The Council recently awarded $13,895 in mini grants to the following humanities projects. Congratulations to our grantees!
Lucy Boltz, $1,975 to Feeling at Home: West Elmwood Before and Since Displacement. Funds support archival research, oral histories, interviews, and public forums examining the history of the West Elmwood neighborhood in Providence. Looking at housing, deindustrialization, demographic shifts, and displacement, the research will shed light on both the past and current community fabric of a sector of the city often forgotten.
Frequency Writers, $1,920 to A New Spelling of My Name and Invisible Cities: A Four-Week Creative Writing Workshop for Teens. Funds support the production of a month-long writing workshop for teens aged 13-17 in Providence. Using creative writing as a medium of expression, teens will explore questions of identity and the influences of urban planning on society.
Friends of Hearthside, Inc. $2,000 to World’s Fair 1904: Rhode Island Stories from History’s Greatest Exhibition. Funds support historical exhibits and attractions linking the technological developments of the early 20th Century to those of the early 21st Century. Exhibits, reenactors, performers, and historical technologies will all come to life at the Hearthside House’s second “1904 World’s Fair Tribute.”
Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, $2,000 to The Prison Op/Ed Project. Funds support this year’s Prison Op/Ed project. By helping incarcerated individuals compose op-eds, the project assists inmates in developing writing skills while they explore themes of civic engagement, education, prison reform, and policymaking.
North Kingstown Free Library, $2,000 to North Kingstown Free Library – A History and Celebration. Funds support the compilation of a brief documentary video of the North Kingstown Free Library. Using historical materials, oral histories of past directors, staff, and community members, the film will explore the unique and important role the library has played for the citizens of North Kingstown for nearly 120 years.
Westerly Library and Wilcox Park, $2,000 to Out of the Corner: Bringing Westerly Library’s Special Collections to Rhode Island and the World. Funds support the organization and execution of three planning charrettes bringing together the board of directors, staff, and community representatives of the Westerly Library. The Charrettes will enable the library to construct a planning document detailing the activation of the library’s unique and expansive archive.
Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society, $2,000 to Rhode Island Model Legislature 2.0 (2015). Funds support the construction of a website to serve as a resource hub with instructional materials including videos, guides, FAQs, and forms to enable broader access of teachers and students with the RI Model Legislature program.
Chris Witt, $1,920 to Literary Providence. Funds support the production of a literary map of Providence. Using archival research, the mapmaker will examine the literary history of Providence and how the city has shaped and been shaped by both writers and its literary culture. Historically underrepresented authors will be a focus of the work.
