« Field

Announcing the 2025 Documentation & Storytelling Fund Awardees

July 1, 2025  •  22 minute read

2025 Documentation & Storytelling Fund Recipients (grid of thumbnails)

A Black woman stands in a bamboo forest.
A group of four people outside a gallery with large windows. From left to right: a Black person in a black jumpsuit, an Asian person in red and white pants and black blouse, an Asian person in jeans and graphic hoodie, and a white person in black jeans, pink and white striped blouse and denim jacket.
A woman in a black flowing dress and cowboy boots facing sideways, in front of a desert landscape. The wind is blowing her dress slightly, blending it into the desert shrubs at her feet.
Nine femme dancers curve their arms in luscious extension, facing all directions but connected to each other in warmth. They are caught, in this photo, mid-movement, one knee bent and foot flexed, ready to take the next grounded step. Their skin is of varying brown skin tones with varying hair lengths and textures; their wear silk dupioni costumes (sleeveless tops and pants) in various colorblock shades of fuscia, lime green, lavender, silver, red, and amber. In the foreground on the right, there is a neat stack of short, ceremonial brooms, with silver and blue silk-wrapped handles. The background is a warm brown with soft small "fireflies" of light scattered throughout.
Medium brown skinned woman, blue dress, standing to the right of a large painting with Jim Crow images and the state of alabama painted upon it depicting expressions of capital punishment.
A masked figure with a death-white face, solid black eyes, and a down-turned mouth, wearing a black leather jacket and a keffiyeh (black and white patterned headscarf). The figure stands in front of a desert landscape with blue sky, patchy desert greenery, and distant mountains. Text above the image reads: “DRONE by Andrea Assaf.”
In this Image is two African American Men sitting on a stage after a live performance. On the Left hand side is Marcell Johnson With afro and white bandana, White t shirt with black vest and black shorts and white sneakers Host and Mc of the Yes Foundation Violence Prevention Symposium , on the right hand Side is Yusef Shelton with white t shirt, blue vest, black shorts, blue, black and white nike sneakers, who just Mc'd and performed music at Yes foundation Symposium where the pair end up being on local news station for their participation and involvement in bringing culturally relevant educational, fun and engaging energy to event held at Pitt University in collaboration with Pennsylvania number one violence prevention organization. Shot by Reece Miller.
Five dancers pour out of a doorway towards us. To the far left, a medium-dark skinned dancer with short black hair stands with his hands over his chest. He is wearing a pink-lavender open shirt with tan pants. To his right is a medium-light skinned dancer wearing a white, sleeveless shirt and shoulder-length black hair. She is smiling with one hand on their chin. To the right of them stands a dark-skinned dancer with her mouth open in shock. She is wearing a cream and orange top and has her hand stretched out on the arm of a dancer standing in front of her who is wearing a green dress. The dancer in the green dress has a pensive expression. Centered, and in front, is a medium-skinned dancer wearing a blue-grey dress. They have one knee on the ground, the palm of their hand on their chin, and a joyful, mischievous expression on their face. They have their other arm extended grabbing onto a cabinet to their right.
Illustration of a Brown Skinned women in a kneeling position between a red sun and a white magnolia flower. She is holding up the words; Bulbancha BeHolders. She has long black hair that turns into blue, green, and white water.
Seven dark skinned men perform music in the back yard of a brick house. They play drums and shakers, and some sing into microphones.
A lone microphone stand is spotlit is in the center of a small room lit with multi-colored lights. Pillows on the floor, colorful carpets and chairs surround the microphone stand.
Seven dancers of different races embracing one another in a collective hug with their eyes softly closed.
A light skinned mature woman dressed in black is seated looking straight at the camera. Behind her are books and masks and materials for creating puppets. In her hand she holds a small puppet head.
A medium-skinned trans femme person with her mouth open in front of a microphone. Her arms and hands are raised at face level. She is wearing a black robe-like dress with embroidered flowers of varying colors.
A group of musicians singing and playing instruments on a stage at La Pena Cultural Center. An Afro-Cuban male drummer playing congas. A dancer with arms lifted midway and his feet lifted off the ground. The lead singer, a medium-dark-skinned Cuban man, wears a grey Guayabera and is mid-song, facing the audience and microphone. Two musicians are playing large chekeres.
Selfie of woman with light brown face close up, medium brown hair, looking straight into the camera, slightly smiling with mouth closed, green large tropical leaves in the background.
A dark-skinned man is on the left, wearing a white suit and looking intently into the camera. On the right is an Asian woman dressed casually sitting in front of a piano placed at a gas station.
A medium-skinned Black woman is seated, on the left-hand side of the photo, on a dark red chaise lounge. She is wearing a white corset and a blue dress. To her right, standing, a medium-dark-skinned woman is looking at her, dressed in a purple nineteenth-century style dress. The room around them is full of fabric and 19th-century furniture. There is a brick wall behind them, and in front of the chaise lounge a trunk with a white fabric covering it. On the far right side of the photo is a mirror. A red patterned rug is on the dark wooden floor underneath them.
A dancing silhouette in a skirt with arched in an S curve spine and arms against a blue backdrop with a glowing “V” upstage.
A brown-skinned man stands pensively behind a music stand, contemplating a script.
This image consists of four dancers. Chanice Holmes, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing a white wrap crop top, white flowy pants and gold beaded choker with cowrie shells, stands facing to the side with both arms reaching out to the sides, head tilted back and mouth open in a mid-scream. Millenique Brown, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing a white wrap crop top and white pants, stands facing to the side with arms bent in mid-reach up, torso bent forward and legs in mid-step. Catherine Caldwell, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing a white crop tank and white flared pants, stands facing to the side with arms reaching side, torso bent forward and legs in mid-step. Jasmin Simmons-Edmond, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing white wrap crop halter and white flowy pants, stands facing to the side with arms reaching side, torso bent forward and legs in mid-step.
Six Black and Brown of mixed skin tones pose in a group tableaux. They are wearing uniform orange tank tops and grey pants with skirt panels draping below. They are on a stage with a black floor and cyc with faint orange light.
A dark-skin Black man, in a black and tan hoodie and an orange cap. It is a 2024 self-portrait of L. Kasimu Harris, a writer and artist.
A dark-skinned man with braided dreads, wearing a dark jacket, a black shirt, and black pants. He also has on a two-tone baseball cap—blue with a red brim. In his left hand, he holds a large glass bottle of Colt 45 malt liquor, and in his right hand, a green glass bottle . Their facial expression is intense and engaged, as if they are mid-speech.
Nana Kumi, a dark-skinned Black woman, stands in a lush community garden on a crisp fall morning, with a strong, rested expression. She wears a green bodysuit and green linen pants, symbolizing her connection to the earth, and a denim shirt honoring the legacy of Black laborers. Her box braids fall over her right shoulder, while the left side is tucked behind her back. One hand rests on her hip, thumb gently tucked into her waistband. She stands grounded and centered in the community garden of a beloved elder, surrounded by plants and the quiet power of ancestral presence.
The image shows four dancers in a unified, graceful pose, their arms extended forward in a reaching gesture with flexed hands. Each dressed in various styles of shimmering white costumes, the dancers’ bodies are bathed in soft light that highlights their forms. The front dancer, younger with curly brown hair, gazes upward, while the three elder dancers behind echo the same gesture, their expressions full of intensity and warmth. The dark backdrop amplifies the sense of unity and reverence in this intergenerational moment, evoking themes of strength and connection.
In the foreground on the right, is a large, illuminated dusty dressing room mirror outlined with round black-and-gold bulbs. Reflected in the mirror is a Black male performer, seated wearing a black shirt. His face is painted in black makeup—with exaggerated white paint around the mouth and eyes. He holds a glass in one hand, and his expression appears still and solemn. In front of him on the dressing table, there are a white rag with a red makeup stain, a satin black glove, a clear spray bottle and a sponge soaked with black makeup. Behind him, the mirror reflects a hanging white curtain and white dress shirt and grey jacket hanging from a hook. To the left, in the background, sits an entirely light- skinned audience in a dimly lit space. The crowd is mixed in gender and dress, with people sitting closely in folding chairs. They face the stage, looking towards the performer. Their expressions range from neutral to serious. The walls behind them are dark with exposed red brick pillars, and overhead lights cast a cool glow on the bright blue stage floor, which is outlined with a few white stars.
Composer Raven Chacon stands upright in the center of a well-lit room, wearing a black short-sleeved button down and black pants. He is standing behind a folding table on which sits an audio mixing console and a pair of black headphones. He is staring into the camera, with light from the window framing his figure on the wall behind him.
A medium skinned Chicano man dressed in a pin-striped suit, with a white shirt and a multi-colored tie that features round peace symbols. His facial features include a moustache that connects to a goatee. His left hand holds his left lapel, as his right hand reaches for his black, wide-brimmed pork pie Tando (hat), as if about to remove it from his head. The background is covered in a brown/orange tone.
Against a jet black background a Native woman with medium brown skin, dark brown straight hair in a single loose braid and regal facial expression arches back in a dancerly position with her right arm raised high, looking up. She wears a black outfit with a sleeveless top.
A medium-skinned African American man embraces a medium-skinned African American woman as they look to the sky.
A brown-skinned woman with hair in locs and camera in hand looking at Da Brat and Judy as she gives direction on how to pose them.
A brown-skinned woman mid-movement dancing. Her right arm is bent at the elbow, heel of palm cupping her chin as she looks to the right. Her left arm is outstretched, and white wax can be seen clinging to her skin on that arm. She is wearing purple rhinestoned bra, garters, and thong, which are shadowed in the spotlight.
Five black performers awash in green light, gather around two tables set up with sound tech. Jeremy and Holland stand behind the tables as they adjust sound boards and computers; keyon, Katrina and jess rest on the ground, mid-movement.
A dimly lit room is filled with an audience seated on the floor, facing three large projections that span the front and side walls. The central projection shows animated white squares of varying sizes floating against a black background. On the left and right walls, close-up videos of a brown-skinned, South Asian person's eye dominate the space, each with a glistening reflection of stars or lights in the pupil. In front of the central screen, silhouetted audience members are visible, with a few standing or moving about. Among them, one person with medium-dark skin and short curly hair appears to be operating audiovisual equipment on a table. Two ceiling-mounted projectors and large speakers are visible above and around the room. The atmosphere illuminates the activation of an immersive audiovisual performance and video installation.

NPN is pleased to award $105,000 and leverage an additional $131,172 in partner matches to 35 artists and projects through the 2025 Documentation & Storytelling Fund, which supports artists to document, promote, and share their work.

Through immersive experiences, film, digital curation, community outreach, novel applications of developing technologies, and more, this year’s fund recipients are exploring innovative ways to bring their work to new communities and preserve it for future audiences. 2025’s selected projects will take place in cities across the country, with artists telling their stories in Los Angeles, Miami, Brooklyn, Chicago, Albuquerque, and NPN’s local New Orleans community.

The Documentation & Storytelling Fund includes artists who started out in our national Creation & Development Fund and our Southern Artists for Social Change program, and reflects NPN’s commitment to deepening support to artists over time, across multiple stages of a project.

“The Documentation & Storytelling Fund provided invaluable support to our project, company, and career in both artistic and financial aspects. One significant artistic impact was its role in deepening our exploration of Hawaiian cultural practices and expertise. This enabled us to present a more authentic portrayal of Hawaiian culture in our programming, elevating its quality and adding layers of depth.

“Financially, the NPN award played a pivotal role in expanding our online presence, particularly on YouTube. With the assistance of the funding, we were able to refine our social media content strategy, resulting in a significant increase in both reach and subscribers-growth of 1708.33% since receiving support from the NPN Documentation & Storytelling Fund.”

—Gerilyn Hewahewa, NPN supported Artist (Wailkuku, HI)
Head shot of Gerilyn Hewahewa.

“Too often in creative processes, we as artists lack the resources and bandwidth to properly document our projects, and so they become forever lost in the past. However, with the support of the Documentation and Storytelling Fund, I had the support to imagine the way that this opera could live on and impact audiences far beyond the live performances. I am so grateful for this resource because it will enable this story to continue into the future, and I will be able to use this high quality documentation as a tool to further other projects as well.”

—Micaela Tobin, NPN supported Artist (Los Angeles, CA)
Head shot of Micaela Tobin.

The Documentation & Storytelling Fund is made possible with support from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Surdna Foundation.

a todo dar productions

Cedar Park, TX

atododarproductions.com

rasgos asiáticos

rasgos asiáticos traces the diasporic journeys of Chinese communities in Mexico and along the US-Mexico border through a hybrid storytelling approach that includes a site-responsive installation, communal dinners, public talks, and community workshops. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to support the digital transfer of this work, including videos of the development process, an interactive archive to enable people to document their own stories of Chinese-Mexican identity and histories on both sides of the border, and the premiere performance in Tucson, AZ in January 2026.

A Black woman stands in a bamboo forest.
Prop Artisan Britany White in rasgos asiáticos, written by Virginia Grise, installation by Tanya Orellana, at Diverseworks in Houston, TX. Photo: Paul Hester.

Allie Hankins

Portland, OR

alliehankins.com

By My Own Hand, Part 5: INVISIBLE TOUCH

By My Own Hand, Part 5: INVISIBLE TOUCH is a quintet featuring prominent dancers from Portland, Brooklyn, and Boston who populate the space with light, shadow, haunted objects, dancing, and songs. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to support filmmaker Roland Dahwen as he documents the creation and premiere of INVISIBLE TOUCH in Portland, OR, through rehearsal footage, interviews, and performances. A core value of this work lies in the decade-long history they share as collaborators, friends, and community members. This project will highlight those shared histories and the intersections of their respective creative processes.

A group of four people outside a gallery with large windows. From left to right: a Black person in a black jumpsuit, an Asian person in red and white pants and black blouse, an Asian person in jeans and graphic hoodie, and a white person in black jeans, pink and white striped blouse and denim jacket.
Photo: Mario Gallucci.

Amanda Ekery

Brooklyn, NY

aekerymusic.com

Árabe Mahrajan

Árabe, a project featuring 12 original songs and accompanying essays about Syrian and Mexican shared culture and history, is touring as the Árabe Mahrajan (Mahrajans were part of Syrian homeland culture, similar to block parties used for community formation) with performances and readings across the United States. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to showcase and preserve four Árabe Mahrajan events by paying for local videographers in NYC, El Paso, Dallas, and Chicago, to document not only the performances but the people, communities, and stories that are present at each event.

Read more about Amanda Ekery’s inspiration and research for Árabe in her Voices from the Network post, “Yenobak Eih?” (What Do You Get?).

A woman in a black flowing dress and cowboy boots facing sideways, in front of a desert landscape. The wind is blowing her dress slightly, blending it into the desert shrubs at her feet.
Amanda Ekery at Franklin Mountains in El Paso, TX (2023). Photo: Ross Wightman.

Ananya Dance Theatre

Minneapolis, MN

ananyadancetheatre.org

Yorchhā Jugaad in the Club

Yorchhā, Ananya Chatterjea’s transnational feminist dance language, articulates an aesthetic of South Asian maximalism that combines traditional Odissi, Vinyasa Yoga, the martial art Chha, visual folk art traditions, and her Bengali heritage of Baul/Sufi syncretic-mystic musician poets. Yorchhā’s 2025 evolution, Yorchhā Jugaad, presents the GloFFUC (GLObal Feminist Funk Underground Club), where feminists, exhausted from their constant struggles against injustice, gather to renew their resolve. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to create a film to capture this investigation, which will then become a key document to support Ananya Dance Theatre’s launch of a Yorchhā Certification process in 2026.

Nine femme dancers curve their arms in luscious extension, facing all directions but connected to each other in warmth. They are caught, in this photo, mid-movement, one knee bent and foot flexed, ready to take the next grounded step. Their skin is of varying brown skin tones with varying hair lengths and textures; their wear silk dupioni costumes (sleeveless tops and pants) in various colorblock shades of fuscia, lime green, lavender, silver, red, and amber. In the foreground on the right, there is a neat stack of short, ceremonial brooms, with silver and blue silk-wrapped handles. The background is a warm brown with soft small "fireflies" of light scattered throughout.
ANTARANGA: BETWEEN YOU AND ME (2024) by Ananya Dance Theatre, The O’Shaughnessy at St Catherine University, St Paul, MN. Photo: GAddison Visuals.

Art of Resistance: Documenting AL Death Row — Kerrigan Casey

Florence, AL

@artof_resistance

Expanding Resistance: Documenting ALs Death Row

Expanding Resistance transforms the Alabama Death Row Archive (housed at the Restorative Justice Lab at the University of North Alabama) into a traveling multimedia exhibit that centers visual and audio artifacts from people on death row as well as their surviving loved ones, to highlight various forms of resistance to capital punishment in the state that sentences more people to death per capita than any other. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to create an online digital archive that collects essays, interviews with people formerly incarcerated, art from incarcerated people who have now been executed, footage of panel discussions and artist talks, audience responses, and media coverage.

Kerrigan Casey is a Southern Artists for Social Change cohort member.

Medium brown skinned woman, blue dress, standing to the right of a large painting with Jim Crow images and the state of alabama painted upon it depicting expressions of capital punishment.
Kerrigan Casey with her painting Clemency Bluff  at “The Art of Resistance: Documenting AL Death Row” exhibit at the Tennessee Valley of Art in Tuscumbia, AL. Photo : Ivy Rose Ball/TimeDaily Photos (2024).

Art2Action, Inc.

Tampa, FL

art2action.org/drone

DRONE

DRONE, a new play by Andrea Assaf, is a transdisciplinary performance project integrating theater, live music, emerging technologies, and artistic containers for public dialogue. It explores the drone as a metaphor for how we become desensitized to daily violence (domestic and global), the question of Moral Injury, and the effects of remote-control warfare on the human soul. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will support video documentation of the first full workshop production of DRONE, July 31-Aug 3, 2025 at the Detroit Public Theatre, presented by the Arab American National Museum.

A masked figure with a death-white face, solid black eyes, and a down-turned mouth, wearing a black leather jacket and a keffiyeh (black and white patterned headscarf). The figure stands in front of a desert landscape with blue sky, patchy desert greenery, and distant mountains. Text above the image reads: “DRONE by Andrea Assaf.”
Andrea Assaf, director/playwright of DRONE, at a protest vigil with CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Veterans for Peace (VFP), Creech Air Force Base, Nevada (2019).

Back 2 Purpose

Pittsburgh, PA

marcelljohnson.com

Back 2 Purpose: The Documentation

Back 2 Purpose: The Documentation is a storytelling project that highlights Back 2 Purpose’s evolution as a Hip-Hop duo and youth mentor, by combining recordings of the duo’s regional school tour with archived podcast footage and behind-the-scenes interviews. Through social media-ready content and visual storytelling, Back 2 Purpose showcases the movement to reclaim Hip-Hop as a tool for healing, purpose, and community transformation. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to capture live tour performances, student interactions, and community events, and to curate archival footage from previous performances.

In this Image is two African American Men sitting on a stage after a live performance. On the Left hand side is Marcell Johnson With afro and white bandana, White t shirt with black vest and black shorts and white sneakers Host and Mc of the Yes Foundation Violence Prevention Symposium , on the right hand Side is Yusef Shelton with white t shirt, blue vest, black shorts, blue, black and white nike sneakers, who just Mc'd and performed music at Yes foundation Symposium where the pair end up being on local news station for their participation and involvement in bringing culturally relevant educational, fun and engaging energy to event held at Pitt University in collaboration with Pennsylvania number one violence prevention organization. Shot by Reece Miller.
Marcell Johnson (left) and Yusef Shelton (right), hosting and performance at the Yes Foundation Violence Prevention Symposium at Pitt University. Photos by: Reece Miller (2024).

Blue13 Dance Company

Los Angeles, CA

blue13dance.com

Soliloquy film

Soliloquy (2024), created as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate effects on people of the Global Majority, was an immersive, site-specific dance work performed at Heritage Square in Los Angeles that shone a spotlight on the othering and invisibilization experienced by BIPOC, intersectional LGBTQIA+, and disabled communities. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to edit the many hours of HD video footage of this work into a short film that can serve as a standalone dance film, a pitch to presenters to tour the work around the world, and documentation for future grants.

Five dancers pour out of a doorway towards us. To the far left, a medium-dark skinned dancer with short black hair stands with his hands over his chest. He is wearing a pink-lavender open shirt with tan pants. To his right is a medium-light skinned dancer wearing a white, sleeveless shirt and shoulder-length black hair. She is smiling with one hand on their chin. To the right of them stands a dark-skinned dancer with her mouth open in shock. She is wearing a cream and orange top and has her hand stretched out on the arm of a dancer standing in front of her who is wearing a green dress. The dancer in the green dress has a pensive expression. Centered, and in front, is a medium-skinned dancer wearing a blue-grey dress. They have one knee on the ground, the palm of their hand on their chin, and a joyful, mischievous expression on their face. They have their other arm extended grabbing onto a cabinet to their right.
Braylon Browner, Tokie Wang, Jenna Cardona, Alisa Carreras, Adrianna Vieux performing Soliloquy at Heritage Square Museum, northeast Los Angeles, CA (2024). Photo: Slade Segerson.

Bulbancha BeHolders

New Orleans, LA

Bulbancha BeHolders

Bulbancha BeHolders witnesses and documents “our selves, our communities, and our ecosystem” in relation to art, culture, intimacy, and environmentalism, by living out Southern, Black, Indigenous, and trans experiences in agency and power. Across multiple individual projects as well as a collective project planned for 2026, Bulbancha BeHolders will use Documentation and Storytelling funds to help coordinate interviews and photoshoots with community members to discuss the relationships between creativity, intimacy, and environmentalism. Funds will also be used to document the manifestation of Keyshia Pearl’s 2026 Masking regalia, and continue to document Simone Immanuel’s performances.

Simone Immanuel + Isaiah Simon (Bulbancha BeHolders) are Southern Artists for Social Change cohort members.

Illustration of a Brown Skinned women in a kneeling position between a red sun and a white magnolia flower. She is holding up the words; Bulbancha BeHolders. She has long black hair that turns into blue, green, and white water.
Bulbancha BeHolders Logo, (2025). Illustration: Keyshia Pearl DeGruy.

CANOA (Caribbean and New Orleanian Arts)

New Orleans, LA

@canoa.nola

Garifuna Stories

With Garifuna Stories, Bernardo Guerrero and Tomas Montoya will use Documentation & Storytelling funds to create an archive of interviews with a multi-generational group of cultural practitioners from the New Orleans Garifuna community. These interviews will illuminate the challenges around migratory status, struggles for belonging, and access to resources that members of the Garifuna community face as they interact with schools, government officials and other civic organizations. The stories will be shared through an exhibition, to be housed at CANOA, that will include audio recordings and transcriptions accompanied by photo documentation of interviewees.

CANOA is a Southern Artists for Social Change cohort member.

Seven dark skinned men perform music in the back yard of a brick house. They play drums and shakers, and some sing into microphones.
Grupo Yurumeina performing in the Letters from the Porch web series at the home of Pedro Guity in New Orleans, LA (2020). Photo: Zac Manuel.

Chris Friday

Macon, GA

ChrisFriday.art

Solid Gold

Solid Gold is a multi-media performance by Chris Friday, in collaboration with Miami-based poet Arsimmer McCoy and Miami-based musicians Kendall “King” Friday and Claudens Louis, that highlights the literal and metaphorical safe-havens Black and POC people in Miami, Florida create for self-preservation. Entitled Solid Gold as a reference to the tradition of bronzing precious childhood keepsakes, and the alchemical process of turning trash into gold, the performance is an activation of Friday’s first solo museum exhibition, Where We Never Grow Old. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to produce a living archive of both the exhibition and the performance in the form of a cinematic short film.

A lone microphone stand is spotlit is in the center of a small room lit with multi-colored lights. Pillows on the floor, colorful carpets and chairs surround the microphone stand.
Courtesy of the artist.

CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater

Los Angeles, CA

contra-tiempo.org

A 20-Year Legacy: Preserving CONTRA-TIEMPO’s Community & Artistic Impact

A 20-Year Legacy is a digital project honoring CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater and its Artistic Director Ana Maria Alvarez. To date, they’ve powerfully embodied their mission to create a future where all people are awakened to a sense of themselves as artists and social change agents. This project celebrates their impact through multimedia content, intergenerational virtual gatherings, and collaborative dance works, keeping alive the power of dance as social action. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to facilitate press outreach and public-facing communications, and to produce multimedia content that includes social media storytelling and video collaborations with peer LA-based dance companies that are also celebrating their 20-year anniversaries.

Seven dancers of different races embracing one another in a collective hug with their eyes softly closed.
CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater at Jacob’s Pillow (2021). Left to right, Bianca Medina, Dalphe Morantus, Ruby Morales, Ana Maria Alvarez, Jannet Galdamez, Jasmine Stanley, Charlie Dando. Photo: Christopher Duggan, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow.

Deborah Hunt

San Juan, SJ

Citizen of My Work 1: The old days; 1972-1988
Citizen of My Work 2: Puerto Rico 1990-2000

Citizen of My Work 3 & 4

Citizen of My Work 3 & 4 consists of the creation of two 25-minute videos, in a series of six, that curate the work of artist Deborah Hunt across a 53-year trajectory of self-devised theater, mask work, and object theater. Through these publicly shared “home movies,” Hunt is transforming a vast physical archive of photos, printed materials, and videos in various formats, that together document a practice once shaped solely by live performance, but that now weaves between the tactile and the digital, the seen and the remembered. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to produce video three, tentatively titled The workshops, collaborations and resistance, and four, titled Hurricanes and Giants.

A light skinned mature woman dressed in black is seated looking straight at the camera. Behind her are books and masks and materials for creating puppets. In her hand she holds a small puppet head.
Deborah Hunt, interviewed in the film Red Mole: a romance (2023). Photo: Daniel Guzman.

Dorian Wood

Watertown, MA

dorianwood.com

Canto de Todes

Canto de Todes is a 12-hour composition and installation inspired by a lyric by iconic Chilean songwriter Violeta Parra. It is a touring project that expands with every incarnation, creating a series of site-specific, immersive spaces for attendees to project their personal experiences. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to produce two promo videos that incorporate a new self interview, new footage and new narration. These videos will form the core of an expanded press kit that can promote the forthcoming album and help the artist continue to present the work at new locations.

A medium-skinned trans femme person with her mouth open in front of a microphone. Her arms and hands are raised at face level. She is wearing a black robe-like dress with embroidered flowers of varying colors.
Dorian Wood performing Canto de Todes at Park Avenue Armory in New York, NY (2024). Photo: Da Ping Luo.

Einar Leliebre Nuñez

Oakland, CA

facebook.com/einarleliebrenunez

La Rumba me Llama (The Rumba Calls Me)

La Rumba me Llama (The Rumba Calls Me) was a live concert in June 2024, funded by NPN’s Artist Engagement Fund, followed a year later by a second performance of the same name, this time with the theme “Honoring the Ancestors,” at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, CA. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to produce a new incarnation of La Rumba me Llama as a recorded audio documentation of the project, that will combine recordings from the show with new recordings featuring renowned guest artists from both concerts who are important in the tradition of Afro-Cuban music.

A group of musicians singing and playing instruments on a stage at La Pena Cultural Center. An Afro-Cuban male drummer playing congas. A dancer with arms lifted midway and his feet lifted off the ground. The lead singer, a medium-dark-skinned Cuban man, wears a grey Guayabera and is mid-song, facing the audience and microphone. Two musicians are playing large chekeres.
La Rumba me Llama, June 2, 2024. Left to right: Kai Lyons, Einar Leliebre Nuñez, dancer Pablo Dinamico, Andy Perez, Javier Navarette, John Santos, Yoel Mulem and Jose Elejarde Gonzalez. Photo by Tom Ehrlich.

Elia Arce

Houston, TX

eliaarce.com

Archive Creation & Retrospective Design

Elia Arce is an artist and cultural activist whose 43-year career includes experimental theater, film and video, writing, spoken word, and installations. Her work, developed through the years in response to political shifts as well as her experiences as a Central American immigrant artist with the privilege of dual citizenship, lets her share with younger Central American immigrants the homeland hardships of their parents’ generation. The Getty Museum is archiving a collection of Arce’s California-based art, with plans to record an accompanying oral history. Inspired by that model, Arce will use Documentation & Storytelling funds to produce similar retrospectives in other cities where she has lived and worked, like New York and Houston, in 2027 and 2028.

Selfie of woman with light brown face close up, medium brown hair, looking straight into the camera, slightly smiling with mouth closed, green large tropical leaves in the background.
Elia Arce, Visita Guiada (2022), at Espacio cero uno, San José, Costa Rica, Central America.

Gather Hear

Brighton, MA

gatherhear.com

Gather Hear North Carolina

Gather Hear concert programs are designed to contextualize classical music for underserved audiences. In Gather Hear North Carolina, pianist Miki Sawada and rapper/composer Chris Thompson will travel around North Carolina with a piano, giving free performances in areas where professional classical music concerts are not available. The show combines classical piano, rap, and Thompson’s original compositions, contextualizing classical music within Black history and contemporary American society. The tour will be documented via writing, photos, social media, and videos that combine vlog-style footage shot by Miki and Chris with professionally shot performance footage. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to hire professional videographers to film the performances.

A dark-skinned man is on the left, wearing a white suit and looking intently into the camera. On the right is an Asian woman dressed casually sitting in front of a piano placed at a gas station.
Photo credits: Ricky Richardson (left), Nick Bruskewitz (right).

Goat in the Road Productions

New Orleans, LA

goatintheroadproductions.org

Gallatin Alley Digital Tour

Gallatin Alley examines 1870s New Orleans through an immersive historical mystery featuring John Baptiste Jourdain, the city’s first Black detective. Audience members will choose their own paths: they can follow Detective Jourdain’s murder investigation, shadow club owner “Tiny” Marie LeCroix, or observe various musicians, regulars, and roustabouts. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to film and produce the Gallatin Alley Digital Tour, which will capture the experience of Gallatin Alley through a single, continuous camera shot that explores the space and characters as if physically present. This digital video experience will serve as a professional-quality visual record that enhances Goat in the Road’s ability to share this ambitious work with funders, presenters, and future audiences.

A medium-skinned Black woman is seated, on the left-hand side of the photo, on a dark red chaise lounge. She is wearing a white corset and a blue dress. To her right, standing, a medium-dark-skinned woman is looking at her, dressed in a purple nineteenth-century style dress. The room around them is full of fabric and 19th-century furniture. There is a brick wall behind them, and in front of the chaise lounge a trunk with a white fabric covering it. On the far right side of the photo is a mirror. A red patterned rug is on the dark wooden floor underneath them.
Goat in the Road Productions’ work-in-process performance of Gallatin Alley, featuring performers Alexandria Miles and April Louise, at Historic BK House and Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana (2025). Photo: Joshua Brasted.

Jesse Factor

Pittsburgh, PA

jessefactor.com

The Marthaodyssey

The Marthaodyssey is a solo evening-length speculative fantasy through which dance artist Jesse Factor animates Martha Graham, “the high priestess of modern dance,” to remixed ideas from the sonic landscape of Madonna, “the queen of pop.” Part high modern dance, part pop confection, part drag extravaganza, The Marthodyssey’s aesthetic presentation moves Graham’s tradition of lights and tights into sleek pop spectacle and uncanny lip sync. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to produce promotional video reels and images.

A dancing silhouette in a skirt with arched in an S curve spine and arms against a blue backdrop with a glowing “V” upstage.
Jesse Factor performing The Marthaodyssey at the Marjorie Dean Little Theater in New York, NY (2025). Photo: Paula Lobo.

José Joaquín García

Brooklyn, NY

How I Survived the Lower East Side in the 70s With My A.M. Radio

How I Survived the Lower East Side in the 70s With My A.M. Radio is José Joaquín García’s coming of age story with music, about attending public school from 1969 to 1978 in New York City’s Lower East Side neighborhood. The story focuses on the rich music curriculum that began to suffer due to underfunding during the Nixon administration. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to produce a website where García will share photographs, interviews with neighborhood elders, and historical records.

A brown-skinned man stands pensively behind a music stand, contemplating a script.
José Joaquín García. Photo: Nathaniel Castro.

KM Dance Project

New Orleans, LA

kmdanceproject.org

Raw Fruit Soundtrack

Raw Fruit features original music created by sound artist free feral, as well as poetry, text, and vocalizations by Sunni Patterson and Performers. The soundscape is at the forefront of this work and is an integral part of the storytelling. It facilitates audience immersion into an experience akin to a ritual, with musical and vocal movement that energizes the performers and viewers. KMDP will use Documentation & Storytelling funds to program KM Dance Project’s Creative Somatic Workshop, a live event that mirrors the Raw Fruit listening experience, where KMDP will generate a live recording of the Raw Fruit soundtrack.

This image consists of four dancers. Chanice Holmes, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing a white wrap crop top, white flowy pants and gold beaded choker with cowrie shells, stands facing to the side with both arms reaching out to the sides, head tilted back and mouth open in a mid-scream. Millenique Brown, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing a white wrap crop top and white pants, stands facing to the side with arms bent in mid-reach up, torso bent forward and legs in mid-step. Catherine Caldwell, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing a white crop tank and white flared pants, stands facing to the side with arms reaching side, torso bent forward and legs in mid-step. Jasmin Simmons-Edmond, a medium brown skinned African American female dancer wearing white wrap crop halter and white flowy pants, stands facing to the side with arms reaching side, torso bent forward and legs in mid-step.
KM Dance Project performing Raw Fruit at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. Dancers, from left to right: Chanice Holmes, Millenique Brown, Catherine Caldwell, and Jasmin Simmons-Edmond. Photo: Melisa Cardona.

Kyle Marshall Choreography

Brooklyn, NY

kmchoreo.com

Julius Eastman Trilogy Photoshoot

The Julius Eastman Trilogy consists of three dances embodying the visionary music, life and legacy of singular composer Julius Eastman (1940–1990). The cornerstone of this trilogy, Femenine, based on Eastman’s composition of the same name, premiered with the support of the NPN Development Fund in March 2025. The other two dances–Gay, a duet on eternal love set to Eastman’s “Gay Guerrilla,” and Joan, a quartet celebrating power over tyranny set to his score for 10 cellos—premiered in November 2024. KMC is using the momentum of this trilogy to restructure as a 501(c)(3) organization, and will use the Documentation & Storytelling Fund to organize a photoshoot capturing key moments in each of the three dances, while also documenting KMC’s full company of performers at this momentous juncture.

Six Black and Brown of mixed skin tones pose in a group tableaux. They are wearing uniform orange tank tops and grey pants with skirt panels draping below. They are on a stage with a black floor and cyc with faint orange light.
Femenine, performed by (from left) Alex Francois, Catherine Kirk, Jose Lapaz-Rodriguez,  Kyle Marshall, Niara Hardister and Khalid Dunton. Photo: Tony Turner.

L. Kasimu Harris

New Orleans, LA

lkasimuharris.com

Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges

The Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges series is a multifaceted project that explores means for the long-term sustainability of Black-owned bars, lounges, and other establishments in New Orleans, Clarksdale (MS), Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, and other places throughout the African diaspora.  The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will support a field guide that illuminates bar owners and culture bearers through interviews, oral histories, and profiles, as well as fiction and poetry written by various writers, both within and outside of New Orleans. This field guide departs from merely listing businesses and is inspired by later editions of The Negro Motorist Green Book and literary magazines such as The New Yorker.

A dark-skin Black man, in a black and tan hoodie and an orange cap. It is a 2024 self-portrait of L. Kasimu Harris, a writer and artist.
A self-portrait of L. Kasimu Harris, 2024.

Letta Neely

Dorchester, MA

lettaneely.com

Pulling It All Into The Current

Letta Neely’s one-person show, Pulling It All Into The Current, offers a look at the world through the eyes of ten characters as they navigate the minefields and playgrounds of life. These stories of teenagers, veterans, elders, addicts, queers, teachers, and others mingle haphazardly alongside and within each of us as they are “pulled into the current” landscape. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to edit the photos and videos captured throughout the creative process and from past performances in order to produce a high-quality film version of the work, which will serve as both an artistic artifact and, along with a podcast series, a promotional tool to expand the reach and impact of the piece beyond live performances.

A dark-skinned man with braided dreads, wearing a dark jacket, a black shirt, and black pants. He also has on a two-tone baseball cap—blue with a red brim. In his left hand, he holds a large glass bottle of Colt 45 malt liquor, and in his right hand, a green glass bottle . Their facial expression is intense and engaged, as if they are mid-speech.
Letta Neely as RayRay in Pulling It All Into The Current. Photo: Rebecca Richwine-Neely.

Nana Kumi

Natchez, MS

nanakumi.art

The Spirit in Our Roots

The Spirit in Our Roots is a multimedia, multigenerational land-based initiative rooted in Mississippi that uplifts the collective voice of Black agrarians, land stewards, and wisdom keepers across Mississippi and Louisiana. Centered on food sovereignty and racial justice, the project weaves African and Afro-diasporic growing practices as ancestral technology to reclaim land, memory, and communal resilience. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to support the creation of an expansive photo shoot, and the resulting images will be used in marketing materials and serve as the cover for a community book that will be produced at the close of the project.

Nana Kumi is a Southern Artists for Social Change cohort member.

Nana Kumi, a dark-skinned Black woman, stands in a lush community garden on a crisp fall morning, with a strong, rested expression. She wears a green bodysuit and green linen pants, symbolizing her connection to the earth, and a denim shirt honoring the legacy of Black laborers. Her box braids fall over her right shoulder, while the left side is tucked behind her back. One hand rests on her hip, thumb gently tucked into her waistband. She stands grounded and centered in the community garden of a beloved elder, surrounded by plants and the quiet power of ancestral presence.
Nana Kumi stands proudly in Westbrook Memorial Garden in Brookly, NY, the sacred garden of beloved elder and gardener Ms. Jean Kelley. Behind her, a flourishing patch of corn rises tall, embodying resilience and rooted legacy (2024). Photo: Zachary Schulman Photography.

Pioneer Winter Collective

Biscayne Park, FL

pioneerwinter.com

Apollo

Apollo is a dance-theater work exploring intergenerational queer dynamics, memory, HIV/AIDS, and legacy. A biomythography grounded in devised dance-theater, Apollo explores intergenerational queer dynamics, memory, HIV/AIDS, and legacy as it delves into the intersection of cultural memory, myth, and storytelling. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to enable the integration of a service component that documents and digitizes the stories, ephemera, photos, and videos of local elder artists. This builds upon the approach Pioneer Winter Collective has used with the three elder performers in Apollo, where their narratives and histories were intricately woven into the performance.

The image shows four dancers in a unified, graceful pose, their arms extended forward in a reaching gesture with flexed hands. Each dressed in various styles of shimmering white costumes, the dancers’ bodies are bathed in soft light that highlights their forms. The front dancer, younger with curly brown hair, gazes upward, while the three elder dancers behind echo the same gesture, their expressions full of intensity and warmth. The dark backdrop amplifies the sense of unity and reverence in this intergenerational moment, evoking themes of strength and connection.
Foreground to background: Pioneer Winter, Clarence Brooks, Frank Campisano, and Octavio Campos, as Pioneer Winter Collective performing Apollo at Miami Theater Center, Miami, FL (2025). Photo: Passion Ward.

Rarara!

South Pasadena, CA

rararathing.org

Until, Until, Until…: The Performative Lecture

Until, Until, Until…: The Performative Lecture, extends the work of Edgar Arceneaux’s award-winning live theater piece Until, Until, Until…, which explores Ben Vereen’s controversial 1981 presidential inauguration gala performance, where Vereen’s powerful critique of minstrelsy was misunderstood and distorted by the media. This more intimate, interactive version, which combines excerpts from the original performance with film and virtual components, gives students and scholars an opportunity to engage with the work, confront historical erasure, and explore the complexities of artistic resistance. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to design and produce new virtual assets to be used on the website, across social media, and in an updated digital promotional packet.

In the foreground on the right, is a large, illuminated dusty dressing room mirror outlined with round black-and-gold bulbs. Reflected in the mirror is a Black male performer, seated wearing a black shirt. His face is painted in black makeup—with exaggerated white paint around the mouth and eyes. He holds a glass in one hand, and his expression appears still and solemn. In front of him on the dressing table, there are a white rag with a red makeup stain, a satin black glove, a clear spray bottle and a sponge soaked with black makeup. Behind him, the mirror reflects a hanging white curtain and white dress shirt and grey jacket hanging from a hook. To the left, in the background, sits an entirely light- skinned audience in a dimly lit space. The crowd is mixed in gender and dress, with people sitting closely in folding chairs. They face the stage, looking towards the performer. Their expressions range from neutral to serious. The walls behind them are dark with exposed red brick pillars, and overhead lights cast a cool glow on the bright blue stage floor, which is outlined with a few white stars.
Frank Lawson as Ben Vereen in Until, Until, Until… at Chicago MOCA (2024). Photo: Edgar Arceneaux.

Raven Chacon

Red Hook, NY

spiderwebsinthesky.com

Tiguex

Tiguex, from the Tiwa word meaning, “the valley between Sandia and Isleta pueblos,” is a large-scale musical composition consisting of twenty overlapping movements performed over the span of a day across the city of Albuquerque, NM, which the composer Raven Chacon has called home for most of his life. This collaborative project is realized with the help of over 150 musicians from different diverse music communities throughout the city, and will be documented via a livestream and, movement by movement, through local videographers. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to support the capture of high quality video and audio, as well as the cost of post-production to create a longer format (potentially feature-length) film.

Composer Raven Chacon stands upright in the center of a well-lit room, wearing a black short-sleeved button down and black pants. He is standing behind a folding table on which sits an audio mixing console and a pair of black headphones. He is staring into the camera, with light from the window framing his figure on the wall behind him.
Raven Chacon in front of his common noise-performance instrument, the mixer. Photo by Neal Santos.

Rodney Garza

Moreno Valley, CA

El Pazchuco for Prez

El Pazchuco for Prez is a lampoon of the American electoral system centering on El Pazchuco, a zoot-suited lecturer who is tired of the politricks and decides to shake things up by throwing his tando (Zooter hat) into the political arena. Rodney Garza is documenting the creation and eventual staging of El Pazchuco for Prez with personal video footage, combined with professionally shot video footage. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to hire one or more professional videographers to capture rehearsals and performances of the production in San Antonio, TX.

A medium skinned Chicano man dressed in a pin-striped suit, with a white shirt and a multi-colored tie that features round peace symbols. His facial features include a moustache that connects to a goatee. His left hand holds his left lapel, as his right hand reaches for his black, wide-brimmed pork pie Tando (hat), as if about to remove it from his head. The background is covered in a brown/orange tone.
Rodney Garza as El Pazchuco in El Pazchuco for Prez. Photo: Adolfo Cantu-Villarreal.

Rosy Simas Danse

Minneapolis, MN

rosysimasdanse.com

A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind) documentation project

Native transdisciplinary and dance artist Rosy Simas’ newest major work, A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind), is a dance and community engagement project of healing, generating, and rest, centering Haudenosaunee contemporary views of what it means to cultivate a mind of peace, set to premiere in spring 2026. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to document the creation and presentation of this dance, installation, and community engagement project, which shares Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) and Hodinöšyö:nih (Haudenosaunee) views on relationality with the world, and how Indigenous approaches to peacemaking are much-needed models in this time of divisive politics, bigotry, racism, war and genocide.

Against a jet black background a Native woman with medium brown skin, dark brown straight hair in a single loose braid and regal facial expression arches back in a dancerly position with her right arm raised high, looking up. She wears a black outfit with a sleeveless top.
Photo: Imranda Ward.

SOLE Defined

Capitol Heights, MD

soledefined.com

Zaz: The Documentary

ZAZ: The Big Easy is a choreography-led performance combining immersive sound and media technology with percussive dance, honoring Hurricane Katrina survivors from New Orleans East. It features tap dance, body percussion, West African dance, contemporary partnering, and original music inspired by oral and documented histories. This project blends history, personal narratives, and ethnographic research to create an archive of American history. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to support the second phase of this four-part project, a documentary highlighting interviews with survivors, collaborators, and historians; the historical context of African Diasporic Percussive Dance; a showcase of the creative process; and audience responses.

A medium-skinned African American man embraces a medium-skinned African American woman as they look to the sky.
SOLE Defined performs ZAZ: The Big Easy as part of the APAP Showcase at New York City Center in Manhattan, NY (2024). Photo: BeccaVision.

Sydney A.  Foster

Montgomery, AL

sydneyafoster.com

pray the gay away

pray the gay away is an immersive, multi-layer exhibition inspired by accounts from black queer bodies living in the Black American South, Alabama, as they struggle with gender, race, and religious identities. pray the gay away centers Black southern queer voices existing in spaces and systems where their needs aren’t considered, and where they’re simply told not to be themselves due to respectability politics. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to curate, digitize, and preserve Sydney A. Foster’s personal archives to produce a living database of queer works by the artist and by others the artist has documented during this process.

Sydney A. Foster is a Southern Artists for Social Change cohort member.

A brown-skinned woman with hair in locs and camera in hand looking at Da Brat and Judy as she gives direction on how to pose them.
Sydney A. Foster on set photographing queer couple Da Brat and Judy for their personal archive of Motherhood in Atlanta, GA. Photo: Sydney A. Foster.

Synamin Vixen

New Orleans, LA

synaminvixen.com

Daughter of a Nymph Divine

Daughter of a Nymph Divine is a sensory expansion of Synamin Vixens’ book of the same title into a physical world of movement, projection, and sound. This work is a living meditation on grief, pleasure, and inviting silence, where audience members are invited to take their own journey through this space. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to develop, host, and maintain a website and digital portals for the work; create an electronic press kit (EPK) for touring; and document rehearsals and creation process for archiving and Patreon purposes.

A brown-skinned woman mid-movement dancing. Her right arm is bent at the elbow, heel of palm cupping her chin as she looks to the right. Her left arm is outstretched, and white wax can be seen clinging to her skin on that arm. She is wearing purple rhinestoned bra, garters, and thong, which are shadowed in the spotlight.
Synamin Vixen performing Daughter of a Nymph Divine at Catapult in New Orleans, LA. Photo: Stone and Lust Photography.

Will Rawls

Brooklyn, NY

studiorawls.com

[siccer]

In the dance performance and installation [siccer], Will Rawls experiments with stop-motion filmmaking techniques in a live setting, wherein still photographs of dancers are strung together to create a moving image that is projected into the performance space, to explore how Black gestures are relentlessly documented, distorted, and circulated in lens-based media. The project’s title is driven by the Latin adverb “[sic],” which indicates incorrect spelling within a quotation and which is often employed to contrast Black vernacular speech with standard English. Rawls turns this conflict on its head in order to illuminate the verbal and physical play of Black performance as something that eludes capture on screen and in language. Documentation & Storytelling funds will be used to curate the storytelling/archival ephemera that document [siccer]’s development and presentation from 2017 to the present, with the goal of producing a book and an album whose music reflects the almost decade-long process of making both the live performance and installation.

Five black performers awash in green light, gather around two tables set up with sound tech. Jeremy and Holland stand behind the tables as they adjust sound boards and computers; keyon, Katrina and jess rest on the ground, mid-movement.
From left to right, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, keyon gaskin, Katrina Reid, Holland Andrews, and jess pretty performing [siccer] at REDCAT in Los Angeles, CA (2025). Photo: Angel Origgi.

Zain Alam

Brooklyn, NY

zainalam.com

Meter & Light: Night

Meter & Light: Night is a 3-channel audiovisual installation which enacts in miniature and in music the interlocking rhythms of time in Muslim life, specifically after sunset: prayers marking the last light, sleepless recitations marking the Night of Power, retreat to sacred shrines, the forgiveness of debts and donations of food for all to share at dawn. The Documentation & Storytelling Fund will be used to help document each step of the process as the creative, ritual, and public dimensions of the project move from development to the final stages of production and exhibition.

A dimly lit room is filled with an audience seated on the floor, facing three large projections that span the front and side walls. The central projection shows animated white squares of varying sizes floating against a black background. On the left and right walls, close-up videos of a brown-skinned, South Asian person's eye dominate the space, each with a glistening reflection of stars or lights in the pupil. In front of the central screen, silhouetted audience members are visible, with a few standing or moving about. Among them, one person with medium-dark skin and short curly hair appears to be operating audiovisual equipment on a table. Two ceiling-mounted projectors and large speakers are visible above and around the room. The atmosphere illuminates the activation of an immersive audiovisual performance and video installation.
Meter & Light: Night, a live activation of a work-in-progress preview at Recess in Brooklyn, NY (2024). Photo: Manuel Molina.