04/12/2023
Thrilled to announce the 50th Anniversary Celebration of City-As-School High School on May 31st at the rooftop at Elsewhere.
If you went to CAS or are interested in donating, tap in! Link is here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/city-as-school-50th-anniversary-party-tickets-586279416517
My alma mater & furthest education -- City-As High School -- is one of the worlds longest running alternative public schools. This school actually saved my life.
After dropping out of a traditional high school which left me understimulated with failing grades, I found CAS and a lifelong community. At City-As we called teachers by their first name, we learned real world curriculum and we spent half our time doing cool s**t at internships outside the classroom. I had amazing experiences at DCTV, New York Botanical Garden & Certified Graphics with Dean Landry.
My High School had a greenhouse where Naima taught us how to grow food, we had an incredible day care for students who had kids and we had an epic yearbook crew where Ryder Ripps & I put together a “Bling” themed yearbook with our advisor, Lucy (in 2003 it seemed like a great idea). Please note other (better) yearbooks by Jean-Michel Basquiat & Destiny Mata.
I never lost touch with the school and have met Ussuri & Maria from the staff more recently who helped put together a crew of City-As affiliates to make this birthday party special.
Shoutout Jessica Pilot who was a classmate and is a lifelong friend, Soren Roi, Amber Rutland & everyone involved. Big up to the founder of the school, Fred Koury, who was also my parents’ teacher at John Dewey HS — RIP Toni 💋
Special guest alums & performances including DJ Gravy & Pauli Cakes (many more TBD).
Much respect to CAS alumni Ad-Rock, Basquiat, Yassin Bey, Julia Fox, Fabolous, Princess Nokia, DJ Enuff, Asa Akira — if we missed you chime in!
Thanks to Rami Haykal-Manning & Phil Columbo for donating the space!
Tickets are on sale & all profit will go direct to the school. City-As-School is a Title I not-for-profit public school, meaning kids who need get free lunch & social services. As an underfunded NYC school this is the cause of causes & it will be a sick party celebrating the world’s coolest HS.
And yes, that is a stapler in my hand. Duh.
- Zach Staggers Assael Berkowitz (Class of 2003)
