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Amidou & Toya

New immigrants put on stage a musical to support free French classes in the United States!

Amidou & Toya

New immigrants put on stage a musical to support free French classes in the United States!

1 Campaign |

New York, United States

$9,210 USD 93 backers

49% of $18,500 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Story

FAQ

Updates 17

Comments 6

Dear Color My French friends and guests,

On behalf of the French Heritage Language Program community of students, teachers, and schools, we want to thank you for your generous contributions to the program and for attending our event, Color My French. All of your donations played a role in making the Color My French Benefit Concert a great success, and will go on to provide free French classes for underserved francophone communities across the United States.

We hope that you enjoyed the excellent performances from the students in the program and our special guests, Jacques Schwarz Bart, Emeline Michel, Yacine Boulares with his band AJOYO, and chef Pierre Thiam. Check out some of the photos from Color My French on our facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/fhlpnewyork/photos_stream. There are plenty more to come!

We are pleased to share that we have raised $9,190 on our crowdfunding site alone! With that said, we still have 3 days to go with our campaign and would like to come as close as possible to reaching our ambitious goal of $18,500. As we thank you for your gracious donations, we invite you to share our organization and campaign site with your family, friends, and community (www.facecouncil.org/fhlp)

And, if you didn’t get a chance to pick up a t-shirt, postcard, or sticker with the Amidou & Toya original artwork by Raymond Verdaguer, now is your chance!

A very special thank you to our sponsors and contributors:

The Alfred and Jane Ross Foundation, The Florence Gould Foundation, FACE (French American Cultural Exchange), The French Embassy in the United States, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques, International Network for Public Schools, Lycée Français de New York, International House New York, Sia Partners, Kikkerland Design Inc., Catherine and Alan Dumait-Harper, Paola Brisson, Elizabeth and Bertil Lundqvist.

With warmest regards,

Benoit Le Devedec and the French Heritage Language Program/Color My French Team, Annie, Yacine, Patrick, Ricardo, Daniella, Marie-Olphine, Yakhya, Claudjéna, Christayina, Franshesca, Jean, Eleonore, Marline, Bassirou, Johanna...

We are students of the French Heritage Language Program, a nonprofit education program that brings free French classes to underserved French-speaking communities across the United States.

We decided to put on stage a musical to tell our own story and support the creation of free French classes in the US.

Amidou & Toya is an original creation that tells the story of young francophone immigrants from West Africa and Haiti who have to deal with the challenges of youth, love, and integration. All its music and lyrics were composed by our French teacher, Yacine Boulares, a multi-nominated professional musician and composer.

Sponsors helped us launch the project, compose the musical and hold weekly rehearsals.

We now need your help to put our musical on stage for two special events:

AMIDOU & TOYA PERFORMANCES:

15 May 2014: Amidou & Toya premieres at our school, the International High School at Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY. We will perform in front of all of friends, teachers and school staff!

31 May 2014: We will be performing with major Francophone artists Emeline Michel and Jacques Schwarz-Bart as part of our "Color My French" benefit concert to support free French classes in the United States. This event will also feature a multicultural cocktail reception prepared by the great Senegalese Chef Pierre Thiam! "Color My French" will be held at the Lycée Français de New York on Saturday 31 May, 6.30-8.30pm. *UPDATE!* Get your tickets NOW!

We hope to raise enough funds to support existing and new free French classes for underserved French-speaking communities across the United States, so that more students like us can keep up their French!

Here are examples of how funds will be used

$4,000 will allow to continue our project next year, with 2 hours of French class a week, October through June.

$4,000 will support the creation of a new free French class in an underserved public school or community center in the US, 2 hours a week, October through June.
$8,000 will allow to record Amidou & Toya in a professional studio and produce a CD of the project to support more free French classes!

$15,000 will support the organization of a summer camp in New York and Quebec.

$25,000 will help support coordinating positions for existing or new French Heritage programs across the United States.

Give a chance to our communities

Your contributions are directly helping our communities. There are today 2 million French-speakers in the United States, yet many of them do not have the possibility to continue learning their language within their own schools and communities. By providing them with free French classes, you give them a chance to keep strong bonds with their cultures and identity.

If you can’t contribute, it doesn’t mean you can’t help:

Ask your folks to get the word out and make some noise about our campaign. Give us a voice!

Remind them to use the Indiegogo share tools!

Tickets for our benefit concert are now available and we look forward to having you among the audience! Please check our update section for continued news about our project.