News & Events

Arcola Elementary School students participating in The Civic Circle’s second pilot workshop on voting came up with a dynamic theme for the original song that they wrote with our teaching artist, LEA: “We Rule!” The workshop kicked off with a solo performance of songs from “Vote for Me!” Even though it was designed for two actors, the show works equally well when performed by one person. In this format, LEA combines the songs with group

When we tell people that we are teaching elementary schoolers about voting, they often ask how the topic can be relevant to students that young. But the truth is that students anywhere from Kindergarten through 5th Grade are making collective choices all the time, and are keenly attuned to who holds power in their lives, and whether they have a voice. The best evidence that the students we are working with “get it” came from

Last year, The Civic Circle reached more than 200 students through our library and school shows, our first songwriting workshop, and our Democracy Rocks concert. This year promises even more exciting milestones, as we launch our first after-school workshops focused on voting. We had our first workshop just last week at Making Home Possible (formerly Montgomery Housing Partnership) in Wheaton. Nick Newlin and LEA kicked off the first of three Fridays with a performance of

The Civic Circle’s work would not be possible without our wonderful community of supporters, and it was gratifying to see so many people step forward to participate in our Giving Tuesday campaign. We had several parallel Facebook fundraisers under way to support our group, and quite a few contributions also came through directly via PayPal thanks to an appeal we sent out via email. Board member Hannah Rosenberg created an inspiring graphic to accompany our

“Vote for Me!” was well received this month at Green Acres School, where Nick and Lea performed a half-hour version of the show for about 70 students in Grades K-5. This was a good opportunity for us to test the K-2 audience, which thus far has seen only the one-person version of the show. Students were engaged and enthusiastic, and several came up afterward to thank us for the performance. A few photos are below.