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.

Juan Manuel Escalante

San Diego County

Juan Manuel Escalante is a designer and an artist working with computer code, modular synthesizers, and analog drawings. His work has been shown internationally and featured in major festivals and exhibitions, including Ars Electronica, Athens Digital Arts, OFFF, Mutek, Currents New Media, Binario, and Ceremonia, amongst others. He was a member of the National System of Art Creators (National Endowment for the Arts, MX) and received the Corwin Award (1st prize) for Electronic-Acoustic Composition in 2016. He has taught creative programming at the University of California Santa Barbara and various higher education institutions in Mexico, including the graduate program in Architecture (UNAM), where he founded and directed its Media Lab for eight years. He holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts & Technology (UCSB) and is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Visual Arts at California State University, Fullerton.

Amber Green

Imperial County

Amber Green was born and raised in the small town of Marshall, Texas, home of "The Great Debaters." She studied studio art at Arizona Western College and the Art Institute in Dallas. She now lives and works in El Centro. Green works primarily within the medium of animation.

Jordan Verdin

San Diego County

Jordan Verdin is a visual artist, portrait photographer, and storyteller passionate about promoting social awareness. He uses a camera to build bridges, and since receiving a degree in negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding from California State University, Dominguez Hills, Verdine combines photography and storytelling to dismantle stereotypes and stigmas and humanize people by sharing their stories. Jordan intends that everyone sees the shared humanity we all have. His focus is to bring attention to the issues faced by people experiencing homelessness and marginalized communities while advocating for sustainable solutions. Through his work, he has photographed and interviewed over 700 people experiencing homelessness in San Diego County, which paved the way for him to found Humanity Showers. Humanity Showers provides mobile showers for communities in Southern California.

Lissbeth Garcia

Imperial County

As a former teacher or (edutainer) with a background in psychology, Lissbeth Garcia works with varied media including cardboard boxes, acrylic paints, music, play writing & performance. As a seminar administrator, she has worked in the medium of communication, seeking to mobilize & inspire others.

Alicia Siu

San Diego County

Alicia María Siu’s art centers on revitalizing a Mesoamerican mural tradition and recovering historical memory through art. As a first-generation refugee from the political violence of Central America, Siu came to the U.S. in 1998 at the tender age of 15, eventually earning a master's degree in Native American Studies from the University of California Davis. Her love for her own Mayan/Nahua-Pipil culture and awareness of Colonialism's political reality inspired Siu to advocate for Indigenous and environmental rights. Her art highlights Indigenous and marginalized peoples' ongoing struggle for respect, dignity, and sovereignty while celebrating a spirit of resiliency, healing, and hope.

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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.

  • Hill Street Country Club

    San Diego County

    The Hill Street Country Club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shaping the growing arts and culture scene in Oceanside and the surrounding North Country region. We strive to create an inclusive and diverse atmosphere that reflects the socioeconomic landscape of our community.  The organization's mission is to encourage art beyond gallery walls to create a culture where artists and the community can thrive together in North County San Diego.

    Hill Street Country Club
  • Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation

    San Diego County

    The Urban Collaborative Project CDC serves the historically redlined community of Southeast San Diego through community capacity-building efforts to connect residents to upstream services and resources through action teams and strategic partnerships between community members and key stakeholders. UCP empowers residents to identify their neighborhood issues and address challenges. Teams create action plans, outreach, and solutions to address disparities focusing on health, housing, transportation, art, and infrastructure. This community healing process builds capacity by encouraging,  training, and supporting residents to identify and solve community issues together.

    Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation
  • Kumeyaay Community College Inc.

    San Diego County

    Kumeyaay Community College (KCC) aims to promote a quality education focusing on Kumeyaay studies for the community interested in a unique and supportive educational experience. KCC lives its mission by promoting Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination; preserving Indigenous values of family, respect, healing, and spiritual awareness; developing a supportive learning environment for the community; promoting cultural education by embracing cognitive development and traditional teaching methods; and designing and developing of curriculum that prepares students professionally and socially to succeed in a diverse global society.

    Kumeyaay Community College Inc.

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