As Co-Executive Directors, Beryl Ford and Michelan LeMonier are committed to continuing viBe’s impact within the theater community both locally in NYC and nationally, bringing greater visibility and supporting more young people who seek to share their artistic genius with the world around them. With a clear vision for the present and a larger vision for viBe’s future, their appointment will preserve viBe’s historical impact while also leading the organization into a new era of growth.

viBe’s Co-Executive Directors sat down with Donna Walker-Kuhne, award-winning thought leader, writer, academic, and strategist for community engagement, audience development, and social justice to discuss the organization’s field-wide impact, as well as their plans for the future of the organization. The interview highlights Beryl and Michelan’s professional journeys, aspirations, and most importantly their commitment to providing access to free, high-quality performing arts education and leadership programs.

The NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color (GYWOC) is a collaborative effort that brings together philanthropic funders to provide opportunities for girls and young women of color, to succeed economically and socially by offering holistic support to organizations and programs led by and for young women, TGNC youth of color. On March 19, 2024, viBe’s Co-Executive Director Beryl Ford sat on a panel at The Ford Foundation for a discussion on supporting the mental health of girls, young women and TGNC youth throughout NYC.

In celebration of Women’s History Month 2024, viBe’s Co-Executive Director Michelan Le’Monier spoke on a panel hosted by the Oliver Scholars, a program that prepares high-achieving Black and Latinx students from underserved New York City communities for success at top independent high schools and prestigious colleges.

Michelan spoke with other executive directors on a panel about real-time issues impacting girls, young women, and gender expansive femmes of color, addressing issues of self-advocacy, self-imagery, the pressures of social media, education, careers, positive role models, and breaking the glass ceilings.

Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) is the National Endowment for the Arts’ largest grants program for arts and cultural organizations. The program provides expansive funding opportunities to strengthen the nation’s arts and cultural ecosystem. This round of funding provides opportunities for public engagement with the arts, for the integration of the arts with strategies promoting the health and well-being of people and communities of color, and for the improvement of overall capacity and capabilities within the arts sector.

The New York Life Foundation and the Afterschool Alliance today announced $1.8 million in new grants to 40 afterschool, summer, and expanded learning programs serving disadvantaged middle school youth. The funds will go to organizations across the United States. These latest grants bring the total of New York Life Foundation’s support for out-of-school-time (OST) programs to $11.55 million over the eight years of its Aim High program.

The MS INC program matches Morgan Stanley’s junior professionals with youth development nonprofits seeking specialized support for organizational or operational challenges. Over a four-month period, each participating nonprofit partner works with a team from Morgan Stanley to identify and collaborate on actionable solutions that the nonprofit can execute. In its 10th year, Youth INC launched the 21st cycle of MS INC. viBe was part of this anniversary-year cohort of NYC nonprofit organizations creating meaningful social change.

In 2020, viBe Theater Experience’s leadership joined a coalition of Black cultural workers, arts educators and administrators called together through Affinity Groups held by The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable that all know, support, and advocate for Black women teaching artists, administrators and executives in this field. Together this group penned a List of Demands directed to funders and senior leadership at PWI arts education and cultural institutions, advocating for support for Black girls and women in the field.

The New York Philharmonic has just released a video featuring the World Premiere of an arrangement of We Shall Overcome by 13-year-old Philharmonic Very Young Composer Jordan Millar. In addition to New York Philharmonic musicians, the performers are the Abyssinian Baptist Church Cathedral Choir; The Dessoff Choirs; Brooklyn College, Conservatory of Music Symphonic Choir; and viBe Theater Experience. The Philharmonic would have premiered the arrangement in March 2020 in Music as a Change Agent, the Young People's Concerts that were cancelled due to the pandemic.

viBeOut is a multidisciplinary performance art residency program with a LGBTQIA+ inclusive curriculum. As a residency program, viBeOut integrates art, skill-building, social emotional learning, mental wellness, and restorative movement for youth to develop their own unique voices and writing through an embodied experience. Students are given the tools to devise their own original artwork by trained teaching artists who are also LGBTQIA+ identified, while building creative technical skills. Envisioning a Queer Future zine is the product of the 2020 viBeOut cohort. In its design, the zine makes a nod to viBe's history of publishing youth-designed publications on the topics most urgent to our youth.