Canady Foundation for the Arts (CFA) held its second Youth Improv Slam on March 29, showcasing local students’ creativity, performance skills and comedic chops. Performers were part of the 2025 Youth Improv Residency, a two-week theater arts program encouraging creative expression among young people in District middle and high schools.
The showcase, held at 1770 Euclid Street NW, included a competition between three participating schools — Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which won first place, and second and place winners Perry Street Preparatory Charter School and Washington Leadership Academy. Each team was led by one of CFA’s teaching artists, who, during the residency, hosted workshops on improvisation, theater arts and comedic storytelling.
On Saturday, students competed in a series of games that tested their creative thinking, teamwork and improv skills.
“What we see is a culmination of the games that they’ve learned, the skills that they’ve learned, and also a little bit of fun, a little bit of competition,” said Marjuan Canady, CFA founder and executive director.
Hillary Jones served as the event host, while judges included Angie Angie, legendary radio personality and Howard University’s WHUT director of content; John Johnson, a poet, playwright and Verbal Gymnastics Theatre Company founder; and Reginald L. Douglas, artistic director of D.C.’s Mosaic Theatre Company.
“Whatever your plan is, throw out the plan, because you never know what you’re going to get from the other person, and that’s the beauty and the fun that comes with improv, it’s: where is this going to go next,” said Angie Ange, encouraging the students about how she has used improv in her professional career, particularly when conducting interviews. “It’s cool to see you all doing that naturally and keep working at it.”
The Power of CFA Programming, Building Artivists
Founded in 2015, Canady Foundation for the Arts was created to empower youth of color through storytelling and performance, implementing elements of arts activism and social justice.
“Our students have been learning from our in-house teaching artists at their school learning about improv theater,” Canady explained, “but also connecting the skills that they’re learning to issues in their own community and how theater can be used to address injustices in the world.”
During the competition, games ranged from scene work, in which students acted out a short scene based on prompts from the judges, to “Justice Jam,” where each team tackled social issues through improvised scenes, portraying problems such as inflated egg prices and racial profiling.
Teaching artist Chelsea Harrison developed the curriculum, combining theatrical storytelling with arts and activism, what she calls “artivism,” and using comedic performance as an avenue to explore socio-political topics.
“When people are laughing, their mouths are open and this is your opportunity to put the truth in,” said Harrison. “Particularly during those social justice improv themes, some of the moments of hard-hitting comedy were those hard-hitting social truths that they were able to put out there.”
Harrison emphasized improv’s ability to build community and develop a stronger sense of self.
“Projecting your voice is developing the confidence to be yourself, [which] is terrifying when you’re in middle school and high school,” she said. “Standing in who you are and letting a room hear you is a very vulnerable, courageous act. I love when they start to project their voices, they’re suddenly no longer whispering, I love seeing them come into their own.”
Some students, like Jaleah Nelson, an eighth grader at Perry Street Prep and team leader for her school, said that improv has allowed her to expand her creativity as an artist and storyteller.
“I know that since other people are acting and doing silly things, I don’t have to be insecure. I’m taking the stage, people are gonna laugh. I’m there to make people laugh,” Jaleah told The Informer after her school won second place. “Get creative, that’s what makes you unique. If you’re gonna sit there and go by a script, it’s not gonna entertain.”
As funding for arts programming is cut nationwide and President Trump attempts to censor cultural institutions, programs like the Youth Improv Residency ensure that the voices of young people of color are heard, said Trystin Francis, CFA’s interim board director.
“It is a way to help young people who are not expressionists, who are budding expressionists, who are budding actors, who are budding storytellers, to figure out ways to collaborate in a fully collaborative environment,” said Francis. “You have a lot of young people who have not found their voice yet. And this is a space where you can find your voice.”
Awesome article, very entertaining reading, thank you. “Make people laugh.”