
(Photos and video by Ellen Cedergreen for WSB)
As this weekend began, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge was the place to be for a high-energy free talent showcase – the latest for the youth of Youngstown All-Access classes, available free to local teens (and a few for tweens). When the session ends, there’s a special showcase, and the latest one was on Friday night, including breakdancing faceoffs – one for high schools, one for middle schools. After the jump, video and photo highlights:
Middle-school breakdancers from Denny and Mercer faced off, as did their high-school counterparts from West Seattle and Chief Sealth. Hip-hop dancers showed off too, with instructor Maxie Jamal:
And live hip-hop music:
While All-Access classes are free to take, they’re not free to offer – the program needs donations to keep running, as Youngstown’s Alberto Mejia II explained while emceeing:

Back to the music: From the School of Rock:
They drew an attentive crowd, too:

It wasn’t all music and dance on Friday night – FEEST and Nature Consortium discussed their organic-gardening project – the big news is, now there are chickens! Program participants showed off eggs provided by those chickens:

April 6 is the next All Access session start; classes run in 10-week sessions after school from 3:30-5:30 pm, mostly for youth ages 13-18, with a few classes open to 10-12 year olds. Classes go ten weeks. A new session starts April 6.

Spring class information should be online soon – keep an eye on the All Access section of Youngstown’s website.
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