In December 2024, we launched our inaugural 2025 Visionary Resistance Fellowships. Each fellow was awarded $5000 to support artist projects in data justice and environmental justice.
Fellowships are designated for Detroit and Highland Park residents. Honorable Mentions were awarded $500.
This project will retrofit an existing home in Northwest Detroit to serve as a template for how to ensure homes are sound, relevant and prepared to address climate impacts for generations to come. The front yard will be transformed into a beautiful ecologically responsible space for pollinators and low mow exhibition. The space will serve as a learning hub to assist Black and marginalized homeowners in Detroit and other postindustrial cities across the country.
This project uses art to make public transit more visible, while improving aspects of the transit experience. It includes multimedia and participatory components, as well as workshops. The project will collect stories from community members, culminating in updated signage, maps and links to schedules and arrival times, ultimately creating a “How to Ride the Bus” Zine to provide step by step processes for navigating the bus system.
This project will build a prototype of a mud-and-strawbale small structure multi-use building at ECOSphere afrofuture technology campus hosted by Broadside Lotus Press. The building will function as the home for a digital library of Detroiters' art, music, literature, poetry and other productions. The project will also offer a workshop series to train and empower participants and culminate in a freely accessible digital and print copy of a mudbuilding manual.
This project will utilize digital and analog technologies to engage Detroit residents around place and boundaries, resulting in a series of fuzzy and colorful maps of city neighborhoods highlighting community defined assets. This project seeks to bridge the digital divide often experienced with new technologies and online mediums.
This project will leverage community workshops, the creation of a shared publication, and an outdoor interactive installation to focus on equitable water access, the challenges faced by the Rouge River, and the broader implications of stormwater management for Detroit residents, many of whom face significant barriers to clean water.
(Made possible with support from Democracy Fund, the Just Tech Fellowship, Midwest EJ Network and Transforming Power Fund.)