Freedom
By Langston Hughes
Freedom will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want my freedom
Just as you.
Vote! Find your polling place, let your voice be heard, and vote in today’s election November 5th!
2025 Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers Puppet Showplace Theater is offering five $1,000 grants to emerging and early-career Black artists to support the research and development of original puppetry work — plus mentorship and professional development. Past Creative Residency fellows have included puppeteers, visual artists, theater artists, authors, illustrators, and more. The program will take place January – June 2025. Learn more.
Deadline: November 6, 2024
MASS MoCA Residency Sessions Applications are currently being accepted for the MASS MoCA Residency Sessions from July 2025 – December 2025, including fellowship and financial aid support. Seeking applications from visual artists (painters, sculptors, installation artists, photographers, video/new media artists, fiber artists, printmakers, etc.) and writers in all literary disciplines. Learn more.
Deadline: November 8, 2024
Fort Point Creative Conversations The MASSCreative Action Network, Artists for Humanity, the Boston Foundation, and Metropolitan Area Planning Council are partnering on an upcoming event: Fort Point Creative Conversations: Advocacy Voices for a Stronger Creative Sector on Friday, November 8, 2024. This gathering will take place at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in Boston from 10 AM – 12 PM. This event is specifically designed for artists, creatives, cultural organizations, and changemakers and is a critical opportunity to discuss the needs of our regional creative community. The insights that we collect from this conversation will help inform the 2025-2026 Creative Sector Legislative Agenda. Your participation is vital to ensuring that our collective voices are heard and our challenges are addressed. Following the formal program, participants can network with fellow artists, sector leaders, and advocates. If you have any questions, please contact the team at the MASSCreative Action Network at mcan@mass-creative.org. Learn more and register.
Call for Art: Community Sculpture Walk The Watertown Public Arts and Culture Committee (PACC) is excited to announce the 2025-26 season of the Community Sculpture Walk. The Community Sculpture Walk exhibits outdoor sculptures to enhance use of green space in Watertown, encourage public interaction with contemporary art, and create an annual exhibition opportunity for artists at all career stages working in a variety of mediums.Selected artists will be awarded $2,500 for the two-year loan of their sculpture. Artists are responsible for transporting their work to and from the Community Sculpture Walk and theinstallation and deinstallation of their artwork. Sculptures must be suitable for long-term, outdoor exposure and fabricated and installed in a viewer-safe manner. Learn more.
Deadline: November 10, 11:59pm
Capacity Building Grant Program 2025 Creative Exchange Cohort/Capacity Building Grant Program is currently accepting applications. The Capacity Building Grant Program empowers artists to embark on meaningful careers aligned with their values; enhance their creative endeavors; build purposeful networks to support their work; and access resources necessary to attain sustained success. The program begins January through April 2025. Learn more.
Deadline: November 15, 2024
Help Decide How The Arts Get Funded In Cambridge Cambridge Arts is looking for people to help evaluate this year’s cultural grant applications. We are offering a $300 stipend to read applications and then attend one (virtual) grant panel meeting to work as a group to select grantees. Interested? Cambridge Arts is looking for panelists who represent the rich diversity of Cambridge’s communities. We encourage people who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ, women, and other dimensions of diversity to apply. This year’s grant categories are: Organizational Investment Grants, Art for Social Justice, and Local Cultural Council Grants. If you have questions, please email Director of Community Arts Deena Anderson at danderson@cambridgema.gov. (No phone calls please.) Learn more.
Deadline: November 18, 2024
Craft Artists Grant Society of Arts and Crafts Craft Innovation Jumpstarter – Four grants of $3,000 each are available: two in the summer and two in the winter. Learn more.
Deadline: November 25, 2024
Kentucky Artist Residency Applications for Bernheim’s 2025 residency program will reopen on September 23, 2024, with a December 2nd deadline. We encourage visual artists of all mediums, with the broadest range of diverse perspectives and experiences, to submit work for consideration. Learn more.
Deadline: December 2, 2024
Access/VSA Playwright Discovery Program High school students with disabilities are invited to explore the art of writing for performance by developing a 10-minute script through the Access/VSA Playwright Discovery Program. In addition to receiving a $1,000 award, these talented young writers enrolled in secondary school (generally, ages 14-19) participate in a script development program and explore the theater industry through exclusive workshops. Learn more.
Deadline: January 8, 2025
Grant for Women Writers The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund annually awards grants of $500–$2,000 to women writers whose work reflects feminist values. Projects must be well underway. Genres alternate by year. Poets and nonfiction writers are invited to submit 10-15 pages during the month of January 2025. Learn more.
Deadline: January 31, 2025
Fine Arts Work Center Residencies Fellowship applications for 2025-2026 are now open for the Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown. Each year, the Work Center offers 20 seven-month residencies to a juried group of emerging visual artists, fiction writers, and poets. Each Fellow receives an apartment, a studio (for visual artists), and a monthly stipend of $1,250 plus an exit stipend of $1,000. Residencies run from October 1 through April 30. During this time, Fellows have the opportunity to pursue their work independently in a diverse and supportive community of peers. The 2025-2026 Writing Fellowship deadline is December 16, 2024. The 2025-2026 Visual Arts Fellowship deadline is February 3, 2025. Learn more.
Poem Credit: Langston Hughes, “Freedom [1]” from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
Source: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. (University of Missouri Press (BkMk Press), 2002)
Image credit: Colossal hand and torch “Liberty, Centennial Photographic Co., c1876., from the collection of the Library of Congress. Photograph shows the torch and part of the arm of the Statue of Liberty, on display at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Information booth at base of arm and two persons seen at railing below flame of torch.
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