Media Fund Winners

2022 Media Arts Work-in-Progress (WIP) Fellows

(Bronx, New York – February 18, 2022) – En Foco, the Bronx-based non-profit that supports contemporary primarily U.S.-based photographers of color, is proud to announce the recipients of its 2022 Media Arts Work-in-Progress (WIP) Fund. The $2,000 grant, organized in collaboration with public access television network BronxNet, supports artists who engage with digital media technologies in their art-making processes and need support for the completion of a quality work in progress.

The five 2022 Media Arts Work-In-Progress (WIP) Fund Awardees LaChris Alfaro, Daniela López Amézquita, Bianka Cypriano, Everette S. Hamlette, and Tanika I. Williams were chosen from a pool of 32 applicants by a panel of industry professionals.

The Media Arts Work in Progress Fund was developed out of the En Foco Photography Fellowship, and the need to widen the scope of mediums eligible for the fellowship. The WIP Fund is a response to a need for more opportunities for artists of color who engage with digital media to have their work supported and exhibited.

MEET THE FELLOWS

In 1997, LaChris Alfaro, with her mother, left Puebla, Mexico to cross the U.S. border. At age 14 she fell in love with photography. When Alfaro’s peers started applying to art school, she was hit with the harsh reality that my undocumented status presented real restrictions. Alfaro could not apply for financial aid, get state tuition, or even a loan. This forced her to teach herself taught and explore the art world outside of academia, leaving it up to me to find her immediate community to gain the experiences needed to elevate her craft. Alfaro subsequently went on to graduate from Manhattan Borough Community College with an Associate degree in Video arts. And in 2013, she enrolled in Hunter College to pursue a degree in media studies, for which she received a Bachelor’s degree in 2021.
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Daniela López Amézquita is a Mexican lens-based storyteller living in the Bronx, NY. With a B.A. in Social Communication, she worked seven years at Cineteca Nacional de México as an audiovisual producer. She also collaborated on audiovisual projects at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México. In 2019, she graduated from the New Media Narratives program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and in 2020 she was honored to receive the 2020-2021 Bronx Documentary Center Film Fellowship where she worked in her first short documentary “Tú te quedaste.”
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Bianka Cypriano is a Brazilian-born filmmaker and a Telly® Award-winner producer. In her current exploration, she investigates habits embedded in Afro-Latino communities shaped by immigrants. Bianka directs documentaries, promo and demo videos, and the show Noise – an ongoing TV series that airs on selected public access channels in New York City and portrays side and angle relationships of New Yorkers. Additionally, Bianka serves as the producer of the medical TV Show Objetivo Tu Salud [Se. 3, 4, and 5], which airs weekly on Telemundo 74. In past capacities, she served as the video editor for the TV show Puerto Rican Voices – a documentary series highlighting the contributions of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, CUNY. Bianka is a member of the jury committee for the 21 Islands Intl Short Film Festival, in partnership with PRTT-Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, which presents films from island nations, territories, and states all around the world that expresses cultural, philosophical, social, and aesthetic notions of island life. An avid Salsa dancer, Bianka’s praised video editing pacing is attributed to the rhythmicality acquired over the years of extensive training in Afro-Cuban Casino and Mambo dance.
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Everette S. Hamlette’s work focuses on the beauty and resilience of people living in the Bronx. In 2016, after graduating with a journalism degree from the State University of New York at Albany, Everette returned home to work as a documentary journalist at BronxNet TV. There, he produced short form content about the daily lives of people in his neighborhood. In 2017, Everette founded his own production company, Stylish Ev Productions, and began work on his first feature documentary, “75 Park: e pluribus unum” about his changing neighborhood park. An early trailer of the film was screened at City Hall to raise awareness about the racial inequities in the NYC parks system. It was a revelation and Everette is now a speaker throughout the city on the topic. Everette is also a member of the national film collective the Filmshop and recently 75 Park was honored to be chosen for the intensive Filmshop Studio program.
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Tanika I. Williams (b. 1981, St. Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an award-winning filmmaker and performance artist. She investigates women’s use of movement, mothering, and medicine to produce and pass on ancestral wisdoms of ecology, spirituality, and liberation. Williams holds a BA from Eugene Lang College, New School, and MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. Her films have been screened at festivals and broadcast on American television. Williams has been awarded residencies at New York Foundation for the Arts, Hi-ARTS, and BRIC. Additionally, she has been featured on 99.5 WBAI; Art in Odd Places; Creative Time; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Civic Art Lab, Greenspace NYC; Let Us Eat Local, Just Food; and Performa.
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2022 Media Arts Work-in-Progress (WIP) Fellows

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