HISTORY & PROCESS | VISION | CIRCLE MEMBERS | GRANTEES
2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006

Chicago Books to Women in Prison

The Chicago Books to Women in Prison Project uses Bound Struggles as a way to share incarcerated women's stories with people on the outside. FTT funded the edition "Alternatives to Criminal Justice Control" helping to further social change by inviting women in prison to contribute to an artistic outlet of expression to discuss resistance to and alternatives to the criminal justice system.
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Kuumba Lynx

FTT helped Kuumba Lynx kick off "Arts Explosion Day" to involve activism workshops and civic engagement discussions in collaboration with CAAAELII to focus on Immigrants Rights for youth.


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Yellow Armbands

FTT funds were used to help organize in solidarity with transwomen by educating attendees of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival about the benefits of inclusion, and to also encourage their participation and level of comfort at the festival.
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None on Record

FTT helped fund None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, a sound documentary project that collects the stories of queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (QLGBT) Africans from the African Continent and the Diaspora. None on Record, now based in New York City, adds to the growing histories told by QLGBT Africans all over the world.
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Young Women’s Empowerment Project

FTT supported a youth-led social justice campaign to learn about theories and practices of social justice in order to become better activists in the fight for justice for young women in the sex trade everywhere.
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ThickRoutes Performance Collage

FTT funded "Where Seeds Have Grown", an interdisciplinary dialogue-raising workshop series. Through creative writing, movement theater, text and music activities, the workshop process invited a group of diverse cross-race participants to collaborate and talk openly about experiences and conceptions of race, and the influence that the African Diaspora as had on their lives.
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Kings of Poetry

FTT supported a Kings of Poetry workshop series designed for young men to explore notions of gender sensitivity and create "More Than Mothers," an anthology of essays and poems commemorating the lives of women.

National Boricua Human Rights Network: Crime Against Humanity

FTT supported the production of "Crimes Against Humanity," a play about the lives of 11 ex-political Puerto Rican nationalists and their everyday experiences in prison before being released in 1999 after agreeing to clemency from President Clinton. The play helped to raise awareness about the independence of Puerto Rico and the freeing of the two remaining political prisoners Oscar Lopez Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres.
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Co-op Image Group

Youth throughout the community are given access to audio technology to create sound projects about life through their words. FTT helped support two young artists lead an after-school audio program at the Corner Art Center as well as traverse the city with portable audio equipment.
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Female Storytellers Initiating Revolution to End Violence (F.I.R.E)

A Southside multiracial, intergenerational group of women and girls created Storyteller, a publication of survivor stories of violence, and the stories of people who have done something to end violence in their daily lives.

Teen Living Programs

FTT supported the production of a message-oriented record made by one of Teen Living Programs' youth. The goal of the CD was tto inspire youth to find more motivation in attending school, build healthier relationships, and talk about what is going on in their lives.
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Stillpoint Theatre Collective

Sisters Rising is a group of formally incarcerated women who have built community through participating in theatre/improvisation games and creative writing workshops. Their FTT grant allowed them to continue participating in theater workshops and sharing and writing each others' stories.
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The Crib Collective

FTT helped support youth leaders of "The Movement" facilitate collaboration across the cultural gap of segregated North and South Lawndale neighborhoods through dialog, art and in making the
"Voices Across Borders" community album.

Proletariat Productions

FTT supported a music performance, art exhibit and panel discussion (in the round - modeled after Camp Democracy) to grapple with understanding the relationship between socially conscious art and politically conscious movements.
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AREA Chicago Art/Education/Activism Publication

FTT helped produce AREA Issue #4 "No Justice, No Peace" about the criminal justice system, challenging mass incarceration, and redefining justice.
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African Textile Magazine

Students from Bowen (B.E.S.T) High School took part in a creative research and self-publishing project to compile, lay out, assemble, and distribute magazines based on textile traditions and experiments in the African Diaspora. Students learned about abstract and narrative traditions in African-American quilting, and about technical and design traditions that gave way to appreciating the visual work of their ancestors and their contemporaries working in the 21st Century.