SOZO FELLOWSHIP
SUSTAINABILITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COACHING FOR ARTISTS AND CREATIVE PRODUCERS
SOZO Fellowship is a groundbreaking coaching program designed to equip full-time working, mid-career independent artists with sustainability and entrepreneurship training to reach new heights in their livelihood and creative endeavors. Using a holistic framework, Artists and Producers as Entrepreneurs and Changemakers (APEC), the program is facilitated in collaboration with a group of experts from the Wellness, Finance, and Startup business world. By addressing systemic gaps in support for creative practitioners, we aim to unleash their fullest potential, enabling them to lead with their expansive vision.
We are excited to announce the selection of ten inaugural fellows for the 2024 Pilot:
AnAkA (Los Angeles, CA) - Holistic World Builder, Story Doula, Archivist, Alchemist, Artist.
Michele Byrd-McPhee (Jersey City, NJ) - Dance Artist & World Builder.
Thais Francis (Los Angeles, CA) - Multi-Passionate Artist.
Molly Joyce (Charlottesville, VA) - Composer / Performer.
Olivia Komahcheet (Austin, TX) - Music Producer.
Samora Pinderhughes (New York, NY) - Composer, Lyricist, Filmmaker, and Multidisciplinary Artist.
Samita Sinha (Jackson Heights, NY) - Artist, Composer, and Educator.
Siciliana Trevino (Richmond, CA) - Designer.
Nadhi Thekkek (San Francisco, CA) - Dancer / Choreographer.
Ixchel Tonāntzin Xōchitlzihuatl (Pahoa, HI/Mountain View, CA/Brownsville, TX) - Peace Builder, Eco-Social Acupuncturist, Intergalactic Scyborg, Cultural Strategist.
ANAKA
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AnAkA is a Holistic World Builder through shapeshifting modalities such as creative and film direction, photography, archiving and channelling “Angel Music”. Gender fluid and Globally-Indigenous, AnAkA reclaims ancestral memory with intentional practices. All rituals are housed within the AKTIV8 Creative Research Center: a sacred wisdom space focused on strengthening and preserving the heartbeat of global liberation movements and traditions. As a co-founder of Black Oregon Land Trust and a ceremonialist, their work centers on movements toward collective land justice and natural healing. Through this work, AnAkA advocates for artists, world builders and healers to exchange wisdom in sovereignty.
MICHELE BYRD-MCPHEE
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A 2023 Bessie Award winner for Outstanding Service to the Field, Michele Byrd-Mcphee is a street dancer, an arts activist and tireless advocate for girls and women who has been working for decades to re-contextualize spaces and conversations about Hip-Hop culture along gender, sex, cultural, socio-historical and racial lines. Her work situates Black dance forms, theories, dance techniques and the value of the lived artistic experience, in spaces that honor and acknowledge cultural roots along with the many creative pioneers who have shaped them. This is especially important given the ways in which Black dance has been co-opted, appropriated without acknowledgement to its cultural origins.
Awarded the 2020 Integrated Arts Residency Fellowship at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Byrd-McPhee created and taught her course “Hip-Hop, Women and the World”. She has also served as a grant panelist for the prestigious McKnight Foundation, DanceNYC, and served as a voting member of the Bessie Award Committee.
Most recently, in partnership with SNIPES USA, Michele opened New York’s only woman-led, woman-owned and women-focused street dance & arts space. With the LOHH x SNIPES partnership Byrd-McPhee is literally and figuratively flipping the dance world on its head! Historically, there has been a hierarchy in dance where ballet and forms derived from ballet are atop the global "ladder of dance"; receiving priority in resources, access and in what and who is presented and taught; this space is dedicated to street dance forms and organizations. In this space we have been able to present events, provide rehearsal space and classes for communities that are normally forgotten and systematically excluded from traditional dance spaces.
Presently, Byrd-McPhee continues her 20-year commitment as Executive Director to Ladies of Hip-Hop and artistic director of LDC (LOHH Dance Collective).
THAIS FRANCIS
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Thais is an award winning actor, writer, dancer, director and entrepreneur originally from Trinidad and Tobago. Her artistry was honed at the Tisch School of the Arts where she graduated with a BFA in theater from New York University. Her work has been seen at Radio City Music Hall, on international stages and Off-Off Broadway. Her original experimental play OUTCRY has been featured in American Theater Magazine and produced at symposiums and universities across the US. As a filmmaker and writer she has been recognized by Essence Black Women in Hollywood with the Discover Award, and has worked with institutions such as BET Networks, Amazon Studios and Yale University to name a few. As the founder of The Natiguh Company she makes wellness more accessible for people within the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, through an original dance/yoga technique called The Soga Method. A dreamer, a trailblazer and her ancestor’s wildest dreams come true, Thais is grateful that she’s thriving instead of surviving in this lifetime.
MOLLY JOYCE
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Molly Joyce has been deemed one of the “most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome” by The Washington Post. Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source. Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source, and her most recent album, Perspective, featuring voices and viewpoints of disabled interviewees, was praised by Pitchfork as “a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture.”
Molly’s creative projects have been presented and commissioned by Carnegie Hall, GM Europe, TEDxMidAtlantic, SXSW:EDU, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Bang on a Can Marathon, Americans for the Arts, National Sawdust, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, National Gallery of Art, and Classical:NEXT. She is a graduate of Juilliard, Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Yale, and alumnus of the YoungArts Foundation. She holds an Advanced Certificate and Master of Arts in Disability Studies from City University of New York, and is a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia in Composition and Computer Technologies. She has served on the composition faculties of New York University, Wagner College, and Berklee Online. For more information: www.mollyjoyce.com
OLIVIA KOMAHCHEET
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Olivia is an established artistpreneur and owner of independent music company “LIVZ LLC.” A life long creative, Olivia has published works with Brooks Running, Square Register, Shudder TV, Netflix, Timbaland’s global music platform “BeatClub”and a 2023 Northwest Regional Emmy® Awards nominee finalist for her original guitar loops, beats and studio compositions. Alongside working in studio, Olivia’s touring experience encompasses over 50 live performances throughout the US and Canada and has performed virtually alongside Jewel, AWOLNATION, Jason, Mraz, Sia and many more collectively intertwining a multitude of soundscapes often integrating alternative/indie, experimental art pop and indietronica.
SAMORA PINDERHUGHES
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Samora Pinderhughes is a composer, pianist, vocalist, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist known for striking intimacy and carefully crafted, radically honest lyrics alongside high-level musicianship. Pinderhughes has collaborated with many artists across boundaries and scenes including Herbie Hancock, Common, Glenn Ligon, Sara Bareilles, Simone Leigh, Daveed Diggs, Kyle Abraham, Titus Kaphar, and Lalah Hathaway. Pinderhughes is the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow and a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2020 Visionary Award. He has also been designated as a Creative Capital awardee, a United States Artist Fellow, and a Sundance Composers Lab fellow.
Pinderhughes is also the founder and Executive/Artistic Director of The Healing Project, an arts organization based in NYC that works to heal people from structural violence. The New York Times described Pinderhughes’ most recent album GRIEF as a “visionary” work from “one of the most affecting singer-songwriters today, in any genre”.
SAMITA SINHA
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Artist, composer, and educator Samita Sinha creates multidisciplinary performance works that unravel Indian vocal traditions through the body to create a decolonized, multivalent language of vibration and voice. She performs her work nationally and internationally and shares her
practice and pedagogy extensively, most recently as Visiting Professor of Sonic Practice at Dartmouth College. Sinha has received commissions from Asia Society, Danspace Project, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Performance Space New York, The Rubin Museum of Art, Queens
Museum, Gibney Dance, and Western Front, and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, National Performance Network, and New York State Council on the Arts.
SICILIANA TREVINO
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Siciliana is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, AR/VR producer and 3D world builder who uses immersive technology to explore themes of healing, overcoming social isolation and creating shared moments of delight.
Through the design, establishment and occupation of alternative, digital realities anchored in the real world’s constant state of arrival and departure, she forges a persistent mesh - digitized conduits of determination, hope and joy that bridge the fractured dimensions of our fragile existence.
She is recognized in 100 Original Voices in XR for game innovation and Aesthetic Mobile Division, her vaporwave oasis featuring a 3-decker DeLorean art car in the far reaches of AltSpace VR.
She’s exhibited her work at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Bay Area Book Festival and 2020’s Burning Man in VR. Her 2015 award-winning documentary, New Mo Cut: David Peoples Lost Film of Moe’s Books is archived at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
Siciliana hosts the Zero to Start podcast about VR development for beginners, featuring inspiring conversations with artists, creators and industry leaders.
NADHI THEKKEK
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Nadhi Thekkek is a dancer, choreographer, and the Artistic Director of Nava Dance Theatre. Nadhi uses the south Indian dance form of bharatanatyam to navigate place, identity, and politics through the lens of her lived experience as a child of immigrants and an unapologetic South Asian, diasporic woman. She reimagines how bharatanatyam can serve marginalized narratives that need to occupy space in the US right now. Her latest work “Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies” sources community interviews, historical texts, and poetry to explore the intersections of labor, agency, and belonging in our South Asian ancestry. Nadhi’s body of work has been supported through the NEFA National Dance Project, The MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and others.
Through Nava, Nadhi also produces and co-facilitates the Unrehearsed Artist Residency Program, where South Asian dancemakers create art that challenges the status quo. She is one of the co-founders of Varnam Salon and serves on the board of the Western Arts Alliance.
Nadhi has learned bharatanatyam from Guru Smt. Sundara Swaminathan (Kala Vandana Dance Company, San Jose) and Guru Smt. Padmini Chari (Nritya School of Dance, Houston). As of 2012, she has continued training under Guru Sri. A. Lakshmanaswamy (Chennai).
Ixchel Tonāntzin Xōchitlzihuatl
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Ixchel (mixed indigenous, primarily Uto-Aztecan/ Uto-Nahuatl) and mixed race (from the Maiza and Eire) is the daughter of Rosa Maria and the granddaughter of Flora.
She uses art, imagination, and earth based practices to connect communities with their highest multiverses through processes influenced by Indigenous Wisdom, Design Justice, Drama Therapy, MIndfulness and Somatics. Her projects focus on social and terrestrial acupuncture (collaborating with indigenous leaders who steward sacred sites) to rematriate land in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and the Upper Ecuadorian Amazon. She devotes her life force energy to the co-evolution of the human species towards more peaceful, harmonious, sustainable and liberated futures.
Ixchel trains and collaborates with indigenous communities throughout the Abayala (Maiza/ the Americas) including the Kichwa in the upper Ecuadorian Amazon (Gualinga family), the Maya Kiche (daykeeper Xochit Quetzalli), and Wixrarika (Don Silvestre and Doña Alicia Castro). She is trained in somatics (Somatica, Hakomi), mindfulness (Kopan Monastery), and community research (Columbia University, Harvard University and MIT).
They are the Conscious and Sustainability Harmonizer for Xi’im Ek Balam, a Soros Land, Memory and Art Fellow (2023/ 2024) and a member of the Interstellar Alliance Social Experiment Group (2024). They co-founded the socially engaged art collective, Las Imaginistas (USA Artists, Art Place America, Blade of Grass). Ixchel holds an MFA from Columbia University and an EDM from Harvard University, School of Education.
Their writings are published by the Ford Foundations Creative Futures platform (republished by the Smithsonian Asian American Magazine), Architecture Roundtable via the Architecture League of New York, Shelterforce, Grantmakers in the Arts and Nonprofit Quarterly. As a researcher they have led arts based and indigenous research projects with Third Space, and building communityWORKSHOP.
“We must expand the definition of ‘artistic excellence’ to include equitable and sustainable practices and leadership capacity of artists”
— Rika Iino, SOZO Founder & Fellowship Pilot Lead Designer
LEADING THE CONVERSATIONS
SOZO Fellowship is a multi-year initiative designed and led by SOZO in collaboration with a group of experts from Wellness, Finance and Startup communities serving as coaches and program advisors. Together, we are co-creating a holistic framework for sustainability and success. We are honored to work with partners who believe passionately in the cultural currency propelled by artists and are actively engaged in addressing systemic gaps in support system
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RIKA IINO
LEAD DESIGNER & SOZO FOUNDER
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DR. ONNA LO, MD
CO-DESIGNER & COACH
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TAMARA BATES
CO-DESIGNER & COACH
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KAITLYN BOYER
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE
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BRYAN LATTIMORE
ADVISOR
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NINA ROBINSON
ADVISOR
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Sarah Benvenuti
COACH
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Xavier Rernard Cunningham
COACH
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HIGHLIGHTS
SOZO Fellowship Pilot guides artists through a holistic framework of collective and individual learning, reflections and synthesis that includes:
• Visioning & Artist Identity:
Clarifying purpose, values, and artistic horizon.• Sustainability & Wellbeing:
Cultivating physical/mental/emotional vibrancy, and managing time and personal finances.• Entrepreneurial Mindset:
Building business acumen, revenue models and fundraising strategies.• Creative Production:
Scaffolding new work development and collaborations.• Community Support:
Accessing peer mentorship and expanding your network.• Future Opportunity:
Pitch a project to a panel of leading arts producers and presenters upon completion of Fellowship. -
STRUCTURE
SOZO Fellowship Pilot will run virtually for six months from June to Dec 2024 and includes:
• Up to 2 group sessions and interactive workshops per month via Zoom led by experts in wellness, finance and startups.
• Up to 4 hours of active programming plus approximately 2 hours of individual learning per month.
• 1:1 Coaching: Personalized guidance and support.
• Asynchronous Learning: Online materials and resources; Access to recordings when you miss a session.
• An intimate cohort of up to ten (10) SOZO Fellows for 2024.
• A $2,000 honorarium paid to each Fellow for participation and completion of the program.
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ELIGIBILITY
US-based independent artists who are…
• Creating original work, with preferences given to multi-disciplinary performing arts, new media or mixed media.
• Mid-career, defined as having a minimum of 6-10 years of professional paid work experiences in the business of arts, such as touring and developing commissioned works.
• Able to commit focused time for learning and synthesis.
• US citizens, green card and work visa holders.
• BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and others from historically marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Artists whose primary income is from full time employment outside the non-profit cultural sector or teaching are not eligible.
PROGRAM PARTNERS
FAQ
Q: I want to know more about the framework used in this program, “Artists & Producers as Entrepreneurs and Changemakers (APEC).”
APEC is a framework designed by SOZO in response to the nonprofit industrial complex in the US, which has perpetuated funding inequities, power imbalances between institutions and artists, and prioritization of established art forms. Artists and creative producing entities running as small businesses from traditionally marginalized communities have been disproportionally impacted, making them particularly vulnerable and the process of developing and distributing new work often unsustainable, and their impact and wellbeing undermined. APEC centers diverse artists and creative producers working side by side to break down the cultural hegemony, build business resiliency and innovate a new economic paradigm for independent artists. APEC learning is anchored in a methodology called the Artist In(ter)dependence Matrix, developed by SOZO, to help artists map their journey towards self efficacy and resilience.
Q: What does the honorarium cover?
We recognize that artists require resources in order to take the time needed to develop new skills and build their creative enterprises, just as they would when creating new artistic works. SOZO Fellowship Pilot awards each participating Fellow a $2,000 honorarium for their focused time and effort.
Q: Why is it called the Pilot?
2024 is our Pilot year, leaving ample space to evaluate our content, structure and processes, with an intention to formally launch the SOZO Fellowship program in 2025. We are designing the Pilot to allow for time and space for feedback and discussions with our Fellows as well as coaches and advisors.
Q: Can I apply for SOZO Fellowship in the future?
Yes, applications for 2025 SOZO Fellowship will be announced in Spring 2025, and the program is scheduled to run from June to December 2025.
Q. How are the Fellows selected?
After we confirm the completion and eligibility of all applications, we will select up to 10 Fellows with input from a panel comprising coaches, advisors and creative producers. The panel will use a score system based primarily on the following criteria: a) Artistic integrity; b) Growth potential; c) Learning capacity; and d) Social relevance.
Q: I am not sure how I will make the time for this. What’s expected of me during the program?
Fellows are not required to present or create specific artistic projects during the Fellowship. However, Fellows are asked to invest their time and focused energy towards mindful participation and engagement during the live sessions. We believe the more you are able to intentionally participate, the more benefit you will receive in your personal, artistic and business development! For Fellows who are ambitious in their learning goals, we highly suggest you take advantage of asynchronous learning material.
Q: What are my potential takeaways from the Pilot?
While there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to designing a fulfilling artistic career, we hope that through the SOZO Fellowship Pilot, the Fellows will be better equipped to develop: a) self-efficacy to be a more optimized version of themselves; b) a pathway towards improved personal and financial sustainability; c) an entrepreneurial & leadership mindset; and d) access to new support systems.
Q: Does the Pilot address accessibility needs?
We are constantly improving our ability to accommodate accessibility needs, with a keen eye on the Zoom platform. We are still learning and welcome any accessibility recommendations! Feel free to connect with us via email at office@sozomedia.com.