Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” Stella Adler
Dear Friend,
AS you know, for 20 years, Esther Productions Inc. has dedicated itself to healing, inspiring and empowering women and girls, especially those facing the challenging trauma of father absence, which can and often does, track through adulthood. It frequently affects the ability of women and girls to lead whole, healthy, productive lives, including maintaining satisfying professional and personal relationships.
We have deployed the arts, culture and the humanities as critical vehicles to assist members of our target population in creating empowerment plans to address the consequences of The Fatherless Daughter Syndrome, originally codified in my book Whatever Happened To Daddy’s Little Girl? The Impact of Fatherlessness on Black Women.
Esther Productions Inc. has also customized exciting and effective programs like Me, Myself and Our Story: Creative Writing Institute, and Resilience Discovered, which include The Gift: An Interactive Arts Healing, Reconciliation and Resiliency Experience--a powerful five-hour, three-part, retreat style event--and Discovering Me Youth Summit and Scholarship Award; since 2019, we have provided nearly $10,000 in scholarships and gift certificates to girls 13 and older who have participated in our summits.
The organization may seem small, but it has a big vision and mission. On behalf of Esther Productions Inc.’s Board of Directors and its team of volunteers, I’d like to invite you to stand with us in this work.
Please make a contribution to Esther Productions Inc in the amount of $100 or more. Our goal is to raise at least $2500 by Dec. 25, 2024. Whatever the amount of your gift, it is greatly appreciated and will ensure 2025 is prosperous, productive and empowering for the girls and women we serve.
Esther Productions Inc. has long understood the power of the arts to enrich lives, families and communities. Consequently, it has gone beyond its work to heal and inspire, traumatized women and girls. The organization creates, produces and presents arts, cultural and humanities programs for the general population in the Washington Metropolitan (DMV) region. Our goal continues to be to encourage development of creativity and imagination in each individual citizen regardless of age, race or ethnicity.
We know this: Literature heals. Literature inspires. Literature empowers.
That is why in March 2024, with a grant from HumanitiesDC, Esther Productions Inc. presented African Americans and Children’s Literature: A Historical Examination of The Role of Black Writers in DC, which included a dynamic exhibition and exciting, provocative symposium of multiple panels that featured such award-winning creatives as Sharon Bell Mathis, E. Ethelbert Miller, Sidney Clifton, Kwame Alexander, Tricia Walker, Jennifer Lawson and Kojo Nnamdi among others. In April, we launched the AALC Tour, traveling to libraries and community centers, educating the public about the tremendous contribution of Black writers to fortifying community and to building America’s literary canon.
In, September 2024, Esther Productions Inc. launched MidnightRose: A Reading Series of Poetry and Prose, which multi-tasks as a program to showcase the diverse and rich literary talents of creative writers in the DMC while also attacking the high illiteracy rates in the area. Researchers at the University of Utah found that the literacy rate was 21.6% lower for women than that of males. They asserted that “When women with limited education, which is tied to illiteracy become mothers, their children tend to experience lower levels of cognitive and socioeconomic functioning and academic achievement.”
There is an intersection with that reality and fatherlessness. Girls and women who struggle with father absence too often become pregnant as teens. Their academic growth is stunted. They struggle to finish high school or attend college.
However, Esther Productions Inc. knows that isn’t the end of their story. The organization is dedicated to helping them recognize their strength, resilience and to redirect their course in order to achieve self-actualization and mastery over their destiny.
Won’t you please help us with this work? Please put us on your gift list this season. Please make a contribution of $100 or more. Whatever the amount you choose to give, your donation is greatly appreciated. You can play a significant role in Esther Productions Inc.’s future and the future of the women and girls we serve.
In 2025, we will continue MidnightRose: A Reading Series of Poetry and Prose, helping to enhance the literacy rate among women and girls while introducing to the greater Washington region some of the country’s most dynamic authors. We have planned an exciting read-in of African American writers of children’s literature for Black History Month. In March, Esther Productions Inc. will celebrate the resilience of women and girls 16 and older who are struggling with the trauma of father absence with a double presentation of The Gift: An Interactive Arts Healing, Reconciliation and Resiliency Experience and The Discovering Me Youth Summit.
Help us ensure the success of these exciting events. Help us reach the women and girls who are our major target audience. Please send your contribution of $100 or more today.
You may make your contribution through our PayPal account at estherproductionsinc@gmail.com or by sending us a check made payable to Esther Productions Inc. and sent to our mailing address at 2800 Wisconsin Ave. NW-Suite 705, Washington, D.C. 20007.
On behalf of all the fatherless daughters your generosity benefits, thank you so very much.
Warmest regards,
jonetta
jonetta rose barras
President and CEO
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