Seed to Roots

Thank you for supporting our kids and this program!

✨ FINAL WEEK ✨
Seed to Roots 2026 • Artist Spotlight

🎟️ These kids need your support. Be in the room.

Last year, Maxwell Tisdale stood on the Seed to Roots stage alongside Nyah Butler and shared what he hoped to see in the world for families like his.

This year, he returns with a powerful spoken word piece titled “I Am Him.”

Using the letters of his own name, Maxwell honors Black men throughout history whose courage, intelligence, creativity, and leadership continue to shape the world we live in. His message reminds us that legacy is not something we simply remember. It is something we carry forward.

When young people stand up and claim their identity with confidence and pride, we should be there to witness it.

🎭 Live at the Weinberg Center
📅 Monday, February 16
🕕 6:00 PM

🎟️ Tickets are $10. Children 10 and under are free.
Help us pack the house and surround Maxwell and all of our young artists with love and support:
https://weinbergcenter.org/shows/2026-seed-to-roots-youth-art-performance/

In partnership with the Weinberg Center for the Arts and the City of Frederick.

✨ FINAL DAYS ✨
Seed to Roots 2026 • Artist Spotlight

🎟️ These kids need your support. Be in the room on February 16.

🎨 ART THAT MAKES YOU THINK 🎨

At 15 years old, Florence Binfon, a student at Tuscarora High School, creates art that asks brave questions.

Florence has loved art since she was young, and she sees it as more than something beautiful to look at. For her, art is a way to express deep feelings and perspectives that are sometimes hard to say out loud. It is how she understands herself and how she helps others reflect.

Her mixed media watercolor piece explores the emotional legacy of enslavement and what it means to carry history in today’s world. Through powerful imagery, Florence depicts one young Black girl weighed down by self doubt while another reaches toward her with pride, love, and community. Her message is clear. Even when physical chains are gone, the INTERNAL ones can remain, and it is up to us to break them together.

Florence will take the stage to speak about her work live. When students are given a platform, they rise. The question is, will we be in the room to hear them?

🎭 Live at the Weinberg Center
📅 Monday, February 16
🕕 6:00 PM

🎟️ Tickets are $10. Children 10 and under are free.
Get yours now and help us fill these seats with encouragement and support:
https://weinbergcenter.org/shows/2026-seed-to-roots-youth-art-performance/

In partnership with the Weinberg Center for the Arts and the City of Frederick.

If you want it even punchier, we could say:

🎟️ These kids need your support. Show up.

✨ FINAL WEEK ✨
Seed to Roots 2026 • Artist Spotlight

🎤🪘 COME SEE McKENNA TAKE THE STAGE WITH LIVE POETRY & PERCUSSION 🪘🎤

At just 13 years old, McKenna Massaquoi returns to the Seed to Roots stage for her fourth year, and her creative energy continues to grow. A homeschool student with boundless talent, McKenna’s passions span singing, dancing, drumming, theatre, visual arts, and beyond. Wherever she goes, she brings joy, confidence, and a spark that lights up the room.

This year, McKenna presents a solo performance honoring the enduring legacy of Black literary excellence. Inspired by Langston Hughes’ “I Too” and Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” her piece is not a simple recitation, but a creative reimagining developed alongside a close circle of friends, including fellow Seed to Roots alum Faith.
Joining her onstage will be her musical teacher and mentor, Ayanna Gallant of Aya Cultural Music Studios, who will accompany the performance with live drumming which adds rhythm, depth, and power to the piece.

This is poetry, movement, and music woven together in a way only McKenna can deliver.

🎭 Live at the Weinberg Center
📅 Monday, February 16
🕕 6:00 PM

🎟️ Get your tickets today and help us pack the house for McKenna and all of our young performers:
https://weinbergcenter.org/.../2026-seed-to-roots-youth.../

In partnership with the Weinberg Center for the Arts and The City of Frederick.

"So don't forget about us, lift us up because when you do, we rise." From Nyah's 2025 Seed to Roots speech. Come lift her up! Get your tickets today. The show is on Monday, Feb. 16th at 6pm: https://weinbergcenter.org/shows/2026-seed-to-roots-youth-art-performance/

✨ FINAL WEEK ✨
Seed to Roots 2026 • Artist Spotlight
🎹 COME SEE NYAH TAKE THE STAGE AGAIN. 🎹

Last year, Nyah Butler stood on the Seed to Roots stage and reminded us that children just want to be listened to and understood so they can have their best futures. She ended with a line that stayed with so many of us:

“So don’t forget about us.”

We didn’t forget.

This year, Nyah returns for her second time on stage and not just as a speaker, but as a composer.

Nyah has been taking piano lessons online since she was five years old. Now, at just eight, she will perform an original piece she wrote herself titled "When the Stars Come Down."

The beginning of the song came from a moment of frustration with two accidental notes (C and E) that turned into something beautiful. She let the music guide her, adding pieces one by one until it became a full song. Inspiration came from another piece she once practiced with something about the moon, something beautiful, something she couldn’t quite explain, but she felt it.
When asked what it means to be a young Black girl who wrote her own song, Nyah said it feels impressive that kids in her class look up to her, and she’s even started teaching a friend how to play.

This is what growth looks like.
This is what being heard looks like.
This is what happens when we don’t forget about them.

🎭 Live at the Weinberg Center
📅 Monday, February 16
🕕 6:00 PM

🎟️ Get your tickets today and come support Nyah and all of our young artists:
https://weinbergcenter.org/.../2026-seed-to-roots-youth.../

In partnership with the Weinberg Center for the Arts and the The City of Frederick.