upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

Vision Poem

In a struggle for justice
Art is
Passion
Blood
Life

Art is breathing
An absolute necessity for change
It is the recovery of humanity
It allows us to feel our own flesh
To connect with our joy
Pain fear anger happiness hopes

We believe that art
Lives in all of us
Comes out in intricate cornrows
Improvised gourmet meals
Songs sung to quiet a restless child
Lovingly made picket signs
It comes out in art that feeds us
Gets off its pedestal
Comes out from behind the glass
And gets its hands dirty
Practical useful sustainable
Fiercely beautiful

Art is the language of change
It is our tongue
So the legs can be nourished
For the long march
Toward liberation.

Art carries us
Into daily struggles
Large and small
And allows us
To envision a new world
Based on our hearts
And not just our heads

The intersection between art
And justice
Is where revolution
Is birthed.
How you make art
Is not only as important
As the art you make,
It is part
Of the art you make.

That being the case,
Leeway dreams a world
Where the communities
That have been blanketed in silence
Are finally heard
To be screaming.
Where no one owns our bodies
And the community owns
The pieces of it that go out into the world
Where art knows the heavy
And joyful
Responsibility it carries.
We dream a world where
The one is part of the many
Like rivulets of water
That forms a raging ocean

Leeway wants to stretch the skin
The idea
Of art
To clothe all of our bodies
So that the creativity
That flows through all of us
And bursts like capillaries
Has space.

By Walidah Imarisha
Inspired by and with input from the Leeway Foundation

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]

connect with us: