WHAT: City Of Numbers: Citizens in Action
WHEN: Monday, February 15, 2010 @ 7:00 p.m.
PRICE: Free and Open to the Public
WHERE: On the Mainstage of The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia
INFO / RESERVATIONS: InterAct Theatre Company Box Office
Phone: 215.568.8079
Info also online: www.InterActTheatre.org
Philadelphia, PA – On Monday, February 15, at 7:00 p.m., InterAct Theatre Company and the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program will host City of Numbers: CITIZENS IN ACTION, a free panel discussion examining the issue of crime in Philadelphia. Sitting on the panel will be Mayor Michael Nutter, newly elected Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison; Chief Defender for the City of Philadelphia's Defender Association Ellen T. Greenlee, and Executive Director of the Mural Arts Program Jane Golden. The discussion will be moderated by Dave Davies, senior reporter for WHYY. Featuring multiple perspectives from top-level officials working in the fields of criminal justice and crime prevention, Citizens In Action will offer an in-depth look at the issues of crime and the various factors feeding into criminal behavior, law enforcement and the judicial system, and correctional agencies and rehabilitation efforts. Held on the Mainstage of The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, the discussion will be free and open to the public. Reservations are requested and can be made by calling InterAct’s box office at 215.568.8079.
City of Numbers: CITIZENS IN ACTION is being held in conjunction with the run of CITY OF NUMBERS: mixtape of a city…, a new play commissioned (with a grant from the Violette de Mazia Foundation) by the Mural Arts Program that is currently receving its World Premiere by InterAct Theatre through February 21, 2010. CITY OF NUMBERS was created by playwright Sean Christopher Lewis in an effort to document the lasting impact of Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice program, an initiative designed to help combat and prevent crime by teaching men and women at correctional facilities in the Philadelphia area the transformative power of art. Using interviews with lifetime inmates at Graterford Prison who work as mural artists as a starting point, Lewis has developed CITY OF NUMBERS into a dynamic, one actor, docu-drama that interweaves the stories of over two dozen Philadelphians – from convicted murderers to victims' relatives to physicians to artists to community leaders to Mayor Michael Nutter – as they struggle to come to terms with their city’s escalating violence. Written with tremendous honesty, humor, and humanity, CITY OF NUMBERS combines the personal journey of the playwright with those of the many people he came to know during the writing process, culminating into a sobering and moving portrait of a city gripped by crime.
About the Panelists
Hon. Michael Nutter, Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Since taking office in January 2008, Mayor Michael A. Nutter has set an aggressive agenda for America’s sixth largest city – implementing a crime fighting plan that has sharply reduced the homicide rate, an education strategy to increase the high school graduation rate by 50 percent and a sustainability plan that will reduce the city’s energy consumption in the years to come. He has vigorously managed city government through a deep recession, taken advantage of Federal recovery funding to create new green-collar jobs and established a customer friendly 311 system. Born in Philadelphia and educated at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Michael Nutter has been committed to public service since his youth in West Philadelphia. He served almost 15 years on the Philadelphia City Council, earning the reputation of a reformer, before his election as Mayor of Philadelphia.
Everett Gillison, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, City of Philadelphia
In his role as Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Everett A. Gillison oversees the Police and Fire Departments, Prisons, Office of Emergency Management, and the Mayor’s Office for Re-Entry. He worked as an Assistant Defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia where he worked for twenty two years until he was appointed Deputy Mayor for Public Safety on January 7, 2008. Mr. Gillison is a native Philadelphian. He grew up in West Philadelphia, graduating from University City High School and the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Political Science. While in college, he began his career at the Defender’s Association as a case-work intern in the Adult Social and Psychiatric Services Division. This work continued after graduation when he was hired full-time as a Social Worker in the same unit. Mr. Gillison is married to his beautiful wife of 19 years, Elaine, and has two extraordinary daughters, Olivia and Victoria.
Jane Golden, Executive Director, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Since the Mural Arts Program began in 1984 as a component of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, Jane Golden has been the driving force, overseeing its growth from a small city agency into the nation's largest mural program, a catalyst for positive social change and a model for replication across the country and around the globe. Under the direction of Ms. Golden, the Mural Arts Program has become a successful hybrid of a city agency and nonprofit organization, creating innovative works of public art in partnership with various community stakeholders, public schools, local nonprofits and city agencies, and educating over 20,000 underserved youth in its first 25 years. In that time, the Mural Arts Program has created more than 3,000 murals that are an integral part of the civic landscape. Ms. Golden holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and degrees in Fine Arts and Political Science from Stanford University. In addition, Ms. Golden has received honorary PhDs from Swarthmore College, Philadelphia's University of the Arts, Widener University, and most recently Haverford College and Villanova University.
Ellen Greenlee, Chief Defender, Defender Association of Philadelphia
Ellen T. Greenlee is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, educated in its parochial schools and a graduate of Chestnut Hill College, from which she was selected as a Fullbright Scholar for study in France. After teaching French, Spanish and English for five years in the Clifton Heights, Delaware County High School, she entered Villanova Law School, graduating in 1973. Since that time Ms. Greenlee has worked as a public defender in Philadelphia as a trial attorney, supervisor, First Assistant Defender, and, for the last 19 years, as the Chief Defender. In 2002, Ms. Greenlee received the prestigious Sandra Day O’Connor Award of the Philadelphia Bar Association. This award is presented annually to an outstanding woman attorney in the Philadelphia area and Ms. Greenlee was the first public interest attorney to receive this honor. In addition to volunteer activities involving the law (Philadelphia Bar Association, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, serving two terms as President), she serves on boards, dealing with problems of homelessness, prison conditions and women’s issues. Ms. Greenlee currently serves as Board President of the Pennsylvania Prison Society.
Seth Williams, District Attorney, City of Philadelphia
On November 3rd, 2009, Seth Williams became the first African American District Attorney in Philadelphia and in the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Central High School in 1985, Seth attended Penn State University where he served as President of the Black Caucus and later as President of the Undergraduate Student Government. Mr. Williams went on to law school at Georgetown University, where he graduated with distinction as a Public Interest Law Scholar in 1992. After graduation, Mr. Williams joined Philadelphia’s District Attorney’s Office. In the ten years he served as an Assistant District Attorney, he was appointment as the Assistant Chief of the Municipal Court, where he created and led the Repeat Offenders Unit with the goal of reducing the high percentage of crimes committed by repeat offenders. Mr. Williams was later appointed Inspector General of the City of Philadelphia, where he was responsible for the investigation of all allegations of corruption, fraud, and employee misconduct among municipal workers and companies doing business with the city. He left that position in 2008 to take a position as counsel at the Center City law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young. Mr. Williams has served as an adjunct professor at Neumann College in the Strategic Leadership Master’s Program and an adjunct professor and Advisory Board member at Penn State Abington. Mr. Williams also serves as a Major in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the United States Army Reserve and on the boards of several community organizations, including the Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Overbrook Park Civic Association & Town Watch, St. Cyprian Catholic Church, the St. Martin de Porres Foundation, and the West Philadelphia Y.M.C.A. Mr. Williams lives in West Philadelphia with his wife and three daughters.
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