Lauren Lowe

Lauren Lowe (she/they) also goes by LL. A queer writer and teaching artist with family roots in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, she is working on a nonfiction book about the gentrification she’s witnessed in the city—drawing contrasts and parallels between her experiences working in West Philadelphia with the history of Chinatown and her father’s involvement in political resistance to city planning decisions in the 1970s. Lately, LL has been organizing with the Save Chinatown Coalition, teaching courses at Writers Room on storytelling for social change, and coaching girls’ basketball with the Philadelphia Suns.

Call for Artist/Activist Fellowship 2025

Artwork by Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project, from ABOLITION NOW! Exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative, 2020

Fellowship Details + FAQs

*Due to a shift in the focus of the Spring 2025 exhibition, Asian Arts Initiative is renaming this fellowship to the Artist/Activist Fellowship, and extending the deadline to December 8, 2024.

Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) seeks artist and activist collectives to serve as fellows during the Spring 2025 exhibition. The exhibition will highlight the intersection between artistic practice and social activism, with a specific interest in Afro-Asian community solidarity.

Continuing AAI’s dedication to building community through the power of art, Artist/Activist Fellows will be asked to develop their projects/proposals during the course of their fellowship, in dialogue with AAI staff, with other Fellows, and with members of the general public. The intent of this iterative process is to foster conversation and collaboration through the duration of the exhibition. While allowing for more focus on relationship building as a process, this strategy, we hope, eliminates the pressure of producing a complete product for the Exhibition. This fellowship will allow for an ongoing exchange among collaborators. We encourage a diverse group of multidisciplinary artists and activists to join the experiment.