Cultures of Resistance Award Recipients
Photo by Victor Dragonetti
The following is a complete list of Cultures of Resistance Awards recipients in text-only format:
Anita Abada: Abada is a Nigerian filmmaker who tells impact-driven stories. She focuses on original stories about social issues that educate, inform, and seek redress. She wrote and directed “Efun (Flesh),” a short film on female genital mutilation that screened at the European Union campaign for “Fighting Sexual and Gender-Based Violence with Storytelling” in Nigeria. “Efun” also won the World Health Organisation’s special prize for “Health Educational Film for Youth” at the 2021 Health for All Film Festival. She also organizes a community for women in the film industry called Film Make Her, which provides opportunities to young female talents in the film industry in Nigeria.Walla Abdalazez and Afra Saad: Walaa Abdalazez and Afra Saad are the producer and director of the Sudanese film Their Struggle Is Deficient. The film looks at the political exclusion of women from decision-making positions and features interviews with twenty-two women. Abdalazez was the first female production manager in Sudan. Her passion is empowering women in media production and showcasing their voices. Saad is an independent filmmaker from Khartoum who makes films that seek to amplify the voices of women and girls in Sudan and reflect their experiences, lives, and diminished struggles. Abdalazez and Saad are using the award to complete editing and color correction on Their Struggle Is Deficient.
Mohamed Adam: Adam is a singer, composer, and researcher. His research focuses on the music of ethnic groups in Sudan, looking at how music reflects identity and the great role it plays in spreading peaceful coexistence. He is also a cofounder of Nogara Project, which aims to collect and promote ethnic and traditional music in Sudan. He is using the award to support Nogara Project’s work, which includes producing songs and making a short documentary.Sibusiso Adontsi, also known as Sadon: Sadon, a rapper and spoken word artist from Lesotho, is using the award to buy educational equipment, such as a PA system, a projector, and a computer to set up a space for youth classes about mental liberation, poetic advocacy, and economic freedom.
Omar Ahmad Khaled: Ahmad Khaled is a singer-songwriter living in the Mar Elias Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. Originally a refugee in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, he was displaced once again and became a refugee in Lebanon. The experience prompted him to write and sing about the daily life of refugees and the struggles they face. The environment in which he lives in inspired him to reflect on his experiences and what he sees daily in the camp. He is using the award to produce some of his songs.Khursheed Ahmad: Ahmad is an artist who works across many disciplines including performance, text, sound, drawing, found object and photography. His work is interested in space, bodies and language. Ahmad’s displayed work has included various found and sculpted objects, some evocative of dargahs and mosques, as well as photographs of the area surrounding Kashmir. Additionally, Ahmad’s work has included performance involving poetry readings, videos and participatory activities alongside the audience.
Moosta Ahmed: Ahmed is an Egyptian art student and photographer who contributes to Everyday Egypt, a platform that publishes street and documentary photography from Egypt.Nicholas Akbar: Akbar is an activist, musician, and arts organizer from Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Through his group Gazp, Akbar hosts activist film screenings and produces music videos and short films. He also organizes events and activities that aim to increase his community’s awareness of social justice issues. He holds classes for local children to study English, art, and computers. He is using the award to support his work organizing classes, as well as to support Gazp’s film events and productions.
Tobi Akinde: Akinde is a Nigerian filmmaker, film curator, and researcher with a keen interest in protest culture and the representation of the everyday as a way to balance out established stereotypes, speak to social justice, and deliberately document time. Some of his films include We are Tired (2020), a documentary on sexual violence, and Soja Go Soja Come (2021), a short film on the effects of COVID-19 on already precarious livelihoods and the staying power of the will to survive. His works have been screened at festivals, film clubs, cultural institutions, and community events. He co-curates Monangambee, a monthly Pan-African nomadic micro-cinema, and co-organizes weekly screenings at Thursday Film Series, a film club for students at the University of Ibadan to encourage political conversation. He has also curated films for the African Studies Book Club, University of Cambridge UK, and done work relating to film for universities in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Nigeria. He is using the award to purchase a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K to complete the filming of his documentary film project titled CAMP US.
Al Caravan: Established in 2008, Magic Caravan is a mobile caravan that offers educational, entertainment, and cultural workshops for children, youth, and women. The workshops focus on the arts, theater, and music. Al Caravan is using the award for art and theater classes for kids and families in a refugee camp in northern Syria, close to Turkey.
Al-Hal Fi Al-Fan, known as Salvation in Art: Salvation in Art is a group of young graffiti artists who make murals around Sudan to commemorate key events of the revolution, celebrate occasions such as International Women’s Day and Human Rights Day, show solidarity with Black Lives Matter and other international movements, and spread health awareness about the Covid-19 pandemic. The group is using the award to buy art materials for a mural project.
Al-Neelain University Faculty of Plastic Art and Design: Al-Neelain University was established on March 13, 1993, as an academic and administrative offshoot of Cairo University. It is considered the largest university in Sudan, in terms of the number of students. It is using the award to cover art materials for students.Ali Al Shehabi: Al Shehabi is a photographer from Bahrain. He began photography as a hobby using his mother’s old analog cameras, but his everyday experimental photography eventually became his passion and he moved to Japan to study the medium. He now focuses on using photography as a means of artistic storytelling and aims to shed light on his Middle Eastern culture, creating portraits that juxtapose traditional Muslim dress with modern streetscapes. He is using the award to purchase a new film camera and to support his project “Middle East to the World.”
Amado Alfadni: Alfadni is an Egyptian-born Sudanese artist. His childhood was composed of two environments: the Cairene street and the Sudanese home. The relationship and tension between the two strongly influenced his view of both cultures, leading him to question the concepts of identity, ethnicity, and nationality. His artistic practice focuses on research and documenting ignored historical events. His work discusses the relationship between the included and the excluded, starting conversations about identity and politics. By working with forgotten historical events and current state policies, he raises questions of power dynamics between the individual and authority on a social and political level, giving voice to political minorities. He is using the award for his Askari project.
Eyitayo Alagbe: Alagbe, also known as “Tayo Coals”, is a multi-media painter and an indigene of Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. Tayo, who has been an artist since childhood, has now been a practicing professional for several years. He is currently studying for a Degree in Fine and Applied Arts at the esteemed Obafemi Awolowo University.
Alia Ali: Ali (Arabic: عاليه علي) is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multimedia artist who lived in and between seven countries and grew up among five languages. Her work incorporates photography, video, and installation. Her travels have led her to process the world through interactive experiences, and she believes that the damage of translation and interpretation of written language has not served particular communities, resulting in the threat of their exclusion, rather than a means of understanding. Ali’s work reflects on the politics of contested notions of linguistics, identity, borders, universality, colonization, mental/physical confinement, and the inherent dualism that exists in each of them. She is using the award for a futuristic experiential video installation to explore and generate radical narratives of Yemeni selfhood. This project will evolve from personal narratives and sites of Yemeni cultural production through its diaspora.
Amahoro Dummers: Amahoro Drummers are a group of fifteen drummers from Burundi who were forced from their homes and now live in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. They perform Burundian drums in an effort to share the beauty of their culture with others. They are using the award to start a restaurant in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp with African food and drinks.
Art Melody: Art Melody is a Burkinabè rapper and farmer who has released seven albums, viewing his attachment to the land as fundamental to his musical perspective. He draws inspiration from his mother’s roots, ’70s Afro-soul music, and New York rappers such as Busta Rhymes and Wu Tang Clan. He is using the award to support his upcoming new album.
Sylvia Arthur: Arthur is a writer and the founder of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD), a decolonized library, archive, museum, and writing residency dedicated to the work of African and diaspora writers from the late-nineteenth century to the present day. Based in Accra, Ghana, Arthur began the library with her own collection of 1,300 books. LOATAD now holds about 4,000 books by, and ephemera from, writers from forty-one of Africa’s fifty-four countries, as well as work by Black authors from the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. LOATAD uses literature as a form of activism in two ways: The first is by producing, preserving, and disseminating knowledge derived from a literature that has been unrecognized, at best, and hidden, at worst. The second is by expanding and diversifying the meaning of literature and libraries from an elite institution into one for all people by incorporating traditional African methods of oral storytelling into the exclusive institution of the written and print library.
Aslaf Band: Aslaf is a Sudan-based band focused on highlighting, preserving, and advancing Sudanese musical heritage. It is using the award for a music video project. Aty Guasu: Aty Guasu, of the Guarani and Kaiowá peoples, is an organization of Indigenous communities that were expelled with violence and force from Indigenous lands during the military dictatorship, from the 1950s and 1980s, in Brazil. Aty Guasu began fighting to guarantee food and water for expelled communities in 1980. Since 1990, the organization has worked to strengthen Indigenous human rights, including guaranteeing health care and Indigenous school education. Aty Guasu Guarani Kaiowá also supports and encourages art, culture, and religious rituals. It is using the award to meet the emergency needs of Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous families by providing them with basic necessities.
Tammam Azzam: Azzam was born in Damascus, Syria. He started painting at 10 years old and went on to study fine arts at Damascus University, specializing in oil painting. He is using the award to support his solo show at Kornfield Gallery in Berlin.
Baghdad Walk: Organized by Tarkib, Baghdad Walk is a group exhibition and guided tour with presentations by twenty-two young Iraqi artists. The artists connect their work to the locations, introducing background information on site. Stories about the city of Baghdad are told and retold anew through the artists’ perspectives and the encounters they create. Baghdad Walk is using the award to cover the production costs associated with the artwork.
Yasser Bakhit: Bakhit is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza who was forced to flee his home and move to Dubai, where he has been fortunate to train in swimming, running, and cycling. One day, he hopes to represent Palestine at the Olympics as a triathlete. He is using the award to purchase a road bike.Dana Barqawi: Dana Barqawi is a multidisciplinary artist and urban planner, based in Amman, Jordan. For Dana, the act of artistic creation is inseparable from notions of the real world. In times of socio-political change, she creates politically and socially engaged art. Dana’s work challenges colonial narratives, and explores indigenous identities and aspects of womanhood and community.
Miguel de Barros: de Barros is a Pan-African sociologist, investigator, and activist from Guinea Bissau. He is using the award to translate his book on environmental education, citizenship, and traditional cultures, to know to love, to love to protect – an experience of education for the environment and citizenship in Guinea-Bissau. He is also using the award for logistics and food support for artists who are making murals in Guinea Bissau honoring the heroes of independence through the project “Caminhos Urbanos.”
Bemba Puerto Rico (Bemba PR) is a Puerto Rican street art collective that encourages political participation through art. In the past, Bemba PR has trained young artists to create politically-engaged work in public spaces. Bemba PR’s Mayagüez Art District (MAD) project aims to transform an abandoned structure into a common mutual support space that will operate a social kitchen, offer educational workshops for children, and provide other community support programs. Bemba PR’s goal is to use urban design and community organization as ways to socialize resources for communities in need. Bemba PR received CoR Award in 2022 and will use the award grant to help build a rooftop garden in their MAD space.
Berger Badere Bellegie: Bellegie is part of Okapi Team in Malawi. Founded in 2016 at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp, Okapi Team is a group of young alumni of the camp who provide assistance to communities living in Dzaleka and its surrounding area. Okapi Team focuses on educating young women and men for a better future. Beyond giving them an opportunity to join education initiatives and start apprenticeships, Okapi provides them room to expand their talents. For example, the Okapi Dancing Crew performed at the Tumaini Festival in 2017, and was then invited to perform at big events in Malawi’s capital city, where it has become well known. Okapi Team is using the award to purchase a sound system.
Omar Bhat: Bhat is a sculptor and multimedia artist based in Pulwama, Kashmir. Provoked by government efforts to displace tribal people from their homes, he decided to use visual art as a form of resistance, making suppressed voices heard through his work. His art incorporates quotidian objects that symbolize displacement. His mediums include POP, acrylics, clay, found objects, wood, and metal. He is using the award for a project highlighting the forced displacement of tribal people in Kashmir, as well as to buy art materials for the children and teens of tribal communities.Christian Braga: Braga is a photographer and documentary filmmaker from Manaus, Amazonas. He is member of the Farpa agency and has dedicated his work to human rights and socio-environmental issues, with a focus on the Amazon, documenting environmental crimes, the struggle for Indigenous rights, and the diverse histories of the Amazon region. He has contributed to organizations including Greenpeace, ISA – Instituto Socioambiental, and IACHR – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and published in national and international publications such as Al Jazeera, Vice Brasil, National Geographic, The Guardian, and The Intercept. He is using the award to support his work about stories in the Amazon, giving visibility to resistance movements and denouncing crimes committed against the environment and the peoples who live in the region.
Camps Breakerz Crew: Camps Breakerz Crew is a breakdance crew in the Gaza Strip’s Nusirat refugee camp. The crew aims to represent peace and freedom for Palestine by dancing and hosting workshops and other events across the world. To give back to its community of Gaza, the group has hosted breakdancing shows and offered dance classes to local children since 2003. Camps Breakerz Crew is using the award to organize breakdancing cyphers in Gaza, starting in Nusairat Camp, to share their love of dancing and introduce more people to the art form.
Cave_bureau: Cave_bureau is a Nairobi-based bureau of architects and researchers charting explorations into architecture and urbanism within nature. Its work addresses and works to decode both anthropological and geological contexts of the postcolonial African city, explored through drawing, storytelling, construction, and the curation of performative events of resistance. The bureau’s Anthropocene Museum best encapsulates its praxis where it curates a convening of community groups in different locations to confront pressing environmental and cultural challenges of the times that they face, and together develop ways to mitigate them. Cave_bureau is using the award to promote the Anthropocene Museum programs that empower the communities with which the group works.
Farah Chamma: A poet and performer from Palestine, Chamma is known for her spoken-word performances, in which she combines orality, acting, and live music. She has lived in Brazil, France, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, and her shows incorporate several languages, including Arabic, English, and French. She studied philosophy and sociology at the Sorbonne, after which she completed a master’s degree in performance and culture at Goldsmiths, University of London.Irma Chávez Cruz: Chávez Cruz is an Indigenous Raramuri (Tarahumara) leader, activist, and teacher. She has a master’s degree in human rights—the the first person from her community of Rejogachi, as well as one of the only Raramuri ever, to earn an advanced degree. She works to protect Raramuri land and rights against narco mafias that have killed their leaders, cut down their forests, and threatened her family. She founded a nonprofit organization that communicates directly with the Mexican government to defend Indigenous lands and rights. She is also leading a project to provide clean water, seed banks, and sustainable agriculture to schools and communities so they can continue living and thriving in their ancestral lands.
Checkpoint 303: Using site recordings predominantly from Palestine and the Arab world, Checkpoint 303 constructs live soundscapes that weave cinematic audio with experimental sound processing and complex rhythms. Through its compositions, collected sounds, and noise, Checkpoint 303 spreads a message of peace and a call for respecting human rights. Contrasting with the mainstream media’s exclusive depiction of violence and suffering in the Middle East, Checkpoint 303’s sound collages report on the heroic hope that exists in the region, as well as the seemingly banal but ever so meaningful little things that embody a daily search for normality in a state of emergency. Checkpoint 303 is using the award to support its forthcoming EP, which celebrates the struggle of Black people and Palestinians, as well as the solidarity between the two movements, through electronic music, audio recycling, and collage.
Children’s Art Club: Children’s Art Club is a group organized for children in Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp, which houses about 40,000 refugees and asylum seekers—half of which are children—from countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and Ethiopia. The questions behind the club’s founding were: Is a refugee here just to cry, to beg, and not be skilled? No. Why do we only assist on the weaknesses of refugees (giving food, medication, etc.) and forget about their strengths, their activities, and their talents? The club’s aims are educating children about the arts; improving and promoting their talent; letting them share skills and knowledge; preparing them to become educators and entertainers for other people; sharpening their knowledge and skills as actresses and actors of tomorrow; changing their difficult behaviors toward the community and families; involving unaccompanied minors in community service; building collaborations between separated children, orphans, and unaccompanied children with other people; developing self-reliance in children through the gift of the arts; promoting public speaking in children; helping them become tools of change in the community through the performing arts; and strengthening them as voices of the voiceless. The Children’s Art Club is using the award to purchase art supplies.
Patrick Chimbewa: Chimbewa is a musician from Ntchisi, Malawi, who performs using an instrument he makes himself called the nsansi, or thumb piano. He makes the instruments by hand and teaches others how to play the nsansi and the drums, as well as how to do traditional Malawian dances, such as the “gwanyasa,” with his band and dance troupe. He is using the award to make more instruments.Juan C. Dávila: Juan Carlos Dávila, born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, is a documentary filmmaker, news producer and activist. His work focuses on environmental justice, networked social movements and data colonialism. He is the director of the feature-length documentary film, Simulacros de Liberación (2021), which was released in theaters across Puerto Rico. Previously he directed two other long-form documentary films: Compañeros de lucha (2012) and Vieques: una batalla inconclusa (2016). His filmography also includes the award winning short film, La generación del estanbai (2016), as well as Aftershocks of Disaster (2020), Networked Education (2020), Rayito de sol (2021), and a TV pilot for the documentary series The Response.
Rajana Dorzhieva: Dorzhieva is an artist who was born in the city of Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia. She works in collage and abstract art techniques. With the help of these techniques, she can express her emotions and feelings while carrying out creative research work. She has a great interest and inner need to study the Buryat cultural heritage. In her work, she reinterprets the rich world of Buryat folklore and creates art by drawing inspiration from the past and interpreting it in a modern way. In her exhibition titled “Collage as a research method,” she released a project devoted to the study of the history and culture of the peoples of Buryatia. She created a series of twenty-one collages, where each collage was dedicated to a specific region in the Republic, reflecting the uniqueness of the area according to legends and tales. Dorzhieva also works with textile abstraction, where she lays a certain code for the culture of her people. She is using the award to purchase art materials.
Dripz: Dripz, a graphic designer and conservation artist in Lesotho, is using the award to expand his art studio’s recycling initiative to show more people why recycling resources is the best way to make a living and care for the environment.
Ecodefense: Ecodefense is an environmental organization that was founded in Kaliningrad, Russia, at the end of 1989. The group now has chapters in cities including Moscow, Kaliningrad, and Novokuznetsk. It is using the award for its campaign against coal in Russia, particularly for training anti-coal activists and producing and spreading information on how coal damages the climate.
eL Seed: eL Seed uses a distinctive style of Arabic calligraphy to spread messages of peace and unity, as well as to underline the commonalities of human existence. His artwork aims to bring communities together and redress stereotypes. He is using the award to promote Tunisian craftwork, focusing on women who work with tapestries.
Rehab Eldalil: Eldalil is documentary photographer and visual storyteller based in Egypt. She is using the award to develop a floral guidebook of the Sinai region, in collaboration with tribe elders from her Bedouin community. Her goal is to create an archive of the plants and herbs that have medicinal and hygienic benefits. The guide celebrates the traditional and modern Bedouin identity and is aimed at younger generations in the Bedouin community, teaching them how to use the land’s harvest.Ifeoma Fafunwa: Fafunwa is a social impact theatre-maker living and working in Lagos, Nigeria. She is the founder and creative director of iOpenEye, a Nigerian non-profit production company that utilizes performance art to drive social change.
Escola Apecatu: Apecatu Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that aims to develop early childhood education and culture on the outskirts of Itapevi, São Paulo, Brazil. Since its founding, the association has created projects that help to transform the lives of local children and young people in the municipality. The founders are film and television professionals who, in partnership with the community, have created a socio-educational experience recognized for quality and excellence: Escola Apecatu, or the Apecatu School. In addition to the school, the association also maintains a community library and a cinema room. The Cinema for All project holds film screenings for children, youth, and adults in a region where there are no movie theaters and most people have never had the opportunity to watch a movie on a big screen. The program includes fiction, animation, and documentary films, and the organization also uses this space to promote discussions and debate after the sessions. It believes in the power of cinema not only as entertainment but also as a transformative and mobilizing agent. Escola Apecatu is using the award to purchase a projector, screen, and sound system.Tony Fedorko: Tony Fedorko is a Slovakian filmmaker who started a production company called MUUV s.r.o. He is using the award for a series of short documentaries called “Varím z Farmy” (“I am cooking from a farm”). The series features Slovak farms, highlighting their troubles and everyday experiences. The goal of the series is to encourage people to buy from local farms, which are unable to compete with large supermarkets.
Fendika Cultural Center: A grassroots cultural organization in the center of Addis Ababa, Fendika Cultural Center’s mission is to celebrate and renew Ethiopia’s rich cultural heritage. Through the exchange of music, dance, art, and poetry, it meditates on humanity’s one-ness and works towards peace. The center’s vision is to nurture the creative community in Addis Ababa and grow into one of Africa’s most vibrant centers for artistic innovation and cultural exchange, grounded in rich Ethiopian heritage. Its values are creativity, peace, love, unity, and intergenerational connectivity. Its programming includes music, dance, visual art, poetry, and spoken word, as well as a community library focused on art and art history. The center is using the award to hire a media consultant to train staff members to make professional videos in order to film and broadcast live performances.
Food Not Bombs Sofia: Food Not Bombs Sofia is the Sofia, Bulgaria, branch of Food Not Bombs, the international movement for eco-social justice. It is a self-organized initiative for preparing and sharing vegan food and clothing with people in need. The group is using the award for kitchen expenses.
Marco Aníbal Guatemal Anrango: Guatemal Anrango is a Kichwa activist, youth leader, and educator in Ecuador. He works to preserve Andean medicine and strengthen traditional farming methods, organic food production, and animal husbandry in his community. He is using the award to construct a comprehensive healing site (HAMPI WASI), where he will recover medicinal plants from the environment, according to the worldview of the Kichwa Nationality, for the Kayambi People, to which he belongs.
Ali Haj Suleiman: Haj Suleiman is a photojournalist in northwestern Syria. In 2017, he decided to join the ranks of media professionals who document the suffering of Syrians and humanitarian violations against civilians. He believes in the importance of the camera in conveying and alleviating people’s suffering. He has worked with Middle East Eye and many other foreign news websites. He is using the award to purchase press safety equipment, as well as for a project about people collecting unexploded ordinances and selling the scrap metal, turning a tool of destruction into a source of livelihood for a large number of people.
Mohammed Hasan aka Mamado: Born in 1990 in Dongola, Sudan, Mamado is a creative activist and advocate for peace and social justice. His work is driven by meaning and political resistance. His art reflects, and is drawn from, his passion and indulgence in studies of heritage and history. Mamado’s artistic style features well-studied Nubian line work and patterns. His art has been exhibited in Oslo alongside work by other Sudanese artists. He is using the award for his Recycled Art School project, which is targeting homeless children to revitalize their creative spirit by providing them with a hosting space to learn and create art.
Hourria wa Salam: Hourria wa Salam, also known as the Saharawi Freedom and Peace Association, is a volunteer-based project run by Saharawis in refugee camps in Algeria. The group organizes enrichment actives for school children, including sports and educational competitions, and provides support to the most vulnerable families in the community. It is using the award to provide care packages for families in Tindouf, Algeria.
Aimé Césaire Ilboudo: Ilboudo is a reclaimed plastic artist from Burkina Faso who was featured in BURKINABÈ RISING: the art of resistance in Burkina Faso. He is part of AR-ECO-DE TILG-RE, an association of young volunteers from different socio-professional and cultural backgrounds. AR-ECO-DE TILG-REorganizes a cultural festival in Ouagadougou that works towards cultural, social, and humanitarian integration and aims to create and arouse interest in the protection of the environment in urban areas. The festival includes street art, mural art, workshops with resident artists, canvas creation and exhibitions, a large street parade with puppeteers and masks, and music. Ilboudo is using the award to support AR-ECO-DE TILG-RE.
Qusay Imad: Imad is a photographer and designer from Baghdad. He also works as a barber. His photos are taken on an iPhone 11 and aim to show the world that Baghdad is a beautiful and historic city. He is using the award to buy a new camera.
Riham Isaac: Isaac is a performance artist who combines acting, singing, dancing, and video to explore new mediums of live performance and multidisciplinary art. In her practice, she reflects on what it means to be producing innovative multidisciplinary artistic work in Palestine in the current moment. She explores themes including love, women and resistance, public space, multiple selves, and collective imagination from the perspective of a woman and a citizen in occupied Palestine. Her work is both playful and a profound commentary on a wide range of pressing issues related to gender, politics, and art. She presented her project “Another Lover’s Discourse” at the AWAN Festival – Arab Woman Artist Now in London in March 2020.
Jail Time Records: Jail Time Records is a non-profit music label that created a permanent recording studio inside Cameroon’s Central Prison of Douala—the first of its kind to exist in an African prison. It releases music by detainees and former detainees, aiming to improve social integration and alter society’s perception of incarceration. The label is a collective of musicians, music producers, and filmmakers from both inside and outside the prison. The project aims to expand its mission to other prisons, both in Africa and internationally, and to make a fresh and original contribution to music. Jail Time Records is using the award to purchase recording studio equipment and musical instruments to build a recording studio outside of the prison. This will allow the collective to focus on social reintegration and keep working with formerly incarcerated artists once they have left prison.Jardim das Brincadeiras: Jardim das Brincadeiras is a group of largely women and children from Brazil who share educational practices and research through natural playing, Brazilian culture, and their self-education. They focus on pedagogy that has emerged from backyards and outdoor spaces across Brazil. The group also works to amplify its action and inspire public schools and public policies. It is using the award to support its Quintais Brincantes (Brazilian spaces to free-play within nature) movement.
Khaled Jarrar: With photographs, videos, installations, films, and performances that are focused on his native Palestine, multidisciplinary artist Khaled Jarrar explores the impact of modern-day power struggles on ordinary citizens while seeking to maximize the social potential of artistic interventions. Over the last decade, Jarrar has used the subject of Palestine, particularly the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as a starting point for larger investigations of militarized societies, including the gendered spaces of violence and the links between economic and state powers that fuel and profit from war or political conflict. He is using the award to make a film called “Displaced in Heaven,” which follows a Syrian/Palestinian woman who immigrates from Nazareth in 1948 and ends up in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria.
Sultana Khaya: Khaya is a Saharawi human rights defender whose work focuses on promoting the right of self-determination for the Saharawi people and ending violence against Saharawi women through active participation in nonviolent efforts and demonstrations. She serves as the president of the Saharawi League for the Defense of Human Rights and the Protection of Western Sahara’s Natural Resources, and is a member of the Saharawi Commission against the Moroccan occupation (ISACOM). As an outspoken activist, she has been targeted by the occupying Moroccan forces while engaged in peaceful protests, enduring abductions, beatings, and having one eye gouged out.
Bhupi Jethwa (WiseTwo) : Known as WiseTwo, Jethwa is a street artist who was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, and has painted all over the world. His work explores ancient and Indigenous civilizations. It also speaks about race, culture, ideas, and inspiration for creating a better world, one mural at a time. He is using the award for a mural project in Jericho, Nairobi.
JUMP – Jeunesse Unie pour un Mouvement Positif : JUMP is a collective that promotes art and culture as means of social cohesion and integration in Burkina Faso. It brings together young professionals from different sectors, including artists, makers, designers, and writers. Its main objective is to link creativity and awareness of issues around education, the environment, sustainability of urban life, social equality, peace, and stability. JUMP is using the award for its “Beyond One Step One Dream” project, which is a choreographic and audiovisual production. The project includes a series of residencies and creative laboratories for young artists with the goal of contributing to their professionalization in the fields of choreography, dramaturgy, audiovisual production, food and health, the environment, communication, and administration.
Neo Kabi: Kabi, who works on campaigns for LGBTQI+ rights in Lesotho, is using the award to increase awareness of LGBTQI issues and address mental health concerns among the queer community.
Dina Kafafy: Immersed in botanical research, Kafafy cofounded the social enterprise Sinaweya in Egypt. Sinaweya bridges research, documentation, and ground-work activities that focus on the conservation of the Sinai’s cultural and natural heritage. Kafafy studied marketing and mass communication, obtained a master’s in fine arts from the University of the Arts, London, trained in cultural management in Berlin, and received her Permaculture Design Certification under the mentorship of Geoff Lawton. She is using the award to help design missing infrastructure in a mountain garden that Sinaweya is reviving.
Faraz Karachiwala: Karachiwala is a Pakistani artist, art curator, filmmaker and creative producer. His work has been recognized by prestigious platforms and film festivals both locally and internationally. He is using the award for a group art exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan.Kinact: Kinact is a project that promotes exchange between contemporary artists and cultural producers between southern and northern countries, in particular between Africa and Europea and between Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo and various European cities. The group hosts the Kinact Festival every year, an international event in Kinshasa where creative producers from multiple countries participate in educational workshops, performances, performing arts, screenings, conferences and public debates.
Athenkosi Kwinana: Athenkosi Kwinana is a South African visual artist who specializes in printmaking and drawing. Kwinana is a black woman person living with albinism (PLWA) and Kwinana’s artworks closely focus on themes related to albinism, human rights and gender dynamics. Kwinana is inspired by South African printmaker Diane Victor and visual activist Zanele Muholi.
Madleen Kullab: Kullab is the founder and leader of the Madleen Fishing Club and the only female fishing captain in Gaza. The club brings together and empowers fisherwomen and the wives of fishermen, as well as trains new fisherwomen so that women can learn new skills to help support their families. At the age of 13, Kullab took over her father’s fishing boat after he got sick. As the first female to take on that role, she faced condemnation from her conservative society and dangers stemming from the Israeli occupation of Gaza. She is using the award to rent a space for the women’s fishing club.
Mariyeh Mushtaq: Mushtaq is an independent researcher and women’s rights activist who runs Kashmir Pop Art, a digital art project about Kashmiri people, places, history, and politics. The project advocates for the accessibility of digital art-making for women who create resistance and political art. All of the artwork from Kashmir Pop Art is made in MS Word. Mushtaq is using the award to support her work making art as a form of resistance activism, including purchasing a graphics tablet, a stylus, and a camera.
Ayesha Kazim: Kazim is a freelance photographer whose work includes portraiture, documentary, and editorial. Growing up, she lived and studied in fourteen countries. This experience, in addition to her multicultural background as a British Nigerian-South African living abroad, motivates her to use photography as a mechanism for storytelling in an effort to unite different communities through art. Through image-making, she aims to portray people of color in positions of strength and power, while also evoking a sense of vulnerability. She is using the award to support her ongoing series, “This Home of Ours.” The project serves to establish a contemporary time capsule of the Bo Kaap neighborhood’s rich history within Cape Town, South Africa. At a time when both an influx of foreign residents and the Covid-19 pandemic are endangering the livelihood of many residents, this series seeks to provide a platform of visibility that amplifies the voices of community members and chronicles their experiences for generations to come. She is also using the award to distribute resources to the Bo Kaap Cultural Hub and Bo Kaap Community Garden, two organizations she documented and worked with throughout the pandemic.
Belal Khaled: Khaled is a Palestinian Arabic calligrapher who uses an unconventional way of writing Arabic characters to converse with the world through the aesthetics of the ancient letters. His focus on the alignment of letters and the unity of their placement gives Arabic writing harmony and agility. He has participated in individual and group exhibitions around the world and been featured in local and international news outlets. He is using the award for mural and art projects in Gaza and Somalia.
Priscillia Kounkou-Hoveyda: Priscillia Kounkou-Hoveyda is a human rights jurist, writer, filmmaker and creative director and founder of the Collective for Black Iranians, a creative and critically-conscious initiative proposing an Iranian culture that stands fully at its Black and African intersections. Priscillia’s work with the Collective for Black Iranians is inspired by a childhood spent in Tehran, Isfahan and Shomal, searching for visual representations and narratives that reflected her Black, African and Iranian intersections. The Collective produces original content, ranging from short films to illustrations to photography.
Seif Kousmate: Kousmate is a self-taught photographer who was born in Morocco and works in Mauritania. He specializes in social issues and has developed a visual vocabulary that stands between documentary photography and the poetry of fine art photography. He is using the award to support his photo essay titled “Haratin: Born to Serve,” which features portraits of former slaves in Mauritania.
Mohamed Sleiman Labat: Labat is a poet, calligrapher, artist, and refugee from Western Sahara who lives in the Smara refugee camp near Tindouf, Algeria. He is the founder of Motif Art Studio. He is using the award to develop a Seed Bank Project in the Smara camp. The project helps family gardens to collect, preserve, and exchange seeds.
Nikita Lamba: Lamba is a researcher who focuses on the human rights of Indigenous peoples in India. She has a background in investigative journalism and has spent years covering the struggles of marginalized communities. She is an expert on the right to freedom of speech and expression and holds an MA in Human Rights Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London).
Marta Lamovsek: Lamovsek is a Slovenian-born, Dubai-based photographer, visual artist, and creative director. She works with photography, art direction, installation, film, and collage to celebrate human vulnerability and seeks to capture the exuberance of street life in the Emirates. Her portfolio includes more than seventy titles, including VICE UK, British Vogue, i-D Magazine, The Guardian UK, and Le Monde France. She is using the award to support the production of her project “Sovereign Rebellion,” which will shine a light on change-makers, activists, and “noise makers” who stand for freedom of expression, truth, equality, and justice.
Le Jardin Jolof: Le Jardin Jolof is a visual artist from Senegal whose work features African masks, producing an aesthetic that mixes decoration, fashion, and cultural commentary. His photographed scenes involving masks celebrate and preserve African heritage while also confronting modern day social issues. As one example, his photo entitled “Arts and Plants” engages with ideas about the conservation of nature. His works also draw from historical references, while bringing in modern concerns and settings. Another of his photos is a tribute to the ancient Egyptian twin gods, “Shout” and “Tefnout,” who are depicted wearing Sarakhole masks.
Jafet Potenzo Lopes: Lopes is a naturalist and Timorese wildlife conservation and ocean photographer from the Com Timor Island. His work focuses on the terrestrial and oceans. He is using the award to undertake bird and dragonfly surveys in order to improve the knowledge of biodiversity, especially threatened bird species, in remote areas of Timor-Leste.
César López: López was born in Colombia, a country that continues to overcome more than fifty years of war and social injustice. In the late 1970s, as a 6-year-old boy, he confronted the reality of Colombia’s civil conflict when his sister was arrested and tortured by members of the state forces. Their family was persecuted and lived through situations that gave rise to a special sensitivity to the pain of armed violence. From this experience and trying to make sense of his own suffering, César found his vocation in healing and accompanying the victims of Colombia’s infamous violence, corruption, and social exclusion. This pushed him to become a human rights activist and dedicate himself to touring the country permanently, seeing firsthand the harshness of the war. His work focuses on conflict zones with disruptive projects like “24-0,” a collective action for cultural change that he has carried out for ten years and that attempts, on the official day of “Nonviolence,” to reduce homicides in Colombia, as well as in several other Latin American countries. Every October 2, for twenty-four uninterrupted hours, his teams have managed to reduce the official figures of violent deaths through artistic interventions and social pedagogy. César was also the creator of the “immediate reaction artistic battalion,” a group of artists who react in moments of crisis by making an immediate presence with their music and rejecting violence in communities where minutes before an attack, bomb, or violating action occurred. He is using the award to support his National Hope Orchestra project. This is a branch of his Instruments Bank project and consists of a selection of musical groups around the country that are supported not only with instruments but also with accompaniment to make sure they have teachers and are able to achieve the Orchestra’s main goal: tending to the historic memory of Colombia through music.
Polen Ly: Ly is a Cambodian filmmaker whose narratives depict indigenous people struggling against commercial logging and hydropower dam construction. His films have won numerous awards and been selected to screen at both local and international film festivals. He is using the award to support his current projects: a short documentary called Cemetery of Green Souls, which won an honorable mention in the Tribeca Film Institute’s IF/Then Shorts Global Pitch competition, and his first featured documentary, The Tongue Of Water.
Lynor Mahase and Kutlane Sehloho: Mahase and Sehloho are owners of Backyard@Lynors, an artist space in Masero, Lesotho. With the award, Mahase and Sehloho are sorting out running water, working on enhancing the kitchen, and renovating the yard at Backyard@Lynors. The award is also helping them acquire masks, sanitizer, and gloves.
Humberto Mancilla: Mancilla is the director of Bolivia’s PUKAÑAWI Center of Cultural Management, which houses the Human Rights Film Archives and organizes the International Festival of Human Rights Cinema. The archives aim to nurture the expression of cultural diversity through film and human rights education. The center provides visual education about human and Indigenous rights in Latin America to filmmakers and to the Bolivian public. PUKAÑAWI means “red eye” in the Quechua language and is an homage to the center’s roots in supporting Indigenous cinema.Emmanuel Alie Mansaray: Mansaray is a self-taught engineer and prospective geologist who focuses on climate action, the environment, renewable energy, and youth engagement. He is using the award to construct a workshop space and to purchase materials.
Yousef Masoud: Masoud is a photojournalist in the Gaza Strip. His camera conveys the suffering and tragedy of the Palestinian people. His work has been published in many international newspapers. He is using the award to purchase professional press safety equipment, including a helmet and shield.
Relebohile Mats’ela: Mats’ela lives in Lesotho and is using the award for a seed garden.
Kaizer Matsumunyane: Matsumunyane is the owner of the creative space Cafe What? Lesotho in Maseru. He is using the award to renovate Cafe What?. This includes making the space more acoustic-friendly by purchasing sound acoustic panels and proper sound equipment for musical performances by local artists.
Kristián Mensa, also known as Mr. Kriss: Kristián “Mr. Kriss” Mensa is a freelance illustrator and dancer known for his creative thinking and gentle movements, both in visual arts and dance. He was born in Prague and currently lives in London. He is using the award for a 2022 exhibition in Prague.Sarira Merikhi: Merikhi is a visual artist who works in digital art, animation and logo design. Merikhi works on Iranian lithography, combined with pop art, and often tells stories related to myths or everyday events.
Teboho Moekoa: Moekoa, the founder of Kemet Designs and Creatives in Lesotho, is using the award to support Kemet Designs, which specializes in the creation of genuine leather products, denim, and other suitable material for clothing and clothing accessories. Its products are a symbol of Afrikanism and ethnic consciousness, as well as uniqueness, style, and flair. Click here to see a video!
Nthabiseng Mohanela (TeReo): TeReo, who created the “From Trash to Treasure” project and works with the Morija Arts Centre in Morija, Lesotho, is using the award to repair the center’s car and purchase studio equipment to help with the organization’s e-learning program. The award is also allowing the center to buy external hard drives and fix an old laptop, which helps maximize production and effectiveness while creating e-learning content. Additionally, the award is serving as compensation to partner artists who helped the organization produce a music video for the Lesotho Film Festival. Click here to see a video!About the award, Mohanela says: “Thank you for this encouragement and boost. Our biggest challenge is mobility. We currently have a car that is broken and needs a new battery, and this money will assist with that, as we all know public transport can be very risky during the pandemic…. It can also help with food and transportation for our collaborating artists that join us in the studio. We are adhering to Covid-19 precautions and this award means we will be able to procure sanitizer and masks for our collaborators during recording sessions.”
Meshu Mokitimi: Mokitimi lives and works in Maseru, Lesotho. At 90 years old, he still spends each day in his studio dedicated to producing images that represent the culture of his country. He has been involved in politics in Lesotho and also travelled the world with his art, visiting Israel, India, Nepal, Italy, England, France, Nigeria, Brazil, the United States, and Ireland. In 1995, the National University awarded Mokitimi the Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Contribution to Basotho Culture and in 2006, His Majesty King Letsie III appointed him to Commander of the Most Loyal Order of Ramatšeatsana “in recognition to his outstanding contribution to the promotion of arts and culture in Lesotho.”
Reekelitsoe Molapo: Molapo, an entrepreneur, social activist, and student in Lesotho, is using the award to pursue personal projects and to benefit Conservation Music Lesotho, an organization she co-founded. Through the catalytic power of music, Conservation Music Lesotho confronts environmental breakdown and humanitarian disaster in the developing world and beyond.
Ahmed Mostafa: Mostafa is a freelance photographer based in upper Egypt and a contributor at Humans of Upper Egypt. His photos have been published by numerous international publications.
Margaret Ngigi: Ngigi is a passionate visual artist, photographer, and filmmaker who was born and raised in Kenya. She has exhibited her work in international art fairs such as Photo Basel and worked with galleries such as AKKA Project in Dubai and Venice. Women are the center of most of her projects and her environment is a source of inspiration. What drives her is the need to start conversations about issues that affect women and society at large, such as mental health. She using the award for a documentary project about traditional birth attendants in Kenya.Myarem Art Group: Myarem Art Group is a street art group made up of seven female artists. Their name Myarem means “Darfourian queens”. Their vision is to use art to speak to women’s issues and create a senses of women’s empowerment in street art and graffiti, a field traditionally dominated by men. They make murals in public space highlighting diferent social and gender issues.
Aryuna Nimaeva: Nimaeva is a Buryat singer and musician who was born in the Kizhinginsky region of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia. She studied the Buryat folk instrument morin-khur at the Republican College of Culture and Arts. After graduating in 2010, she began teaching at children’s art schools and touring as a performer of traditional throat singing in Buryatia. She is using the award to publish her book School of Morin Khur Playing. The book aims to teach amateur musicians to play the morin-khur.
Siphiwe Nzima-Ntsekhe: Nzima-Ntsekhe is an activist in Lesotho who uses her poetry and songs to stimulate the masses. She is using the award to help fellow artists with digital performances and marketing. Click here to see a video!
Ismail Odetola: Odetola is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice focuses on socioeconomic and political issues and ecological justice. His works have also been featured in national and international exhibitions, recognized as well as published by Blackartrmatters, Artfront Galleries, upthestaircase, Science Gallery Melbourne and elsewhere. He will be the artist in residency at Dogo Residence for New Art – Lichtensteig Switzerland – in October and November 2022 where he will be working on the theme “Home”.
Akley Olton: Olton is a filmmaker from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a chain of islands in the Caribbean. His work explores Caribbean culture and the longing of diaspora communities to reconnect with home. He is using the award to film a series of interviews as part of “Hairouna, Land of the Blessed,” a feature documentary about a young man from the Caribbean who is on a journey into his ancestral knowledge.
Omdurman Cultural Center: The Omdurman Cultural Center creates independent, uncensored theater for audiences in Sudan. It is using the award to produce the play “The Eagle Regains Its Wings,” which raises questions about taboo issues like female genital mutilation and the use of child soldiers.
Polina Osipova: Osipova is a Russian artist who was born in Cheboksary, Chuvash Republic, and is now based in St. Petersburg. Since the age of 16, she has been creating masks, embroidery, photographs, and mixed-media art inspired by Chuvash matriarchal culture. In October 2021, she presented her first showcase in London (Cothinkers Annual Prize Winner 2021). The project investigated her dedication to native Chuvash culture, the discovery of her roots, and the space she has created for a new generation to artistically engage with their heritage. Her work explores the cultural specificities of the craft and its influence on the contemporary world and digital age. She is using the award for a photoshoot of her grandmothers in her stylized folk costumes, as well as a new project with her brothers and sisters, inspired by Chuvash culture.OSLOOB: OSLOOB is a Palestinian rapper, producer, and beat-maker born in Lebanon who was included in the Cultures of Resistance feature documentary. He is also the founder of the band Katibeh 5, for which he has produced two albums: Ahla Fik Bil Mokhayamat (Welcome to the Refugee Camps) and Al Tareeq Wahad Marsoum (The Road Ahead is One and Known). He is using the award for a project with rappers and singers from Palestine and Lebanon. Click here to see a video!
PDS Zanzibar: PDS Zanzibar is a charitable organization that aims to empower people living in the rural areas of Zanzibar by providing skills and additional education. It is using the award to support its sanitary pads project, which teaches women to sew reusable sanitary pads.
Mamolefe Petlane: Petlane, the director of Sesotho Media & Development in Lesotho, is using the award to support Sesotho Media & Development’s annual event, Lesotho International Film 2020.
Numair Qadri: Born in Srinagar, Kashmir, Qadri is an interdisciplinary artist who uses mediums including sculpture, installation, video, and photography. His work incorporates materials like soil, flowers, human hair, and bullets to examine humanity’s ability to inflict pain and the impact of living through war. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. He is using the award aid his artist practice and buy materials for his projects.
Sameer Qumsiyeh: Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian filmmaker whose films aim to provide an honest portrayal of humanity. He is using the award to support his new short documentary series called “Voiceless,” which attempts to provide a humane and empowering angle on the lives of underrepresented people in Palestine.
Paul Rafoneke: Rafoneke is an artist from Lesotho who specializes in drawing.Hossein Rajabian: Hossein Rajabian is an Iranian filmmaker, writer and photographer who was imprisoned in 2015 on charges related to his filmmaking. His movies have touched on social issues ranging from government control to women’s rights. Rajabian’s 2016 feature film “The Upside-Down Triangle” explored a woman’s right to divorce in Iran. His most recent feature, “Creation Between Two Surfaces,” from 2019 reflected on themes of state control and mental trauma. Both films have been banned in Iran.
Khothatso Ranoosi and Sotho Sounds: Based in Lesotho, Ranoosi is using the award to repaid old instruments and buy fishing line and oils. The award is also helping Sotho Sounds acquire a better sound system and pay for transportation when they perform.
Luke Rehmat: Rehmat (born Rustam Shah) is a member of the Kalasha tribe, an endangered Indigenous culture, language, and community living in the wilderness of the Hindu Kush Mountains in District Chitral near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Rehmat is a social entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of the Kalash People’s Development Network, Kalasha Academy for Computer Sciences, and Ishpata News Network. He also works with a number of other national organizations in District Chitral. He is using the award to cover equipment costs for the production of “Dagiani,” a Kalasha historical short film.
Syed Mujtaba Rizvi: Rizvi is an artist from Srinagar, Kashmir. Painting is central to his practice, but his work spans installations, drawing, video, and digital media. Through his art, he seeks to investigate how mainstream narratives, personal memories, and social behavior are shaped by contemporary politics around geography, religion, culture, and identity, as well as by the universal preoccupation with death. Rizvi also founded Kashmir Art Quest, a contemporary arts organization that creates international artist projects and partnerships for artists in Kashmir. He is using the award to support his Redundant Conversations series, which uses ink, watercolor, charcoal, and acrylics.
Rodaje Callejero: Rodaje Callejero is a street theater company founded by Michael Cáceres in 2013. It aims to bring culture to the streets, contributing to social and educational development. It brings together different disciplines, including circus, dance, and music. The company is using the award to purchase materials and to help cover production costs for “El Mar Hecho Bolsa,” a play that talks about single-use plastic pollution.
RPPN Revecom: RPPN Revecom is a wildlife sanctuary that focuses on the treatment and rehabilitation of injured animals rescued from illegal traffickers. With jungle, natural wetlands, and a coastal region bordering the mighty Amazon River, RPPN Revecom’s forty-two acres contain trails, rope bridges, and wooden walkways. Pediatrician Dr. Paulo Roberto and his wife, Mrs. Marilene Amorim, started RPPN Revecom in 1997. RPPN Revecom is using the award to build an enclosure for a rescued Moorish Cat.
Minatu Saleh: Born in the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, Saleh studied ecology and environment at Hasiba Ben Bouli University in Chlef, Algeria. After school, she returned to the camps, where she developed an affordable low-tech system to filter water from impurities. The system allows residents to restore enough water to reuse for watering plants. Her project, titled “Water, Lost and Found,” aims to bring real change on a critical issue to the Sahrawi people. Water scarcity is one of the biggest challenges to growing food in the desert, and “Water, Lost and Found” hopes to help enable growing food with filtered water. She is using the award to support the “Water, Lost and Found” project.
Jawad Sharif: Sharif, the cinematographer on K2 and the Invisible Footmen, is an award-winning filmmaker based in Pakistan, known for his signature visual storytelling style. He has an intuitive talent for revealing spontaneous human moments and is among the rare filmmakers who are proficient in weaving compelling visuals and narratives in both fiction and non-fiction films. He was awarded a scholarship to contribute to an International Film Exchange Program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Sharif is also an alumnus of the Swedish Institute and Institut Fur Auslandsbeziehunge, Germany. He is using the award to support his new film project, “Go To Hell.”
Sannad Sharif: Sharif is a Sudanese artist and filmmaker. He has directed two films, which were both accepted at various film festivals. His art uses deformed anatomies to express different energies. He incorporates materials that range from film to wood and microfiber boards. He is using the award to conduct art workshops with children suffering from neurofibroma and other illnesses.
Keyvan Shovir: Shovir is an Iranian-American multidisciplinary artist and muralist born in Iran and currently based in California. He is one of the pioneers of Iranian street art in Tehran, focusing on and addressing social issues and political messages through Persian calligraphy and poetry. Through sculptural sound installations, murals, and paintings, he explores the poetic experience of the current political situation within narration and storytelling from the past and its juxtaposition with the present. All the narrations are rooted in his Iranian heritage through literature, history, Persian myth, language, and today’s pop culture. He is using the award to support his project “Messenger,” which is a sculptural installation created from skateboard decks, laser cut acrylic sheets, and chain. This piece is telling a story of an era in the late 90’s through 2009.
Andy Singer: Based in the United States, Singer has drawn cartoons and illustrations for over twenty-five years. His work appears mostly in the alternative press but occasionally in more mainstream venues. He has published cartoons in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Discover Magazine, The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Adbusters, New Internationalist, Z Magazine, The Progressive, Wired.com, NPR.com, NBCnews.com, and many other newspapers and websites. He is the author of four books and has contributed cartoons to hundreds of others. His first book, CARtoons (2001) has been translated into five languages. Over the years, the internet has driven many newspapers and magazines out of business, greatly reducing the market for cartoons. Today, Andy’s work appears in La Décroissance (France), Neweekly (China), and a handful of websites and small weekly or monthly papers. He is using the award to support the creation of longer multi-page comics, including a four-page comic version of the Woody Gutherie song “Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd” and a multi-page comic using road-sign icons.
Jaskaran Singh: Singh is a passionate photographer based in Jalandhar, India. He captures moments of injustice at protests, including at the largest peaceful protest in human history, as well as emotional moments in everyday life. He is using the award to upgrade his photography equipment and for website and e-commerce development.
Alia Sinha: Sinha is an illustrator, visual artist, and theater practitioner based in Delhi, India. Her work is rooted in the idea that collective hope, playfulness, and vulnerability can be powerful expressions of resistance to systemic oppression and dread. She is trying to create a visual language that embodies this approach.Fatima Shbair: Shbair is a Palestinian photojournalist based in Gaza City, Palestine. She is a self-taught photographer who has an interest in documenting people’s stories, cultures, and social issues. In 2020, Shbair covered her hometown for organization such as the New York Times and Getty Images as tensions continued between Israel and Palestine. Shbair is currently a contributor to Everyday Middle East and continues her work with Getty Images. Her work has been exhibited in Palestine, the UAE, London, and Paris. Shbair received a Cultures of Resistance Award (CoR Award) in 2022.
Mohamed Subahi: Subahi is a documentary filmmaker in Khartoum, Sudan. He studied in Sudan, worked closely with the Sudan Film Factory, and has attended trainings in Egypt, South Africa, India, and Germany. While concentrating on his own documentary work as a director, cinematographer, and editor, he also works with different Sudanese NGOs to advance topics surrounding education, as well as with big international institutions, including UNICEF, UNDP, IOM, Goethe Institute, British Council, and the EU delegation to Sudan. His first feature-length documentary is called “MADANIYA.” He is using the award for his documentary film series project, “Sudanawiya,” which takes viewers on a journey to all those cultural expressions and identities that are uniquely Sudanese. The award is supporting a workshop in Kadugli, Kordofan, for a group of local youth and artists on scriptwriting and filming, which will lead to two short films in the series.
Sudan Animal Rescue: Sudan Animal Rescue’s (SAR) mission is to rescue and care for neglected and destitute wild animals in Sudan, as well as to provide them with a safe and species-appropriate environment. SAR has closed down three zoos and rescued animals from private homes and parks. It strives to preserve and protect Sudan’s rich wildlife by educating the public and working with the local authorities to curb the illegal trade and poaching of wild animals. SAR is using the award to feed its animals, which include fifteen lions and six hyenas, and for construction costs for new enclosures to house rescued animals.
Anders Sunna: Sunna is a contemporary Sámi artist who grew up in Kiruna, Sweden and lives and works in Jokkmokk, Sweden. His art is explicitly political, speaking out about discrimination against the Sámi people through depicting the history of his own family in Pajala, northern Sweden. In his paintings, Sunna examines stereotypes of the Sámi, as well as the general public’s ignorance of Sámi culture. In his artistic work, Sunna combines painting with collage and street art techniques. He is using the award to support his art uplifting the Sámi struggle for indigenous rights in the Nordic countries.
Tumisang Taabe: Taabe is cyclist in Lesotho who trains children and adults to ride bikes. He is using the award to purchase new bikes, as well as parts needed to repair bikes.
Abdulwahab Tahhan: Tahhan is a Syrian refugee based in the United Kingdom. In 2012, he worked with director iara lee on The Suffering Grasses, a documentary about the uprising in Syria. Since moving to the UK, he has worked as a freelance journalist focusing on migration and asylum-seekers and promoting ethical practices and inclusivity. On World Refugee Day 2020, he launched season one of his podcast, “Integrate That,” about refugees by refugees. The podcast allows refugees and asylum-seekers in Europe to tell their stories the way they see fit and to take control of their narratives. It also provides a platform for marginalized voices in the media. The podcast won two Lovie Awards for best feature episode out of Europe. He is using the award to support his podcast, “Integrate That.”
Rets’elisitsoe Takana: Takana is a farmer based in rural Lesotho.Tales from Uganda: Tales From Uganda was established at the beginning of 2020 after the founders, Ramathan and Hannah Ziwa, searched for bilingual materials in Ugandan languages for their children. After realizing these materials were scarce and difficult to access, they started digitally documenting Ugandan folktales in Luganda and English. Tales From Uganda promotes bilingual literacy, celebrates Ugandan culture and languages, and retells Ugandan folktales for free on social media. The group is using the award to record storytellers in Masindi (Western Uganda) retelling folktales in their local languages and translating them into English.
Tamada: Tamada is a new project from DJ/musician Lasha Chapel, a Georgian refugee from Abkhazia, that combines Georgian folk with electronic music. After ten years of playing rock ‘n’ roll, he turned to electronic music in 2015 and uses old forgotten instruments, harmonies, and rhythms, incorporating theatricality into his performances. Tamada touches on current social issues and romantic sentiments, mixing many musical directions—acoustic as well as electronic and traditional Georgian music—and has christened this distinctive new style “Deep Duqan.” The first album, Frühstück mit Tamada, was released in 2020, and he is using the award to complete his next album.
LeboThoka: Thoka is a Johannesburg-based photographer, image retoucher, and artist. Born and raised in Johannesburg, she studied visual communication and photography at the Open Window Institute. She has had multiple solo exhibitions with David Krut Gallary and featured in numerous local and international exhibitions. In 2018, she won a Loerie certificate award for Print and Design Crafts (photography) and she was shortlisted for the 2019 Contemporary African Photography Prize and the 2021 Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition. She received the New Generation Prize of the PHMuseum Women Photographer’s Grant in 2020 and her work has been featured in publications including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Thoka’s work is mainly influenced by her feminist politics. She covers topics including femicide in South Africa and the nuanced experiences of navigating South Africa, and the world, as a Black woman. Her work largely uses repurposes objects to translate new meaning and narratives, with which she addresses social issues linked to navigating Black womanhood and the violence it faces within society. She is using the award to upgrade her equipment and fund a self-portrait photo series.
Gaafar Touffar: Gaafar Touffar is a prominent Arabic rap artist from Hermel, Lebanon. He performs across Lebanon and has released an album and numerous singles. He has collaborated with Osloob, Katibe 5, and other Palestinian, Lebanese, and Arab hip-hop artists in the Middle East to produce music and perform. He also works closely with young Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian artists. His lyrics focus on resistance, corrupt political systems, war tragedies, social and economic status, and daily personnel struggles. He is using the award to update his home studio.
Tuxamee: “Tuxamee” Irving de Jesús Segovia Pérez is a visual creator and cultural manager from Guanajuato, México. Tuxamee is interested in the study of textiles and clothing from a rural / urban perspective, as used in dance, traditional festivals and everyday life. This interest is woven into illustrations, collages and photographs. As a creator, Tuxamee has participated in exhibitions in Puebla, Mexico City, León, Los Angeles, Manchester and Athens.
Anis Wani: Wani is a visual artist based in Kashmir. His work revolves around the ideas of home, memory, and identity. He engages with people on the ground in Kashmir, researching and narrating their stories through visuals and text. His primary focus is the political context and conflict in Kashmir. He is using the award to access relevant research material, as well as for assistance with travel.
Tabeena Wani: A visual artist from Kashmir, Wani is attracted to two conflicting ideas: home and freedom. She attempts to seek a resolution between those opposing notions through art. She uses thread to incorporate old architectural designs and sufi shrines from her homeland into her art—shrines to the saints that have stood witness to tyranny and resisted it. She creates visuals of disturbance and responsibility that root from the memory clots. She is using the award for art materials.
Onasis Wendker: Wendker is a young artist, musician, and composer from Burkina Faso who is now focusing on farming. He is using the award for his project WAGALYAM, an art center that will be both an informal school and a place to relax. The center will have a garden and a farm that is organized with medicinal plants and animals or poultry.Mahnaz Yazdani: Yazdani started her career as an animator and cartoonist in 2001 and has worked in animation since 2015. Yazdani’s animations are about social issues, human rights and environmental issues, and told in a humorous way. Yazdani directed her first short independent animation in 2013 named “Man, Idol, Cat” and has directed six short animations and one TV series since then.
Moulud Yeslem: Yeslem, an artist and activist against landmines, is from Western Sahara and lives in Spain. He is using the award to support his KASSIHA-2025 project, which aims to make changes at both the level of de-mining and at the political level in Western Sahara. Through the project, he is manufacturing a prototype of a machine for de-mining in desert areas.
Mohammed Zaanoun: Zaanoun is a Palestinian photographer who documents the violence and destruction that he witnesses in Gaza. He has worked as a photojournalist for over fifteen years. He is using the award to buy a new camera lens.
The Brazilian fishing industry produces 1.25 million tons of fish each year! 🇧🇷 However, adequate management and long-term planning are lacking in this sector. Statistics are almost non-existent and the oceans are exploited without proper regulation. Our grantee Rare Brazil believes that unsustainable management of Brazil’s coastal fisheries will threaten food and income security as well as the biodiversity that these vital systems have provided communities for generations. ![]()
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👉 We are proud to support Rare Brazil’s Fish Forever program, which works to help thousands of fishing communities adopt more sustainable practices. Their goal is to create networks of fully-protected and community-led marine reserves to replenish and sustain fish populations and protect critical habitats!![]()
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Read more about their work here: rare.org/program/fish-forever-in-brazil/