The New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH) announced on January 31 that they will distribute $211,743 in funding to 18 organizations through their latest round of grant funding awards. According to the NJCH, 8 awards are Incubation Grants, which help organizations “plan, research, protype, experiment or expand existing programs.” The 10 remaining awards are Action Grants, which help organizations “implement humanities-based programs, which may be new or existing.”
From the NJCH: The following is a list of recipients:
Incubation Grants
AIDS Resource Foundation for Children, Newark ($15,000), to develop an oral history project that celebrates, uplifts, and connects women in New Jersey who are living at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and domestic violence (HIV/DV).
Camden Repertory Theater, Camden ($14,400), to design a series of public programs and educational materials exploring the diverse and rich voices of Martie Evans, J.E. Franklin, and Barbara Ann Teer, three lesser-known Black women playwrights whose artistic importance are a part of an invisible yet nevertheless influential cannon of the American Black Arts Movement.
coLAB Arts, New Brunswick ($12,000), to support an oral history and verbatim theater project comprised of oral histories with women, girls, and trans men in the U.S. who have medically self-managed their abortions with tele-medical support from international organization, Aid Access.
Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, Teaneck ($6,098), to explore the concept of “sacred” spaces in a variety of contexts and create resources that can be employed by environmentalists, human rights advocates, community groups to preserve and protect public places and spaces.
Gloucester County Department of Parks and Recreation, Sewell, ($15,000), to support community listening sessions to help inform the organization how to chronicle a recent archeological discovery at their site and shape future public programming.
Lost Souls Public Memorial Project, Somerset ($5,320), to develop a digital history trail mapping the story of the Lost Souls -137 African Americans from New Jersey who were kidnapped and sold into permanent slavery in the South by a ring organized by a corrupt Middlesex County judge in 1818.
Raíces Cultural Center, New Brunswick ($8,000), to support the planning and development of a publicly accessible oral history library that seeks to document, preserve, and share family stories.
Talking Eyes Media, Montclair ($15,000), to develop an exhibition and live storytelling events using personal narratives captured through The Newark Story Bus, a mobile audio-recording and photography studio that collects oral histories and portraits of the people of Newark.
Action Grants
Camden County College, Blackwood ($6,125), to support a series public presentations on Colonial America and the American Revolution, with a specific focus on African Americans, Jewish people, and Indigenous Americans.
Cranford Public Library, Cranford ($4,300), to host a series of quarterly author and artist talks with a focus on elevating the stories of underrepresented and marginalized voices.
Friends of Yogi, Little Falls ($15,000), to create a technology-driven data visualization exhibition that captures the story of Major League Baseball and COVID-19 as a window into the greater societal and cultural impact of the pandemic.
In FACT, Willingboro ($13,500), to conduct a broad examination of the R&B Urban Line dance culture and community in the New Jersey through oral histories with dancers, choreographers, DJ’s, event producers and other practitioners.
Ironbound Community Corporation, Newark ($15,000), to create and operate a community archive for Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC), a community-based organization that has been organizing for justice and providing educational and family services to residents for more than 50 years.
NJ YMCA State Alliance, Hamilton ($15,000), to support the implementation of a multimedia community engagement and dissemination strategy for a COVID-19 storytelling project that documented experiences from participants about impacts and perspectives of NJ residents during the pandemic.
People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos, Lawrenceville ($12,000), to support literature reading and discussion programs in English and Spanish at partner sites throughout NJ.
Ukrainian History and Education Center, Somerset ($13,000), to create an exhibition that examines Ukrainian and Ukrainian American responses to the Holodomor, the genocidal artificial famine perpetrated against Ukrainians in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, through primary sources, art, and literature.
Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit ($13,500), to support an interdisciplinary exhibition and accompanying humanities-based public programs that explore the visual art and folklife traditions of the Caribbean diaspora in NJ.
Whitesbog Preservation Trust, Browns Mills ($13,500), to collect oral histories from Whitesbog, Pemberton, and Browns Mills and to host public talks with community scholars on topics related to the history of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
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