The Tanne Foundation award gave me not only cash but acknowledgement as an artist - that I am doing something meaningful both aesthetically and ethically. In my case it gave visibility and voice to grass roots arts projects that empower the disenfranchised and push the boundaries of their marginalization.

More specifically I applied the money as a cash match for a grant to finish a career monograph. That monograph gave a credibility to my work needed to get funding for more projects. In the end, the Tanne Foundation award was support for all the under-valued workers, immigrants and homeless my projects have involved over the years. Most importantly, at 64, it gave me permission to keep working!

The Tanne Foundation Award helped me to finish and publish the 2nd work in my poetry trilogy and begin to the 3rd and final work. The complete trilogy has been out now since 2017, thanks in no small part to Tanne. This wasn’t the only impact that Tanne had, however. The award impacted not only my art and career; it made an indelible impression on my life overall. The timing of the award could not have been more serendipitous. I was at a crossroads as an artist, deeply considering whether or not to continue endeavoring to make art my main vocation or to go back to a “9 to 5.” When I received the award, it became for me a sign – a signal from the universe, if you will – to keep making art and to keep investing in myself as a full-time artist. For this, I cannot thank the Tanne Foundation enough; you helped change the course of my life. I have been making and producing written and spoken art and teaching art as my full-time occupation ever since. My voice acting business and studio is growing apace and I have another book on the way to be published this year. I know I will continue making and producing art into the foreseeable future and hopefully for all my life. Thank you, once again, Tanne Foundation Family, for the encouragement and support for my work and for me.

American Wake is a play which staged the music and games, the encounters and grief of an all-night party given for four Irish youngsters the night before they leave for America. The project was a happy experience for me, and it offered substantive roles to six professional and nine student actors, of whom six are still involved in theater, two are writers, two went to Yale Drama and one to the Royal Scottish Academy, two have been artistic directors. One of the student designers went on to a professional career in television, as did one of the student actors. It is in this indirect, often unsuspected way that Tanne funding impacts many lives and careers.

The Tanne Foundation award came at a moment when I felt particularly depleted, consumed with financial worry, and doubt. The award strengthened me by validating my journey, letting me know that my risks and my work were seen. This gesture of radical kindness propelled me into a new chapter of growth as a choreographer, offering me grounding to sustain my practice while continuing to dreams.