A Blade of Grass

Mid month reminder for $500 grants to help make your work. 👉 This round of Field Funds is specifically geared towards **Collective Work.** Info is also available at /field-funds Want to know more? The application is located in our linktree, in our bio. Still have questions? Email us at: [email protected] Applications for *this* round will close on May 31st at 11:59 PM ET ✅ So please apply! Please share! Image description, alt text embedded: A glittery green confetti background with punches of aqua, blue, and pink. On top is a white rectangle of textured paper. A logo at the top says Field Funds—it is riso printed—green, blue, orange, purple and pink with blocky, funky, fun type. To the side of it, is the new A Blade of Grass logo that is wrapped to the d in “Field.” Following that up is dark green text, it reads: Grants tending to practitioners' emerging ideas and ongoing work. $500 for Collective Work. Applications close May 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET. Application linked in bio.

🌱 In addition to public cycles of Field Funds, we partner with other artist-led initiatives to host closed cycles of Field Funds exclusively for their communities. ☀️ 🤝 Earlier this year, we worked with Public Media Institute, an organization experienced in leading mutual aid efforts, to distribute funds to their community in Chicago. ✅ ➡️ "Most of the art world exists at what wealth-hoarding institutions would call the margins. To the rest of us, that ‘marginal’ field is a wild prairie of artist-run networks built for survival and care. Field Funds fertilize those roots, giving them space to breathe, connect, and build the infrastructures that actually sustain culture.” – Nick Wylie, Public Media Institute 🗣️ 🫶🎨 Help us grow Field Funds so we can keep showing up for artists, season after season. 🔗 Link in bio. Image description, alt text embedded: ID1 - A white background with the words “grow," in purple, red, and neon green, looping the edges of the frame. In the middle, a quote by Nick Wylie reads: Most of the art world exists at what wealth-hoarding institutions would call the margins. To the rest of us, that ‘marginal’ field is a wild prairie of artist-run networks built for survival and care. Field Funds fertilize those roots, giving them space to breathe, connect, and build the infrastructures that actually sustain culture. – Nick Wylie, Public Media Institute ID2 - Repeated rings of the word “grow.” The colorful text spirals outward in neon green, periwinkle, tomato red, and peach, extending beyond the edges of the frame. In the center, text reads: Field Funds collaborates with artist-led organizations that are deeply rooted in their communities. These partnerships allow us to resource artists we might not otherwise reach and to respond when support is needed quickly. Support Field Funds today! Link in bio. Field Funds logo.

Chelsea Luo, the first production intern of multicultural arts organization Great Leap, sits down with the organization’s founder, Nobuko Miyamoto, to discuss Great Leap’s beginnings, the changing costs of touring, and performance as a tool for community building and political consciousness. 🤝💬 “As the first production intern at Great Leap,” Luo writes, “I came to this conversation not only as an interviewer, but as someone learning from within the very community [Nobuko] has spent decades cultivating… It’s a rare opportunity to sit with someone whose life and work are so deeply intertwined with the culture and history of East L.A. and to hear, firsthand, the stories that have shaped it.” 🪑🖊️ 📖 Read “Art, Activism, and Oneness: Inside the World of Nobuko Miyamoto,” a conversation between Great Leap’s founder and first production intern, in Landscapes issue 3 at the link in our bio. 🔗 Image descriptions, alt text embedded: ID1 - A magenta pink background with a soft green gradient on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, a quote by Nobuko Miyamoto reads: “The system is corrupt, the system is built to serve the ruling class. It’s not built to serve us. We’re going to have to fight to keep our own voice, but if you do it independently, you have a small chance.” A thin, circular stroke in the background. ID2 - A magenta pink background with a soft yellow gradient edge on the left, a green gradient on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, a quote by Nobuko Miyamoto reads: “But the basic bones of it is the importance of the workshops, getting to know each other’s communities and the different leaders and skills they have. All of these people had skills that they could bring in.” Thin, circular strokes in the background.

Artists understand that support at a crucial moment makes all the difference. 💯 It's so meaningful to us that many of the people directly supporting Field Funds are artists themselves. ➡️ Stephanie Dinkins is a member of our Artist Circle and supports artists because: “Supporting artists is not optional—it is essential to livable futures. Every act of support accumulates, building ecosystems of care that allow artists—and the communities they move with—to imagine and reshape the world around us. Artists don’t just prototype the future—we pressure it, stretch it, and insist that it hold more of us, more carefully. Support artists. Resource artists materially, structurally, consistently. In doing so, we build systems of care. A Blade of Grass’s Field Funds does this, making systems of care possible.” 🌟 Field Funds gives small grants to socially engaged artists for the work that often goes unseen: accessibility, documentation, gathering and relationship-building. ✅ Help us grow Field Funds so we can keep showing up for artists, season after season. 🔗 Link in bio. Image description, alt text embedded: ID1 - A large italicized quote that reads: "Supporting artists is not optional—it is essential to livable futures.” The quote is broken up into a variety of colors, including chartreuse and neon green, periwinkle purple, tomato red and raw umber. Image descriptions continued in comments.

We can’t believe it’s already May! But we’re so pumped to bring you another round of $500 grants to help make your work.✨👉 This round of Field Funds is specifically geared towards **Collective Work.** Want to know more? The application is located in our linktree, in our bio. Still have questions? Email us at: [email protected] Info is also available at /field-funds Applications for *this* round will close on May 31st at 11:59 PM ET ✅ So please apply! Please share! Image description, alt text embedded: A glittery green confetti background with punches of aqua, blue, and pink. On top is a white rectangle of textured paper. A logo at the top says Field Funds—it is riso printed—green, blue, orange, purple and pink with blocky, funky, fun type. To the side of it, is the new A Blade of Grass logo that is wrapped to the d in “Field.” Following that up is dark green text, it reads: Grants tending to practitioners' emerging ideas and ongoing work. $500 for Collective Work. Applications close May 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET. Application linked in bio.

Two years ago, we launched Field Funds to move funding directly to socially engaged artists—quickly and without unnecessary barriers. This spring, we are inviting our community to help support Field Funds in its third year. ☀️🌱 Since its launch, the program has supported: • 115 artists and collectives • across 29 states and Washington, D.C. ✨ and distributed $57,500 in small grants.✨ • More than 2,600 artists have applied. Field Funds supports the work that often goes unfunded but makes collaborative art possible in the first place: bringing people together, making work accessible, documenting projects, and building relationships over time. 🌈 🌟 Help us grow Field Funds so we can keep showing up for artists, season after season. 🔗 Link in bio. Image description, alt text embedded: The Field Funds logo appears as a vibrant risograph-style print in green, blue, orange, purple, and pink, featuring blocky, playful lettering. Beside it is the A Blade of Grass logo, tucked so that it wraps around the “d” in “Field.” Surrounding both logos are repeated rings of the word “grow.” The colorful text spirals outward in chartreuse, neon green, periwinkle, tomato red, and peach, extending beyond the edges of the frame.

Gabriel San Emeterio, director of the HIV Complexities Project, housed at Long COVID Justice, 🤝 and JD Davids, a member of What Would an HIV Doula Do?, co-founded Long COVID Justice in 2022. 💬 The two sat down to catch up about the HIV Complexities Project, an expansive project led by and for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and complex chronic conditions that includes an online support group and accessible public health education and resources. 🌱✨ “It’s a project acknowledging that we’re grateful for the advancement in HIV treatment and that some people are thriving with taking just one pill. ➡️ But this project is also trying to bring in the fact that our lives are way more complex than that, and we’re more than just our viral load,” San Emeterio says. “We’re trying to bring a more nuanced understanding of disability, because sometimes there’s such rejection of disability… By having HIV, our chances of experiencing disability are exponential.” 📖 Read “The Stigma Is Well-Earned, But It’s Really Problematic: Gabriel San Emeterio on the HIV Complexities Project” in Landscapes issue 3 at the link in our bio. 🔗 Image description, alt text embedded: ID1 - A magenta pink background with a strong yellow gradient edge on the left, a slight purple-blue gradient on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, a quote by Gabriel San Emeterio reads: By having HIV, our chances of experiencing disability are exponential. So we're creating awareness among people who are not experiencing disability, and validating and trying to bring some tools and support for those who are. Thin, circular strokes in the background. ID2 - A magenta pink background with a a slight green gradient on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, a quote by Emeterio reads: What's very real is the need for community—just how isolating living with HIV and other complex chronic illnesses can be. There's a real need to connect on those bases. Thin, circular strokes in the background. Image descriptions continued in comments.

✨ “A Collective Is a Forest” by Duaba Unenra of Wild Path Collective reflects on the trajectory of the land stewardship project and the metaphors for collective organizing that often fall short at capturing the intricacies of working in collaboration. “I think that when a group is actually in a deep practice of being an ecosystem, it becomes that rare place where the group’s members can slow down and tend to themselves,” he writes. ✍️ “Being with one another becomes more like taking a slow walk amongst trees and a lot less like a job.” 🌳🌳🌳 📖 ➡️ Read “A Collective Is a Forest” in Landscapes issue 3 at the link in our bio. Image description, alt text embedded: ID1 - A pink background with a yellow gradient edge on the left, a slight purple gradient on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, the quote reads: I think that when a group is actually in a deep practice of being an ecosystem, it becomes that rare place where the group's members can slow down and tend to themselves. Being with one another becomes more like taking a slow walk amongst trees and a lot less like a job. Quote by Duaba Unenra. Thin, circular strokes in the background. ID2 - Same background but less yellow on the left and more blue green gradient on the right. Another quote reads: We prioritized reminding one another of our individual autonomy, to mold our visions and work to the shape of our own bodies and capacities and gifts. Quote by Duaba Unenra. ID3 - Same background with less green gradient on the right. Another quote by Duaba Unenra reads: Because in collectives, fragmentation and challenges for influence are a normal part of the process of being together— confusing as it may be, it's the freedom to develop cohesion through choosing one another, through choosing to sit with one another's troubles, that makes a group stronger, or leads it to compost itself.

In “Where Music Meets Movement,” Chelsea Luo, Great Leap’s first Production Intern, sits down with Martha Gonzalez (@marthartivista ) and Quetzal Flores (@quetzalmusic73 ), members of the East Los Angeles–based band Quetzal and co-creators of FandangObon with Nobuko Miyamoto. ✨ FandangObon is a participatory gathering that brings together Mexican fandango and Japanese Obon traditions and has expanded over the years to include a wider circle of cultural practices, from African diasporic traditions to Palestinian dabkeh. 🙌 📖 Read their conversation at the link in our bio. Image description, alt text embedded: ID1 - A pink background with a yellow gradient edge on the left, light neon green on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, the quote reads: How do we create things that are not for consumption, but for participation? Quote by Quetzal Flores. Thin, circular strokes in the background. ID2 - Same background. Another quote reads: Even if FandangObon becomes extinct one day, Bambutsu no Tsunagari will be the archive of some collaboration that existed. People will dance it, people will know it. It's both the archive and the repertoire in this case. Quote by Martha Gonzalez. Thin, circular strokes in the background.

What Would an HIV Doula Do? @WWHIVDD is a community of people joined in response to the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis. ❤️ “[It] is also a question, one that we are more interested in continuing to ask—of ourselves, of each other, of our communities, of culture at large—than we are to answer,” writes WWHIVDD member C. (Constantine Jones) in the introduction of “WWHIVDD Collectivity.” For this text, the collective developed a survey of questions, including, “What do you get out of WWHIVDD that you don’t get out of other gatherings or outlets in your life? Why do you show up to meetings? What is it about WWHIVDD that keeps you engaged?” Members were invited to respond with their own questions, and responses have been mixed together and anonymized as a collective means of mapping out the group and its collaborative processes. ✨ 📖 Read “WWHIVDD Collectivity” in Landscapes Issue 3: A Circle of Circles at the link in our bio. 🔗 Image descriptions, alt text embedded: ID1 - A pink background with a yellow gradient edge on the left, light neon green on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, the quote reads: In a world of transactional exchanges, what does it mean to build a space based solely on radical reciprocity? Quote by What Would an HIV Doula Do? (W.W.H.I.V.D.D.). Thin, circular strokes in the background. ID2 - Same background except slight difference in the gradients and thin circles. The text reads: Where else can I go and know deep in my heart that everyone present loves people living with HIV? W.W.H.I.V.D.D. Image descriptions continued in comments.

To kick off the third issue of Landscapes, “A Circle of Circles,” we sat down with members of the inaugural In Fellowship cohort to introduce their forthcoming contributions and reflect on the year shared together—what each member will be taking away from the experience, what they’ve learned from each other, and how this moment has impacted the ways they are thinking about collective structure. 🗣️🗣️ Read “A Process of Processes,” a conversation between members of Wild Path Collective, Great Leap, and What Would an HIV Doula Do?, at the link in bio. ⭕⭕ Landscapes is a flexible digital platform made by A Blade of Grass to explore ecosystems of socially engaged art. Landscapes commissions conversations, texts, and projects. 🤝🤝 Image descriptions, alt text embedded: ID1 - A pink background with a yellow gradient edge on the left, light neon green on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, the quote reads: We got into—or rather are attempting to return to—the practice of commoning because it was an ancestral tradition, which was destroyed in order to make way for the kinds of economic, physical, and psychological violence that is now being deployed across the planet to advance corporate and elite interests. Quote by Duaba Unenra. Thin, circular strokes in the background. ID2 - A pink background with a yellow gradient edge on the left, light neon green on the right. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. In large white text underneath, the quote reads: I’m grateful for the divine timing that in a year where things went the way they went, this was a really helpful opportunity to show up in a digital space with folks. To be able to show up and be around other people who care about not being isolated, not in a hierarchy. Quote by Alison De La Cruz. Thin, circular strokes in the background. Continued in comments.

This year, we’re reflecting on the act of gathering as an artistic tool for building movements, distributing resources, and nurturing new futures. 🪞🪞 In a field as expansive and difficult to define as socially engaged art, the impulse to gather people, collectively organize, and build networks emerges as a throughline amongst a vast array of disciplines and practices. 🤝 🤝 This work cannot happen individually; collaboration is inherent to the process at all scales, from artist cooperatives, ensembles, and mutual aid networks to broader efforts of convening and coalition building across networks and geographies. 🌍 🌍 How can we create intentional spaces to build together and dream together? What are the formats we might create or return to in times of escalating crisis? How can the act of gathering build solidarity and coalition? 💭💭 Head to the link in our bio to explore the first contribution to “A Circle of Circles,” the third issue of Landscapes, which will unfold over the year. 🟣 🟣 Image description, alt text embedded: ID1 - A pink gradient over an image of rocks in a circle, in a grassy landscape. On the right edge of the image is another gradient, a tinge of yellow, light blue, and neon green. At the top is says LANDSCAPES in an assortment of letters and fonts. Underneath says ISSUE 03 and below that is the title: A Circle of Circles. Very faint strokes of hand drawn loops grow from the left side of the frame. ID2 - A pink gradient over an image of rocks in a circle, in a grassy landscape. At the top it reads: Landscapes / Issue 03 / A Circle of Circles. Underneath in a different font, it reads: This year, we’re reflecting on the act of gathering as an artistic tool for building movements, distributing resources, and nurturing new futures. In a field as expansive and difficult to define as socially engaged art, the impulse to gather people, collectively organize, and build networks emerges as a throughline amongst a vast array of disciplines and practices. Very faint strokes of hand drawn loops grow from the top right of the frame.