Announcing the 2023 Transformation Award (LTA) Recipients

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In December 2023, Leeway Foundation awarded 12 artists with the Transformation Award, moving $180,000 of unrestricted support to women, trans*, and gender nonconforming artists and cultural producers at the intersection of art and social change in Greater Philadelphia.

The 2023 cohort includes an array of artistic practices and mediums. The awardees include performers challenging respectability politics, filmmakers documenting community resistance and joy, playwrights combating medical racism and sexism, podcasters creating audio in support of decarceration, visual artists painting liberatory futures, and more. 2023 awardees are committed to building a vision for a more just world, particularly for BIPOC communities and queer and trans* folks. All showcase at least 5+ years of utilizing art and cultural production to shift or transform the perception of power and/or privilege and the dynamics associated with justice, equality, and/or accountability.

 The 2023 Transformation Award (LTA) Recipients are (in alphabetical order): 

Amir Khadar of Spring Garden, Multidisciplinary 
Chelsey Luster of West Philadelphia, Visual Arts
Debra Powell-Wright of Clifton Heights, Multidisciplinary 
Heidi Ratanavanich of Mantua, Multidisciplinary 
Jaq “Jingle” Masters of Kensington, Visual Arts & Crafts & Textiles 
Kim Wilson of West Philadelphia, Media & Visual Arts
Kristal Sotomayor of Newbold, Media Arts
M. Nzadi Keita of Southwest Germantown, Literary Arts
Nikki Brake-Sillá of Southwest Philadelphia, Performance
Nikki Powerhouse of North Philadelphia, Performance & Literary Arts
Priscilla Bell Lamberty of Haddington, Visual Arts
Queen Jo of Sharswood, Music & Performance

A national panel of artists and cultural producers convened to review applications and work samples in this two-stage process. The 2023 panel included multidisciplinary cultural worker, dramaturg, and facilitator for radical imagination, Arielle Julia Brown (ACG ‘18, ’20; LTA ‘21), community-based visual artist, curator, and folklorist from Baltimore, Maryland, Ashley Minner, and Brazil-native and longtime activist in women’s, LGBTQIA, Latine, immigrant, and arts and culture issues, Bia Vieira. The second stage panel welcomed queer pop composer and storyteller from Washington D.C., Be Steadwell and fat, queer/trans Floridian freak and visual artist, Shoog McDaniel, and was facilitated by Amadee Braxton, Philadelphia-based trainer, coach, energy healer, and facilitator.