Awesome Black announces new music and literary fund

The Awesome Black Foundation has announced the Voices Rising Fund, a new initiative for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians and writers.

The foundation has also announced that Western Sydney–based hardcore band Homesick is the first recipient of the fund.

The fund aims to support the creation of publishable work within the literature and music industries, said organisers. It focuses on “enabling culturally significant projects to move from concept to publication, bridging the gap between creation and commercial distribution.”

The fund’s first key partners are publishing house Allen & Unwin and First Nations music label Bad Apples Music.

Applications will be open year-round, with assessments to take place twice a year. According to the organisers, the fund will have “a maximum of $60,000 distributed across a minimum of two projects per year”.

Assessing the applications will be representatives from major and independent music labels and literary publishing houses, First Nations arts workers and curators, and members of the Awesome Black team.

Awesome Black creative director Travis De Vries said, “We built the Voices Rising Fund to give Blak artists the freedom to make the work they want to make without waiting for permission or being boxed in by old systems.

“It’s about paving our own ways for stories that need to be told. I’m incredibly passionate about publishing work and being able to put something into the world that has staying power.”

More information about the fund is available on the Awesome Black website.

Category: Local news