Community Storytelling

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support a time capsule book and website of essays, photographs, poems and other creative formats documenting the Uprising (Against White Supremacy, in Defense of Black Lives) in Philadelphia from May-June 2020. The project will collage intergenerational reflections of Black Philadelphians with an intersectional emphasis and attunement to the ongoing labor of “how we get free.”

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the “Johnson Park” project an exploration of the relationship between public art and power. A response to the uprisings and demands for removal of racist monuments throughout the nation, the project addresses how communities create memorials through a democratic and participatory process. Using audio-visual media to re-commemorate a public space in Camden that once depicted a racist frieze, Unmemorial will include a series of media projects that would create new and more ethical modes of commemoration that includes public critique and conversation.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the production of "Audio Olney," a monthly podcast featuring diverse Olney community leaders, residents and artists and designed to address arts & culture and local issues. The podcast will reflect Olney Culture Lab's mission of showcasing the diverse cultural expressions in Olney, strengthening community networks, and building social capital.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the creation of the Coatesville Black Media Renaissance (CBMR) project, which will use storytelling and media-making to heal and reconcile race relations in the city of Coatesville. Specifically, CMBR will provide local artists and storytellers a vehicle to amplify community voices through a variety of media platforms such as film, print media, and mural arts to create a community driven media model that activates change against unjust media narratives, policing, and other racist practices that continue to marginalize Coatesville residents.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the creation of a video documentary and multimedia performance of young peoples' artistic response to the impact of COVID-19 on their lives and their communities.