth in various areas as an educator and as a person.
Peace~Love~Light"
- Miss CC

BEAT Alumni Spotlight

This week's Alumni Spotlight goes to Alicia Ortiz. Alicia was born January 2nd, 1997 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and moved to The Bronx shortly after. She is of Puerto Rican & Ecuadorian descent. Alicia attended East Side Community High School where she participated in the BEAT Explorers class taught by Explorers instructor Y?. She graduated from high school in 2015 and then went on to get her Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Click here to follow Alicia on Instagram.

"For me being a BEAT student was an escape from all the things I was going through. I started attending BEAT classes in 9th grade after my mom got shot, and this became a safe space for me to creatively express how I feel but also meet other young musicians and their stories."
- Alicia Ortiz

Join Our Alumni Network Today

We are super excited to announce the launch of our Alumni Network. Are you a former BEAT student? Have you attended one of our workshops? If so, we want to hear from you! Join our Alumni Mentoring & Career Development program to gain access to exclusive professional development workshops.

Spread the word! If you or someone you know attended a BEAT workshop, follow our BEAT Alumni Network social media accounts where you can connect and collaborate with other former BEAT students.

Upcoming NYPL Workshops

Spread the word about our next NYPL Workshops. Join us for our three back to back Explorers workshops in Staten Island on March 10th, 11th, and 12th.

Applications Are Still Open

Artist of the Month (March)

It's not too late to apply to be our next Artist of the Month! This package includes 40 hours of studio space for the entire month of March. You can use this space for rehearsals, meetings, collaborations, private classes, workshops, and much more. Click here to get more information and to submit an application.

Keep The BEAT Alive!