Sokari Ekine - Photographer

The Persistence of Blackness

“Altars: Black Ecologies of the Spirit,” a visual and textual intervention that addresses the making and significance of altars in the imagination and identities of Black queer people. Using visual imagery and conversations, the project explores how queer Black folks participate in African Diasporic spiritual practices through the creation of altars as models of resistance, recognizing that altars are central to Black people as a way of engaging with the past, present, and future of Black life.

Announcing the Louisiana World Makers Awards – Foundation For Louisiana
Following a competitive open call and peer review panel process, Foundation for Louisiana’s inaugural round of arts and culture grantmaking, the Louisiana World Makers Awards, has been awarded. 32 Louisiana artists, cultural workers and tradition bearers across the state of Louisiana will receive a total of $320,000 in unrestricted funds to support the visionary creative work that helps point our communities toward justice while explicitly identifying artists and culture bearers as critical to liberation work throughout the state. 

The World Makers awards will support a broad array of creative disciplines of those whose artistic and cultural work addresses climate impacts, mass incarceration, cultural memory and legacy, or displacement and erasure of Black and Indigenous communities. Over 360 artists applied for this first-time opportunity from FFL. Priority was given to Black artists, Indigenous artists, and artists of color born, raised, and/or with generational ties to Louisiana. Additional priority was given to elder artists and culture bearers, and transgender and gender-nonconforming artists and culture bearers.