2022 Dream in Color Grant Winners
The Dream in Color grant celebrates women of color in our community and empowers future WOC creators to pursue their projects that celebrate diversity + inclusion. We were so honored to have over 400 applications from amazing WOC who are all doing such inspiring and important work in their communities.
Read on to learn more about our second year grant WINNERS, who embody the entrepreneurial and creative spirit of WWC and continuously strive to better their communities. Both winners have their own creative outlets to provide knowledge to those around them, give their communities opportunities, and have the promise of becoming the future leaders in our industries.
Amanda Ramirez | Dream in Color CREATOR Winner:
Tell us about your creative project/s you’re working on.
I am currently working on the creation of a short dance film titled, "Tierra." This dance film will incorporate modern and traditional Mexican dance styles alongside the landscape of the Chihuahuan Desert to visually represent the following theme: When we face sorrow and uncertainty or lose our sense of self, we always have our land, culture, ancestors & roots to return to.
The dance film's purpose is to explore the power that physical land and ancestral roots have in Mexican culture. The film will convey how these two elements are deeply embedded with one another and how by acting together in symbiosis (or unison), they serve as the foundation across many generations of Hispanic people. The intention of this film will be executed by prioritizing authenticity through two distinct creative choices: collaborating with Mexican artists and filming on land that is connected to the community. Through those choices, the film will create opportunities to work with other dancers and artists within a deeply underutilized demographic.
Why does representation and visibility matter to you?
Being a WOC in the performing arts industry, which is mostly inhabited by white artists, means I must actively push to make space for myself and remove the narrative that the stories I want to share are not “artistic/beautiful enough”. My culture and my roots are what make me who I am, and that often doesn’t fit into the traditional role of a dancer. Now that I am a director/choreographer, I am removing that narrative and working towards telling Latin stories that inspire and fulfill me. I hope that by doing that, I can reach a pool of dancers similar to me and inspire them to not only dance but to create and seek out dance that represents them.
How would you like to see the world change for women of color?
My greatest wish for women of color is to find balance in life. Of course, I want us to have wild success, to get compensated more than we can imagine, to find proper mentorship and collaboration. But even more than any of that, I want a world where women of color can find true ease in our lives—-a society/world where we don’t feel the need to constantly muscle through life to receive what we desire. I want a world where women of color are born knowing how important our ideas and contributions are to the world and can share it with others without feeling like we need to prove it. I believe that when WOC can live life in that way, we can have peace.
How has mentorship impacted your life?
Mentorship has given me the ability to see myself and my potential in the world firsthand. I’m from a border city in Texas (El Paso, TX) and I grew up dancing without any clue that a career in dance was possible for me.. Recently, in the last couple of years, I have had mentors and my work has grown exponentially. I am now a choreographer and director, which is something I never thought I could be. I have actively pursued networking in my career, so that I have an experienced support system who I can reach out to if I have questions. My ability to even write this particular grant application is due to the help provided by mentors. And now, I have a desire to give mentorship to dancers from my hometown who were in my position 10 years ago, uncertain and longing for the same connections I have now.
What is unique about the way you show up in the world?
I am a multi-creative who sees creativity and opportunity in everything! I have many different interests and am always questioning how to add artistic quality and efficiency to every facet of life. As a natural ideator, I see the world from a “glass half full” point of view, and because of that I am genuinely excited for the future of art, technology and humanity. It is ideators and creatives who inspire future growth and help create a more beautiful and interesting world.
What are some of your personal/professional goals for the future?
Through the support of “Tierra,” my goal for the project is to create an emotionally resonant, evocative dance film that can connect to the Mexican American experience and eventually be showcased throughout festivals across the country. Through this project, my personal goal is to take the next step in my creative career by utilizing my years of experience in movement direction and choreography for live performances and shifting them towards filmed works. I also have a broader dream of creating the first Latin dance film festival in El Paso.
How can people stay in touch or learn more about your work?
You can find out about my past and future projects at ramirezdance.com
and on Instagram @amramire
Amani Kaur | Dream in Color STUDENT Winner:
Tell us about your creative projects you’re working on.
Currently, we are in the pre-production phase of Brown Girl Joy Productions newest film, Zindagi Dobara (Life Again). This story is of a grandmother and granddaughter embarking on the start of a lifelong journey of uncovering many taboos and secrets in their lineage, cultures, customs, and religion without the constraint of the patriarchy hanging over their heads. It is our gift to our late grandmother. We, as three queer siblings, could never come out to her but hopefully, this story transcends its physical nature and into the heavens for her. For the production itself, we have an entire BIPOC led crew of undocumented and LGBTQ+ folks!
Besides storytelling, I also love choreographing dances to Bollywood and Punjabi songs for community events and this summer, I will do some dope cooking!
Why does representation and visibility matter to you?
Oftentimes, I’ve seen key words like representation and visibility thrown on to many mission statements, application descriptions and programs. When we examine these keywords, we should take a step back to really think about what they mean. What does it mean to go beyond having a specific number of BIPOC cast members, crew members or consultants involved in a project? How do we uplift BIPOC individuals who are writers, directors, producers, and key crew members in a way that is not tokenizing?
After we think and reflect on these questions, we need to examine who is in the room when important questions like these are asked and when answers are brainstormed. when BIPOC creatives and underserved + overly oppressed folks are hired?
As a young Punjabi Sikh queer womxn, I never saw myself represented on the big screen or behind it in the credits of major productions in the United States. Now that I am in this field, I feel this is the best time for people like me to create stories. Even as there is more hope for us now, I cannot help feeling tokenized through various experiences at larger studios and organizations. Representation and visibility will only take us so far - they are a great first step into these larger questions I ask us all to reflect on but they are not enough.
How would you like to see the world change for women of color?
I would really like to see womxn of color and other folks who are not cisgender men have a fair chance at making something of themselves in this world! Although I do not speak for all womxn in the world, I know that what many womxn of color want from the world and folks who are not marginalized is the very bare minimum life essentials like equal pay, paid paternity leave, fair reproductive rights and ownership over our own lives.
We have not even gotten to discussing the backpay, retributions and extra labor that has gone unaccounted for by womxn of color globally!
I hope that one day the world changes so drastically for WOC that we do not even have to emphasize terms such as representation and visibility when advocating for ourselves: it would just be a normalized societal feature! I hope that one day many of us can wake up carefree, without worrying about what part of our intersectional identities do we need to perform or be in tune with more on certain days to get empathy from white womxn and men in general. I would like to personally not have to constantly share my traumas, hardships and life events to get empathy from privileged individuals and institutions.
How has mentorship impacted your life?
I’ve always been a very enthusiastic and hyper person when it comes to brainstorming ideas and projects. I get way too ahead of myself and think of 100s of things for a project at one moment - which is great to have as a filmmaker and artist in a field that requires so much tenacity and courage at all times. It’s one thing to have all these ideas and goals set in mind for yourself, but it’s a whole other journey, one with many obstacles and overwhelming tasks, to actually get them onto a screen, stage or event.
My older siblings, Jazz Kaur and Amrit Kaur, really showed up for me as I started my artistry and storytelling journeys a few years ago. They are emerging filmmakers like me too, but we have worked on creating our filmmaking world with the framework of social impact in the forefront of our processes. Aside from being my siblings and family members, they showed me something that not many production companies in Hollywood, and I would argue even DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) conscious film organizations, are still lacking in: building intentional and impactful community spaces, while uplifting core collaborators and people impacted by the work we/you/they make. The way they frame our production company, Brown Girl Joy Productions, has been refreshing from many of the PA gigs, assistant editing gigs and unpaid/underpaid internships I have done in college.
Because I saw the way we created our company and the way we have crafted our past projects (hiring filmmakers with fare wages, checking in with collaborators throughout production, making sure our team stays hydrated, full and well taken care of, etc.), I now cannot show up for others with less than this and I now know to expect these standards as the bare minimum. Mentorships like these were essential, and still are, for me to recognize how to intersect my creative work with the true social and personal impact I want to create in this world!
It has been an amazing journey to build this infrastructure for our company from the ground up and seek mentorships and leadership support from advanced filmmakers in this field with these key factors in mind!
What is unique about the way you show up in the world?
I believe each humxn being on this planet has millions of stories to tell and experience as they go through life. Each of us has a special perspective(s) that only we are able to craft and shift as we experience things and that’s what inspires me to be in this field of storytelling.
I find the idea that every little action or sequence of events can be a larger story or framework for a story so fascinating and this unique outlook has allowed me to always pursue knowledge and learn not just from formal, higher education and institutions, but through my lived experiences, through the stories and woven tales of my community members who may never write a single one of their stories on paper. Storytelling is a privilege, one that many people from socially and economically impacted backgrounds like mine may never get to do in their lives, and I am beyond honored to be able to craft and create stories that have a life of their own through my work!
What are some of your personal/professional goals for the future?
My B.A degree in Asian American Studies and Gender Women Studies will be complete in spring 2023! I plan to begin my Master of Fine Arts in Acting and/or Directing after my graduation!
My hope for the next few years is expanding my company Brown Girl Joy Productions and building my professional skill sets in producing, video editing, and theater work. I am really interested in building impact campaigns and actions within my projects rather than as afterthoughts to accompany projects. I would love to one day have the resources and monetary support to just make carefree art and host larger events/workshops with like minded womxn of color!
How can people stay in touch or learn more about your work?
If you’d like to stay in touch or learn more about my work, please check out my company’s
instagram @browngirljoy!
Please share with your friends and if you would like to collaborate, do not hesitate to reach out via email: amani@browngirljoyproductions.com.
Our website is currently being revamped but will be up by August 2022!