Awesome DC have been busy bees this Spring! In part inspired by our wildly energetic April grantees – GirlTrek. I talked to Vanessa about the project and what the Awesome grant means for them. Warning: Get ready to be inspired! What is GirlTrek all about, what do you do, and who is it for? GirlTrek puts the Move back in Movement. 80% of Black women are overweight.  Researchers predict that 100% of us will be overweight by 2034.  We were two ordinary Black women, with no real health background or health role models.  To get moving – we set goals and started walking everyday.  In a few months, Vanessa ran a half marathon for the first time, and Morgan went on her very first backpacking trip – 50 miles! But our personal victories weren’t enough to shake the haunting statistics that implicated our families and friends. We had inspired them by our own transformations. We knew they were listening and watching, but how could we get them to join us?  Better yet, how could we ignite a national movement of motivated women?  One step at a time. GirlTrek is a 10-week walking challenge and a call to action. Each spring we recruit… read more →

It’s with great pleasure that the micro-trustees of AF Sydney can announce our April Recipient! After a very long and intense discussion, we’ve decided to award this months grant to ‘Communion’ – a project by Julia Burns. You can see some of Julia’s work in her video showreel below. From Julia’s submission: The work will be titled ‘Communion’ and is being made for submission to the 2011 Blake Religious Prize. It will feature a short video of two male Aboriginal dancers performing an intimate ballet sequence at the altar of a Catholic church. Filmed at the site of the first Catholic Church in Wollombi and one of the earliest sites of Christian worship in Eastern Australia, this work presents an unconventional scene featuring Aboriginal spirituality and male intimacy within a traditional Christian context. It refers to the adaptability of believers to find spirituality in religions that may not have originally been their own and asks the viewer to question their own ability to adapt to a scene foreign to their expectations. There are obviously some very subjective and sensitive issues around the work that Julia is going to create – in fact, the submission stimulated quite the discussion around our board… read more →

There’s a lot to be said about just letting things happen. But there’s a lot more to be said about making things happen. And, usually, doing that quickly and easily requires a clear path.

Ok awesome friends, it’s on!  Chicago has opened it’s doors and is accepting proposals through May 15th.  We’ll then retire to our Awesome clubhouse, hand type each application into our Awesome computer, and analyze the awesome potential of Chicago.  We’ll inform the grantee by May 30th, and plan to have a sweet award ceremony / party at Small Bar.  For more information on the Chicago Chapter, including bio’s of the trustees and an idea of the projects we love, head to Awesome Chicago.

You may recall back in December, our Awesome Applicants in DC were so… well… Awesome, that we had a hard time choosing.  A very close runner up for the grant was the Walker Jones Kitchen Classroom. Now, our guest Trustee for April, Miriam Schwedt and her Associate of Awesome, Katie Heller (both from the seriously awesome Peloton Projects) have picked up the Walker Jones cause and need your support! On May 1, Miriam and Katie would like you to join us at Walker-Jones for a day of Service to help them with their mission to teach kids about nutrition, nature, and how sowing seeds of hard work can pay off! The day will include working with Walker-Jones kids and families in their kitchen garden, followed by a Happy Hour and fundraiser!  For more information and to RSVP, check out the event page on facebook – get ready for a great day!! Although many kids at Walker-Jones come from tough situations, the staff have taken initiative to start an amazing kitchen garden, through which they are teaching students about gardening, nutrition, and soon, they hope, about cooking with the produce they have grown! We want to support Walker Jones in this… read more →