In 2022, the MAP Fund awarded $2.6 million to more than 300 artists across 88 live performance projects. Each grantee project received $30,000, which includes $25,000 towards the proposed work and $5,000 in unrestricted funds. We celebrate and honor the multiplicity of their brilliant ideas and deep practices, which collectively move us toward a better world.
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by Latanya d. Tigner and Jackson State University Marching Band
A full-length dance/music work built collaboratively by dancers and drummers from African diaspora practices, specifically Malinke, Wolof and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
California and Mississippi
A work that instruments a disruption of the invisibility of the aging body using a physical vocabulary appropriated from paintings, photography, and sculptures of nudes throughout art history.
New York
by AnAkA
An immersive performance and experience of the AKTIV8 Archive: a sacred wisdom portal of Black and Indigenous elders, healers, artists, and liberation movements.
New York
A site-responsive performance that employs physical impact and its residue to unpack the perpetual cycles of warfare and violence glorified by American culture(s) that exists around and within us.
Minnesota, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Montana
by Yarn/Wire, Tyshawn Sorey, Ross Gay, and Brooke O’Hara
A large-scale performance that challenges the common violence involved in looking at Black people and wonders about the ways we might look tenderly and lovingly at one another.
Pennsylvania and New York
A work of contemporary movement and visual design that invites audiences to reshape their expectations of a post-pandemic future by inspiring deep reflection, dialogue, and action.
Washington
by Timothy DuWhite, Zhailon Levingston, and Bryan Joseph Lee
An immersive love story about two queer Black people that aims to broaden our societal understanding of partnership.
New York
by Luma Jasim
A multidisciplinary project based on the real story of the artist’s experience in Iraq with conflict, three wars, sanctions, and later her immigration and acculturation.
Idaho
by Nicoletta Darita de la Brown
A performance ritual activating sculpted headdresses (made from preserved grasses, dried flowers, and crystals) that are inspired by women in the artist’s family.
Maryland
by ChristinaMaria Patiño Xochitlzihuatl Houle
A theater and ceremony performance led by mixed Indigenous community activists and storytellers working along the US/Mexico border.
Texas
by Charlene Jean
A performance project, following a Haitian family, that studies the spiritual implications of gentrification and illustrates how community violence is the residue of colonialism.
New York
by Boston Dance Theater and Jessie Jeanne Stinnett
A piece celebrating the life and work of seminal bassist Carol Kaye by exploring personal lineage, untold histories, and the intricate relationship between music and dance.
Massachusetts
A deeply personal installation and chamber opera—featuring drag queen performers—that explores the complexity and boundlessness of identity.
New York and Puerto Rico
by Shinichi Iova Koga, inkBoat, and Wudang West
A project that delves into the decay and regeneration of human structures, combining traditional Daoist cultural perspectives with theatrical performance-devising traditions rooted in the Japanese avant-garde.
California
A three-part film and multimedia performance installation charting a post-apocalyptic geography in which trans femmes are the only survivors.
New York
by Rosy Simas
An ever-evolving project that returns to Haudenosaunee stories, ideas, and actions as a way to find peace and create resting space for Native/BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ people.
Minnesota
by Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Torian Ugworji, TheREDprojectNYC, and The IAMI Collective
A three-night movement theater journey that moves audiences through an immersive shedding ritual launching from memories of the early 2000’s.
New York and Virginia
by Prumsodun Ok
A multidisciplinary performance blurring the lines between wondrous spectacle and ritual offering as it follows an aging artist learning how to swim.
Cambodia, Japan, and California
An interactive play that explores the immigrant narrative, with its nuances and the multitude of experiences contained within, to catalyze sustainable civic engagement.
New York
by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi and George Abraham
A puppetry, performance art, spoken word, song, and textual experimentation that speaks to the needs of Palestinians, those who love them, and those they love.
Minnesota and Illinois
by The Civic Ensemble and Katie Ka Vang
A play exploring a community’s wellness in relation to grief, racism, and inequity.
New York
A site-specific, participatory performance that explores the question of why we choose to come together by incorporating technology to facilitate interaction and play between performers and the audience.
New York
A performance that brings together visual art, poetry, dance, theatre, and music into a Black-centered no-holds-barred exploration of place, housing, race, and equity.
California
A responsive video environment for performance by human and non-human collaborators that exposes the interconnection between economic, social, and environmental crises.
New York
by Jose Jaimes, Nandy Luna Ramirez, and Angelica Gonzalez
A Folklorico dance performance that focuses on the power of Veracruz women—and their African, Spanish, and Native roots—in Mexican history.
California
An activist dance opera serving as the creative container for a historic intervention at the former home of Esek Hopkins, commander of the slavery ship Sally.
Rhode Island, Illinois, South Korea, Mali, New York, and Texas
by fronteristxs
An experimental runway performance show with ungendered looks designed to disrupt surveillance technologies in a city with one of the highest police brutality rates in the nation.
New Mexico
by amara tabor-smith and Ellen Sebastian Chang
A community-rooted project that asks “How can we, as Black women and girls, find space to breathe, and be well within a stable home?”
California
by The Women of Street Symphony Chamber Singers, the Downtown Women’s Center, and La Marisoul y Son California
A collaborative work created by unhoused women as soloists and lead artists, supported by an ensemble of Son Jarocho, Gospel, and choral vocalists and an instrumental ensemble.
California
by The Iranian Female Composers Association, Kaveh Akbar, and Bridgid Bergin
A devised work that brings forth the multiplicity of Iranian identity through vignettes related to the unfathomable nature of loss.
New York
A multidisciplinary performance that retells, through an intersectional lens, stories from how the community dealt with the past two years of pandemic.
California
A solo performance piece that looks at the complex American terrain of race, cultural domination, and systematic practices designed to erase Indigenous Identity.
Washington
by Eric Solano, Major Julian, and Faisal Monal
An artistic and ritualistic exploration of the ways Filipinos navigate their lives in the diaspora, healing and wellness, and the values they bring on their journeys.
California
by Stephanie Chou and Susan Kander
A jazz-opera exploring the lives of WWII “comfort women,” a cruel euphemism for the women who were abducted into sexual slavery by the Japanese army.
New York
by Pones
A dance-infused film and performance that highlights the diverse experiences of aging community members and challenges the societal myth of aging as a process of deterioration.
Kentucky and Ohio
by Justen LeRoy
A multidisciplinary project that explores the intersection between climate destruction and racial injustice, using sound as a medium to unearth new expressions of grief and pleasure.
California
by Meja Pannell-Tyehimba and Tasya Abbot
A musical drama which tells the twofold story of a young African American violist and opera’s greatest Prima Donna overcoming racial barriers.
California
by Damon Davis and Alarm Will Sound
A sci-fi electronic fantasy opera that demonstrates the power of myth in our self-discovery through the story of a Black child who travels the stars in his dreams.
Missouri
by Sichong Xie
An experimental opera-based durational performance that draws attention to the invisible labor behind each institution through the reimagining of the artist’s grandfather’s architectural drawings in the 1950s and 1960s.
California, Massachusetts, and New York
by David R. Molina, Roberto G. Varea, and John Jota Leaños
A multimedia concert sharing a Guatemalan Mayan family’s epic journey to the USA, and their resilience, hope, and joy in the art of clowning.
California
by Matthew C. Yee, Amanda Dehnert, and Heidi Stillman
A musical that follows two deeply flawed newlyweds (who just happen to be Asian Americans) as they road trip, embracing the worst in themselves along the way.
Illinois
by Jae Gayle
A devised theater project that explores the controversial American archetype of Black mothers while exploring the points of intersection in other cultural experiences of motherhood.
New York
A dance work by Matao artists from Låguas and the diaspora that creates a sacred space as a portrait of the world they want to live in.
Låguas [The Mariånas Islands] and dxʷdəwʔabš Territory, [Washington]
by Nkeiruka Oruche, Kanukai Chigamba, and Gbedu Town Radio
A narrative-driven Afro-urban dance performance of re-imagined grief songs from Igbo traditions that give access to a culture of grieving beyond our current constructs.
California
A performance responding to Covid and racial and cultural injustice to suggest that constructions of normality incorporate systemic violence that precludes a post-pandemic return to normal.
Minnesota
by Javier Stell-Frésquez and Ivy Monteiro
A multimedia performance set in the charred landscape of a recent mega-inferno that queers the word and the concept of “mother.”
California, Brazil, and Switzerland
by Hanna Eady and Edward Mast
A play set during the lead-up to the war of 1948 that follows the friendship between a Palestinian teenage boy and his neighbor the village Rabbi.
New York
A project rooted in research around environmental justice issues happening in Latiné countries and how Latiné American families are directly affected.
Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and California
A multimedia exploration of the loss and renewal of the American grasslands told through projected images and a musical fusion of Americana and jazz.
Maryland and D.C.
by Juliette Carrillo, Bruce Lemon, Jr., and Cornerstone Theater Company Ensemble
A community-engaged performance and civic engagement project created in collaboration with the residents of the Rancho San Pedro public housing project.
California
An experimental music-theater performance focusing on captions as media that bring together accessibility, inner and imagined voices, and improvisation, in collaboration with thingNY.
Minnesota and New York
by Marvin K. White and Seth Eisen
A “tour” that explores the hidden history of ancestor Sylvester, providing an accessible understanding of racial equity within the queer liberation movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
California
A healing installation and performance piece that explores social constructs put upon Black women and the ways that it can affect their mental health.
Pennsylvania
An immersive and ritualized choreo-play that tracks four Black women’s journeys through history, breaking the chains of physical, mental, and systemic slavery.
New York
by Albany Park Theater Project and Third Rail Projects
An immersive production that invites audiences to step inside the stories of immigrants as they forge new lives within the walls of a single apartment building.
Illinois
by nicHi douglas, S T A R R Busby, JJJJJerome Ellis, and Tariq Al-Sabir
A congregation for those past, present, and future comes to power in this choreopoem that dives into the beautifully complex relationship between Black womxn and their spirituality.
New York
by Anito Gavino and Marcel Santiago Marcelino
A theatrical dance conversation exploring cultural identities and personal narratives between Filipino and Puerto-Rican+Dominican artists, exploring connections not by blood but by blood memories.
New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts
A multimedia installation and choreopoem that creates multigenerational alliances and helps folks—specifically elder femmes of color—understand their stories as valuable.
New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania
by Daniel Bernard Roumain, Melecio Estrella, and Amelia Rudolph
A performance of violin and dance on the side of a tower in Harlem that explores home, urban belonging, race, and privilege.
California and New York
by Mia Chung, Greg Pliska, Ben Krywosz, and Gamin Kang
An operatic music-theater work about the Korean War framed as a ghost story; dramatizing an unfinished conflict that haunts the world to the present day.
New York and Minnesota
A play that explores what happens when, in the face of medical racism, a Black woman of unwavering faith puts her trust in science for the chance of motherhood.
Pennsylvania
by Majesty Royale-Jackson (glitterboiwonder)
A performance-installation exploring the intersectionality of Black and queer culture by investigating history and collective memory and creating a space for riotous ways of being.
North Carolina
by Sisi Reid
A solo dance-theater story of healing and joy which questions and explores the artist’s identities as a Black Queer Woman.
D.C.
by Nadhi Thekkek, Roopa Mahadevan, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, and Shruti Abhishek
A bharatanatyam and experimental movement production exploring the labor of South Asian women who immigrated to the US following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.
California
by Tonality Ensemble and Alexander Lloyd Blake
A musical work that explores Ahmaud Arbery’s passions, quirks, and dreams; how those were stolen; and how we are all a part of his story.
California
by Bryan Carter
An expansive musical and literary experience that closely examines the life of Bayard Rustin, a queer man of color at the forefront of the civil rights movement.
New York
by Paula Cizmar and Michael Bodie
An immersive docu-narrative performance focused on the environmental injustices of South L.A. neighborhoods adversely affected by the continuous exposure to oil drilling, manufacturing, and other industrial toxins.
California
by Michael Gene Sullivan, Jamie Zimmer, and Betty Reid Soskin
A dramatization that explores the music and life of Bay Area legend Betty Reid Soskin, a racial justice activist, National Park Ranger, and songwriter.
California
by Anito Gavino and Malaya Ulan
A choreographed reclamation of Filipino and Mexican stories from colonial forces, utilizing Kali and folklorico as a modality for empowerment through storytelling and weaving.
Texas and Pennsylvania
by Sophie Kim, Tonasia Jones, and Cara Hinh
A fantastical dark-comedy-slash-ghost story that follows an eighteen-year-old Korean-American closeted transmasc who is forced to confront his desire to embrace his identity.
Massachusetts
by Sarah Crowell and Keith Hennessy
A work that uses both dance and community process to explore racialized harm and potentials for racial healing.
California
A play that addresses over-policing and challenges the false characterizations of Micronesians perpetuated throughout Hawaii, Guam, and the continent.
Hawaii
by Nile Harris
An improvised musical composition—performed inside of and around a sound-responsive inflatable bounce castle—that investigates American nationalism and the memory of a friend gone too soon.
New York
by Holly Bass
A dance theater work in which three time-traveling Black women—members of a futuristic revolutionary intelligence agency—traverse the American South during the Reconstruction era.
D.C.
A fully immersive large-scale piece with radical audience interaction in a “theatrical courtroom” that explores what restorative justice could look like.
New York
A multidisciplinary storywork that interrogates the mythology of the American West and uses community-based practice to embed underrepresented narratives into the mythological landscape.
New Mexico, Colorado, and North Carolina
by sola bamis
A multi-part solo performance piece and social media installation that provides a litany for Blac womyn’s survival in the face of neoliberalism, big tech, xenophobia, and cultural genocide.
California, New York, and Florida
by George Ferrandi and sTo Len
A community play/public water-and-fire ceremony in a small town that celebrates the ones that got away, the coulda-been-contenders, and the underdogs that never got over.
Pennsylvania
by Vaimoana Niumeitolu and Ping Chong and Company
An interview-based piece amplifying the voices and experiences of Tongan Americans to address their experiences, needs, and contributions in the face of colonization and imperialism.
New York
by LaJuné
A real-time motion capture performance on ice showcasing, celebrating, and honoring Black figure skaters of the past and present.
New York
by Candice Hoyes
A 5-part film and music performance embodying messages from generations past and future, touching the ecological, the migratory, and ephemeral aspects of the artist’s lineage.
New York
by EYIBRA
A multimedia and performance piece in the form of an experimental opera exploring queer identity in the context of Ukrainian and Lithuanian ritual songs.
New York
A performance that reflects the ever-changing nature of jazz while also paying homage to jazz’s unique influence on how we listen to and create modern music.
Indiana
A high-tech Latinx-centered multimedia musical performance responding to the unholy alliance between Big Tech vulture capitalists and Texas’ legendary brand of border imperialism conserving Anglo homogeneity.
Texas
A butoh work saturated in the consumer culture runoff from the Japanese archipelago that addresses the cultural erasure stemming from Japanese internment camps.
New York
by UrbanTheater Company, Sammy Publes and Miranda Gonzalez
A play about the formation of The Young Lords that highlights the historical importance of community organizing, allyship, and advocacy.
Illinois
MAP Fund’s work is made possible through partnership with Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. Additional support comes from Jerome Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, Wilhelm Family Foundation, and dozens of individual donors.
Many thanks to the 2022 grantees for providing the above images, which were taken by the photographers and/or include art from Latanya d. Tigner, Ahad Subzwari, Max Pendergast, Bennyroce Royon, Simone Acosta, Gregg Mizuta, Victor Rei Brown, Michelle Serano, Sarang Sharma, Sarah Takash, Catalina Kulczar, Shinichi Iova Koga, Ryan Stopera, Tony Turner, Prumsodun Ok, Filip Wolak, Houssam Mchaimech, Julia Taylor, Respective Collective, Ayodele Nzinga, Deville Cohen, Jose Jaimes, Erin Smithers, fronteristxs, Robbie Sweeny, Michael Yu, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Curtis Killian, John Davidson, Tim Isom, Naomi Ishisaka, John Abbott, Amy Tuttle, Joshua White, Chris Renteria, Sichong Xie, Susana Valdez, Gary Gold, Isabel Fajardo, Ashley Ross, Canaan Mattson, Kegan Marling, Daniel Estrin, Katy McDanel, Megan Wanlass, Terry Perdanawati, Fox Nakai, Alexa Santy, Myles Studio, Liz Lauren, Whitney Browne, Travis Coe, Brooke Anderson, Chelcie Parry, Svetzi, Maria Baranova, Diyanna Monet, Jyo Bhamidipati, Michael Owen Baker, Perry Binderglass, Dani Takahashi, Rodney Jackson, Mikhailla Alcantara, Malcolm-x Betts, C. Stanley, Leilani Hill, Steve Gunther, Keil Troisi, La Juné McMillian, Joseph McCoy, Anthony Francis, Shintaro Ueyama, and Luis Muñoz.