MEET OUR 2023 ARTISTIC ASSISTANCE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP GRANT RECIPIENTS!
A heartfelt congratulations goes out to the distinguished Alternate ROOTS members who received the 2023 Artistic Assistance: Project Development Partnership Grants. This program allows ROOTS to invest in our members’ artistic and community-centered collaborations by providing grant funds, promotion, connection, and other forms of support.
Photo by a.r. havel
Aaron Richmond-Havel (New Orleans, LA) Partnership support for deepening into relational forms of authorship, this project will curate 5 visual artists to write about their photographic work that centers intersectional/sensual queer intimacies and s/x workers in the New Orleans context. It will culminate in an experimental publication.
Abigail Gómez (Winchester, VA) Partnership support for a community collaboration in nine months of workshop presentations of Cultura, Comunidad y Las Artes (Culture, Community and the Arts) within Winchester and the Northern Shenandoah Valley’s native Spanish speaking populations.
Ace McColl, photo by Melissa Alexander
Ace McColl (Atlanta, GA) Partnership support for a production of an experimental/documentary short film that takes an intimate look at multiple mother and daughter relationships
Adrienne Dawes, photo by Jordan Williams
Adrienne Dawes (Fayetteville, AR) Partnership support for a workshop process to develop full-length stage play “Hairy & Sherri” into a feature screenplay.
Aisha White. Photo by Tatsumi
Aisha White (Washington, D.C.) Partnership support for a collective of artists and organizers to design community art installations and posters that help equip residents with tools to fight back against over policing and discriminatory zoning.
Lighthouse Project (Amanda Masterpaul), photo by Scott Dean
Amanda Masterpaul (Myrtle Beach, SC) Partnership support for the launch of a free summer program that is empowering a cohort of youths to re-imagine and create original works through curated creative, innovative, and expressive arts-based programming.
Untitled, Dakar, Senegal, photo by Amrose Murray)
Ambrose Murray (New Orleans, LA) Partnership support for the development of a multi-continent interdisciplinary visual art project that explores time travel, the sentience of memory, the connection between our bodies and bodies of water, touch/gesture/space, mythic shapeshifting, and fugitivity/rebellion.
DRONE Music Ensemble (Andrea Assaf) photo by Gabi Vigueira
Andrea Assaf (Tampa, FL) Partnership support for completing the sound engineering (mixing and mastering) of the original music score, and video editing of three new videos for DRONE – a new play and transmedia performance project by Andrea Assaf integrating live theatre, music, emerging technologies, and artistic containers for public dialogue.
Ashlea Sovetts.
Ashlea Sovetts (Denton, TX) Partnership support for a collaborative rehearsal process for a new dance work investigating the ideas of power and love through an interactive mother-daughter relationship.
Carla Gover, photo by Malcolm Wilson.
Carla Gover (Lexington, KY) Partnership support for recording and releasing an album of original and traditional Appalachian music.
Carolyn Morris (Atlanta, GA) Partnership support for expanding arts-based programming using the tools and forms of InterPlay for youth in grades 3rd through 5th and their parents/guardians during winter, spring, and summer breaks and engage in theme-based artmaking sessions.
Clarity Hagan, photo by Savanna Latto.
Clarity Hagan (Louisville, KY) Partnership support for the production of theatrical work rooted in Queer joy, community, and liberation.
Elise Witt (Decatur GA) Partnership support for the final steps in a songbook creation and release concert, help create a plan to share the songbook as part of a 15th anniversary celebration for The Global Village Project (GVP) – a special purpose middle school for teenage refugee girls with interrupted education.
Jacquelyn Pritz, photo by Christina J. Massad
Jacquelyn Pritz (Atlanta, GA) Partnership support for the rehearsal process and documentation of an original dance work exploring grief and care, premiering in Spring 2024.
Jennifer Williams (Atlanta, GA) Partnership support for building out the programming and community engagement components for a contemporary art exhibition taking place in Spring 2024.
Karyden Roberts (Washington, D.C.) Partnership support for the final multimedia performance by a collective of artists as part of their TransFire Residency in Washington, D.C.
Katina Parker (Durham. NC) Partnership support for planning and collection of written reflections for production of an interactive book based on the work of Feed Durham, to be released Summer of 2024 as a blueprint for feeding neighbors in need during the uncertain times ahead.
Kerry Lee, photo by Stephanie Gough.
Kerry Lee (Metro Atlanta, GA) Partnership support for the creation and presentation of “White-Collar Wuxia,” a mini dance drama inspired by the spirit of a Chinese American lawyer who often fantasized about being a wuxia (ancient Chinese martial arts hero). While she would never become physically adept in combat, she came to realize that her true calling was fighting for justice in the courtroom.
Kesha McKey, photo by James Cage Jr.
Kesha McKey (New Orleans, LA) Partnership support for the production of an Anniversary Dance Festival Choreography Showcase that is celebrating 10 years of service to local Black dancers and choreographers.
Kristen Cox (Rougemont, NC) Partnership support for hosting four “Intimate, Connective, and Healing” long-weekend retreats for four BIPOC-led partner groups – three located in North Carolina and one in Virginia – wishing to offer and spend intentional, connective, and creative healing time with their various communities up on the land, and in the Roundhouse.
Assane Kouyate, photo by Maurice Ramirez.
Assane Kouyate (East Point / College Park / SW Atlanta, GA) Partnership support for the curation of an artistic initiative that will provide educational and cultural programming in partnership with neighborhood communities in SW Atlanta and South Fulton, who may not have the reach, resources, or be exposed to traditional West African arts.
School of Underwater Praxis (Lewis Wallace), photo by Catherine Edgerton
Lewis Wallace (Durham, NC) Partnership support for the grand opening of the School of Underwater Praxis, a grassroots project that builds creative community connections through water and radical imagination.
Lisa Mount (Sautee Nacoochee, GA) Partnership support for an inter-generational group of local artists and organizers creating a series of residencies and workshop events leading up to the 35th anniversary of the first professional theatre production at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, in 2025.
Webs Circus (Lissa McLeod), photo by Larry Smith
Lissa McLeod (Knoxville, TN) Partnership support for a collaboration for creating a multidisciplinary performance piece that includes circus acts, spoken word, ritual that audiences participate in, live music, puppets, and vertical dance (dancing/circus on the side of buildings!)
Photo by Saint Allen Austin/Saint’s Emerald City
Marvin Harvey (Tunica Resorts, MS) Partnership support for a transformative campaign initiative amplifying the inspiring voices of local entrepreneurs and business owners through video and podcast storytelling and a culminating business plan competition to uplift and inspire the entrepreneurial spirit within historic Tunica County in the rural Mississippi Delta.
Michelle Sims (Norfolk, VA) Partnership support for a series of interactive workshops for people who have experienced traumas and PTSD through the use of art therapies centered around storytelling and movement.
Nicole Garneau as the Prophet, photo by Nicole Garneau
Nicole Garneau (Berea and outlying rural Rockcastle County, KY) Partnership support for the development and presentation of Prophet, a new work of theater that engages with reproductive health justice and LGBTQIA liberation and directly critiques anti-gay and anti-trans legislation such as Kentucky’s SB 150, which would ban gender-affirming health care for transgender teens.
Giant Megaphone, photo by Our Common Nature
Rachel Milford (Knoxville, TN) Partnership support for programming and outreach leading up to a people-powered Parade & Street Party brings together diverse and intergenerational cross-sections of the Knoxville community to play, create and build relationships with a focus on housing justice.
Rhea Carmon.
Rhea Carmon (Knoxville, TN) Partnership support for three collaborative writing workshops to finalize the writing and development of the script for a new multi-faceted art presentation of a choreo-poem.
The Gender Gallery (River Hedgepeth).
River Hedgepeth (Durham, NC) Partnership support for the continuation of The Gender Gallery’s interdisciplinary documentary theatre project that explores the expansiveness of gender through community, creativity, and the development of two devised performances that will be presented at three site-specific places in the South.
Sara Green, Kristen Cox, Willa Conaway, and Carole Frances Lung at ROOTS Week 2023.
Sara Green (New Orleans, LA) Partnership support for mapping land projects and artist retreats in the Southeast through a regional road trip to visit and document sites that have an interest in hosting artists from the Gulf South in hurricane seasons.
Photo by Holly Stone.
Shannon Woolley (Louisville, KY) Partnership support for using new oral histories and new original devised material, a team of devisers who identify as trans, non-binary, pansexual, bisexual, asexual and/or queer are working to revise and expand a play script into a full length version.
Tamiya Allen.
Tamyia Allen (Nashville, TN) Partnership support for a video-based podcast series featuring interviews with Carolina-based storytellers focusing on social justice themes intending to delve into the significance of storytelling in catalyzing social change, strategies for narrative control, community engagement, and intersection.
Walkers with the Dawn art by Daniel Arite
Thandiwe Shiphrah (New Orleans, LA) Partnership support for a live poetry and storytelling event that focuses on cultivating joy, overcoming fear, and drawing strength from the richness of African American history and oral traditions.
Toni Shifalo, photo by Nancy Blauers
Toni Shifalo (Orlando, FL) Partnership support for mixing, mastering, releasing an album of our original songs about coastal living, with the intention of eliciting stewardship of our fragile environment.
Banner and crowd in park, photo by Zachary Kopkin
Zachary Kopkin (New Orleans, LA) Partnership support for the creation of a cultural climate organizing zine that will document, analyze, and share lessons from a series of cultural organizing actions and events for climate justice in the U.S. Gulf South.