New City Kids’ Benefit Concerts Use Spoken Word, Dance, and Music to Highlight Community Growth and Change

New City Kids present “The Upside-Down Kingdom,” a production co-written, directed, and hosted by Paterson and Jersey City youth and performed at multiple locations around Northern New Jersey from March 31 through April 13.

Artistically highlighting the positive effects of youth engagement, this 90-minute show celebrates God’s work in these cities. The performance centers on God’s Upside-Down Kingdom, where the first are last, the poor are rich, and the weak are strong. It showcases how the New City Kids community is a counter-cultural manifestation of this upside-down kingdom by using young people to change their neighborhoods as they choose to live for Christ.

New City Kids is an urban mission, serving with over 500 youth–ages 5 to 19–to break the cycle of poverty by inviting them into transformative Christian community. In those communities, they grow and become agents of change in their own neighborhoods and cities through discipleship, leadership, and a strong college-bound culture. In the last decade, 99% of New City Kids Teen Internship alumni have matriculated to college and 90% will graduate by age 24, which is 10 times the national average for low income youth.

According to Jeremy Jerschina, executive director at New City Kids: Paterson, “ We recognize, in reflection, that our own stories of transformation as believers are progressive and often jump-started by unexpected investments in us and challenges that stretch us into new ways of being and thinking, that turn our own definition of ourselves upside down. That’s just as true of the youth of New City Kids, who defy the world’s expectations of what leadership, growth, and ministry look like as they shape their communities across the state.”

New City Kids invites you to “see how God is restoring joy and flourishing life in Paterson and Jersey City at its Upside-Down Kingdom Benefit Concert.”

Tickets can be reserved at www.newcitykids.org/upsidedown. Performances are held at the following churches and locations from March 31 through April:

• March 31, The Chapel (Lincoln Park)
• April 4, Grace Redeemer Church (Glen Rock)
• April 7, Liberty Corner Presbyterian (Liberty Corner)
• April 11, Art House Productions (Jersey City)
• April 13, New City Kids: Jersey City (Jersey City)

Times and ticket information at www.newcitykids.org/upsidedown.

For more information, please contact Julia Wagner at julia@newcitykids.org or (973) 279-9135.