The Jersey City Theater Center Stages Daylong #HUDSONGIVES Celebration May 13

The Jersey City Theater Center will host numerous pop-up performances, virtual tours, site visits and gatherings (both in-person and online) as part of the daylong fundraising event #Hudsongives, on Thursday May 13. For more information about schedule of events visit www.jctcenter.org To donate and participate in the #HudsonGives donor platform, visit www.hudsongives.org

 

At 7:30pm, a new full-length play -- "Moon Drops" by Carol Campbell, Domnica Radulescu, and Nikaury Rodriguez -- will be screened as part of JCTC's all-virtual New Play Festival, part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance's 2021 Stages Festival, running through May 27. Reflecting this year's topic of healing, "Moon Drops" introduces us to a fascinating world of goddesses from a variety of traditions hard at work sorting out intersectional social traumas as they happen. For free tickets visit www.jctcenter.org

 

Co-hosted by JCTC artistic director Olga Levina and real estate executive and local entrepreneur Tolanda Griffin Ross, the full day of events covers local movers and shakers; local artists working in multiple media, and a cross-section of popular hospitality and community organizations:

 

Among the local luminaries making appearances throughout the day are the developer Ben LoPiccolo (9:30am); Jordanian-born writer, speaker and entrepreneur Issa Musharbash (10am), the author of "Go Back to Your Country" (2020); leading local educators Cynthia Renta from Jersey City Community Schools (2:15pm), and Ericka Streeter-Adams with Snyder High School (3:45pm) both discuss arts education partnerships between JCTC and Jersey City public schools; a visit with celebrated chef Rene Hewitt (host of television's "In the Kitchen with Chef Rene Hewitt") in a special edition of his popular cooking show (5:45pm to 7pm); hip hop recording artist, poet and JCTC resident artist Ibn Sharif Shakoor welcoming us to The Spot JC (3:30pm); real estate executive Tolanda Griffin Ross, owner of The Loft -- New Jersey's one and only theatrical karaoke -- introducing us to several local business and community leaders (1pm to 1:30pm).

 

Among the Jersey City-based artists are the Brazilian visual artist, filmmaker and educator Duda Penteado (9:45am) who introduces his line of wearable art, including footwear, accessories and apparel (all proceeds donated to #HudsonGives); theater producer Jack Halpin with the singer Lexie Levin (11:45am); the painter and sculptor Grigory Gurevich (12:15pm); the singer-songwriter and producer Giselle Bellas premiering a new music video packed with JCTC talents including the video's director Catriona Rubenis-Stevens, Pat Christodulis, Andrea Mckenna, Johnathan Drayton, Jack Halpin, Hank Morris, Lexie Levin, Howard Richman, Suzanne Milton, Beth Bentley, and Steve Plesnarksi (12:45pm); poetry and spoken word from Rescue Poetix (1:30pm); a studio visit with acclaimed artist Danielle Scott (3pm); opera singer Molly Dunn (3:15pm) and the visual artist and musician Frank Ippolito (9:30pm).

 

Audiences and #HudsonGives donors are encouraged to show up in person at the following businesses, or watch online to hear about some of the incredible entrepreneurship, charity and human invention running through the community and helping us rebound from the challenges of COVID: Japanese whiskey bar and restaurant Ani Ramen (218 Newark Avenue, featured online at 4:15pm); the legendary bar Cherry's Lounge (102 Martin Luther King Drive, featured online at 4:30pm); Hard Grove Cuban restaurant (284 1st Street, feature at 4:45pm); gay-friendly craft beer bar Pint (34 Wayne Street, featured at 5pm) Italian restaurant Roman Nose (125 Newark Avenue, featured at 5:15pm), and the rustic beer and sausage bar Würstbar (516 Jersey Avenue, featured at 5:30pm)

 

"Jersey City Theater Center is a magnet for many things," says founding artistic director Olga Levina. "Business development, tourism, and positive awareness-building about Jersey City's incredible vitality - both economic and social - are all crucial for our community.

 

"But it is by going directly into our schools, by working with community organizers and educators, by providing opportunities for local artists, that we put into practice our deeply held social change values. #HudsonGives is one very important way we can all work together to safeguard our city and build on our legacy as the Golden Gateway of America."