Rise And Shine first started in 1985 in lower Manhattan's Hells Kitchen in Laura Vural's living room. Laura, a New York City resident for many years, had been working in schools and local community centers for many years when she decided to turn her love for poetry, video and children into an after school program. The program she decided to create is called Rise and Shine.

Rise and Shine mainly teaches inner city kids video production and literature. The Youth Producer program taught children how to create and produce videos themselves. Now the members can group up in teams and come up with their own projects and ideas without any adult help.

Rise and Shine joined Rheedlen Center for Children in 1991 due to city cut backs. In 1991 the city cut backs forced Rise and Shine out of their origianl home and they joined Rheedlen Center for Children in Harlem. Rheedlen Center for Children is focused mainly on students and families to help with job placement and afterschool activities. Combining Rise and Shine with The Rheedlen University for Community Education (T.R.U.C.E) allowed video and social work to mix into one positive and creative program. Every two weeks they produce a public access show called " The Real Deal ". This half an hour program shows everyone the work that T.R.U.C.E produces within a week and hopefully receives comments and show ideas from fans.

Every Wednesday all of the youth producers take some of the members of T.R.U.C.E and create their own video screening projects. The projects usually focus on teen pregnancy, teen violence, race and other problems a teen may face from day to day. One film that they showed during HarlemLives visit was a teen pregnancy situation dealing with a girl and her boyfriend who got drunk had unprotected sex. The girl had her baby but her boyfriend did not show any support. The boyfriend finally walked out on his baby and girlfriend leaving her personal problems with her family.

After the projects are done they speak about what they saw and how they felt about it. I spoke to several current members of T.R.U.C.E at their weekly video screening where many of them commented that each video project was presented well but could of had more information but overall they felt the projects were great.

Others spoke a little about their T.R.U.C.E history and future. Earl Colon; a 14 year old student from the Joan Arc School says he's been apart of this program for only one year but has learned a number of skills since he joined. He usually edits tapes and does research on the internet. When Earl gets older he wants to be a doctor. Richard Afful, a freshmen at City College, has been apart of T.R.U.C.E for four years and has come up in the "ranks" to a regular supervisor. He also does a little bit of video film making from time to time. He wants to be a film maker or teacher in the future.

There are many people who work and volunteer at T.R.U.C.E. Will Norris, who is known as "The Dean" of Rise and Shine, recruits members for the program from the ages of 12 to 19. He goes to local schools looking for students who have an interest in either video programing or literature. He also makes sure he gets a copy of every students report card and sends out monthly progress reports. Mr. Norris helps students with their homework and to prepare for tests.

Mr. Norris has several other titles: youth supervisor and peacemaker. If there is a conflict between two or more individuals he sets up a meeting to discuss the confilct and hopefully solve it without anyone getting hurt. Will also runs a program with teachers called Harlem Children Zone, the program staff visits schools from 116th street to 123rd street. They meet with teachers, counselors and tutors to discuss teaching habits in schools.

Rise and Shine has helped children get ahead in the field of media and literature and helped members develop better views of their future. During our visit students showed lots of enthusiasm, rushing to present their projects to HarlemLive reporters.

Rise and Shine

147st St. Nicholas ave. 3rd floor

tel 212-663-055

fax. 212-663-0560