Solidarity Arts Fellowship
Healing Justice
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Creative Practice
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Relationship Building
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Community Organizing
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Political Education
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Spirituality
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Resistance
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Healing Justice 〰️ Creative Practice 〰️ Relationship Building 〰️ Community Organizing 〰️ Political Education 〰️ Spirituality 〰️ Resistance 〰️
The Vigilant Love Solidarity Arts Fellowship is a six-month program for Japanese & Muslim American young adults ages 18 to 25 with a desire to build deep, transformative relationships, receive political education, participate in multi-disciplinary arts & healing justice trainings, and creatively organize to resist Islamophobia & white supremacy.
The program provides rare experiences of deepening one's self-awareness and political analysis and ultimately building greater solidarity amongst our communities through arts, healing, leadership development, and spiritual resistance.
The 2024 Solidarity Arts Fellowship program will be a hybrid of virtual and in-person retreats. Accepted fellows will gain life-changing relationships that will strengthen their path and trajectory in challenging cyclical oppression and nourish their commitment to developing new possibilities for healing and liberation. Fellows will gain access to facilitation, training, workshops, and mentorship from long-time & experienced leaders and artists from Muslim, Japanese American, Black, Indigenous, and other POC communities.
Hear from our Solidarity Arts Fellowship alums!
Pegah N. (she/her) – 2023 SAF Alum
“I was grateful to be able to learn the histories of Japanese and Muslim American surveillance and discrimination, and to witness similarities in both communities’ resilience and activism. I got to become a little bit more familiar with community organizing. Most importantly, I learned the importance of collective healing and turning towards community to overcome intergenerational trauma. I realized how solidarity is extremely essential in the strive towards justice. I became a lot more comfortable speaking honestly about my own identity and building unity with those around me.”
Sakib S. (they/them) – 2022 SAF Alum
“Through the fellowship, I got to learn just how interconnected and intermeshed our different struggles for liberation are — Japanese, Muslim, Indigenous, and Black struggles. I have lots more I want to learn about, especially about how Islamophobia and anti-Blackness intersect and interact! I also got to thoroughly experience the joys of making art with others who have now come into my life! I want to continue sharing community with others while we write, draw, and dance together.”
Eo H. (they/she) – 2021 SAF Alum
“Joining Vigilant Love as a fellow expanded my vision of restoration. Listening to the experiences of Muslim and Japanese American community members, you learn that surveillance has fragmented land, communities, and individuals for decades by classifying people and persecuting them. This surveillance can morph into implicit forms, like a voice of doubt in your head. VL staff and fellows put together space to untangle ourselves from some of the holds of surveillance that have followed us across generations. There is still work to be done, but you gain the strength to help others - VL is restoration in progress!”
Christie Y. (she/her) – 2020 SAF Alum
“The Solidarity Arts Fellowship has taught me not to fear getting involved with community. Before taking part in this fellowship, I didn’t know anything about building within or across communities. I am inspired by Vigilant Love, and this group of Japanese Americans and Muslim Americans who have come together to unite the experiences of the past with issues of the present. The fellowship helped me to understand that solidarity begins with openness and vulnerability and needs to be maintained through active participation and engagement. Solidarity is not an instantaneous achievement, but a lifelong process that requires nourishment, friendship, and community.”
Syeda S. (they/she) – 2019 SAF Alum
“The fellowship has taught me the importance of bridging and coalition work within a movement. Through VL, I have learned not only about the implications of surveillance and criminalizing in the Muslim community but I have also learned about the importance of viewing tangible policies through a lens of healing justice, art, and community. I am forever thankful for the bonds that I have cultivated and the journey that I was able to be a part of.”
VL’s Solidarity Arts Fellowship is supported by the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture’s Community Impact Arts Grant, the Aratani C.A.R.E grant, and the National Parks Service Japanese American Confinement Sites grant. We are grateful to our funders for making this program possible!