I have often said that receiving the Kresge Artist Fellowship over nine years ago was a musical game changer for me. The doors it opened for me as a musician allowed me to create and afforded me unique opportunities to collaborate with other artists and projects. For this reason, I owe much to Kresge for the recognition they gave me and each year I am excited to see who the new artists are that receive this honor.

Since 2012, I have stayed connected with Kresge Arts in Detroit through different ways, whether it was as a panelist to review the fellowships, to helping provide plugs to get Detroit artists to apply or, as is the case this past time, provided some music for their opening and closing credits.

Since 2008, Kresge Arts in Detroit has awarded more than $6.7 million through 13 Kresge Eminent Artist Awards ($50,000 each), 238 Kresge Artist fellowships ($25,000 each), and 32 Gilda Awards ($5,000 each).

This year, 30 Detroit-area literary and visual artists will receive a total of $550,000 in Kresge Artist Fellowships and Gilda Awards.

The 2021 cohort can be viewed by reading here.