2021 SPRiNG GrAntees

Literature Grantee - Omotara James

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Literature Grant to Omotara James for her debut poetry collection, “Song of My Softening,” Omotara James is a poet, artist and editor, based out of New York City. She is the author of the chapbook, “Daughter Tongue,” selected by African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set.

James’ poems appear in print and digital journals, including The Poetry Foundation, The Paris Review, The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series, The Believer, Literary Hub, Poetry Society of America and Newtown Literary. Her work has been recently anthologised and selected for inclusion in Embodied: An Intersectional Feminist Comics Poetry Anthology (A Wave Blue World, 2021).

Literature Grantee - Robin Hirsch

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Literature Grant to Robin Hirsch for his upcoming book “The Whole World Passes Through: Stories from the Cornelia Street Café, Volume I”. It is at once the biography of a beloved New York institution and the continuing autobiography of its author. Whole World celebrates a culture which has almost vanished, eclipsed by the proliferation of streamlined coffeehouses which have somehow managed to isolate patrons rather than bring them together, but which, centuries ago, had as its source a bean from Ethiopia, which was held sacred in certain Middle Eastern cultures, and which at the apogee of Western civilization had thousands of small shrines in large cities where worshippers congregated in a spirit of literacy, wit, good fellowship, and democracy.

Robin is a former Oxford, Fulbright, and English-Speaking Union Scholar, who has acted, directed, taught, and published on both sides of the Atlantic.  He was born in London during the Blitz, the son of German Jews who had fled Hitler.   This complex history informs much of his work both as a writer and as a performer.

Literature Grantee - Matty Selman

A Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Literature Grant to Matty Selman for “Satchel of Dreams”, Matty’s memoirs; a collection of short stories of a somewhat out-of-kilter childhood, growing up on Staten Island in the 1950's and 1960's.

Matty’s parents, both veterans of WWII, met not long after his father was machine-gunned in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge; his mother being his Army nurse, met him and cared for him at Halloran Veterans Hospital on Staten Island, where they were married with his father in crutches.   Matty’s mother, an accomplished poet, musician and writer had a troubled childhood, taking care of her own mother who was ill for many years; thus, nursing was second nature to her, while his father, who was also extremely intelligent, an engineer, mathematician, writer and painter, managed his physical disability, which required weekly visits to the Veterans Hospital. Matty’s mother, a life-long advocate for world peace, received advanced degrees in education as both a writer and a teacher.  Each of Matty’s parents suffered from PTSD which manifested itself in ways that often held them back... “Satchel of Dreams” will further reflect on their colorful lives, their triumphs and disappointments, their sense of humor, humanity and infinite generosity.

Performance Grantees - Linda Manning

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Performance Grant to Linda Manning to produce and direct her play “Bite the Apple” in early 2022.

”Bite the Apple” follows Cinderella on an unexpected journey through a shifting landscape into the stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Rapunzel. The archetypes of the Grimm’s fairytale characters and their emotionally treacherous stories are used as an anchor, a window through which the audience can experience how the crippling, unresolved events in a woman's past, sexual abuse, abandonment, and betrayal, continue to live large in a woman’s present. The characters are brought into a modern day world twenty years after their fairy tales have ended as they approach middle age. As Cinderella weaves her way through their stories, she unearths the past she has tried to forget, and also discovers the possibility of a new story, of her own making.

Performance Grantee - Kirk McGee

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Performance Grant to Kirk McGee for his solo theatrical show “The Honorable Herbert Peabody”.

The play follows Joe, a well-intentioned tour guide on opening day of the Honorable Herbert Peabody Library and Legacy Center. As he launches into his presentation, Joe finds it increasingly difficult to celebrate his personal hero’s historical achievements in light of recent revelations about the Senator’s decades of sexual misconduct. As the tour unravels, Joe is forced to wrestle with the ways in which he has inadvertently enabled a culture of misogyny and abuse, and must decide if he’s going to continue to stand idly by or finally stand on the right side of history.

“The Honorable Herbert Peabody” will be performed in Spring/Summer 2022.

Music Grantee - Morley

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Music Grant to Morley to complete her new project, “Follow the Sound”, an intimate full length acoustic album of original compositions that documents some of the year's journey of survival through the pandemic, our global rise for racial justice, reuniting families, grief, celebration, loneliness, falling in love, and the courage to begin again.

All songs are written and performed by Morley and produced by Chris Bruce, a multi instrumentalist, writer, recording and touring musician.

“Follow The Sound” will be released spring of 2022.  

Music Grantee - Pablo Lanouguere

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Music Grant to Pablo Lanouguere who will complete his second album, “Altar” with the Pablo Lanouguere Quintet. On this album, Pablo will continue the path he started with his first album “Eclectico” by employing elements of Argentine music styles, Tango & Folklore, threaded with elements from Jazz, Latin, Contemporary & Classical Music.

This band features a particular lineup, Violin (Nick Danielson), Guitar (Federico Diaz), Piano (Emilio Teubal), Drums (Franco Pinna) and Acoustic/Electric Bass (Pablo Lanouguere), that produces unique textures and colors throughout the pieces. The album will also feature singers Juana Luna and Bandoneonist Leandro Ragusa as guest musicians.

The album will be produced entirely in New York City, and is expected to be released in Spring 2022.

Music Grantee - Austin Hughes

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Music Grant to Austin Hughes to help complete his first solo album/release “The Shipwreck Hymnal”. Up until now, Hughes has primarily released material in a band context (M Shanghai, VPN), yet his latest project has him teaming up with multiple Grammy award-winning producer/engineer/composer Damon Whittemore (Christian McBride, Béla Fleck, Deerhoof) for an indie folktronica album.   With The Shipwreck Hymnal, Hughes and Whittemore create songs and soundscapes that reflect 21st century life; where to be enveloped in digital frequencies is less a dystopian isolation and more the new humanistic expression.  

The Shipwreck Hymnal is slated for release in April, 2022. 

Visual Grantee - Vince MacDermot

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Spring Visual Grant to Vince MacDermot who will show his newly completed group of paintings which are part of the BIG RED NYC series. The next series of paintings focus on CURRENT AMERICA; the unusual events of this time coexisting with the continuing affection America has for the automobile. CURRENT AMERICA is the combination of new events and the reassurance of the old and will be exhibited at Canvas Institute Gallery in Staten Island where Vince MacDermot lives and works.