ICP Community Programs wins Community Impact Award
ICP is proud to announce that Lacy Austin, director of community programs, and faculty members Alzo Slade and Bayeté Ross Smith, are being honored with the Community Impact Award given by Friends of Island Academy.
On October 12, 2017, Friends of Island Academy will host the Collaborations That Matter cocktail reception. At this event, attendees will take a step back to reflect on the educational partnerships that have exposed the young people served by Friends to new horizons of possibility over the last 27 years. Austin and her team—who have worked tirelessly to provide creative opportunities for hundreds of Friends’ youth members over the past decade—will be celebrated among other honorees.
Founded in 1990, Friends of Island Academy provides Advocates for every young person that checks into Rikers Island. Advocates mitigate the trauma of admission to custody, expedite case processing, and connect youth with opportunities for educational and professional advancement upon release.
For more information, to attend, or to make a donation, please visit the Collaborations That Matter event page.
About Lacy Austin
Arts education and social justice are at the heart of Lacy Austin’s career path. For over 25 years, she has worked as an arts educator and program administrator in public schools, community centers, and cultural organizations across the country. Austin has been the director of community programs at the International Center of Photography in New York City for the past 15 years, leading a department that serves over 10,000 students and teachers annually through onsite youth classes and museum education initiatives, as well as offsite through partnerships with schools and social service organizations in underserved communities. The programs aim to foster self and community empowerment through the interdisciplinary teaching of photography, critical thinking, writing, and public speaking—storytelling toward impacting change.
About Alzo Slade
Alzo Slade doesn't like to write about himself in third person, so I won't. By day, I am an adjunct philosophy professor at the College of New Rochelle, a professional photographer, and a faculty member at the International Center of Photography in New York City. I have been teaching in their Community Programs for the past 10 years including with Friends of Island Academy. It’s an honor to be of service to our next generation of storytellers, as their voices are the prophecies for what is to come. By night, I transform into a writer and stand-up comedian, sharing my observations of life with all of its pleasures and paradoxes. As an educator and entertainer, my life instructions are simple. Speak when spoken through. Get people to think while putting a smile on their face. Last but not least...when God is talking...Shut up.
About Bayeté Ross Smith
Bayeté Ross Smith is a photographer, multimedia artist, filmmaker, and educator living in New York City. He is a member of the TED Residency class three and an inaugural POV and The New York Times embedded mediamaker. His work is in the collections of the Oakland Museum of California, Birmingham Museum of Art, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. For the past eight years, Bayeté has been a faculty member at the International Center of Photography including in Community Programs. He is committed to helping young people develop visual literacy and the skills to produce images that illustrate their perspective. A critical component is expanding who has the power to create the images that define people and culture in the contemporary world.