“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” — Toni Morrison

Welcome! Like too many, I had a 10k granted budget for a project with a major university that was cancelled by the US Government — and like many — I now find myself in a pickle!

Around the world, governments are banning books, criminalizing memory, and erasing cultural histories. I’m devoting the next six months to a global storytelling initiative rooted in memory, justice, and cultural repair. I am deeply grateful to be here with the artists, researchers, technologists and visionaries to bring this work into the world.

My name is Sarah Kornfeld. I’m an author, cultural strategist, and immersive storyteller working across continents to bring forward erased histories through immersive media, literature, and community collaboration. www.sarahkornfeld.org

I’m currently leading two major projects:

• Aguda Returns – a transregional, transmedia initiative honoring Afro-Brazilian returnees to Nigeria (a global project of oral histories, an immersive traveling museum for the diaspora)

• Radical Immersion – a book and immersive toolkit for trauma-informed storytelling (The Institute for the Future is involved)

These are confirmed projects with global partners, but as an independent cultural worker, I need support to complete this work. I’m raising $10,750 to fund travel, insurance, interviews, and essential costs from London to Lagos, Bahia to Lisbon.

Every supporter gets weekly Fieldnotes from the Frontlines of Memory. Larger tiers include story coaching, publishing support, and access to global gatherings with artists and scholars.

(No sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.)

Full project details, timeline, and budget below. Scroll down to learn more.

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Who I Am

You are here because you care about truth, memory, and resistance.

I am a writer and cultural producer working at the intersection of narrative, history, and justice. I’ve led international projects for over 20 years, blending immersive technology, ethical storytelling, and historical restoration. My books, What Stella Sees and The True, were published in the U.S. and Romania, and I write on ethics and policy for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

I’m the daughter of two lifelong activists:

My mother, Rev. Dr. Margaret Kornfeld, helped found Bailey House/AIDS Resource Center and worked with incarcerated women.

My father, Lawrence Kornfeld, was General Manager of The Living Theater and a founder of Judson Poets Theater. He was placed on Nixon’s enemy list for his political art.

I carry their legacy forward by telling the stories history tried to erase.

Why I’m Asking for Support

In December 2024, my son Luca (now in college) said:

“Mom, go work in the world. I’m safe. Go.”

With that blessing, I left California, returned to New York in February 2025, and recommitted to telling stories that matter.

Originally meant to travel briefly to London, I now realize this is a longer commitment. The next six months—July through December—will be a phase I call Home, Exile, and Return: a continental journey to reclaim memory, resist cultural erasure, and uplift suppressed histories through immersive, literary, and collaborative work.

I have housing support in London—but all other costs (travel, translation, documentation, insurance) fall to me. We are raising $10,750 to complete this critical fieldwork. (My previously scheduled projects in New York were canceled due to "disappeared" budgets due to “DEI content”, as well as frozen budgets based on uncertainty). With others, I am doing to crucial work of exploring and documenting histories at risk — and answering the call to protect our true Global Histories.

Both projects are close to funding and so this is the interim amount to support my work for them.

The Projects:

1. Aguda Returns: Co-Executive Producer

with Dr. Ekua Agha

A transregional immersive history project tracing the 19th-century return of Afro-Brazilian communities from Brazil to Nigeria—carrying with them architecture, music, religion, and carnival. This is research 7 years in the making in collaboration with the Brazilian-Nigerian Project.

We’re creating a traveling immersive museum, oral history archive, and cultural restoration platform. Working with major patrons and institutions, we will ensure the Lagos Island becomes a UNESCO Heritage Site, a full length documentary will be made and a new, historically accurate educational curriculum is being created to tell this extraordinary story of return.

Prominent Aguda supporting and involved include:

Bernardine Evaristo – Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. English author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. Evaristo is currently campaigning for a permanent memorial to the transatlantic slave trade to be installed in the UK.

Wole Soyinka – Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. Soyinka made the first public call for UNESCO to support and defend Lagos Island and the Bahia architecture of the Aguda.

Lanre Towry-Coker – Nigerian architect, politician, and socialite. He was the first Commissioner for Works and Housing of Lagos State. An indigene of Lagos (Towry Street on Lagos Island was named after his family). He was one of the original planners of the capital city Abuja, and has won numerous awards for his work on major buildings in Nigeria. Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the only Nigerian and one of currently just 30 architects worldwide accorded that honor.

Partners include:

MoMA, Africa Centre London, University of Westminster, French Institute for Research in Africa, Terra Kulture Lagos, Legacy 1995, Yoruba World Centre, Nigerian-Brazilian History Project.

Led by:

Dr. Ekua Agha and Dr. Olufemi Vaughan—African scholars who have spent 7+ years tracing this hidden history of courage and return.

"It's the place to begin, always—to return to home, literally."

— Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, playwright, activist, Aguda Descendant

2. Radical Immersion

A book + toolkit for ethical, awe-based, trauma-informed immersive storytelling. Supported by collaborators from The Institute for the Future, Local Projects, and more.

Technology is NOT going away. Immersive experiences are only growing in popularity and perhaps for good reason — we are tired of screens yet AI is here and we are grappling with how to move forward with it. Aguda Returns is one of many large Cultural Repair projects with immersive components — yet no framework or rubric exists for trauma-informed, nervous system sensitive frameworks to ensure we are in charge of the process — and impact.

This work explores how we can use large immersive tools (like The Sphere) to support memory and healing rather than spectacle and burnout.

First 8 chapters are drafted; now I begin interviews with global futurists, artists, and technologists across Europe, UAE, and Brazil.

I am thrilled by this work and believe it’s a crucial, and missing piece of how we can repair the world.

Global Partnerships in Progress:

These meetings are confirmed or in progress for 2025, but all require my presence and research:

United Nations – Inclusion of immersive history in future governance (Switzerland - Aug, Oct, Nov 2025)

UNESCO – Case study presentation + heritage designation for Lagos Island

African Union – Diaspora heritage preservation (Nov 2025)

UNESCO Paris / Bank of London – Immersive cultural finance frameworks (Sept–Dec 2025)

University of Graz (Dr. Susanne Korbel) – Collaboration on diaspora & women’s history (Aug, Oct 2025)

Anticipatory Governance Program (Nigeria) – Using Aguda Returns and Radical Immersion as Afro Futures tools

Aguda Descendants – Fieldwork and oral histories in Lagos (Nov 2025)

Brazilian Diaspora Artists – Immersive media collaborations in Bahia (Nov 2025)

6-Month Budget for Cultural Repair Initiative

London Living Support $2,400

Travel to Nigeria (RT) $1,500

Lagos Local Costs $800

Travel to Brazil (RT) $1,500

Bahia Local Costs $800

Hungary Train & Travel $600

Budapest Local Costs $800

Train to Paris $300

Travel to Geneva $400

Health & Travel Insurance $900

Book Production (translation etc.) $500

Website for Radical Immersion $300

Contingency Reserve $700

TOTAL: $10,750

Your heart, discretion, and support are deeply felt and profoundly appreciated.

Thank you for helping make space for the histories that have been denied.

— Sarah