upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

Taína Asili

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Tainaasili 05

2005 Leeway Transformation Award – $15,000

Taína’s art carries on the tradition of her “Puertorriqueño, Taíno and African ancestors, blending spoken-word, poetry, song, visual art, and creative writing — historically voiced by my ancestors through poetry-prayer-songs called arieto and etchings archeologists call petroglyphs and hieroglyphs.” She weaves stories of resistance, anti-colonialist struggle, desecration of spirituality, and ancestral remembrance into her stories. Starting as a singer classically trained by a local Peruvian Opera singer, Taína later found punk rock, as she desired to move beyond the limitations of classical music. For eight years, she “wrote and sang songs of rage and resistance” with Antiproduct, touring the country and putting out four albums. During this time, she fell in love with spoken word and after a trip back to her homeland, Puerto Rico with her brother; together they created the spoken word group, Rebel Poets. Taína moved to Philadelphia to be closer to a Puerto Rican community, teaching poetry and drawing in many places, including Taller Puertorriqueño and a women’s correctional facility. She works collaboratively with groups like Nzinga7 Arts Collective, a Philadelphia-based women’s afro-modern dance collective with whom she performs choreo-poems and sings with the underground Puerto Rican punk rock/hip hop band, Ricanstruction. Her art is not just “politically conscious, but it is based in the concrete organizing work” she does in her community, using “art as a weapon for the mental and physical transformation and freedom” of her people. The goal of her art is for it to “speak to and with as many of those as possible who find themselves along the margins” of society.

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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]