black excellence fund
& storytelling project
Announcing our 2024 Awardees!
Please join us in congratulating: Amaranthia Sepia, 24, of Concord, NH; Fisto Ndayishimiye, 26, of Concord, NH; and Samrawit Silva, 26, of Concord, NH!!! Through the Black Excellence Fund, they will each receive an unrestricted $5,000 Community Grant, and through the Storytelling Project, we will share their stories with you.
In the months to come, we will shine a light on each of these incredible individuals, and share their stories with you. Today, we ask you to join us in congratulating all of them for this achievement! After being either self-nominated, nominated by community members, or both, this year’s grant awardees were then selected by a blind jury of past winners. They are all truly remarkable, and deserve celebration. Congratulations, Amaranthia, Fisto, and Samrawit, and thank you for all that you do!!! Follow them on social media:
@sistacreativesrising @amaranthiasepiaartworks
@importance_leadership @changeforconcord @samru_xoxo
“Come celebrate/ with me that every day/ something has tried to kill me/ and has failed.”-- Lucille Clifton Won’t You Celebrate with Me
In the spring of 2021 we conceived a project called the Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project (BEFSP). In 2021, we awarded two grants totaling almost $9,000. In 2022, we increased our giving and awarded 3 x $5,000 grants. In 2023, we plan to award at least 3 x $5,000 grants, depending on how many nominations we receive and how much funds are raised.
Who is eligible: young (under 35) Black and BIPOC individuals, residing or attending school in NH, who are striving to embody excellence in the face of systemic oppression.
Who can nominate: Anyone! You can nominate yourself! Or you can nominate someone else—just make sure you let them know and get their consent, please.
Selection process: In the event that more than three nominations are received, last year’s recipients will each choose an individual from this year’s nominees to receive a community grant. This empowers our recipients to participate and to “pass it on.”
Nomination period will open June 19, 2023 and closes at Midnight, July 31st, 2023. Community grant recipients will be announced at the end of August, 2023. Nominees not receiving a grant will receive the opportunity to share their stories through our platform and/or will be invited to speak at future storytelling events.
Black excellence fund.
To provide material support–in the form of unrestricted charitable grants (awarded in our inaugural year to Keagan Supple and Shawtel Allen-Burdette; this year’s THREE awardees are announced below!) We rely on donations to fund these grants and ease financial budens. Donate today!
Storytelling Project.
We Provide a Platform for Community Engagement - we engage spaces that center on the authentic voices and experiences of diverse NH youth. In doing so, we stand against those traditions of excellence and success that have marginalized youth. We stand in solidarity, listening to young people as they redefine what it means to excel in today’s world.
Why Unrestricted?
To support Black and Indigenous-led initiatives and individuals with unrestricted funds is to trust the leadership and vision of Black and Indigenous peoples. It is a tangible way to forsake power and privilege in the ongoing struggle to decolonize.
2023 Awardees!!
2022 participants!
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Akon Nakdimo
MANHESTER YWCA
“Akon is an absolutely diligent and dedicated individual here in Manchester…though I am older than her for a decade and change I learn from her intentions and her calm and collected demeaner. We run a BIPOC tutoring program and YYA Leadership and excellence events for BIPOC peeps. Her insight and foresight is absolutely laudable. I think she has the skills and work ethic to be a true leader of our city and to go on further to great things and I wish for nothing more than for her work and for herself to be recognized for everything that she is doing both in her volunteerism and heart.”
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Niamiah Perry
HUDSON BUSINESS SCHOOL
“Niamiah is a part for the CRTC emergency services program and is working hard to earn her EMT license. She is also a participant of Circle Program, completed the Leader In Training Program, a camp counselor and substitute health care provider at camp. She has choreographed dances for the Talent Show at camp multiple years in a row at camp. She has her Wilderness First Aid Certification and will work as a counselor again this summer. Nia has a mentor named Barbara that she has been with since she was 9 years old when she started the program. She is a leader and has even helped with introducing DEIJ training to the Circle Board of Directors by telling her lived experience in her early years at camp being the only Black camper…I could not be more proud of Nia!”
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Ronelle Tshiela
UNH SCHOOL OF LAW
“Excellence is a complicated term especially in these systems of white supremacy. What I have seen in Ronelle transcends countless definitions of excellence; she is a human committed to abolishing the prison industrial complex, fighting for reproductive Justice, and working to build a system behind the boundaries of whiteness. Ronelle is from NH, she is working towards her law degree at UNH Law to become a defense attorney, and is the founder of Black Lives Matter Manchester. Ronelle sat on the LEACT commission, she continues fighting every day for police reform at the legislature and works in concert with other BLM chapters across the state to establish Black liberation.
Her resume is too long in her relatively short years on this earth. In short, Ronelle’s activism, commitment and vision for an abolition has and will continue to change New Hampshire.”
Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project
Inaugral participants
Shawtel Allen-Burdette
Last year, in her own words, Shawtel told us that she is, “a dancer, a choir student, a mentee and a Leader-in-training for the Circle Program. I am also one of three African American students in my emergency services program this year. As I look back onto my younger self, I’m honestly amazed because when I was younger, I was in a bad bus accident. My Nana was told that I’d lose all my memory and be in a vegetable like state, but I proved everyone wrong and now will soon be able to help others on their worst day. Next year I plan to go to the Fire Academy and to take EMT classes to get all my certifications, as well as attending my senior year at Concord High School. At the end of my senior year I plan to apply to the Air Force Academy to become an Air Force firefighter. I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without the support from my Nana, my Papa, and the Circle Program. They showed me that as long as I put my mind to it and really try, I can achieve anything, and that no dream of mine is too big; I’m proud to be a young African American woman.”
Keagan Supple
One of our two inaugural Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project participants in 2021, Keagan Supple, 19, of Brentwood, New Hampshire, is a professional Freeskier.
In his own words, Keagan’s goals are “to make the World Cup Circuit in Slopestyle or Halfpipe skiing, and also to inspire more diversity in the sport of freeskiing. As a Black young adult, I am one of the only people of color participating in skiing at the professional level, and it is rare to see someone else who looks like me on the hill. During the 2021 season, I placed 9th in the Copper Mtn Rev Tour and I placed 1st in the Futures Tour at Winter Park. The 2021 season was short [due to the pandemic]; I was only able to compete at 3 venues. With the 2022 season underway, I recently placed 7th at the Mammoth Rev Tour. When I am not able to ski, my hobbies include mountain biking, trampolining, and skateboarding.”
