Bedford-Stuyvesant-Based Arts Nonprofit That Has Awarded More Than $140,000 to Creative Projects Exploring Issues Impacting Well-Being of New York City Residents and Communities of Color, Hosts Create Change Fellows Final Presentations via Livestream on September 17, 2025.
BROOKLYN, NY – Today, The Laundromat Project (The LP) announced its 2025 Create Change Fellows’ Final Presentations date, offering the public an in-person opportunity to experience the culmination of artists and cultural producers selected for the organization’s Create Change Fellowship Program. The Create Change Fellowship Program is for artists and cultural producers who are interested in developing and deepening a collaborative, community-based, and socially-engaged creative practice. The Fellowship is philosophically grounded in peer-learning around art making, power analysis, and community building.The Laundromat Project’s pedagogy and programming is rooted in place-based community care, and cultural preservation. The 2025 Create Change Fellows worked in collaboration with community partners located in the ‘Bedford-Stuyvesant Focus Areas’ and were strategically chosen based on their alignment with critical community needs and their demonstrated expertise.
The Laundromat Project’s Director of Programming, Catherine Mbali Green-Johnson, remarked, “Guided by the principles of Black Quantum Futurism, this year’s Create Change Fellows embraced a nonlinear, ancestral approach to time, memory, and transformation—reimagining what is possible when artists and communities co-create toward justice. Through months of relationship-building and cultural organizing alongside local partners, Fellows addressed critical issues including displacement, health inequities, environmental and economic justice. Their culminating public activations took place during Bed-Stuy’s historic summer block parties—a legacy tradition that transformed everyday public space into portals of resistance, joy, and collective visioning. This cohort’s work is a testament to what can emerge when we honor the wisdom of the past, move with purpose in the present, and make space for liberated futures to unfold.”
2023 Create Change Artist-in-Residence, Shanna Sabio, of GrowHouse NYC remarked, “The Laundromat Project truly embodies the belief that art is a powerful catalyst for change. In a world where we’re so often hustling just to keep our heads above water, art gives us space to feel, to connect, and to imagine. It’s been a joy to deepen our collaboration after my time as a Create Change artist-in-residence.”
2025 Create Change Fellows include:
Adriel Barnett
Nic Black
Ching-I Chang
Nzingha Hazelton
Anurima Kumar
Keya Kuruvilla
Maleek Rae
Margo Rosales
Jason Wang
Choya Webb Jr
Built on Theft: Land, Labor, and the Ongoing Genocide of a Settler State
Participating Artists: Keya Kuruvilla and Margo Rosales
Community Partner: BLIS Collective – BLIS stands for Black Liberation-Indigenous Sovereignty. BLIS is a Solidarity and Action Hub that braids narratives and grows movements. BLIS Collective is born out of the idea that we must repair the damages done to Black and Indigenous people in what we now call the United States and create a future where every individual, no matter their identity, has equal opportunity to live life freely and fully.
One Brooklyn Health: Bridging Past and Future
Participating Artists: Jason Wang, and Choya Webb Jr
Community Partner: One Brooklyn Health – One Brooklyn Health provides greater access to high-quality medical care through an integrated care system that respects the diversity of their communities, and addresses both the health needs and unique factors that shape them.
Preserving Black Institutions in Bed-Stuy: Honoring the Legacy of Hattie Carthan
Participating Artists: Adriel Barnett, Ching-I Chang, and Nzingha Hazelton
Community Partner: Magnolia Tree Earth Center – Magnolia Tree Earth Center was founded by the pioneering environmentalist Hattie Carthan, with a mission rooted in environmental education, community building, and the celebration of nature. For over 50 years, Magnolia Tree Earth Center has served as a vital resource in Bed-Stuy, providing educational programs, cultural events, and a green sanctuary for all.
Rooted Together: Molding Our Collective Future & Celebrating Bed-Stuy
Participating Artists: Nic Black, Anurima Kumar, and Maleek Rae
Community Partner: GrowHouse Design + Development – GrowHouse NYC is working to develop the BLAC Land Trust as a tool to preserve affordability in rapidly gentrifying Central Brooklyn neighborhoods. GrowHouse empowers Black people and allies through collective ownership of artistic production, real estate/land, and cultural institutions. The organization’s goal is to repair the harms caused by structural racism through equity-centered, anti-racist community design and development. Recently, GrowHouse NYC worked with community members to build citywide recognition of the importance of the Flatbush African Burial Ground, and in 2021, convinced the City not to sell the land to a private developer.
For more information about The Laundromat Project, visit laundromatproject.org.
Download this press release here.
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ABOUT THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT:
The Laundromat Project advances artists and neighbors as change agents in their own communities. We envision a world in which artists and neighbors in communities of color work together to unleash the power of creativity to transform lives. We make sustained investments in growing a community of multiracial, multigenerational, and multidisciplinary artists and neighbors committed to societal change by supporting their artmaking, community building, and leadership development. Since 2005, The Laundromat Project has directly invested over $2M in over 300 multiracial, multigenerational, and multidisciplinary artists, over 180 innovative public art projects, and a creative community hub in Bed-Stuy, while engaging over 50,000 New Yorkers across the city.
Since 2005, The LP has supported over 300 artists, presented over 180 public projects, and engaged nearly 50,000 New Yorkers. Our artists come from across NYC and represent a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, genders, ages, educational backgrounds, and artistic disciplines. Of our 300+ alums, 90% are people of color.