We must recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created. – Audre Lorde
What is Blackness? On whose terms is it defined? What does it look like when a person, contrary to society’s demands, fearlessly embraces their Blackness and queerness? How do such rich identities inform one another? Writing, illustration, and performance are some of the tools that artists are using to address these very questions. Whether it’s with a pen like the late Audre Lorde’s or a mic like Staceyann Chin’s, people of African descent are exploring their spirituality, honoring ancestors, and reclaiming their rage as a tool of social transformation.
Today, we are excited to unveil our 2017 Global Arts Fund grantee partners. Inspired by the global and transnational responses to the systemic oppression of Black people and the historic movements that have stood up against anti-Black racism, Astraea’s Global Arts Fund is honored to award 15 grants to artists around the world who are interrogating the construct, concept, and culture of Blackness. In addition to the myriad histories of violences Black bodies have incurred, these impressive works also address Blackness with incredible joy and celebration.
This year’s Global Arts Fund awardees interrogate Blackness, gender, and sexuality in creative, assertive, and inspiring ways. The impressive recipients include: a feminist muralist in Brazil; Afro-Caribbean political artists in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, a South African trans collective using performance art as protest; POC artist workshops and musicians throughout the United States. This year’s Global Arts Fund celebrates the incredible depth and genius of LGBTQI Black artists globally.
Astraea’s Global Arts Fund aims to showcase and connect impactful art by LGBTQI people and organizations in the United States and internationally that have limited access to resources and are using art as a tool for social transformation. We are committed to supporting artists working at the intersection of arts and activism because we believe that art has the power to spark courageous dialogue, catalyze action, and help us imagine a more just world.
