Fund Scholarships for Arts Entrepreneurship Summer School

This world needs young visionaries, and marginilized identities, stepping into leadership through arts and culture entrepreneurship. This is your chance to make that possible for people who have not yet had the opportunity.

Angelica Jarrett and I put our heads together to talk about a solution to societal disconnection and realized that we have a skillset that can make this possible. We have part of the solution right here.

We have teamed up to raise scholarship funds to get 8 driven, imaginative folks of all ages into my summer school to take their work to the next level.

Angelica, a mentee of mine since 2018 and an artist and community organizer in her own right, has consistently returned to her old hometown, Joliet, and empowered students.

Political leaders and established people should not be the only ones, propped up by inaccessible institutions, afforded tools and opportunity to rebuild ecosystems.

I have been immersed in this community as well through a series of potlucks I've hosted at my house for future leaders.

Lu-Mac Williams, Keegan Srebro, Johnna Grimm, An'Tonai Boykin, Jay Granados Flores, Jocelyn Mendoz, Astrid Lange are all dying to take my courses (6 weeks each, 2 hours per week); "Art & Money", "Marketing in the 21st Century", "Producing in the 21st Century", and "Developing Your Own Writing Process", but in order to do so, we need your help!

Let's rebuild this new world together. Support this campaign.

All donors will get a virtual half hour coffee with me. I will reach out. You can ask me whatever you'd like.

Get to know some of our visionaries. Here they are!

(Photo of Johnna!)

Leadership I dream of

At the end of it all, I just want to be the leader that people run to. Not just relate to, quote or directly imitate. Even today, I look back at the people I’ve looked up to and ultimately needed as a young artist. Citing their selflessness and ultimate desire to touch humanity in the souls of anyone who would listen. We as a culture would be nothing without art and those who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of it. Beit a hobby or way of life-I owe every ounce of who I am to art, and the never ending need for it. A way of mind I can’t imagine being alone in.

Utilization

It's not called “show business'' for nothing. In that same sentiment, not all of us have the privilege of being able to gamble our negative bank statements for it. While I was always supported in my dreams, I was also encouraged to be realistic about the possible income they would bring. Playing it forward was a part of my day-to-day existence, even as a teenager. While money doesn’t buy happiness, it sure does buy freedom. Freedom to be wrong and carefree and time to spend on our passions. The amount of artists and daydreamers I’ve known to come from bloodlines where being able to pursue their passions is a privilege not known to their upbringing. I want to eradicate the elitism and stigma plaguing the arts. It’s about planting seeds to trees I will never see grow. This won't be a career for everyone, and that's okay. It doesn’t have to be. There is a place for all of us, as imperfect as we all are. There is beauty in our imperfections and our individual experiences. Art would be nothing without it. I want people to bring it into their everyday lives, for the good of the order. I want community, not cliques.

(Photo is of Lu!)

My name is Lu Mac-Williams, and I am a transmasculine, Chicano artist, performer, and educator born in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. In my work, I use drag, playwriting, poetry, dance, theater, and visual art. I specialize in creating experiences that bridge audiences to a world where they can find whimsy and power. I am passionate about cultivating safe, beautiful, well-resourced communities for young artists, particularly kids from my own neighborhood. I aspire to create original theatrical productions with other multi-media artists. I hope to expand opportunities for people from different backgrounds and ages to collaborate on performance projects in exciting, accessible ways.

(Photo of coach An'Tonai, pictured left most, standing proudly next to UIC Forensics Team after winning 1st place at the National Speech Championship!)

My name is An'Tonai Boykin and I am a 25-year old, Black, gender non-conforming performance artist, writer, and content creator. I spent about 7 years writing/educating/performing competitively in Forensics, or better known as Speech and Debate, throughout high school and college - sparking my love for vulnerability and advocacy through performance. I now give back to the community by coaching a new wave of students who are currently competing across the country on the college circuit. The team I coach currently, at University of Illinois at Chicago, started as a student-run team. I aim to continue their legacy of breaking glass ceilings and reach their full potential on the national circuit. I've watched them make history many times, and hope to see them continue to achieve new heights. I hope to bring my education from this Summer School back to my students. Outside of my professional work with performance, I prioritize vulnerability personally, through my writing, education, and advocacy through my content. Ultimately, I would like to continue expanding my platform's mission to take the stigma away from public vulnerability. I would love to continue my current momentum on Twitch to be an ambassador, furthering my mission to cultivate public space for vulnerability.

(Photo is of Jay!)

The kind of leader I strive to be is one that is efficient, innovative, and one who listens to their team and supports them in bringing our project to life; art is a collaborative process that can be used to entertain and reflect on the adversity’s we face on a daily basis. I want to utilize the tools that I will learn to market my projects to hopefully secure funding and support from investors who believe in my vision and stories. To learn how to stretch a dollar when it comes to making art so my projects are properly budgeted. Learning how to properly produce my own projects to insure they become reality and most importantly to me, as someone who deals with ADHD, developing my own writing process to figure out which methods work best for me. Ultimately, I want to take all of these tools and create a culture that feels heard and passionate about what they’re working on. With the hope to create films that reflect on us as individuals because at the end of the day the best stories are human stories that are relatable with the highs and lows of being human.

(Photo is of Jocelyn!)

I’ve always known I wanted art to wrap around my life. My career, no matter what I picked- was set in art from the moment I started high school. I've realized kids in Joliet don’t want to explore their artistic sides because of money issues at home or because their families discouraged it. Leaving them to settle with factory jobs or careers they dislike. Now, how will our future look if this generation settles for less and continues the cycle of discouragement of expression? It’s for this reason I want to guide our generation into allowing them to make room for self-expression through art. Giving people a safe(and colorful)space to express themselves. I want to open a space where artists cultivate, gather, and inspire the youth of our community. And hopefully someday, utilize my earnings into funding arts programs and keeping creativity alive.

(Photo is of Keegan!)

When I look at leadership, I often think of three things structure, creative freedom and collaboration. With all of these in mind a group of people can make something great if not inspiring to others. Good leadership involves motivating people to the same cause. Art in the theatre world is often that bringing all parts of production together. When they come together you have a show you can be proud of and build from there. That's the type of leader I wish to be a collaborator that can being structure to a complex process.

(Photo of Astrid!)

Houston has one in four residents born outside the US, with no ethnic majority. It is the nation's 4th most populous city. Our cultures, and the arts that flower here, blend like no others, perhaps because we bond to help each other in disasters like Hurricane Harvey. Life, in Texas, is endlessly intriguing but never easy. Fine arts exist here, but the most exciting scenes - and the most in need of support - are Houston's homegrown, its fusions. I've been a part of many (writing for GrownUp StoryTime; founder of !No Me Digas!, Houston's only bilingual improv comedy troupe; a character in Doomsday Wrestling, a volunteer with the Orange Show's ArtCar festivities; a dance fitness leader in the multilingual FitMix Communities) and an admirer of many more. I am keenly interested in encouraging individual and collaborative expression that brings us together.

One very specific goal I have with the program offered by Olivia Lilley is to use learning outcomes to put together a sustainable international, multilingual improv comedy festival here in Houston and to showcase other forms of comedy across cultures. As an educator, I've lived and worked outside the US, and as a comedy performer, I've traveled internationally and experienced multilingual improv comedy. I did my 2023 master's project in Performance Studies at Texas A&M University on this topic (no one had ever studied it comprehensively before) and I feel that Houston is a beautiful fit for exploring the collaborative possibilities of this form. Over the past few years, I have made contacts with those in the international improv community and locally. I brought an international improvisor based in Colombia to facilitate a bilingual improv workshop with me that we designed to Texas A&M University in College Station, and it was a success with student, faculty, and staff participants. But that is just a drop in the bucket! I know, with the amount of consulates and diaspora that we have in this city, that arts-based partnerships could be an enriching cultural experience to grow here. I don't have the tools I need yet to give this a good push, and that's why I'm here!