Peach Pit Grant Recipients + Shortlist!
Peach Pit Grant Recipients + Shortlist!
In April, I introduced the first ever Peach Pit Grant — a no strings attached micro-grant for artists working on exciting new projects. You can read here about why I think this is a good idea and what the specifications of the grant were.
Over the last two months, I’ve been combing through the 1,000+ (!!!) applications, and today I am delighted to announce the recipients, as well as a small short-list. I feel profoundly lucky to have gotten the chance to review so much incredible work, even though it put me in a more uncomfortable position than I was expecting. As I said in my original post about the grant, my ideal future is one in which all artists have access to these kinds of financial resources to put towards their projects. In no way do I want to put myself in the position of an arbiter with the power to say who “deserves” these funds more than the next person — I truly, deeply believe that we all should have what we need to create.
Other people seemed to think so too! I opened up donations for additional contributions for the Substack community, and we were able to raise an additional $1,070 to put towards grant awards, so that each recipient received a total of $1,357. In the response to my original post, I noticed a lot of people expressing an interest in contributing their money directly to artists, so I asked the members of the shortlist to include payment info in their bio. I encourage everyone to look through the whole post to see what these incredible artists are up to, and, if you have the means, send some funds to them directly.
Partially to make my impossible task a bit easier, and partially because I noticed some themes, I chose three recipients that each represented an artistic value that I hold very close. The categories and recipients are listed below:
POLITICAL: An artist working on a project that intends to better the world through a social justice endeavor. I think of a favorite Toni Morrison quote: “the function of freedom is to free somebody else.”
I was so inspired and moved by the work of Marie Lachance, who submitted her zine entitled Beyond Punishment: Moving Towards Transformative Accountability.
BIO: Marie (she/her) is an artist, writer, designer, and transformative justice (TJ) practitioner based in Washington, DC. She makes zines about TJ, community accountability, and building abolitionist worlds. She is honored to receive the Peach Pit grant, and is using the funds to print copies of the new zine and workbook she is working on designing with another brilliant comrade, Beyond Punishment: Moving Towards Transformative Accountability. It is a tool designed to help practitioners align their processes with core TJ values, addressing key tensions that often arise in this work. It is my hope that this zine and workbook, developed from years of my comrade's research and interviews with countless TJ practitioners, can be a part of the growing canon of literature and tools that will help us collectively dismantle our current punitive society and culture, and build towards new, abolitionist horizons centered around community care. These generous funds will allow us to print hundreds of copies of the workbook, sell them on a sliding scale, donate a majority of proceeds to abolitionist organizations, and send copies to incarcerated comrades currently on the inside.
Marie’s work connects with me pretty directly — in college, I spent time volunteering for a transformative justice organization that went into men’s prisons to lead discussion circles. I met a lot of incredible people during my time there, even though each week was harrowing and difficult to get through. Seeing the prison industrial complex up close instilled such a great disgust within me, as it would within any person who is confronted with the reality of incarceration in this country. I think transformative justice work is so important, and especially that which is done on-the-ground and in direct involvement with incarcerated people.
COMMUNITY: An artist working towards creating or strengthening their community, specifically by way of connecting people through art.
Nubia Lateefa via The People’s Porch wrote one of the very first emails that I flagged because I find her work and her mission so compelling. I am incredibly honored to present this grant to her.
BIO: Nubia Lateefa, Native Kentuckian, is an independent archivist and collector. Owner of the Peoples Porch, a collection of Black memorabilia and literary archive specializing in vintage and rare Black literature. Through pop-ups and exhibits, I hope to provide my community with alternate learning and socializing opportunities through Black archival exploration.
Like many bookish young girls, my favorite movie as a child was Matilda, the viewing of which solidified my worldview that books are important, transformative, even magical. I revered the power of reading from an early age, and only as I got older did I realize that reading is in fact a privilege, and that access to literature has been historically stratified and unfairly restricted. This is especially true when it comes to the work of Black authors.
In an interview with the Lexington Herald Leader, Lateefa says this:
“I believe that Black people should have accessible archives…most of the people that are up here (referring to the collection of books) have been X-ed out of history…they’re really not mine, they’re for you, which is why I’m collecting them, but it’s not easy work…think about how silly it is to go to an institution…institutions that don’t really want you there anyway (to find these books). I feel like it’s better to be dusty on my shelf than in to be in the basement of some institution where nobody has access to it. No.”
PERSONAL: An artist working on a project that is important for the simple fact that it is important to them to make art. A person for whom this money would make a big difference in the scale of what their art is able to do.
Miranda Hardy from Ok Bucko made me laugh in her email — she said that the last time her band toured, “we drove a 1996 Ford Explorer I bought for $400, and everyone learned to drive stick. The muffler fell off in the Arizona desert.” I’m very excited to present this grant to Ok Bucko so that they may put it towards a van rental that is reliable and safe for their next tour.
BIO: Ok Bucko is a Seattle based four piece rock band formed in late 2022. The band makes music that feels like a long talk on the phone with an old friend. Ok Bucko is bright but not overly sunny, fuzzy not sludgy, longing but forward facing, triumphant but not self congratulatory. Miranda Hardy leads Ok Bucko as vocalist, guitarist and writer. But the project is truly a collaboration with Chelsea Rodgers on keys and backing vocals, Khyre Matthews playing bass, and Zeke Bender on drums. The entire band contributes to arrangements and shapes the Sonic perspective of Ok Bucko. You can see Ok Bucko playing in Seattle often, and across the West Coast this September on tour with LA-based Wanda What. The money from the Peach Pit grant will be put towards renting a vehicle for this tour and paying for gas! Ok Bucko is in the mixing stage of their freshman EP which they plan to release independently this Fall (but ask nicely and they will send you demos now).
I listened to the demos and, frankly, they rip. When I got Miranda’s email, I tried to look up the band on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube. But nothing — anywhere! This is a real band’s band, doing the damn thing and touring the music before it even hits the shelves (or, in our modern era… the streamers). How plucky! How brave! How insane to buy a whole ass vehicle for $400! This is the kind of chaotic optimism I feel the grant was made for, and I can’t wait to catch them on tour if they find themselves in NYC sometime soon.
It was an honor to award these grants to such special artists doing some truly amazing work. Below is a short-list of other artists that I asked to write a bio so that I could feature them and their work here, along with payment links. If you want to feel like your own mini Daddy Warbucks, take a look through this list of artists and pick one to sponsor this month. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount. Consider that you’re getting in on the ground floor and helping a new project thrive, and also the money will probably go farther there than on the matcha latte in your hand (did I say your hand? I meant my hand).
Without further ado…
THE SHORTLIST:
Derek Begrudgingly / Theater Company
Derek Begrudgingly is a Chicago-based, all-volunteer theater company led by Richie Owens and Matty Merritt that puts up over-the-top, cardboard prop-filled stage adaptations of your favorite movies. We are currently fundraising for our fall play: a production of the 1987 film “Witches of Eastwick” but hornier. We just finished our first official show in March, an adaptation of “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” We packed 120 people into a secret punk venue and had to turn away 30-some people. It was wild.
We are hoping to raise $1,000 to cover costume and craft supplies so that the money we make from ticket sales can be reinvested into future shows. If you’d like to help make horny theater magic, you can Venmo @ matty-merritt with the description “WOE Baby this show sounds sick.”
Bernadette Burnett / Drag Queen
My name is Bernadette Burnett, and I recently started as a drag queen in Chicago and recently completed a program that teaches drag queens starting out the basics of drag. For me, drag is a chance for me to allow my inner child to come out and entertain others and is an amazing combination of every art form out there. Drag is not easy, though, and there’s so much work that goes into it, for often very little tangible return, but I do it because I love drag. My vision of my drag right now is very Stepford Wives-esque, taking the 1950s American housewife figure and exaggerating it so far that it becomes not only comical, but a critique of American culture itsel
Venmo: Micket-Dotson22 / Cashapp: $bernieburnett
Ẹniọlá Busari / Filmmaker
I am Ẹniọlá Busari, a filmmaker weaving artistry with a sociological perspective. My Bachelor's in Sociology shapes my storytelling. My biggest aim as a filmmaker in my country is to provoke dialogue and empathy. The project is an experimental short that explores the relationship between a girl and her mind ,especially in relation to social media.
Those interested in supporting my vision can contribute through my Payoneer email: enniebusari@gmail.com. Your generosity will go a long way.
Kerry Cooper / Filmmaker
My name is Kerry and I’m a film student based in Los Angeles. My project is a short film called Call Me Mother! that follows the journey of a lesbian puppeteering student named Fiona. After a Benadryl-induced prophetic nightmare, Fiona starts to believe she is the next Virgin Mary and must perform an elaborate puppet show to spread the world of the Lord to her peers. I care so much about this project because I think it reflects the anxieties that a lot of artists in my life (especially queer people) experience. For these people (myself included), dedicating themselves to their art during their youth was an important way to explore their sense of identity and feel connected to some sort of higher purpose when connection to other people felt too daunting. The same is true for Fiona. Her pregnancy scare and conflict with a puppet that speaks only to her represents her inner conflict- does she continue to use her highly curated eccentricities as a wall or does she find love by submitting to the mortifying ordeal of being known? Any contribution would be so appreciated I will give every donor a kiss on the forehead with a sock puppet
Venmo: KerryIona
Delight Ejiaka / Writer
Delight Chinenye Ejiaka is a writer whose works investigates melodramatic women, female hysteria and consciousness in the marketplace. Her works have appeared in Isele Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, Desert Companion, World Literature Today, and Whale Road Review. She is a 2024 Macdowell Fellow. Her novel in progress explores two nations at war in early igbo society. After her love dies in an ill-fated war, a young woman must marry his corpse and reconcile her grief with the logistics of her revenge.
Venmo: Delight-Ejiaka / PayPal: ejiakadelight1 / Cashapp: $ejiakadelight
Izzy Kostrzewa / Fashion Designer
Izzy Li Kostrzewa is a non-binary Asian American fashion designer based in Brooklyn, NY originally from Mt. Pleasant, MI. Their brand Isaboko is based entirely on waste textiles, zero waste patterns, and gender free design. The brand is about solarpunk, and getting people more involved in their clothes. In the future they will be orienting towards selling the patterns for the zero waste pieces, and making upcycling tutorials.
If you want to support the brand you can shop at Isaboko.com or follow the story at @isaboko_ on Instagram.
Xiomarra Milann / Writer
Xiomarra Milann is a queer, Chicana writer whose roots lay in Laredo, TX.
Her current poetry project delves into TexMex and border town folklore, weaving in the terrifyingly real with the terrifyingly figurative. Through her storytelling, she aims to evoke a history of oppression, assimilation, and cultural loss & reclamation through familiar Chicane folk figures, begging us to ask, “What are the true horrors of our upbringing?” You can find her work in The Acentos Review, Querencia Press, Sybil Journal, Infrarrealista Review, among other places.
Venmo: xiolypuff / Cashapp: $xiolypuff / PayPal: xiopapas
Ellie Simonot / Writer
Ellie Simonot is a Canadian undergraduate student and aspiring writer in Edmonton, Alberta. She is one of the 2023-2024 co-presidents of Ink Movement YEG, a student nonprofit dedicated to cultivating youth creativity in our city. Our main project to accomplish this is our annual anthology, where artists 14-25 years of age in Edmonton and surrounding areas can publish their work. We accept visual art, writing, photography, film, and original music (printed as QR codes), and every year we're honored to provide a platform for fellow youth to showcase their immense artistry.
If you'd like to help fund our anthology, you can etransfer or PayPal inkmovementyeg@gmail.com. Thanks for reading! <3
Emma Kate West / Zinemaker
My name is Emma Kate West. I am a feminist from rural North Carolina currently working in co-curricular programming at a small rural university. My project is a zine that provides a comprehensive guide to feminism. The zine will include a guide to beginning your feminist journey; the history of feminism, definitions of feminist terminology, the importance of intersectionality, recommended readings, the different types of feminism, an introduction to feminist theory, and more. Like many of my students, I was not taught much about feminism or the feminist movement at my high school. My goal with this project is to bridge the educational gap between the rural south and the feminist movement.
If you would like to help provide students with these resources, donations may be sent to emmakwest on Venmo. Monetary donations will allow for the zine to be distributed to students free of charge. If there are additional funds after printing, donations will be used to buy and supply students with other intersectional feminist literature.
Phew! If you read this far, thank you for taking the time to make your way through my (maybe longest ever?) Substack post for the sake of great art. I personally would love to read something like this, a delicious buffet of amazing artists and creators. If you donated to an artist on the short-list directly, give them a shout-out in the comments!
And.. a super, super special shout-out to a few members of the Substack community who personally donated to the grant fund: Morgan Schaefer, Tali Natter, Audrey Jones, and Liv LaFluv.
Thank you so much to everyone who applied to the first ever Peach Pit Grant, and especially to my paid subscribers on Substack for making it possible for me to fund things like this.
May we all be well and make art and build longer tables not higher fences and etc etc etc. This was such an amazing thing to be a part of and I can’t wait to do it again sometime soon <3
xx
Peach
BRAVE YUMMMMM 👍🏼 🙌🏽 👏🏼
Artist makes grants for other fab artists so they can make their cool-AF sh*t. 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
this is so fucking cool