micro grant Awardees
Black Spatial Relics Micro Grant for Community Care and Collective Research
2022-2023 MICRO GRANT AWARDEES
2022-2023 Micro Grantees
In 2020, Black Spatial Relics launched the Black Spatial Relics Micro Grants for Community Care and Collective Research. These microgrants offer 500.00 awards to artists. This year through that program, we funded 10 projects around the country that centered research on Black liberatory practices and spaces for community care, and we are entering our fourth year of offering these awards. In 2023 the ten artists receiving micro grants include: Severin Blake, V (Philadelphia, PA), Nikki Brake-Sillá, Say It Ain't So (Philadelphia, PA), Akima Brackeen, Alexis Casson, Siaira Shawn Harris, Black Aquatic Milieu (Chicago, IL), Chibueze Crouch, WHY CHASE DEATH? (Oakland, CA), Doriana Diaz Collage Workshops (Philadelphia, Pa), Ayan Felix, nascent (Durham, NC), Sherese Francis, KwaNTum: ReVer(b)sions Lab (New York, NY), Philly Jawns / For Women Collective, My Skin is Black (Aldan, PA), g'beda t. Lyles, Blues & Bolero (El Paso, TX), and Sisi Reid/ Soul Shine Theater Garden, Rock Paper Scissors (Washington, DC) .
2021-2022 MICRO GRANT AWARDEES
In 2020, Black Spatial Relics launched the Black Spatial Relics Micro Grants for Community Care and Collective Research. Through that program, we funded 11 projects around the country that centered research on Black liberatory practices and spaces for community care in the face of Covid-19. Need is still high, and we are entering our second year of offering these awards. In 2021 several artists received micro grants. They include:
Nikki Brake-Sillá (Philadelphia, PA) with “from”, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances (New York, NY) with “What does PURPLE sound like?”, Qiara Riley(Philadelphia, PA) with Cornbread: A Black Ceramics Kitchen, GOODW.Y.N. (New York, NY) with “Ghost of Myself and You: Mothers of the Disappeared”, Sanchel Brown/ Nubienne Productions (Philadelphia, PA) with “Home to Homeland”, Jessica Valoris (Washington, DC) with “Ode to Zipporah”, Liseli A. Fitzpatrick, PhD (Wellesley, MA) with “Seen and Heard”, Maya Simone Z(Brooklyn, NY) with “wild river dances”, and Barbara Prézeau Stephenson(Montreal, Canada) . These awardees will be working on their collective care and research projects over the coming months.
2020 MICRO GRANT AWARDEES (round 1)
2020 MICRO GRANT AWARDEES (ROUND 2)
The second round was made possible through additional funding from the W Trust and the Leeway Foundation. The second round of artists to be awarded include Danielle East (Lubbock, TX) with “Melanated Magic”, Erin Washington of Soul Center (Atlanta, GA) with “The Writer’s Room”, Simone John (Rosindale, MA) with “Motherwit”, Gia Hamilton (New Orleans, LA) with “The Modern Matriarch”, and Arielle Gray and Cierra Peters (Boston, MA) of Print Ain’t Dead with “Black Feminist Study Hall”. These five awardees will be working on their collective care and research projects over the final months of the year.
More information on each of these projects is forthcoming.
ABOUT THE MICRO GRANTS
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, Black artists have lost crucial financial support for their work. Nevertheless, Black artists and cultural workers are still offering critical artistic and spiritual content toward our collective healing. To support this work already in both imagination and process, we have developed the 2020 Black Spatial Relics Micro Grants for Community Care and Collective Research. These 6 micro grants of $550.00 will support projects doing one or both of the following:
Digital gatherings that center community care, affirmation, mutual aid and joy for Black communities in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
Collective research efforts centering Black communal and familial inquiry, transmission and documentation.