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.

Oscar J. Romo

San Diego County

Oscar Romo graduated as an architect with master's degrees in urban planning, social housing, and computer science and doctoral studies in environmental sciences. His concentration is art, reflecting scientific discoveries and exemplifying his academic research. An advocate of sustainability, he has created hundreds of art pieces made entirely from repurposed materials. He has worked in several countries on sizeable public art structures down to miniatures, always inspired by natural systems and resource conservation. Committed to education since he was in college, he has led thousands of students to appreciate science.

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.

Thelma de Castro

San Diego County

Filipinx playwright Thelma Virata de Castro lives in San Diego, and her writing explores identity and belonging. She's a Hedgebrook alumna and a commissioned artist with The Old Globe Theatre. With Asian Story Theater, she won The San Diego Foundation's Creative Catalyst Fellowship and collaborated on multiple California Humanities projects. Access Inc. awarded her the Esperanza Award for extraordinary commitment to eradicating domestic violence in San Diego County. Playwrights Project produced The TAG Project with support from the William Male Foundation. She founded San Diego Playwrights, serves the Dramatists Guild on the Regional Affairs Committee, and builds community with United AAPI Artists. She chairs the DEI committee and sits on the Board of Directors for San Diego Writers, Ink. She works as a teaching artist and dramaturge. The San Diego Union-Tribune included her in its list of Phenomenal San Diego Women: Creators and Performers.

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.

Ana Ruth Castillo

San Diego County

Ana Ruth Yela Castillo is an art therapist, a mother, and a muralist of Guate-Mayan descent who engages the community in healing through creative expression. She began her career by developing after-school programming using poetry, theater, and muralism to empower the lives of youth. Listening to her student's stories of intergenerational trauma and resilience directed her toward the mental health field. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2017 with a dual master's in Family Therapy and Clinical Art Therapy. Ana Ruth moved with her family in 2019 to the beautifully rural and artsy town of Ramona in San Diego County. As a mother, a new journey began that informs both her clinical and intuitive skills as a therapeutic arts practitioner. Creative expression continues to be the bridge she trusts and uses to facilitate a naturally unfolding process connecting people to themselves, their medicine, and wisdom.

Armando de la Torre

San Diego County

Armando de la Torre work has a long-time involvement in social justice and outreach projects through visual art and teaching practices. These projects - including participatory events at Bread & Salt and The Front and participation in the Best Practice exhibit "Rosas Y Nopales" - entwine with place, borders, and identities. His works often reflect the dichotomy of the San Diego-Tijuana region in its complex environmental and social problems. He is a multidisciplinary artist who is deeply impacted and shaped by these political and environmental forces, and he has learned to turn this into cultural content, continuing to develop work that can inform a broader narrative of inclusion in the San Diego -Tijuana region.

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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.

  • 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.
  • 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
  • Outside the Lens

    San Diego County

    Outside the Lens (OTL) amplifies youth voices through photography, filmmaking, and digital media, catalyzing change within themselves, their communities, and the world. OLT provides youth with the tools and skills necessary to succeed in a digital world. OLT's vision is that all youth, regardless of income, geography, national origin, or identity, have the artistic and technological skills and access to create and share their stories.

    Outside the Lens

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