Brooklyn Arts Council celebrates the contributions of Black artists every day. In this national month of recognition, we would like to introduce a few of our Community Arts Grants recipients: Black Girls Sew, Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop (BRTW), GrowHouse NYC, Oluwaseyi “Shayee” Awoyomi, Raja Feather Kelly, and Roots. Wounds. Words. These individuals and organizations are using their talents to champion Black heritage, raise awareness of important social issues, spark necessary conversations, and create positive, everlasting social change in our community.
It’s thanks to artists and cultural practitioners that Brooklyn has long been celebrated for its diversity and authenticity. The arts are key to creating a community atmosphere that is supportive, inclusive, and participatory. Here at Brooklyn Arts Council, we empower artists by providing programs and distributing grants that build and invest in our borough’s extraordinary creative community. With a deep commitment to the values of justice and equity, BAC serves artists by lifting up their voices and providing platforms to share their narratives. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the announcement of our first-ever Creative Equations Fund grantees, whose work centers on art-based social justice initiatives.
Click the button below or keep scrolling to learn more about just a few of the Black artists and organizations in our network who make our borough more vibrant.
BLACK GIRLS SEW
Image by Dominique Sindayiganza (@sindayiganza)
Black Girls Sew is committed to having a positive impact on the lives of youth and families through education in sewing, design, and entrepreneurship. The mission of Black Girls Sew is to give women and youth the tools they need to create a more fashionable future by teaching fundamental life skills such as creativity and resourcefulness through the design process.
BAC supported the 2021 “Sew Green Fashion Camp” through our Brooklyn Arts Fund grant program. Sew Green Fashion Camp is a summer program for children with an interest in fashion and sewing, but little to no exposure to the industry. The aim of the camp is to encourage youth to participate in creating ethical fashion from the vantage point of the entrepreneur.
Learn more about Black Girls Sew:
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Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop
Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop (BRTW). Photo by Aidan McLellan, 2018.
Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop (BRTW) exists to disrupt any and all oppressive systems that marginalize Black people using narrative and performance as a methodology to recenter Black people and experiences. With economic, social, educational, healthcare, housing, and political injustice facing our community, BRTW aims to tackle the issues that impact us while becoming a beacon for Black opportunity within the arts.
In 2021, BRTW received a Brooklyn Arts Fund grant to support their “Melanated Mondays” program, a monthly curated selection of new works by the hottest up-and-coming Black writers.
Learn more about Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop:
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GROWHOUSE NYC
GrowHouse NYC creates spaces and experiences where Black people across disciplines, generations, and continents can learn and grow together. The organization envisions a world where Black youth are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experiences to become visionary leaders who think globally and act locally to build equitable societies.
BAC supported GrowHouseNYC’s “AfroFutura: In Contemplation of Freedom” project featuring both emerging and established Brooklyn artists. AfroFutura is an annual gathering to explore emerging technology, multimedia visual art, video, and hands-on workshops that focus on communities of color historically, at present, and in the potential future.
Learn more about GrowHouse NYC:
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OLUWASEYI “SHAYEE” AWOYOMI
Oluwaseyi “Shayee” Awoyomi is a multifaceted multimedia artist of the Yoruba people in Nigeria. Shayee received a Brooklyn Arts Fund grant for the “Heal Our Land: Share, Engage, Empower” art project. Each week for seven weeks, seven children were invited for a 2-hour art session using beads which culminated in an open-air exhibition. This project focused on fostering the advancement and improvement required for a better tomorrow through the perspective of children.
In Shayee’s words, “This project is a movement to align our thoughts and actions to the healing of our land, our existence, and the community and our mind . . . The birth of this movement goes beyond the physical. It is a project beyond one's ability, but that of a collective community, coming together for a common goal from an artistic lens. This is a social movement to create the changes we want to see and empower enough people to communicate and transcend into that change.”
Learn more about Oluwaseyi “Shayee” Awoyomi:
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Raja Feather Kelly
Photo by Kate Enman.
Raja Feather Kelly is an esteemed choreographer and artistic director of New Brooklyn Theatre. In 2009, he founded a dance-theatre-media company, the feath3r theory, which merged with New Brooklyn Theatre in 2018. Kelly’s work exists to democratize the theatre—to increase the space for unheard voices and repressed histories, to bring into the theatre those sometimes left out, and to use theatre to provoke public conversation.
BAC supported the creation of the visual album of poetry, dance, history, and sound, “You Cannot Cover the Sun with Mud.” Still in production, this project is a collaboration of director and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, seven movement artists, videographer Laura Snow, photographer Kate Enman, musician Emily Wells, and musical director Remy Kurs. The album will focus on the surreal and on an admiration of Brooklyn. Combining sound, writing, movement, music, and image, with Brooklyn as the backdrop, Kelly created a new multidisciplinary chapter to speak to Brooklyn's history.
Learn more about Raja Feather Kelly:
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ROOTS. WOUNDS. WORDS.
Roots. Wounds. Words. offers literary arts programming including educational workshops, storyteller performances, publication opportunities, and a writers' retreat. Roots. Wounds. Words. ensures that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Brown and other People of Color have a safe, inclusive space to craft and tell their stories.
Our Local Arts Support grant assisted the organization’s “Penning My Pieces,” a creative nonfiction writing workshop for Brooklyn residents who identify as Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Brown, or of Color. Throughout the workshop, participating storytellers read and learn from the contemporary narrative nonfiction, pen personal essays anchored in literary craft, and center their own lived experiences, as well as perform their literary art at an online community storyteller showcase.
Learn more about Roots. Wounds. Words.:
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