The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) rebooted our grants’ program in 2021 to include multimedia. This year’s call for grant proposals prioritized short audio and video projects that would serve as foundations, definitions, or further education on: Black and Indigenous Anarchism(s); Police Abolition and Alternatives; and Mutual Aid. We received over 60 applications for many incredible projects. Choosing what to fund was difficult! Also, in response to the volume and quality of proposals, and the success of our fundraising in 2020, we more than doubled the amount we initially planned to give, to $3,000. We have now concluded our grant allocations for 2021, but stay tuned next year!
Here’s more about our grantees and their projects:
- It Did Happen Here: “It Did Happen Here is an independently produced podcast that documents the organizing and unapologetic street battles against racist white skinheads in the 1980’s and 90’s. The 11 episode podcast talks to three core groups: the Portland chapter of Anti-Racist Action (ARA); Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP); and the Coalition for Human Dignity. The three groups united over and over to attack fascists on their home ground—and won it back. The Institute for Anarchist Studies provided funds to edit the podcast into consistent episode lengths and take out the swearing. It Did Happen Here will be a 14 episode (30 minutes each) series for broadcast radio, self distributed and distributed by the Pacifica Network released August 2021.”
- Tajh Morris: “My name is Tajh Morris and I live in the city where capitalism has already failed, Detroit. I am a journalist, event producer, and DJ known professionally as Turtle Bugg. My career has focused on highlighting the Black American roots and filling gaps in the historiography of electronic music. Putting aside the infantile understanding of Anarchy that is being peddled in the mainstream, the focus of my project will be to explore how the modern Black Anarchist movement has roots in the Black Panther Party. This will be a multimedia project that includes an audio collage, video, and essay. By combining interviews, images, and narration with Black music (house, techno, and hiphop) I hope to present an educational yet entertaining piece.”
- Beatriz Paz: “I am a Mexican researcher, publisher, artist, and activist. I work in the mediums of collage, book-art, animation, performance, and social engagement. I have travelled internationally as a speaker on Indigenous topics such as lack of water, land defense, and ancestral art. My project consists of an artistic outlet to my research on Indigenous resistance that manifests itself in customs, material culture and civil representation. Through a series of publications, posters, animations and videos I seek to connect the cosmogony and indigenous social organization with the principles of anarchism through texts and images that inspire solidarity.”
- Clio Reese Sady: “Clio Reese Sady is a tattooist and pen and ink artist living on Ohlone land in Oakland, California. Sady is disabled, living with Bipolar Disorder. Sady loves making political art with direct action group Gay Shame. Sady has work published in Gay Genius Comics (Sparkplug, 2011) and The Collective Tarot (Eberhardt 2006, 2008 & TCT 2012). With the support of the Institute for Anarchist Studies, combined with their residency at the Prelinger Library, Sady will finish and revise their graphic novel WE ALL TRESPASS. The story explores dynamics of institutional oppression through a murder mystery set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco.”
Congratulations to all of our grantees! We’ll be sharing and promoting the grant work as it’s completed over the next year.
Stay tuned to our website and social media to see the results of our grants IRL!