Youth Venture

In November of 2004, John co-founded DreamCity (www.DreamCityTG.org). DreamCity was founded as a movement to utilize the arts to provoke endemic civic engagement and activism by youth in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. DreamCity is a collection of emerging and established organic intellectuals who are creating a distinctively original culture and groundbreaking new form of American Theatre.

DreamCity uses theatre, poetry, photography, and film to capture our generation’s potential and forges a new definition of culture that empowers our communities from within, rejecting the will of outside forces.

DreamCity has been featured in more than a dozen local papers including The Washington Post, The Washington Informer, The Common Denominator, The Intowner, DC North, The Washington Post Express, East of the River, GW Magazine, The Foggy Bottom Current, Young DC, The GW Hatchet, The District Chronicles, and The Georgetown Current. DreamCity has also been featured numerous times on New Channel 8 as well as making appearances on ABC News, WETA’s Around Town, and an upcoming production on WHUT.

In the summer of 2006, DreamCity Theatre Group produced The 70. The 70 was performed at the 2006 DC Hip Hop Theatre Festival at the Studio Theatre (July 13 & July 14), premiere over the course of three weeks at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (July 25 – August 12), featured at the 2006 Freshman Experience at American University (August 22), and showcased at the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “Who’s in the Middle” Conference (September 21). Furthermore, members of DreamCity participated a panel discussion at McKinley High School for the Washington Heritage Project held by the DC Humanities Council about “The Making of The 70” (December 12).

John is currently working on Southside, a play about non-violence in the communities of Washington, DC and throughout the country. The play is in memory of Robert “Yummy” Sandifer, James “J-Rock” Richardson and the shooting victims at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007.

Other projects include, City At War, Mayor 4 Life, 4 Days in April, CounterSpy, The Sandlot as well other plays that speak to the denizens of the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

John has worked with Sol & Soul, Young Playwright’s Theatre, and El Barrio Street Theater in the past. In the summer of 2003, he was the stage manager for the Silver Spring Stage’s production of Anne Devearre Smith’s Fires in the Mirror.

In 2004, John received a Presidential Service Award from the USA Freedom Corps. In 2007, he received the GWU Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Award.
He currently serves on the DC LEARNS Board as a result of his more than four years of service to the literacy community, volunteering at the Adult Literacy Resource Center in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G Street NW

His poetry has appeared in the pages of The Washington Post.

My favorite writers are Stephen Crane, Mark Twain, James Baldwin, Eugene O’Neill Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass and many others.

• I launched a venture more than a year ago and want help to keep it going and growing
• I have started a venture and want to share insights
• I want to reach out to YV alumni

Arts and Culture, Business, Civic Engagement and Voting, College/University, Community Beautification, Community Development, Community Organizing, Cultural Awareness, Education, Environment, Fashion, Higher Education, International Issues, Literacy, Media, Mentoring, Music, Peace and Non-Violence, Poverty, Safety and Violence Prevention, School Community Development, Substance Abuse, Support for Young Women, Technology, Teen Pregnancy, Vocational Education, Youth Empowerment