2025 Winter GRANTEES

Literature Grantee - Jesse Dávila

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2025 Spring Literature Grant to Jesse Dávila for his upcoming Debut Novel, “El Jardín”

Jesse Dávila is a Mexican- American writer and public high school teacher from Brooklyn, New York. Jesse received his MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is currently a participant in the One Story Writing Circle working on his first novel.

”El Jardín” is a multi-point of view novel in stories. The novel follows the Escudero family and is set in New York City and Mexico

Performance Grantee - Ogemdi Ude

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2025 Summer Performance Grant to Ogemdi Ude for her Dance Theatre Project “Major“.

Ogemdi Ude is a dance and interdisciplinary artist, educator, and doula based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Most recently, she has published a book called “Watch Me” in a collection edited by Thomas DeFrantz and Annie-B Parson: “Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study” published by Dancing Foxes Press and Wesleyan University Press.

“Major” is a dance theatre project exploring the history and physicality of majorette dance, with a team of Black femmes embodying the movement of their girlhood to answer the questions of their present.

Visual Grantee - Andreia Santana

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2025 Spring Visual Grant to Andreia Santana for her new project “Metabolic Self”.

Andreia Santana (Lisbon, 1991) works in New York City. Her work has been shown internationally in venues and institutions She has been awarded and nominated for several prizes, including the Hopper Prize, NOVO BANCO Prize, Ducato Prize, and Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian—Délégation en France, and has been shortlisted for the EDP Foundation Prize and Sovereign Art Prize.

“Metabolic Self” is a project that explores the intersection between biology and identity through the production of a series of new sculptures in aluminum and cast bronze inspired by the relationship between animal survival strategies, such as camouflage and ecdysis, and female defense tactics and protection mechanisms.

Music Grantee - Greta Gertler Gold

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2025 Spring Music Grant to Greta Gertler Gold for her concept album “Picnic at Hanging Rock”.

Composer, lyricist, and performer. Greta Gertler Gold is a dual citizen of multiple worlds: New York City and Australia, indie rock and musical theater, irreverent comedy and political feminism.

Greta is currently collaborating with Hilary Bell (Book & Lyrics) and Tony & Grammy Award-winning orchestrator Todd Sickafoose ("Hadestown") on songs, orchestrations and vocal arrangements for a 7-piece ensemble and 13 vocalists (from the pop, jazz and musical theater worlds) for the stage musical adaptation of Joan Lindsay's novel "Picnic at Hanging Rock".