Photo by 
Jeremy Keith Villaluz.
Dawn Mabalon is in the Heart

Professor, activist, and community leader, Dr. Dawn Mabalon, passed away unexpectedly earlier this month, just shy of her 47th birthday. As a historian and co-founder of the Little Manila Foundation , Dawn was a key figure in the Filipino American community of Stockton, CA. Her book, Little Manila is in the Heart , is a critical contribution to understanding the postcolonial experience of Asian communities in America.
 
ACTA is proud to have supported the work of Dawn and the Little Manila Foundation through the Community Leadership Project in 2013-2016 and the Living Cultures Grant Program in 2016. Their efforts to empower Filipino Americans in Stockton embody the values of equity, visibility, and community that we aspire to. We are stunned by this loss, and offer our sincere condolences to Dawn's family, friends, and the many people she inspired. "Dawn Mabalon had a profound impact on the preservation of California's Filipino American history and culture," said ACTA Executive Director Amy Kitchener, "and on the lives of the people who knew her, her scholarship, her activism, her leadership and her love."
WATCH: From Trauma to Transformation with Luis Rodriguez

Meet one of ACTA's most celebrated teaching artists: Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis Rodriguez. Luis is a writer, painter, and activist who joined our Arts in Corrections program last year to teach a 13-week course in creative writing. He shares the ups and downs of his own life--including his history with gangs, drugs, and incarceration--to open a path for his students to express their own stories. Click to go inside the California State Prison, Los Angeles County, and see how Luis leads his students from trauma to transformation through the art of writing.

Photo: Luis Rodriguez leads a class at the state prison in Lancaster, CA. Still from short film by Sara Aguilar.
Sounds  of California: On the Airwaves with Radio Bilingüe

"We are prayer  warriors, singing warriors, we are trying to bring a balm or a salve of our songs and dances and ways to our community that have been lost, and it's a way of bringing closure. Specifically with police violence, the best way to combat is with our ancestors. They've all been through this." -Davina Estrella Ramy, Awon Ohun Omnira Choir

Through migration, displacement, and trauma, music has been a thread of continuity and community for the Californians featured in ACTA's Sounds of California concert held in April in the San Francisco neighborhood of Bayview-Hunter's Point. Listen to the artists from the program tell their stories in these detailed new radio features produced for the Sounds of California project in partnership with Radio Bilingüe, available in English and in Spanish. And in case you missed the concert, you can hear the full recording on Radio Bilingüe's archive!

Photo: The Awon Ohun Omnira Choir performs at the Sounds of California concert. Photo by Sonia Narang.
As NALAC approaches its 30th anniversary in May 2019, it announces the latest round of grant opportunities for Latino artists and arts organizations working in all creative disciplines across the United States and Puerto Rico. Grants will support projects taking place in 2019, and applications are due Thursday, September 6, 2018. The NALAC Fund for the Arts is the only national grant program intentionally investing in Latinx artists and nonprofit arts organizations in the United States. (Latinx is a gender-neutral term increasingly used in lieu of Latino or Latina). To date, NALAC has awarded over 500 grants, reflecting an investment of $2.5 million across 35 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and México. DEADLINE: 09/06/18

Humanities for All is a new grant program that supports locally-initiated public humanities projects. This program responds to the needs and interests of Californians, encourages greater public participation in humanities programming, particularly by new and/or underserved audiences, and promotes understanding and empathy among all our state's peoples in order to cultivate a thriving democracy. Quick Grants (between $1,000 and $5,000) will be awarded three times a year for small-scale public humanities activities and projects that will take place within a one-year period from the award date. DEADLINE: 10/15/18

Have you or an artist you know experienced a recent, career threatening emergency, such as an illness, accident, fire or natural disaster? CERF+ emergency assistance includes grants and/or brokered assistance, such as booth fee waivers and discounts or donations on supplies and equipment. Artists interested in CERF+ emergency assistance must first complete an inquiry form.
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts is the California Arts Council's official partner in serving the state's folk and traditional arts field.
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