2023 winter GRANTEES

Visual Grantee - Vera Iliatova

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Winter Visual Grant to Vera Iliatova for her upcoming solo exhibition of new paintings. at Nathalie Karg Gallery, NYC.

Vera Iliatova grew up in Leningrad (former Soviet Union), and immigrated to the United States when she was 16. She received a BA from Brandeis University and an MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University, with further study at the Skowhegan School of Art (2004) and a residency at Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation (2007/2008). In 2018, Iliatova was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting.

Music Grantee - Migiwa Miyajima

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Winter Music Grant to Migiwa Miyajima for her upcoming album, “Exploring Discovering.”

New York-based Japanese composer, producer, pianist, and bandleader Migiwa “Miggy” Miyajima creates large-scale works manifesting her distinct life experiences. Aiming to improve the opportunity gap between different social groups through her music and music-related projects, she is a change-maker as well as a musician, director, and supervisor. Birdland Jazz Club says, “Miyajima’s music reflects her journey as a musician and humanitarian.”

Literature Grantee - t’ai freedom ford

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2023 Winter Music Grant to t’ai freedom ford for her upcoming book, “Signs of Life.”

t’ai freedom ford is a New York City high school English teacher. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Apogee, Bomb Magazine, Calyx, Drunken Boat, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Kweli, Tin House, Poetry and others. Her poetry has been anthologized in A Body of Athletics edited by Natalie Diaz, The Break Beat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Nepantla: An Anthology of Queer Poets of Color and others.