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

Revolushunary Strippa Musik

"What if we created music that was catchy, mainstream but actually inspiring and made you think? That would be Revolushunary Strippa Musik." FTT supported a compilation CD, produced by Sharrieff Muhammad, of local socially conscious hip hop music and spoken word artists uncovering the gender sexism and street pimpism prevalent in mainstream hip hop music.

Actor Slash Model

FTT contributed to the making of a documentary film about the joys and positive creativity of a nationwide community of trans-identified musicians. Capturing material while performing, filming and conducting interviews on the road, ASM's film focuses on the successes and full lives of these artists and raise visibility of the multi-dimensionality of transgendered people who are often negatively portrayed in mainstream media.
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Yellow Wing Productions: Fish Out of Water

FTT paid for local animators to create art for the documentary Fish out of Water, a local film that aims to challenge long-standing beliefs, shatter misconceptions, and ask crucial questions of pastors, theologians, the Institute of Religion in Democracy, politicians, and members of the LBGTQ community about their values and perceptions based on what religious texts say about homosexuality.
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West Town Bikes

FTT awarded a grant for "Youth Build A Bike" program that provided hands-on activities and education for youth around biking self-sufficiency. West Town Bikes is a community bicycle learning workshop often used as a creative workspace for special bicycle building, utilitarian human powered design, kinetic art, advocacy projects and constructive creation.
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Beyond Today

Beyond Today is a grassroots group of residents, a.k.a Riverbank Neighbors, committed to working together to promote environmentalism, social justice, and peace. Their grant was used to institute a youth environmental activism internship program at Waters elementary school in Ravenswood/Lincoln Square.
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Chicago Independent Radio Project

FTT gave a grant to CHIRP to secure a broadcast license for a new community radio station in Chicago committed to local, independent programming, and to further the causes of localism, diversity, and independence in broadcasting, more generally. The group is also working to convince Congress and the FCC to remove existing barriers to the granting of low power FM radio licenses in urban areas, including Chicago.
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San Lucas Workers Center: "Discrimination - Never Okay" Video Project

The San Lucas Workers Center is a worker-members and worker-led grassroots group in Chicago. FTT funded the "Discrimination - Never Okay" video project which focused on young African-American day labor agency workers, who make up 20% of the day labor/temp population in Chicago.

Chicago County Fair/Coming Home Chicago

FTT made a grant for a photo series called "Sex Offender Coming Home." Each set in the series will illustrate a sex offender returning home and being welcomed back into the community after spending time in prison. The photographs will invite the viewer to think about an interesting hypothetical situation: to imagine what it would be like if Sex Offenders (SOs) were welcomed back into society and supported in building a new life.

Death Row Shuffle Tour

FTT awarded a grant for Death Row Shuffle Tour a.k.a Darby Tillis, blues gospel singer, composer, mean harmonica player, and Illinois' first exonerated death row prisoner. The Death Row Shuffle Tour brought Darby and organizers from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty to high schools and youth groups in communities affected by the criminal justice system.
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Son de Las Barricadas: Art and Resistance in Oaxaca, Mexico

FTT awarded ChicagOtra a grant to support a series of three expositions of art from the Oaxacan social movement that generated public awareness and created a space for an ongoing dialogue about government accountability and popular movements for justice. ChicagOtra is a collective of activists and organizers dedicated to promoting the Zapatista ideals of democracy, autonomy, and social and economic justice in Chicago.
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Cabrini Green Chapter of the Hip Hop Congress

FTT awarded a grant to the Chicago chapter of Hip Hop Congress to work with young male teens of Cabrini Green to create a half-hour DVD to address and raise awareness about the issue of violence in Cabrini Green.
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