09/23/2026
From Kabul’s blast walls to a growing global community, art continues to connect us.
We are proud that ArtLords co-founder Omaid Hafiza Sharifi has been selected as a 2026–27 Civic Media Fellow!
Thank you USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and MacArthur Foundation for supporting voices working for social change.
We are thrilled to welcome our seventh cohort of Civic Media Fellows to USC Annenberg !
Generously supported By MacArthur Foundation , the 2026-27 Civic Media Fellows are:
Alyssa Bigbee (she/her) a Philly-based multi-disciplinary artist and Dance/Movement therapist using dance, circus arts, media, and writing to advance social justice and civic engagement.
Sesali Bowen (she/her) a multifaceted author, cultural commentator, and brand strategist.
Jeannine A. Cook (any pronouns) an author, shopkeeper, and creative curator whose work explores the ways that world-building shapes how we understand ourselves and one another.
Meklit Hadero (she/her) an Ethiopian-born, San Francisco based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, storyteller, podcast host, and cultural strategist.
Tunde Olaniran (they/them) an artist and designer whose work spans music, dance, film, costuming, literature, and performance art, exploring themes of Blackness, gender, class, agency, and psychic/emotional power.
Adam Perez (he/him) an acclaimed photographer, filmmaker, and educator from California’s Central Valley whose work explores identity, collective memory, and the lives of communities too often overlooked.
Omaid Sharifi (he/him) an artivist and human rights advocate who co-founded ArtLords, a global movement using public murals and participatory art to advance freedom of expression and community resilience across more than twenty countries, beginning on the blast walls of Kabul in 2014.
Kung Li Sun (any pronouns) writer, legal strategist, and oyster farmer working on the Gulf Coast.
Raquel Willis (she/her) a writer, organizer, and narrative strategist building interventions for gender liberation and the author of the memoir The Risk It Takes to Bloom.
Bz Zhang 张迪 (they/them) an interdisciplinary artist and architect-organizer tracing and unraveling the distance between us and our shared futures beyond imperialism and settler colonialism.
Read more and get the full press release at the link in our bio!
