The Black Feminist Artist Fellowship

The Black Feminist Artist Fellowship (BFAF) is a new initiative of The Weavers Project that provides direct support to Black women, Trans, and non-binary artists in recognition of their outstanding creative work. The BFAF supports artists in fostering the creation of new art that adds to the public discourse and the continuum of Black Feminist Thought. The fellowship provides artists with: 1) an opportunity for critical dialogue with peers; 2) a 10-day residency for rest and experimentation supported by an unrestricted $1,500 stipend; 3) an unrestricted cash award of $5,000; 4) a curated group exhibition; and 5) a network of Black feminist artists, scholars, organizers, and practitioners. Throughout the process, artists will have access to artists, scholars, donors, social movement organizations, and institutions who will provide historical and contextual support to help further their work.

“…when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind,...”

Tia-Simone Gardner, “…when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together, (I was near them at the time) preferring death to such a life of misery somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea,” from Series, Salt Water Sweet Water, 2019.

Velvet on wood, 22”x22”x15”

Still Image from There's Something in the Water

Tia-Simone Gardner, Still Image from There's Something in the Water, From Series, Salt Water Sweet Water, 2019. TRT: 06:12, Video.

Oyeku

Saudade Toxosi, Oyeku, 2018. TRT: 03:12. Video. Color. Music, “Paper Planes” By Daisuke Tenable.

Oyeku Is A Metaphysical Principle In The Divinatory Systems Of Ifa From West Africa. Oyeku Is The End Of A Cycle. These Cycles Are All Varied And Exist In All Spheres Of Life And Death Simultaneously. I Created This Work As An Installation By Way Of Incorporating The Idea Towards The End Of Suffering For All People Of The African Diaspora Especially, The African American. This Video/Installation Is Also A Prayer Toward New Beginnings And Peace.

From The Blood Of The Dragonfly

Saudade Toxosi, From The Blood Of The Dragonfly, 2023. TRT: 01:16. Sec Single Channel Video. Color. Sound Fetal Heartbeat.

From The Blood Of The Dragonfly is A Visual Narrative That Focuses On The Feminine Principle Of Death And Rebirth In The Spiritual Tradition Of Ifa From West Africa. Fresh And Salt Waters Mixed With Blood Connects Us To All Of Our Lineages And Every Living Being Within Nature. Through Transmutation And Balancing The Mind And Emotions Physical Transformation Occurs And The Spirit Astral Travels (Symbolized By The Mirroring Flight/Dance Between Woman And Dove). This Travel Exists And Is Populated Underwater With Purity, Freshness, And Depth. Underwater All Living Organisms (Beings) Are Animated And Active; Emerging In Human Form As The Divine Feminine Principle Upon Earth.

The Lotus Blooms in Murky Waters

Lynn Marshall Linnemeier, The Lotus Blooms in Murky Waters, 2022. Acrylic on Brick. 43’x15’(variable) Mural. Red Springs, NC.

This mural speaks to regeneration, resilience, and survival of victims of domestic violence, including Missing and Murdered Indigenous and Black Women. The lotus blossoms are a symbol of these victims. The lotus blossom blooms in murky, muddy water, yet it survives and thrives, its beauty admired by all. This mural also speaks to land in Robeson County which includes the Lumbee, Tuscarora, and other indigenous groups whose livelihood was in many ways supported by surrounding swamps. The dominant yellow background gives a nod to the African spirit Oshun, whose color is yellow. She is known for her beauty and creativity. Dragonflies and mysterious flora of the swamp also dot the abstract composition.

Mad Dash for the Wishing Well

Lynn Marshall Linnemeier, Mad Dash for the Wishing Well, 2019. Acrylic on Panel. 36”x36”. Fulton County Arts & Culture, Atlanta, GA.

The human psyche wanders in and out of existence, back and forth through histories known and unknown. It is my travels through these undulating worlds that I am allowed to re imagine. Mad Dash for the Wishing Well imagines the discovery of a well spring and how sinuating energies rush toward it. The memory that waters heal and rejuvenate is universal.

Still Image from "Condoleezza"

Condoleezza, 2023, a film with original music by Juicebox P. Burton that chronicles the rot placed upon the spirit of those who assimilate to the horrors of white supremacy and the waking damage it does to ourselves and our community. TRT: 02:47. Video. Color. Music.

Still image from "We Been Among You"

We Been Among You, 2003, is an immersive gallery exhibition features photography, film, and sculptural works following a group of creatures on their final days before returning to their home planet. A collaboration of Studio Lalala, and creation of Juicebox P. Burton and Maya Pen.

We were hungry. We were Gods. We hunted. We hunted the stone. We hunted the water. We hunted the plants. We were hungry. We hunted each other. We were Gods. We were Gods. We got hungrier. We watched. We watched it burn. We watched our elders get younger. We watched our children die sooner. We lost our Gods. We stopped hearing the wind. We stopped hearing the water. We watched the sun dry the seas. We watched everything burn. We were the only ones left. We turned to each other. We remembered. We heard. We promised. We were you.

two blackberry winters to quell the rage

Angela Davis Johnson, two blackberry winters to quell the rage. acrylic, bluing, beads, thread, dowel, archival images on canvas. 41" x 38".

black berry winter comes from an old saying that marks the changing season. this work is a deranged landscape that grapples with the joy, rage, and absurdity of living Black in America. Using images of Black femme anger mixed with Black feminist text and lush symbols across moments in history it speaks to the urgency of now and the use of patience.

HOTFOOT: phoenix medicine from a diasporic dream realm

Angela Davis Johnson, HOTFOOT: phoenix medicine from a diasporic dream realm. photo and cut out canvas stop motion animation.

HOTFOOT: phoenix medicine from a diasporic dream realm traces the path of my maternal great grandmother through animation and performance. In the 1950's, after facing a devastating loss by signing away our family’s land to a white grafter, my great grandmother moved across the south in a revolving loop. Like so many Black folks during the Great Migration, she hot footed in search of safer ground only to encounter more discrimination and oppression while activating freedom by moving body and spirit. HOTFOOT retraces and records these movements by traveling to multiple sacred sites following a map known and unknown from Arkansas to New Orleans to Florida.

The BFAF brings together a cohort of artists who are at different stages in their careers and represent a range of experiences and backgrounds. Fellows will come from a broad-spectrum of Black life and hold jobs, parents, children, comrades, and lovers while making beauty, wonder, and possibility. They will be organizers, educators, builders, healers, and leaders within their communities. Most importantly, fellows will share the strategies and values of a Black feminist praxis: wealth-redistribution, leadership development, and transformative practices (such as community accountability, environmental sustainability, and mutual aid). In this sense, we honor artists who use their work to end racial and gendered capitalism.

The 2023-2024 cycle will focus on projects that prioritize visual art. We will select five visual artists who work across a range of studio practices, styles, and materials. Our objective is to create opportunities for resources, peer-support, professional development, and community engagement for those who are historically under-resourced and under-represented in the global art market. We are guided by the following questions:

Why should we strengthen and amplify the voices of Black feminist artists?
What histories can we learn from and try in our individual and collective practices?
How do we resource and sustain our work? Our movements? Our environments?

Please support the fellowship by donating now.

2023-2024 COHORT

Angela Davis Johnson (she/her)

Community-informed Visual Artist

Angela Davis Johnson’s work is rooted in Black Southern traditions, migration, and care. Co-creator of Hollerin Space, an interactive archival performance with partner muthi reed, her work has been exhibited in galleries, porches, and museums including Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. The mother of two continues to maintain studio in Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Saudade Toxosi (she/ze/we)

Psycho-spiritual Artist and Image Curator

Saudade Toxosi is a psycho-spiritual artist Saudade Toxosi is a psycho-spiritual artist engaged in video art, mixed media, and the curation of found images that articulate her thoughts about the “new indigenous African'' experience in the United States. She has shown her art globally at Norval Foundation in South Africa, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Norway, and Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht Netherlands.

Juicebox P. Burton (she/her/they)

Visual Storyteller

Juicebox P. Burton is a Black, trans-fem multi-disciplinary artist living in New Orleans. She is a world-builder who framed narratives of trauma in the context of horror and sci-fi in order to heal the collective spirit of the black community. Her work gains its power from its self-taught nature, fostering the collaboration of other BIPOC creators whose collective story combats the aristocratic gatekeeping of the mainstream art industry.

Tia-Simone Gardner (she/her)

Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator, and Black Feminist Writer

Tia-Simone Gardner is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and Black feminist writer. Working primarily with drawing, images, archives, and spaces, Gardner traces Blackness in landscapes, above and below the grounds surface. Ritual, disobedience, geography and geology are recurring themes in her work. Gardner grew up in Fairfield, Alabama, across the street from Birmingham and learned to see landscape, capitalist extraction, and containment, through this place.

Lynn Marshall Linnemeier (she/her)

Visual Mythologist

Lynn Marshall Linnemeier has been working in communities both nationally and internationally since 1989. With a focus on collaboration, she has completed numerous community art projects that weave together the importance of ancestry, community building, and memory. She focuses on marginalized communities, offering healing through creative activities that include photography, collage, and large-scale sculptures and murals.