Purchase Tickets
Thursday, May 6, 2021
6 p.m. – 7:30 pm
80 Central Ave., Albany
Free parking after 6 pm
$50 Patron
$35 Young Professional (under 35)
Join us at our recently renovated Albany location for a special evening of art and inspiration! Guests will mingle with Girls Inc. girls, staff, and other members of the community, while enjoying a one-of-a-kind program that highlights the mission of Girls Inc. – inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Guests will be divided into small groups to move throughout the exhibits in a COVID-conscious fashion. If there’s another party you would like to be grouped with, just tell us their name on the registration form when you purchase your tickets. We’ll do our best to keep you together! The program will begin promptly at 6:15 pm and will include:
GALLERY & SILENT AUCTION
A showcase of original pieces created by the girls we serve, including acrylics on canvas and hand-beaded jewelry – all artwork is available for auction! The gallery will also feature two specially commissioned pieces by local female artists Mack Wells and Alicia Lea. In addition to artwork, the auction will include a Girls Inc. swag basket and autographed copies of Nyasia’s Bee-utiful Discovery and Adeline.
READINGS
We are proud to feature readings with two new female authors who are special connections to Girls Inc.! Schenectady native and Girls Inc. alumna, Ashley Charleston, will read from her recently published children’s book, Nyasia’s Bee-utiful Discovery. Guests will have the opportunity to ask questions of this middle school teacher-turned-author and also meet her niece, Nyasia, the inspiration behind the book. A high school junior at Emma Willard School, Cassandra Carraher is a long-time youth volunteer at Girls Inc.! Her passion for literacy began when her Girl Scout troop collected more than 2,400 books to start a library in Africa. Then in 2016, she wrote and published, Adeline. Guests will hear about this young author’s journey to publish her first novel and plans for her second novel.
PERFORMANCES
Girls Inc. girls will entertain guests with group and individual modern dance performances that you won’t want to miss!
Ashley Charleston is a self-publishing author, special education ELA teacher. She received her bachelors of arts in English from the University at Albany and her masters of arts in African-American Literature from the North Carolina A&T State University. She believes that her words can change the world. She hopes to inspire childre to write themselves into existence.
Mackenzie Wells is an abstract fluid artist from upstate New York. Her education and background focused on the arts, but she did not find her passion for painting until her late twenties. She gathers much of my inspiration from personal experiences, the environment, and photographs that she takes.
Cassandra Carraher is a Junior at Emma Willard School. She became passionate about literacy in 2014, when her Girl Scout Troop 2304 collected over 2400 books to start a library in Lesotho, Africa. Cassandra started volunteer reading at Girls Inc. in 6th grade and continued for three years. In 2016 Cassandra decided to write and self-publish her first novel, inspired by her love of literacy and her stubborn persistence to show that anyone can accomplish anything. Adeline was published in 2018, and told the story of a servant of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts, who (despite the time period) treated everyone with kindness. That year Cassandra hosted a book-signing at Girls Inc. and donated 100 copies of Adeline. Recently Cassandra has been organizing events such as the Storytelling Gala, to help create a virtual library for Girls Inc. Now in 2021, she is writing another novel. This novel tackles current issues that teens face and is planned to be completed during Cassandra’s senior year.
Alicia Lea is a native from upstate New York and always held a high interest in being creative from a young age. Spending most of her time painting, drawing and making jewelry she carried all of these talents into her adult life. After completing her degree at Hudson Valley Community College she continued her education at SUNY Albany. Briefly being homeless (staying in abandoned places in Albany NY) while putting herself through college, Alicia discovered her love for abandoned architecture while in her first years of college by exploring dilapidated buildings and painting graffiti with her classmates. Transferring to SUNY Albany and taking other courses in multimedia she began to explore the use of texture and space. This translated in her personal work by focusing on absence, decay and melancholy of the buildings in her current environment. Alicia has exhibited art throughout the capital region. Not only finding love in art, Alicia also found love in teaching people of all ages how to create and paint, while having fun! After working at a local sip and paint studio for five years, Alicia is now opening her own studio and gallery in Cohoes NY called “Paint Cohoes: Studio and Gallery”.
Special thanks to the following sponsors:
Emma Willard School
OH Cupcake!
Alysha Branch