3Arts Announces Performers, Artists, and Arts Educators Receiving $30k Each at 3Arts Awards Celebration

3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, has announced the recipients of this year’s 3Arts Awards, with over half a million dollars distributed to local artists. The 2024 recipients of the unrestricted $30,000 grants are dance artists Imania Fatima Detry andRobby Lee Williams; musicians Emily Beisel and Wanees Zarour; teaching artists Rich Robbins and Stephanie Manriquez; theater artists Shariba Rivers and Levi Wilkins; and visual artists Cecilia Beaven Gallegos and Farah Salem. The organization will honor the ten new recipients on Monday, October 21 at 5:30pm at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E Randolph Street. Tickets to the 2024 3Arts Awards Celebration include a welcome reception, awards program, and a jubilant after-party. Tickets cost $150-$300 and are available at 3arts.org/tickets. Funds raised during the event will be split between 3Arts and Chicago nonprofit Center for Native Futures.

This year’s awards celebration features boundary-breaking performances by three past 3Arts awardees, including Rika Lin (2023 awardee) presenting Feedback, an experimental dance work that bends conceptions of gender and genre with collaborator Takashi Shallow; Donnetta “LilBit” Jackson (2023 awardee) performing an excerpt from A M.A.D.D. Mixtape, a piece choreographed by Jackson that explores the African diasporic roots of tap and footwork with dancers from M.A.D.D Rhythms; and singer-songwriter Nashon Holloway (2022 awardee) performing the world premiere of Go Awf, an original new song from her forthcoming album. The awards are hosted by Co-Chairs Michelle T. Boone, Candace Hunter, and Whitney Hill and an event committee of arts and civic leaders.

“It has always been a great honor for me to work on behalf of artists and the powerful ways they transform our city and our lives. They truly and truthfully help us reach for the stars and dream our futures into being,” said 3Arts Executive Director Esther Grimm. She added, “It was so heartening to welcome a record crowd to the 3Arts Awards Celebration last year when we summoned the most exuberant applause for Chicago artists in our organization’s history. I hope we can rally even more applause on October 21 by breaking our audience record when we celebrate a whopping 26 new awardees and the immense creative vitality of our region. Artists deserve our cheers, our support, and, above all else, our gratitude.”

In its 17-year history, 3Arts has distributed more than $8.1 million in grants to more than 2,300 Chicagoland artists. 3Arts awardees include 68% women artists, 73% artists of color, and 22% Deaf or disabled artists.

DANCE

Imania Fatima Detry (she/her), born and raised in Chicago, is a performing and teaching artist with a concentration in West African dance. With over 20 years of professional training and performance experience with Muntu Dance Theatre and as the Assistant Artistic Director of Ayodele Drum and Dance, Detry works to preserve African dance and culture while sharing her current experiences and style in her teaching and performing work. Her style and experiences have given her the opportunity to work with different artists and platforms, including Chance the Rapper, Fatima Robinson, Fox Productions, and more. Detry is currently expanding on her choreography by using styles that include Djembe, DounDance, Sabar, House, Chicago Footwork, Afrobeat, and Afrobeats.

Robby Lee Williams (he/him) is a Black/Latiné wheelchair dancer in Chicago. His dance practice is driven by explorations in connection with others and a drive to help build community practice. Williams dances with MOMENTA Dance Company and Tango 21 Dance Theater. He is also a teaching artist with ReinventAbility and a performer/collaborator with Unfolding Disability Futures.

THEATER

Shariba Rivers (she/her) is a Chicago-based actor who started acting in her early forties after many years as an educator, wife, and mother. Rivers found her calling in acting and has appeared on stages across Chicago and Portland, Rochester, and Hilton Head. Rivers has also appeared on TV (The Chi, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Empire) and film (Okie, Fitting Descriptions, Smoking Gun) and is an award-winning voice actor for her role as Lilian Harper in the BBC award-winning audiodrama, Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery. Rivers is a proud member of both SAG-AFTRA and AEA.

Levi J. Wilkins (he/him/his) is a self-taught lighting designer born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago. He has been a member of the Chicago theater community since the age of six. Wilkins is currently the Lighting Director at The Faith Community of St. Sabina Church and a resident Lighting Designer at Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Some of his notable theater credits include Exit Strategy (Northwestern University), A Day of Absence, What to Send Up When it Goes Down (Lookingglass Theatre),  How Blood Go (Congo Square Theatre), Brother Sister Cyborg Space (Raven Theatre), The Mountaintop (Constellation Stage & Screen), A Christmas Carol (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre), Into The Side of A Hill (Flint Repertory Theatre), Is God Is (A Red Orchid Theatre), Once On This Island (Pulse Theater), A Raisin in The Sun (Indiana University Northwest), London Road and Jump (Shattered Globe Theatre), and God and Monsters (Frame of Reference Productions).

MUSIC

Emily Rach Beisel (they/them) is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, educator, curator, and woodwind specialist. Emily is known for visceral performances blending extended vocal and instrumental techniques with analogue electronics. Their solo album, Particle of Organs (2023), is described as "Operatic, wild and dark, showcasing the raw power of the body and the instrument, weaving together sounds that are both corrosive and tender." As a curator, Beisel seeks to increase the visibility and involvement of femme, trans, and nonbinary artists in the creative performance community. They founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, presenting monthly performances, community-based free improvisation sessions, and the biennial PleiadesFest. Beisel holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208.

Wanees Zarour (he/him) is an award-winning Palestinian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and community leader with a deeply rooted background in Middle Eastern Music and a pioneer in exploring its intersections with jazz and other traditions. He is the co-director of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, director of the Middle East Music Ensemble (70-piece orchestra) at the University of Chicago, and leads "East Loop,” a project that explores the intersection of jazz and Middle Eastern music, pushing the parameters of both traditions. Zarour’s work focuses on bringing communities together through music, transcending borders, and creating a robust musical ecosystem that centers the global traditions represented in Chicago and the U.S. He has collaborated and performed with renowned artists across the globe, while directing multiple projects that have become fixtures in Chicago’s music scene. In 2021 he was awarded the Chicago Esteemed Artist Award. As a composer and arranger who explores musical intersections of Middle Eastern music, jazz, and the Western orchestral framework, Zarour’s compositions have been commissioned for symphony orchestras, film, and non-Western large ensembles.

TEACHING ARTS

Rich Robbins (he/him) is a Chicago-based rapper, songwriter, producer, educator, and television host. In 2023, Robbins was voted “Best Individual Hip-Hop Artist” in Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago. His music has garnered well over one million streams and includes works with artists like Mick Jenkins, Saba, Mother Nature, and more. Robbins’s most recent performances include headlining at the Taste of Chicago and Metro, along with performing at historic venues like the Apollo Theater (New York). As a youth educator in the creative arts and as a performer, Robbins has founded several spaces for artists to develop their skills in a safe, welcoming environment. One of those spaces is Respect the Mic – a monthly open mic series that is dubbed as Chicago’s “most intimate open mic.” In his latest EP, Soft & Tender, Robbins opens the conversation toward the intersectionality of fatherhood and Blackness. The EP has been adapted into an interview series that explores fatherhood through the sons they raised. The series is available to watch on YouTube, and all of Rich’s music is available to stream on all digital service providers.

Stephanie Manriquez (she/her) is an award-winning writer, radio producer, journalist, and teaching artist with a passion for highlighting social justice issues affecting Latino communities. She currently serves as Executive Director at Contratiempo magazine and Director of Lumpen Radio, where sees storytelling as a radical act for the Latinx community and has committed herself to develop spaces for diverse voices to be heard with a larger goal of increasing representation on public and alternative radio. As a journalist, she consistently speaks on topics that most affect her communities. As an educator, she is passionate about mentoring the next generation of Latinx media makers, helping them to become civically minded and artistically innovative. She was a Social Justice News Nexus Fellow at Northwestern University and led the National Museum of Mexican Arts youth journalism program. Manriquez was recognized in 2020 by the Field Foundation and MacArthur Foundation as one of 11 "Leaders for a New Chicago" and in 2023 received the “Public Humanities Award” from Illinois Humanities.

VISUAL ARTS

Cecilia Beaven (she/her) is a Chicago-based visual artist from Mexico City. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from ENPEG La Esmeralda. Her multidisciplinary artwork has been showcased in solo exhibitions in Mexico City, Houston, and Chicago, and in group shows internationally. Beaven has painted murals in various cities such as Hiketa, Paris, Houston, Chicago, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Pachuca, Tepoztlan, and Tijuana, where she painted a segment of the border wall between Mexico and the U.S. Beaven is the current 2024 Chicago Artists Coalition Resident, and has also received awards including the Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, the LeRoy Neiman Foundation Fellowship at Ox-Bow School of Art, and a Fulbright Scholarship. In 2022 she was named one of the “100 Most Creative Mexicans in the World” by Forbes Mexico, and in 2023, Newcity included her in the "Art 50 – Chicago’s Artists' Artists" list.

Farah Salem (she/her) is a Kuwaiti-Iraqi interdisciplinary artist and art therapist based in Chicago. Salem’s studio practice is rooted in photography, and expands through video, performance, fiber-materials, and installation. Her practice examines themes of agency, making the invisible visible, and potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning distorting our shared realities. Salem holds a Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been featured at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), EXPO CHICAGO, American University Museum (Washington D.C.), United Photo Industries/Photoville (New York), Patel Brown (Toronto), Engage (Chicago), Bolivia Biennial, Paris Contemporary Art Fair, Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE), and Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait). Salem completed the Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Hatch Residency at Chicago Artist Coalition, ACRE Artist Residency (Steuben), Per|Form at Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait) and Journey to Turkey Residency with Crossway Foundation (UK).

NEXT LEVEL AWARDS AND MAKE A WAVE AWARDS

In addition to the ten $30,000 3Arts Awards, six $50,000 Next Level Awards and ten $2,000 Make a Wave Awards will be announced at the awards event on October 21, bringing the total funds distributed to $620,000.

Next Level Awards are $50,000 unrestricted cash awards given to past 3Arts awardees to help fuel the next stages of their careers.

Make a Wave is a groundbreaking artist-to-artist grant program in which past 3Arts Awards recipients select another ten Chicago artists to receive surprise cash awards, sending a “wave” of support through Chicago’s cultural communities. Make a Wave artists receive $2,000 each, thanks to the generous partnership of the Siragusa Family Foundation.

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