Artists + Practitioners + Organizations

Meet the artists, practitioners, and organizations! Far South/Border North awarded funding to support artists and cultural practitioners working in disciplines from performing arts, visual arts, music, film and media, and literature to multidisciplinary and socially engaged forms.

Far South/Border North Round I Grant Recipients

Our Round I grant recipients include about 60 artists and cultural practitioners from San Diego and Imperial counties. Round I grant recipients began developing their campaigns in June 2023, and are now implemented those campaigns through May 2024.

Johnnierenee Nelson

San Diego County

Award-winning poet and playwright Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, aka the Kwanzaa Poet, has written and published six books of poetry. Ms. Nelson is a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools and San Diego's Border Voices Project and a performance poet who has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt, to Vancouver, British Columbia. She also appeared in the Emmy-Award-winning documentary "Lighting the Way." In 2017, Nelson received a Fellowship from the Livingkindness Foundation to attend the International Women Writers Guild's 40th Annual Summer Conference in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She serves as the San Diego County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools and as Poet Laureate of the World Beat Cultural Center in San Diego's Balboa Park.

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

San Diego County

Kendrick Dial, also known as Mr. Lyrical Groove, is a renaissance man with a mission to blend mental health and social justice art. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies/Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master's in Social Work from the University of South California. Dial is an accomplished spoken word artist who published his first poetry book, Da JOYNT, in 2005. He has worked with the poetry collective Collective Purpose for over ten years, hosting one of Southern California's highest-attended open mic events, ELEVATED. He has collaborated with several arts-based organizations to perform and produce shows that inspire, challenge, educate, and entertain, including BkSoul, Playwrights Project, and Ira Aldridge Theatre. He is also a teaching artist with the Old Globe and recently completed a veteran playwriting workshop with the La Jolla Playhouse, where he is working on his two-person production.

Zaquia Mahler Salinas

San Diego County

Zaquia Mahler Salinas is a dance artist invested in movement-art as an act of reclamation and world-building. She has worked with many organizations in San Diego in various artistic, administrative, and teaching capacities. Zaquia has had the opportunity to engage dance communities worldwide, including a 2019 residency in Bethlehem, Palestine, focusing on dance as a form of cultural, embodied resistance. In 2018, she founded DISCO RIOT, a nonprofit movement-arts organization that supports local dance and provides creative possibilities for advancing the scene in San Diego. Zaquia is a lifelong learner and holds a bachelor's in Dance with honors from the University of California Santa Barbara (2011), a Master's in Dance: Creative Practice with honors from Saint Mary's College of California (2017), a certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of San Diego (2021), and a California Single Subject Teaching Credential for Dance (2022).

Enrique "Chikle" Lugo

San Diego County

Enrique Lugo, aka chikle!, is a visual artist and the proud son of Mexican Immigrants dedicated to human-centered education and CommUNITY activism. Via a multidisciplinary approach, his work has focused on identity, cultivating safe spaces, raising awareness, fostering change, and nurturing a sense of CommUNITY and belonging. He is a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate and has been involved in activism, promoting entrepreneurship, producing family-friendly events, and curating art shows since 2004. He continues to make art, including CommUNITY murals and participates in his CommUNITY, serving as Dean of Culture at High Tech High Chula Vista in Chula Vista, California.

Maria Patrice Amon

San Diego County

Maria Patrice Amon is a director, producer, scholar, and leader. Maria Patrice Amon is a director, producer, scholar, and leader. Directing: Hoops (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre), A Skeptic and a Bruja (Urbanite Theatre) Group! The Musical (Passage Theatre) Hoopla! (La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour) Azul (Diversionary Theatre), Mojada (UCSD),  A Zoom of One's Own (CSUSM), Ich Bin Ein Berliner (Theatre Lab) DREAM HOU$E (CSUSM/TuYo Theatre) Fade (Moxie Theatre), The Madres (Moxie Theatre), Lydia (Brown Bag Theatre Company). Dramaturg: Manifest Destinitis (San Diego Rep), Beachtown (San Diego Rep). Patrice was a 2020 National Directing Fellow and an Associate Artistic Director at San Diego Repertory Theatre. She is currently a Latinx Theatre Commons Steering Committee member and a National New Play Network board member. Patrice is an assistant professor at California State University, San Marcos.

Sergio "Takito" Ojeda

Imperial County

Sergio Ojeda is a spray paint artist dedicated to changing the narratives of the binational communities of Imperial Valley and Mexicali. He was born and raised in the borderlands with a bohemian lifestyle and a cosmic perspective gained from an education focused on research, science, and psychology.

See More

Far South/Border North Round II Grant Recipients

Our Round II grant recipients include 18 San Diego and Imperial County organizations. In fall 2023, they hired artists and cultural practitioners and began working alongside them to develop their campaigns, and implemented them through August 2024.

See More