It’s been a very busy fall season at the Lehigh Valley Charter HS for the Arts (Charter Arts). The month of December will close out the season with numerous events that will highlight the school’s creative and performing arts disciplines and the talent of the students.

Events will include a reception for the Winter Student Art Exhibition and the Literary Arts Reading at Cafe the Lodge Dec. 1 as part of the Southside Arts District’s First Friday celebration. The music department will present a series of events that will brighten the holiday season that include the Chamber Ensembles Concert Dec. 5, the Winter Choral Concert Dec. 11 and 12, Winter Instrumental Concert Dec. 15, and its popular Jazz Cafe Dec. 20.

Part of the school’s community partnerships include collaborations with Godfrey Daniels and Cafe the Lodge on the Southside. Godfrey Daniels will host the music department’s Holiday Vocalist Cafe Dec. 21. Literary Arts has a long-standing relationship with Cafe the Lodge, which has hosted the Charter Arts Literary Arts Department’s monthly Reading Series since 2016.

The partnership with Cafe the Lodge allows students the opportunity to present a variety of original works to a public audience once a month and for that audience to patronize the nonprofit organization that provides a variety of individual and community-based mental health services to adults. As one of Charter Arts’ newest majors, these opportunities have been important in getting literary artists recognition in the community and by their peers.

Since the creation of the Literary Arts program in 2015, this creative writing program has been geared toward students who want to build upon their skills writing for television, film, fiction, poetry, comics, and other nontraditional literary forms. Kristin Liemberger, the department’s artistic director, shares: “Literary Artists must be well versed in many subjects and in the many genres that fit under the wide umbrella of Literary Arts. Students are asked to create, to share, and to provide feedback on a daily basis. Our community-based approach creates better writers, but more importantly, it creates more empathetic and well-rounded humans.”

The school welcomes the community to attend these events and support these talented young artists. It is the audience’s reactions and enjoyment that are a testament to the school’s rigorous education and how the school is inherently linked to the fabric of the Bethlehem area.