Mellon Foundation

Our latest Mellon Event, "American Jazz, American Culture," is now available for on-demand viewing. Revisit the conversation with Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Terri Lyne Carrington, and esperanza spalding. #MellonFoundation #MellonEvents #Jazz #AmericanJazz #AmericanCulture #JazzHistory #JazzMusic

📚 #WeekendRead: What goes into building an exhibit at the Tenement Museum? For over 35 years, the museum has told the stories of immigrants and migrants who lived in NYC during the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2020, it got started on building its first permanent exhibit to feature a Black family’s history. For Marquis Taylor, the lead researcher of this exhibit, work began with a search for sources. After finding few historical records on African American life in New York City readily available, Taylor collaborated with genealogists and turned to sources like the city census and directories, municipal and court records, published essays, and newspapers. Taylor's research shaped the furnishing and imagining of the apartment of Joseph and Rachel Moore. Through guided tours and special programs, it provides a glimpse into the daily lives of the Moores and imagines how their lives intersected with those of immigrant families in their neighborhood. Read more about the Tenement Museum’s latest permanent exhibit at at on.mellon.org/4hr1VII 📷 Clément Pascal for Mellon Foundation #MellonFoundation #TenementMuseum #NewYorkCity #BlackArchives #BlackHistory #Research

The theater is where human imagination manifests 🎭 On this #WorldTheaterDay, we celebrate the boundless capacity of the performing arts to uncover our humanity, through movement, stories, and music that stay with us long after the curtain closes. How do the performing arts activate your imagination?

Next Jazz Legacy, cofounded by New Music USA and Berklee College of Music Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and supported by the Mellon Foundation, has announced its 2025 cohort of rising jazz artists. 🎉 Congratulations to this year's recipients: Alexandra Ridout, April May Webb, Brenda Navarrete Guzman, Carmen Quill, Chanelle Ignant, DoYeon Kim, Melissa Almaguer, and Nora Stanley

📢 The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is accepting applications for the "Recordings at Risk" program. Supported by the Mellon Foundation, the program focuses on digitally preserving recorded content for research and accessibility for the general public. Grant awards between $10k-$50k will be distributed for digital reformatting projects this year. The deadline to submit proposals is April 14, 2025. Learn more at on.mellon.org/4clL2OR

Announcing the 2025 Writing Freedom Fellows 📝 Today, March 25, Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation are excited to announce the second cohort of the Writing Freedom Fellowship. The Fellowship supports the notable and necessary works of writers impacted by the criminal legal system. It was created to provide writers in and outside carceral settings with professional development, mentorship, and opportunities for shared learning. Fellowship recipients advance their unique creative practices across fiction, poetry, and nonfiction forms, while together envisioning a world beyond the criminal legal system. ⭐ The 2025 Writing Freedom Fellows: • Ra Avis • B Batchelor • Jeremiah Bourgeois, J.D. • Dante Clark • Ajanaé Dawkins • Curtis Dawkins • Emile DeWeaver • Michael Fischer • Joe Garcia • torrin a. greathouse • Elizabeth Hawes • Faylita Hicks • Monterica Sadé Neil • Geneva Phillips • Janel Pineda • Julie Poole • Nicole Shawan J. • Carla J. Simmons • Jesús I. Valles • Anonymous Learn more about the fellowship at on.mellon.org/4hIXrNK #MellonFoundation #HaymarketBooks #WritingFreedomFellowship #Writers #ImaginingFreedom #BeyondIncarceration

The Institute of Black Imagination offers an experiential journey into the Black imagination. Founded by Dario Calmese, the institute manages a unique storefront located in the Oculus of the World Trade Center, a podcast that invites unconventional thinkers, and a mission to revolutionize the narrative of Black design, creativity, and intellect.

Learn more about Mellon Foundation's Humanities in Place grant-making program, led by Program Director Justin Garrett Moore, FAICP, in Metropolis Magazine's latest issue. “All this work we’re doing—the objective of it is to build just communities,” says Moore. “We can have innovation and have caring in mind."

Led by Professor Thomas F. DeFrantz at Northwestern University, SLIPPAGE is a global think-tank exploring connections between performance, history, and technology. With support from the Mellon Foundation, the lab has launched a project that explores how Black dance practices across the US constitute African American identity. “Dance offers a lever of expression that exceeds language,” Professor DeFrantz says. “Dance, for me, offers a terrific way to think with curiosity and empathy.”

Mellon Foundation and Flamboyan Foundation are excited to announce that applications for the 2025 Letras Boricuas Fellowship are now open. Entering its fourth year, this fellowship will provide 24 Puerto Rican writers, both in the archipelago and in the diaspora, with an unrestricted $25,000 grant to support their creative endeavors. 🗓️ The deadline to apply is April 30, 2025. Visit letrasboricuas.org for more details. ________________ ¡La Fundación Mellon y el Fondo Flamboyán para las Artes están emocionados de anunciar que hoy, 18 de marzo de 2025, abre oficialmente la convocatoria para la beca Letras Boricuas 2025! Esta prestigiosa beca, que entra en su cuarto año, brindará a 24 escritores puertorriqueños, tanto del archipiélago como de la diáspora, una subvención sin restricciones de $25,000 para apoyar sus proyectos literarios. 🗓️ La fecha límite para solicitar es el 30 de abril de 2025. Visita letrasboricuas.org para más detalles.