2023 Summer GRANTEES

Literature Grantee - Yesenia Montilla

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Summer Literature Grant to Yesenia Montilla for her upcoming collection of poetry “American Thoroughbred”.

Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet & a daughter of immigrants. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry & Poetry in translation. She is Canto Mundo graduate fellow and a 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts fellow. Her work has been published in Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast and in Best of American Poetry 2021, & 2022. Her poem Maps was part of Caroline Shaw’s oratorio “The Listeners” which debut in 2019. Her first collection The Pink Box is published by Willow Books & was longlisted for a PEN Open Book award. Her second collection Muse Found in a Colonized Body published by Four Way Books was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. She lives in New York City where she teaches poetry. She loves talking to trees and has never met an ocean that didn’t take her breath away.

Performance Grantee - Keenan Tyler Oliphant

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Summer Performance Grant to Keenan Tyler Oliphant for his upcoming production, “A Practical Breviary: Terce”

As a Theatre-maker and Director Keenan recalls his traditional Southern African storytelling lineage by simultaneously exchanging with histories and futures to create spaces of healing, investigation, mourning and celebration through performance. He directed the US premiere of Will You Come With Me? (PlayCo May 2022), the Associate Director of Hadestown (Broadway), Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova). Keenan is an alumnus of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow (2020-2021), the Drama League Directing Fellowship (2021-2022) and Columbia University MFA in Directing for Theatre program.

Visual Grantee - Mo Kong

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Summer Visual Grant to Mo Kong for their upcoming display, “Swift Island Chain.”

Mo Kong is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher. They are currently residing in NYC. They received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. They have been the subject of solo exhibitions at Queens Museum (New York), CUE Art Foundation (New York), Cuchifritos Gallery (New York), Artericambi Gallery (Verona), Gertrude Gallery (Stockbridge), Chashama (New York). Their work has been included in the RISD Museum, SFMOMA, Children's Museum of Arts, Mana Contemporary, Noguchi Museum, Spring Break, ARTISSIMA, Make Room Gallery, Hesse Flatow Gallery, and Island Gallery. Their work is mentioned in Hyperallergic, Artforum, Art in America, Cultured magazine, Artnet, Bomb magazine, Artpaper, CoBo Social, Wall Street International and SFMoMA Public Knowledge.

Music Production Grantee - Karla Donehew Pérez

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Summer Music Production Grant to Karla Donehew Pérez for her project UNCOVERED Volume 4.

The UNCOVERED project, conceived in 2018, is a multi-volume anthology featuring the music of historically important black composers. The final album, UNCOVERED Volume 4 will feature all 18 string quartets of Joseph Bologne Chevalier de St. Georges.

Admired for her “luscious melodies” (New York Concert Review) and enlightened programming, violinist Karla Donehew Pérez is a founding member of the GRAMMY-winning Catalyst Quartet as well as an acclaimed soloist, educator, and creative collaborator with numerous world-class artists and ensembles.