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fD Actions

About fD Actions

Through its extensive network of 50 international partner sites, freeDimensional is able to identify and respond to issues that affect vulnerable groups and hinder free expression. With our regional knowledge hubs in Cairo (The Townhouse Gallery), Sao Paulo (Casa das Caldeiras), Kuala Lumpur (International Forum for InterMedia Art), Berlin (UfaFabrik), and New York City (Center for International Art in Community) freeDimensional is able to act globally to facilitate rapid response solutions for creative individuals in distress and use their stories to illustrate critical, contemporary issues.

fD direct actions include:

Creative Safe Haven: Residential Fellows

Rodolfo Montiel Flores

Rodolfo Montiel Flores

Rodolfo Montiel Flores, 2000 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner and anti-logging activist from Mexico. Rodolfo is currently in California awaiting US asylum after being released from a Mexican prison upon presidential pardon; a freeDimensional partner center will accommodate him for four months during this process.


Emma Beltran

Emma Beltran

Emma Beltran grew up extremely poor in Tilzapotla, a village located in the southern state of Morelos, Mexico. Since 1994, she was involved in the struggle of indigenous peoples throughout Mexico. Also in that year she began her studies in Social Communication at the Autonomous Metropolitan University Xochimilco in Mexico City. She went to work in different communities in Chiapas, including as a human rights observer, in the dialogue of the peace accords between the federal government and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN); facilitating poetry workshops, popular theatre and alternative journalism for women and children; and in literacy projects. In her collaborative work in Mexico City, Beltran engaged in different activities: disseminating Information through lectures, writing articles, meetings, concerts, radio and in talks. She was one of the founders of the first independent community radio in Mexico's history, during the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) that lasted from April 1999 until February 2000. Beltran's activism made her the subject of harassment, political charges, kidnapping and torture, by the Mexican National Army in March 2001. For the period of 15 April - 15 June 2007 Emma will be the online Poet-in-Residence at VibeWire.


Pierre Mumbere Mujomba

Pierre Mumbere Mujomba

Pierre Mumbere Mujomba, Congolese playwright and novelist, is the author of seven plays and a novel, Ecce Ego, which was published in France in 2002. His conflict with the Congolese government began in January 2003, after the performance in French of his play, The Last Envelope, in Kinshasha. A "commedia-style" farce with extravagant language, a detailed plot and underhanded allegory, the play reveals excesses of the Mobutu regime in the former Zaire. Shortly after its first performance, Mujomba was threatened and his landlord was kidnapped. Pierre is a recent Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammett Award winnder and is in residence at Art Omi's Ledig House in upstate New York through May 2007.


Moniro Ravanipour

Moniro Ravanipour

Moniro Ravanipour is an internationally acclaimed innovative writer who is the author of eight titles published in Iran, including two collections of short fiction, Kanizu and Satan's Stones, and the novels The Drowned, Heart of Steel, and Gypsy by Fire. Her tales, described as "reminiscent in their fantastic blend of realism, myth, and superstition of writers like Rulfo, Garcia Marquez, even Tutuola," frequently take as their setting the small, remote village in southern Iran where she was born. Nahid Mozaffari, editor of Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature, writes that Ravanipour "has been successful in the treatment of the complex subjects of tradition and modernity, juxtaposing elements of both, and exposing them in all their contradictions without idealizing either." Ms. Ravanipour was among seventeen activists to face trial in Iran for their participation in the 2000 Berlin Conference, accused of taking part in anti-Iran propaganda. Copies of her current work were recently stripped from bookstore shelves in Iran in a countrywide police action.

New York Times article about Moniro
The Persian Mirror
An interview with Moniro at Iranian.com


Issa Nyaphaga

Issa Nyaphaga

Issa Nyaphaga is a visual artist. While working as a political cartoonist for a newspaper in his home country of Cameroon, he was imprisoned and tortured for his journalistic drawings. Issa will be in residence at the Center for International Art in Community (CIAC) in New York City from February - April 2007.

Visit Issa online at nyaphaga.com
Artist Statement (MS Word)
Audio file (MP3)

Issa's Blog


Joelle Khoury

Joelle Khoury

Joelle Khoury is an avant-garde composer and women's expression advocate in Lebanon. During the recent military incursion she was forced to flee to the mountains around Beirut and has been unable to work and function in a normal capacity. For November through December 2006, Joelle was in residence at the Milkwood Center in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic where she enjoyed a period of professional development working with local conservatories. Joelle complete her Arabic-language Opera during the Milkwood residency and CIAC is now serving as fiscal sponsor for bringing this production to New York City.

Visit Joelle online at joellek.com.


Shakeb Isaar

Shakeb Isaar

Shakeb Isaar is a young music presenter from Kabul, Afghanistan. After his on-air colleague was shot and killed, Shakeb lived in the TV station for three months before receiving official asylum to live in Sweden. From there Shakeb was placed at the Nordic Artists Centre in Dale, Norway for a creative safe have lasting from October through December 2006.

More info about Shakeb.


Jamshid Matin

Jamshid Matin

Jamshid Matin escaped persecution in Kabul, Afghanistan by receiving a student visa to the US after a colleague was shot and killed. CIAC planned a February 2007 speaking tour and newspaper interviews for him and accommodated him at the Flux Factory in New York City.

Visit Jamshid online at jamshidmatin.com.


Critical Placement: Residential Fellows

Delphine Diallo

Delphine Diallo

Delphine Diallo was born in 1977, in Paris, to French and Senegalese parents. After graduating with distinction from the Acadamie Charpentier School of Visual Art in 1999, she worked as a designer and animator for a number of clients in the music industry, including Coldplay, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Manu Chao. In the last year she moved to New York City, where she works as a freelance graphic artist. She recently had her first show in Brooklyn at Harriets Alter Ego and her second at the Gallery MC.

In 2005, Delphine Diallo traveled to St. Louis, Senegal in search of her family heritage. The ensuing Magic Photo Studio series is inspired in large part by the work of Malick Sidibe, who ran a studio in Bamako, Mali, during the 1960s, producing earnest, straightforward portraits in whimsically painted glass frames. In her work, Diallo compresses pattern and image into a single composition; patterns extracted from the textiles, totemic animals, and plants are brought directly into the image itself and layered on top of the portraits. These techniques are drawn from her background as a graphic designer and illustrator. The alchemical mix of painting, sketching, and notation on top of the images also connects the work to a contemporary vein of graphic-novel and graffiti-influenced drawing in the manner of Zak Smith or Margaret Kilgallen. The result is a richly textured and deeply personalized approach to portraiture.

Visit Delphine online at delphinediallo.com
Article about Delphine in TRACE Magazine


Samten Dakpa

Samten Dakpa

Samten Dakpa is an internationally recognized Thanka painter whose work hangs in famous collections throughout the world, including that of the Dalai Lama. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, these works of art to are models for reflection, meditation, and training the mind. Viewing a Thanka painting is considered a good deed in itself. Samten Dakpa was born in 1975, the seventh of nine children, to a farming family in the province of Kham, Tibet. As a very young child, he went into the mountains with the shepherds. There, he learned to rely on his imagination, and he developed a keen knowledge of the land. He began making Thanka painting at the age of eight. He studied with renowned Thanka masters and then at the university, but he was never a copyist. He maintained the individual, imaginative viewpoint that he had learned as a young child, and he won many significant honors. Dakpa's mother died in the mid-1990s, and he went on a pilgrimage to Lhasa. He was arrested by the Chinese government for being one of a crowd that included a political dissident. The Chinese imprisoned him, beat him, and burned his hands in the fireplace. He escaped Tibet by walking over the Himalayas with others, not all of whom survived the rigorous journey. He found refuge in India and eventually in America, where he spent many months recovering in a New York hospital. Since that time, he has become a figure of major importance as a Thanka painter, sculptor, architect, and teacher. He has designed buildings for Tibetan institutions in India and New York, and is helping to refurbish a retreat house at Jampa Ling Centre in Ireland. A Thanka school under his instruction is planned in Delhi, North India.


Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Katherine Dolgy Ludwig has her current painting practice in Toronto, London, and New York. She is well known for her portraits and music paintings that combine collective events, performance, film, and studio work. Until recently teaching Arts Critical Writing (OCAD), she has the MFA (Chelsea College, London Institute); AOCAD (OCAD), BA/BArch (University of Toronto). She is currently on Fellowship with the A.I.R. Gallery Chelsea by invitation from ArtInAmerica, Brooklyn Rail, and NYU Tisch. Featured widely in the press, Katherine paints individuals in communities perceived as uniform, bringing the subjects together to meet at the showing, including past solo shows such as OneGRRLGal (NYC art.les.studios), freedom2BRselves (NYC National Arts Club), The Girl Next Door, Playboy Bunnies (Vegas Stardust Gallery), NaturistsLive&LetLive (Toronto Island Gibraltar Point Center for the Arts), Southwark Police Project (London RKBurt Gallery). Upcoming shows include SPLASH! (Toronto Island GPCA), FaithPainting (tba, Brooklyn), EveryoneItTakes (NYC, Amanda Gillespie Gallery), AIRPlay (NYC A.I.R. Gallery), and AlicebotInLondonland/MostHumanDigibot (London/Rome/LA www.katherinedolgyludwig.com | Download Kathy's article, "When Canaries Face the Cat - Flipping the Bird with Jack the Pelican"


Ariel Fernandez

Ariel Fernandez

Havana-born Ariel Fernandez aka Asho is a Hip Hop historian, journalist, essayist and event organizer. Ariel has distinguished himself as a leader and advocate of Cuban youth culture and social-cultural movements. A widely acclaimed lecturer and proponent of the Cuban Hip Hop movement. Driven by his belief in the power of music to transmit ideas and build community, Ariel started his career as a local DJ in 1996 with a self-made audio system. As DJ Afro, and later DJ Asho, he has DJed in Havana's premier nightclubs and venues, including the landmark Teatro Nacional (National Theater). Determined to further his knowledge of technology, Ariel decided to become a sound engineer, pursued studies in the field, and later went on to work at Radio Ciudad Habana. Disappointed by the exclusivity in mainstream music media, Ariel re-affirmed his commitment to creating a space for new voices, using the rap cubano movement as his tool of choice.

Since 2005, Ariel has lived in New York City where continues to demonstrate his vision, drive, and love for Hip-hop and the arts as vehicles for creating social change. He joined the Board of Advisors of the International Hip-Hop Exchange (IHX) and Planet Hip Hop Festival (PHH) at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and has co-produced the International Hip-Hop Latino Festival in New York. Ariel is currently working on writing and film projects, while working to bridge the gap between Cuban and international youth communities. Vibe Magazine says "Fernandez does everything but rhyme. He's a DJ, radio personality, promoter, manager and journalist. If you want to know everything about Cuban Hip Hop, ask him. His drive and dedication to the movement is relentless."


Laura Silva Cervantes

Laura Silva Cervantes

In 2006 Laura Silva Cervantes premiered two plays, a rhythmic story for kids and a choreographic play dedicated to the cancer she underwent and overcame without quitting her normal activities such as school, contemporary dance and choreography. Today she is a dancer, teacher and choreographer in her own contemporary dance company, promoting reading habits and cultural events, delivering speeches, conferences, talks, workshops and performances on reading and book selection. She has worked with the general coordination of public libraries of the state of Oaxaca. She also has been invited by different levels to serve as a judge for theater plays, poetry, oratory and lately comedies. Laura received a freeDimensional fellowship to attend the Guapamacátaro 2007 Interdisciplinary Residency in Art and Ecology in Michoacán, Mexico.


Vahagn Vardumyan

Vahagn Vardumyan

From April through June 2007, Vahagn is a visiting guest of the International Center for Tolerance Education (ICTE). Vahagn uses CIAC project space to make his "artivism" and will exhibit his work there during May open studios.

Vahagn is affiliated with the BEM Progressive Youth Action Center in Yerevan, Armenia.


Bara Diokhane

Bara Diokhane

Bara Diokhane is a Senegalese painter, whose studio residency on the Empty Vessel Project has focused on transforming the boat into an installation about economic refugees fleeing West Africa on rickety fishing boats bound for Spain. Bara is with the Empty Vessel Project in Brooklyn, New York from October to November 2006.

Visit Bara online at www.baradiokhane.com.

Read about Bara in the New York Times.

Bara's Blog


João Silva Brandão Jr.

João Silva Brandão Jr.

João Silva Brandão Jr. has been teaching for several years in a self-created social project called Projeto Língua Solta (Loose Tongue Project), which works with diverse stakeholders from teenagers to housewives in the favelas of Rio de Janiero. From January through March 2007, João is a visiting guest of the International Center for Tolerance Education (ICTE). CIAC hosted a fundraiser for his project in Brazil as well as included him in two speaking engagements to highlight his work (Flux Factory Thursday and New York City Grassroots Media Conference). Download João's profile (PDF)


Capacity for Community Outreach Programs

As fD evolves, members of the network have begun to share models for working with vulnerable groups in their communities. fD is helping to build capacity in their local initiatives and use these experiences to develop toolkits for community outreach. This is a profound learning cycle for fD during which we have set up a research desk in the offices of our Cairo partner center, The Townhouse Gallery.

The Townhouse served as an incubator for Tadamon, a Multi-Cultural Council that strives to mitigate social tensions that arise among millions of refugees and their Egyptian neighbors living together in Cairo.

For more information, visit fD Executive Director Todd Lester's Cairo blog, Living Together: Cairo.

Tool-kits for new community art spaces

Gadalla & Sara Gubara

Film studio in Khartoum (Sudan) builds capacity by engaging youth theatre troupe

Gad's Studio

Sudanese filmmaker wins lifetime achievement award

Polio disabled her feet but not her creativity


Thematic campaigns

Exhibition: CENSORSHIP

CENSORSHIP: An Exhibition Benefiting Artists in Distress was on view at the Brecht Forum in New York City, November 8th through December 6th. freeDimensional and L2EL ARTS brought together twenty-seven local and global artists who create art that fights back against systems which prevent free expression.

Coverage and additional links

For more information on our efforts in this area, find out about our Free Expression & Migration thematic work.