Stephanie "Amma" Young

Stephanie Amma will lead an after-school project for 2nd to 5th grade students at Julia Ward Howe School in Olney, where she will teach students a Kwanzaa dance performance through a twelve-week intensive training in African Dance Drumming, handmade gifts, and accessories. Students will learn two traditional West African dances and the drum rhythms of the Ghanaian Ga/Kpanlogo and Guinea Conakry/Kuku people of West Africa that will be performed at Kwanzaa celebrations in and outside of their school. Throughout the process, Stephanie will center the seven principles of Kwanzaa and preserve and restore historic relics significant to the African culture and heritage.

Stephanie Amma has been invited to teach African Dance to the 2nd through 5th grade Spirit Squad Dance Club students at Julia Ward Howe Elementary School. The students will learn a traditional West African Guinea celebratory dance called “Kuku” in a series of workshops to perform at the 5th Grade Graduation Concert. Stephanie will create traditional West African Guinea dance costumes for over twenty performers who will showcase the choreography and musical arrangements. 

The WOO Grant will support with finishing funds associated with costume fabric and accessories, videographer/photographer fees, and promotional materials for the event.

Stephanie Amma has been asked to speak and perform at The Community Empowerment Group’s 10th Annual Mothers and Daughters Conference on October 29, 2022 at Temple University. Stephanie will choreograph and present a traditional Ghanaian West African dance performed by mothers and daughters.

This grant will support with finishing funds for the performance in the form of costumes and instruments, as well as payment for drummers and a photographer to document the work.

Stephanie will take Dobson Elementary students and their families on a journey in African folk arts and history, making ancient dances, rhythms and costumes of the Ghana Empire, Nigerian Empire, and Mali Empire. In partnership with the African American Museum (AAMP), Stephanie will bring together the holistic experience as the students connect with the real people and events that forged their freedom.

StephanieAmma is a folk artist who teaches African drum and dance to young people in Northwest, Northeast and North Philadelphia. She will be leading a graduation concert with a group of youth (2nd-8th grade) and is using the Window of Opportunity Award to help cover the costs of costumes and other supplies for the performance that they would otherwise not be able to afford.

Stephanie will teach African dance, song, and drumming from Nigeria, Ghana, and Mali to 2nd through 5th grade students in the after school soccer club at Eleanor Emlen Public School in Germantown. The class will be a motivational practice that will build focus and stamina as well as companionship among the students, in an effort to eradicate the epidemic of bullying at the school. 

Stephanie Amma (ACG ’17, ’10, ’08, ’06) teaches African dance and drumming to students at Eleanor Emlen Elementary Public School’s Arts and Culture Club. The students have been invited to perform at the very first Black Expo America Inc., which will be held in Philadelphia on October 14 and 15 in partnership with the Philadelphia Black Entrepreneurs Network. These funds will allow Stephanie Amma to purchase fabric and accessories and make 30 costumes for the students’ performance, since otherwise they would not be able to afford them. 

Amma will create a series of quilts to commemorate the site of the first Presidential mansion of George Washington and the nine enslaved African Americans held on the grounds as servants. The quilts will be used as backdrops during dance performances by Amma and then will be used as teaching tools in workshops about the codes and symbols utilized by early African American quilters. Amma hopes to stimulate pride and passion about the tradition of quilting and impart upon her students the importance of creating stories as testaments of our lives, leaving fingerprints for future generations. The students will ultimately be charged with designing their own symbols to be used in future quilts.

Amma will travel to Guinea to study traditional costume, dance, and music, for a West African ballet that will be choreographed by her change partner, Dorothy Wilkie of Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble. Her project will have three phases: folktale research, workshops in dance and music, and apprenticing with master costume designers.

Amma will create an art studio at Germantown Beacon Center in Germantown High School where she will work alongside 15 young people (ages 6-18) to design a mural to teach the young people about their African American history and culture, and stories about Germantown's early settlers. Having grown up in this community and this school, Amma wants to use this art program to build leadership among the students, so that they have a creative tool to speak out about issues in their community. The students will work with Amma on all aspects of the mural, and will create a gallery inside the school and host an exhibit at the end of the project to share their individual paintings that created the final mural.