upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

back to news

Remembering Grace Lee Boggs

Leeway mourns the loss of activist and philosopher, Grace Lee Boggs, who died on October 5, 2015 at 100 years old. Grace's belief that "Creativity is the key to unlock human liberation,” is at the essence of our work. Watch a message from Grace at REVOLVE: 2013 Art for Social Change Symposium, and read the essay below about Grace written by Executive Director Denise Brown from our 2011 Artist Book.

The Best Way to Learn

Denise M. Brown
Philadelphia, 2012

“When artists make art for art’s sake, or to tell their personal story, that is already important. But it is even more powerful when combined with creating change in their lives and the lives of their communities.”

— Ill “Invincible” Weaver

Some people think about fantasy sports teams or dinner parties; at Leeway we fantasize about peer review panels. You might think that strange, but we think of our work in the context of building community and have an ever-expanding list of artists, cultural producers, and organizers we would like to join in our process and become part of our extended community. Though the cultural, geographic, and political context may vary for each potential panelist, we always ask ourselves: Is this an artist/cultural producer whose practice is borne out of a clear intention? Are they prepared to articulate their analysis and infuse what (we hope) is a lively and inspiring conversation about art, culture, social change, and transformation with their point of view? Do they have the capacity to remain open to other experiences and new learning? And not least to consider: Who do we want to hang out with?

One name we carry on that list is author, philosopher, community organizer, and activist Grace Lee Boggs, even as we realize that the possibility becomes more remote since travel has become more challenging for her at age 97. In spite of that, she holds a very prominent place on our fantasy panel. By every measure, Grace is someone whose life is an exemplar of the kind of experience, intention, and perspective we want in the room. Through her lifelong commitment to community building, from the early days of the civil rights movement to her participation in the 20-year-old intergenerational, multiracial community movement and organizing project Detroit Summer, she continues to plant seeds and inspire issue-based community and cultural organizing. Of the project she has said: “We wanted to engage young people in community-building activities: planting community gardens, recycling waste, organizing neighborhood arts and health festivals, rehabbing houses, painting public murals. Encouraging them to exercise their Soul Power would get their cognitive juices flowing. Learning would come from practice, which has always been the best way to learn.”

This year’s guest essayist and 2008 Leeway Transformation Award panelist, Ill “Invincible” Weaver, has participated in Detroit Summer for over a decade. In their piece “I Refuse to Choose” on page 6, she speaks about the dichotomy that often faces artist/organizers. As they put it, “… almost everywhere I turn I am being asked, more like forced, to choose between my creative practice and my community work.” Their work with Detroit Summer appears to have provided a “third” way by embracing and encouraging their practices, creative and activist, resulting in an exciting body of work that expresses all that they are.

Like Invincible, at Leeway we believe these are false dichotomies; one doesn’t have to choose between advocating and educating, or healing and energizing, or transforming and metamorphosing. Utilizing all the parts of ourselves — our fierceness … our kindness … our creativity — is essential to our well-being and the expression of our humanity, so it follows that engaging with all parts of our community is essential to its health and evolution.

In 2011, Leeway gave $267,500 to artists and cultural producers working for their communities. Eleven artists received the Leeway Transformation Award in recognition of their commitment to a practice engaged with the creation of art and culture for social change. Another 53 received the project-based Art and Change Grant. The disciplines practiced by these change agents crossed all mediums and media, from puppets and stop-motion animation to the pre-Columbian symbols of Mesoamerican culture, from a reclaiming of spiritual practices through performance and song to the use of memoir as an act of consciousness raising. Projects took as their focus matters real and present in the daily lives of the artists and their communities, like displacement and community accountability, consumerism, immigration and the impact of nativism, homelessness, identity and belonging, documenting queer and/or trans histories, or speaking for murder victims by connecting a spirit to a statistic.

Many thanks to Leeway’s board and staff for all the energy and goodwill they bring to the work of the foundation. To our allies, colleagues, and partners in the field and on the ground, we look forward to deepening our connections and creating an ever-expanding community of those interested in the synergies between creativity and community, and art and change.

I do believe we learn through practice, particularly when the desire to learn is borne out of equal measures of passion and curiosity. The artists who participate in Leeway’s programs are engaged in an iterative process that begins with them claiming their practice and taking action to create change. They do this in distinctive ways, on different scales, but one thing is common in all cases — they have found and forged relationships with others and are building communities anew to achieve a shared vision. Or as Grace puts it: “We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously."

It begins from the seed of a clear intention and gets articulated through the practice. Practice, as we know, being the best way to learn — first repetition, then mastery, then innovation. And again

Image: Wikipedia

 

back to news back to top

APPLY FOR A

Leeway grant?

Window of Opportunity Grant

The Window of Opportunity (WOO) grant provides financial assistance of up to $1,500 to Leeway grant and award recipients to help them take advantage of imminent, time-sensitive opportunities to support their art for social change practice. The Community Care Fund (CCF) provides financial assistance of up to $1,250 to Leeway grant and award recipients to support with immediate and essential emergency needs. [read more]

deadline
Upcoming events
04/025:30 pm - 7:00 pm

4/2 Transformation Award (LTA) Awardee Panel + Info Session (In Person)

Have questions about the application process for the Leeway Transformation Award (LTA)?

[learn more]

04/185:30 pm - 6:30 pm

4/18 Transformation Award (LTA) Info Session (Virtual)

Have questions about the application process for the Leeway Transformation Award?

[learn more]