‘Project Love ATL’ Returns To Benefit LGBTQ Youth
Charlie McCullers
On any given night in Atlanta, there are around 900 homeless LGBTQ youth on the streets. That’s according to Lost-n-Found Youth, a local nonprofit helping these homeless youth with a mission to stabilize their lives, find permanent housing and stable employment.
Nine hundred is already a substantial number, yet that statistic is all the more striking when compared with contextual numbers. LGBTQ youth represent 7 percent of the U.S. population, yet the same demographic disproportionately accounts for nearly 40 percent of the homeless youth population.
When facing such daunting numbers, it’s difficult to know how to help, but Atlanta Ballet company dancer Alessa Rogers has an idea: It’s called “Project Love.” For the second year, Rogers has enlisted local artistic luminaries across all disciplines to donate their time and talent for a one-night-only event benefiting a local charity. Last year’s Project Love raised awareness and funds for the Partnership for Domestic Violence. This year, all proceeds from ticket sales and a silent auction go to Lost-n-Found Youth.
In an interview with Lois Reitzes on “City Lights,” Rogers explained how the show works: The artists (whom she affectionately calls “the lovers”) are given three to eight minutes to get on stage and do what they do best. She likens it to a “professional talent show of really, really talented folks.”
This year’s “lovers” include poet (and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow) Jericho Brown, local stage favorite Jeremiah Parker Hobbs and Grammy-nominated performer Deborah Bowman.
“Project Love ATL 2016” takes place Monday, Oct. 10 at Park Tavern.
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