PAST FELLOWS
Fall 2022
Yanni Young:
COMING IN STORIES: CONVERSATIONS W/ BLACK LGBTQ ELDERS IN HARLEM
BLACK UTOPIAN Fellow 2022
Yanni Young is a Black, queer, multidisciplinary artist from Harlem whose work spans theater, music, podcasting, and documentary filmmaking. Their project, Coming in Stories: Conversations w/ Black LGBTQ Elders in Harlem, builds on their experience hosting the “Soul Rebel Podcast,” which highlighted the voices and journeys of Black artists, healers, and grassroots organizers.
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Dena Igusti: A BIT TUARY
Dena Igusti is a queer, nonbinary Indonesian Muslim poet, playwright, filmmaker, and activist from Queens, New York. Their project, A Bit Tuary, reflects their powerful storytelling across poetry, theater, and film, with work presented at venues including The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, and international festivals. They are the author of Cut Woman and I Need This to Not Swallow Me Alive and the founder of Dearest Mearest. Learn More —>>
Nia Witherspoon: PRIESTESS OF TWERK
Nia O. Witherspoon is a Black queer multidisciplinary artist and healing justice practitioner exploring Black liberation, desire, and diaspora through writing, performance, sound, and installation. Their project, Priestess of Twerk, creates a Black femme temple to pleasure and wisdom, offering spaces for communion and healing. Recent works include Chronicle, X: The Dark Girl Chronicles, and MESSIAH. Learn More —>>
SPRING 2022
Emmanuel Oni: BEYOND MEMORIAL
Emmanuel Oni’s project, Beyond Memorial, applies his spatial justice practice to confront trauma, reclaim public spaces, and envision futures for healing. As a Nigerian-American artist and designer, he draws on his background in architecture and community design to shape restorative environments. Learn More —>>
Alicia Raquel Morales:
CROWNING IN OCTOBER, OR HOW TO CHANGE SHAPE WHILE REMEMBERING YOUR NAME…
CLIMATE JUSTICE Fellow 2022
Alicia Raquel Morales’s project, Crowning in October (or how to change shape while remembering your name), weaves ritual, identity, and transformation into interactive dance works. Rooted in their Boricua, queer, and street dance background, they bring movement into public spaces to spark connection and storytelling.
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Tara Aliya Kesavan & Indranil Choudhury:
Tara Aliya Kesavan and Indranil Choudhury, media artists working across film, sound, sculpture, and video, served as the 2022 LAB MFA residents at Locust Projects in Miami. Their month-long residency culminated in a collaborative exhibition presented from July 23 to August 13, 2022.
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FALL 2021
The Lebanese Mafia:
SALON AL-MAHJAR صالون المھجر
Salon Al-Mahjar is a feminist open mic platform amplifying the voices of immigrant queer, trans, and allied creatives from Southwest Asia and North Africa. The project fosters community through performance, dialogue, and resistance to censorship. Learn More —>>
Ann Bennett:
LINEAGE LAUNCHPAD © - ANCESTORS’ TONIC
Black Utopian Fellow 2021
Ann Bennett’s project, Lineage Launchpad © – Ancestors’ Tonic, builds on her award-winning career as a documentary filmmaker exploring history, culture, and technology in multicultural communities. An Emmy-nominated producer, she creates storytelling platforms that honor ancestral legacies and connect them to the present.
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Zain Alam: BED-STUY FAITH ARCHIVE
Zain Alam’s project, Bed-Stuy Faith Archive, builds on his multidisciplinary practice, merging oral history, sound, and visual media to explore community memory and identity. Known for his recording project Humeysha, Alam draws on influences from Bollywood, Islamic art, and contemporary pop forms to create layered works of cultural translation. Learn More —>>
SPRING 2021
Cody Herrmann:
FLUSHING WATERWAYS BOATHOUSE
CLIMATE JUSTICE Fellow 2021
Flushing Waterways Boathouse builds on Herrmann’s long-term work in Flushing, Queens, applying participatory design and urban resilience strategies to address land use and environmental planning around Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek. Her practice integrates public space advocacy with human-centered ecological problem solving.
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Angela Miskis:
"LEAVE SOME FOR ME." A PROJECT BY ABUELA NEIGHBORHOOD MAINTENANCE
Angela Miskis is an Ecuadorian-born artist and community organizer whose project, "Leave Some for Me," draws on her commitment to social service and sustainable futures in Southeast Queens. Through her Utopian Practice Fellowship, she integrates art and activism to foster healthier, more connected communities. Learn More —>>
Bianca Mońa: HEALING EMBODIED: STORIES OF MOVEMENT FOR JOY
Healing Embodied: Stories of Movement for Joy, explores contemporary Africa and its diaspora through oral history and sound. As an artist, curator, and educator, she uses investigative storytelling to illuminate lived experiences shaped by gender, heritage, and social context. Learn More —>>
FALL 2020
Dennis Redmoon Darkeem:
MEN OF COLOR HEALING ARTS CENTER
BLACK UTOPIAN FELLOW 2020
Dennis will explore locating donated land to create a sacred space for Black and indigenous families to partake in healing through nature, art therapy practices and Indigenous and southern traditional customs. Learn More —>>
Alexandra Hammond: BOA’S REPAIR SHOP
Boa’s Repair Shop offers free workshops for the repair of physical objects and metaphysical states of being. Breaking is a normal part of embodied life and physical existence, from marriages to plates to self-worth. It sometimes marks the end of life in one particular form. Learn More —>>
Luca Lee & Dominika Ksel: IN(QUEERIES): VR/AR QUEER HISTORY
In(Queeries): VR/AR Queer History Project is a series of educational interactive VR/AR works that create visibility to the erased history of Queer communities in New York City; existing as a web-based experience, and as site-specific, public, immersive installations. Learn More —>>
SPRING 2020
Simone Johnson: Shades of Blue
CLIMATE JUSTICE FELLOW 2020
Experiment Shades of Blue explored policy, law, design and storytelling as tools of world-building for earth-centered water futures. Simone focused on researching The Rights of Nature, the emerging field of law called Earth Jurisprudence, and the movement to revitalize Indigenous laws in Canada, as well as other intersecting interests. Learn More —>>
Von Bl3ssing: Green Afrofuturist Project
CLIMATE JUSTICE FELLOW 2020
Concentrating on the racial and class politics of climate change, and their uneven affect on communities of color, Von Bl3ssing seeks ways to transport marginalized people into radical visions of environmentalism, to create stories and studies of and strategies to resist ecological crisis through a 'Green Afrofuturist Project.' Learn More —>>