2025 Fellows’ Final Presentations

Watch our livestream to celebrate the culmination of the 2025 Create Change Fellowship. Witness the transformative power of art in fostering community connections and driving positive change at the Fellows’ Final Presentations.

Fellows’ Final Activations at 2025 Block Parties, Photographed by micah brown.

From July to August, The LP partnered with four Block Associations in Bed-Stuy to host our annual Fellows Activations. We activated at block parties to: 

• Uplift the cultural legacy of Block Parties in Bed-Stuy
• Highlight the Fellows’ community-based practices to challenge systems of inequity
• Highlight the impact of cross-sector collabs in health equity, economic justice, displacement prevention, and climate justice

For four Saturdays, our Fellows groups and community partners facilitated meaningful artmaking activities, conversations, and connections with Bed-Stuy neighbors to unpack issues raised by the Bed-Stuy community, including:

• Health Equity
• Economic Justice
• Displacement Prevention
• Climate Justice

Their place-based work merged community needs with creativity, igniting The LP’s vision to make art, build community, and create change. Learn about the Fellows’ Activations at the 2025 Summer Block Parties below at our Fellows’ Final Presentations!

Read the latest Spin Cycle post with The LP’s very own Folasade Ologundudu, Media & Storytelling Manager and Catherine Mbali Green-Johnson, Director of Programs, as they discuss the importance of block parties as spaces of belonging, collective care, and the community-centered work at the heart of The LP’s mission.

https://micah-brown.com/2025 Fellows Activations at Bed-Stuy Summer Block Parties, Photographed by micah brown.

Built on Theft: Land, Labor, and the Ongoing Genocide of a Settler State

This group created a “solidarity hub” activation during the July 12th Block Party in Bed-Stuy. Designed community engagement activities within the “narrative hub” that uplifted the narrative change work of BLIS, challenged the imperial erasure of the Lenape people in NYC, and connected the histories of colonization, slavery, and resistance across Black and Indigenous communities. Activities included passing out zines, hosting a zine-making station, and facilitating a community arts project.

Fellows: Keya Kuruvilla, Margo Rosales

Community Partners: BLIS Collective; Hart Willoughby Nostrand Block Association

BLIS Collective’s Mission: To spark radical collaboration and narrative alignment between and within Black, Indigenous, and transformative social movements to repair, decolonize, and reshape culture.

2025 Fellows Activations at Bed-Stuy Summer Block Parties, Photographed by micha brown.

Rooted Together: Molding Our Collective Future & Celebrating Bed-Stuy

This activation invited Bed-Stuy residents into a joyful, intentional space to celebrate community memory, explore collective ownership, and uplift the mission of GrowHouse Design + Development Group and the BLAC Land Trust. Rooted Together was not just an event, but a living platform for building relational trust, honoring legacy, and imagining our shared future. They centered voices from across the neighborhood, beginning with interviews conducted in the weeks leading up to the event. These stories—drawn from elders, youth, long-term residents, and newcomers—were collected in a printed community zine, available at the event and archived for the Mapping Black History project. Throughout the day, participants moved through moments of reflection, creation, and conversation. Artmaking, oral history, music, and movement were woven together with GrowHouse’s values of stewardship, joy, and cultural continuity.

Fellows: Nic Black, Maleek Rae, Anurima Kumar

Community Partners: GrowHouse NYC’s BLAC Land Trust; Quincy Nostrand Marcy Block Association

GrowHouse NYC’s Mission: To the benefit of long-standing low-income and working-class Black, Latino, Asian, and other communities of color, we want to preserve, stabilize, and increase the stock of affordable housing, locally owned small businesses, worker co-ops, and green spaces in East New York and Brownsville.

2025 Fellows Activations at Bed-Stuy Summer Block Parties, Photographed by micha brown.

Preserving Black Institutions in Bed-Stuy: Honoring the Legacy of Hattie Carthan

This community activation honored the legacy of Hattie Carthan, a visionary elder and environmental steward who protected Bed-Stuy’s landmark Magnolia trees and preserved three brownstones that later became a community center. Rooted in the belief that “When you save a tree, you save a community,” our project uplifted the intertwined importance of cultural memory, environmental justice, and intergenerational collaboration.

Through a creative photo shoot with Brooklyn youth styled in elder-inspired fashion, neighbors remembered and recognized the legacy they stood on. These portraits were unveiled at the Willoughby block party on Saturday, August 16 and also included a clothing swap and a natural dye workshop—celebrating sustainable practices and honoring Black cultural preservation.

Fellows: Nzingha Hazelton, Adriel Barnett, Ching-I Chang

Community Partners: Magnolia Tree Earth Center; Willoughby Nostrand Marcy Block Association

Magnolia Tree Earth Center’s Mission: To improve healthcare for Brooklyn communities, encourage lifestyle changes, and heal those in need.

2025 Fellows Activations at Bed-Stuy Summer Block Parties, Photographed by micha brown.

One Brooklyn Health: Bridging Past and Future

This community activation invited the community to participate in a free Zine Launch, commemorating the legacy of Bed Stuy’s Lola Cuffe, alongside health-related art, activities, and prizes.

Fellows: Choya Webb Jr., Jason Wang, 

Community Partner: One Brooklyn Health; Monroe Street Block Association

One Brooklyn Health’s Mission: To provide greater access to high-quality medical care, keep our communities healthy through an integrated care system that respects the diversity of our communities, and address both the health needs and unique factors that shape them.

This Fall, at the Fellows’ Final Presentations, our Fellows reflected on their thought-provoking public art activations throughout the Bed-Stuy neighborhood.

2024 Fellows Final Presentations, Photographed by Jacques Morel.

Here are free resources created by our 2025 Create Change Fellows and community partners!

Upward Spiral Collage Print Project: Built on Theft: Land, Labor, and the Ongoing Genocide of a Settler State

Fellows: Keya Kuruvilla, Margo Rosales

GrowHouse Zine

Project: Rooted Together: Molding Our Collective Future & Celebrating Bed-Stuy

Fellows: Nic Black, Maleek Rae, Anurima Kumar

Community Partners: GrowHouse NYC’s BLAC Land Trust; Quincy Nostrand Marcy Block Association

Lola Cuffee (née Shaw) Zine)

Project: Preserving Black Institutions in Bed-Stuy: Honoring the Legacy of Hattie Carthan

Fellows: Nzingha Hazelton, Adriel Barnett, Ching-I Chang

The Create Change Fellowship program is for artists and cultural producers interested in developing and deepening a collaborative, community-based, and socially-engaged creative practice. The six-month fellowship program is philosophically grounded in peer-learning around art making, power analysis, and community building. Learn about our Create Change programs!