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.

Thelma de Castro

Thelma de Castro

Thelma de Castro

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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.

Paul Valdivia

Paul Valdivia

Paul Valdivia

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Paul Valdivia

Imperial County

Paul Valdivia is the Communications Coordinator for the Imperial Valley Social Justice Committee. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles, he specialized in History with a minor in Film, Television, and Digital Media Studies. His role is multifaceted and includes videography and photography focused on social issues. Valdivia uses art to advocate for social reform. His primary goal is to continue driving impactful change in his community. Valdivia is firmly grounded in his beliefs and translates his convictions into tangible action, aiming to create a more equitable society through his work.

Alicia Siu

Alicia Siu

Alicia Siu

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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.

Omar Lopex

Omar Lopex

Omar Lopex

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Omar Lopex

San Diego County

Omar Lopex is a writer, director, artist, and academic whose work has screened at Big Muddy, San Diego Underground, Harkat 16mm Film festivals, Mingei International Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, La Jolla Athenaeum, and the Hyperreal Vegas Residency. He's a grant recipient from American Artists, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Avery-Tsui Foundation, and the William Male Foundation. Lopex shoots exclusively on celluloid film and won the Binational Filmmaker Award for his debut feature Ana, Who They Pulled Out of the River from Film Consortium San Diego 2018. In 2022, in collaboration with FotoKem and Kodak Film, Lopex established the inaugural Standard Fantastic Transborder Film Fellowship, providing materials, equipment, and mentorship for two teams of young filmmakers to produce narrative films within the US/Mexico Transborder region. Lopex serves on the Advisory Council for the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts at the University of California San Diego.

Yolanda Marie Franklin

Yolanda Marie Franklin

Yolanda Marie Franklin

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Yolanda Marie Franklin

San Diego County

Yolanda Marie Franklin is an award-winning actor, director, producer, and community leader, and appointed Artistic Director for Common Ground Theatre, resident theatre at the San Diego College of Continuing Education Educational Cultural Complex and Theatre-in-Residence at The La Jolla Playhouse for a second-year term. Some of her credits include Sense Of Love, The Cell Plays, Little Rock, Uplifting Black Voices Play Festival, Night Mother, The Ruby In Us, The Further Adventures of Hedder Gabler, Raisin In The Sun, The August Wilson Cycle, and The Sugar Witch.

Malik "Potnt Child" Glasgow

Malik "Potnt Child" Glasgow

Malik "Potnt Child" Glasgow

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Malik "Potnt Child" Glasgow

Imperial County

Malik Glasgow (stage name Potnt Child [Potential]) is a singer-songwriter, music producer, performing artist, saxophonist, graphic designer, fashion designer, and model. He's collaborated with various musical artists in the Imperial Valley and Southern California to create unique listening experiences and has performed often during local festivals, shows, expos, and gatherings. As an avid admirer of all forms of expression, he aims to help others bring their ideas from concept to creation through his organization Producing Happiness.

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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.

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