I Break for Fellowships!

Some very nice news recently...

I've been selected as a 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting.

(big intake of air... now) Woo hoo!

Thanks, obviously, to NYFA who is making it possible to actually think actively about what projects I'll be able to see off the ground this year - rather than think regressively (which, my spell check has just informed me, is not even a word ...) ... well, you get the idea.

And we got to go to a fancy party that allowed bb and I to get gussied up, treat the open bar like it was a bag of Lays potato chips (no one can eat just ... again, you get the idea) and flash gang signs at fellow ... er, fellows.

The party also allowed me to wrest my gaze away from my navel for a couple of minutes to hear from NYSCA, the New York State Council on the Arts, the organization that makes all kinds of art, artists and art experiences possible ... and that is also facing a 40% cut in funding proposed by Governor Patterson.

It's important to know when things like this come up to threaten the livelihood of the arts in NEW YORK CITY of all places. I mean, this is where we go to have a viable shot at a career in the arts because ... well, nowhere else supports them (correction: nowhere else in the U.S. *cough* *cough* Caring about the arts is not something we have historically done very well). And it's not like a career in the arts is even all that viable HERE?

Which is all to say that this cut, if approved, would majorly suck in ways ranging from practical (seriously) to ideological. And the internet is here to help us be heard. Always wanted to be an arts Advocate, but haven't really wanted to ... um ... advocate? Click here and find some easy ways to help.

But, in all, I reiterate my "Woo hoo!" And "Bring it on, Albany!" (but, no, seriously, Albany ... don't bring it on...) ...

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