Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation

Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation The Café Royal Cultural Foundation, is delighted to announce our expansion to New York City and are n

Celebrating our 2026 Winter Music Production Grantee: Patrick CorneliusAfter 25 years as a pillar of the NYC jazz commun...
03/31/2026

Celebrating our 2026 Winter Music Production Grantee: Patrick Cornelius

After 25 years as a pillar of the NYC jazz community, alto saxophonist and composer Patrick Cornelius is bringing his most ambitious project yet to life. We are proud to award a grant for the release of We Dare, a collection of large ensemble works that serves as both a career retrospective and a tribute to the "musical comrades in arms" who make up the city’s vibrant big band scene.

This album is a true labor of love—a documentation of the mental and physical energy required to make large-scale creative music flourish in New York. We can’t wait for you to hear it.

Learn More: https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/patrick-cornelius

Announcing our 2026 Winter Visual Grantee: María Rodríguez JiménezWe are proud to support María’s upcoming installation,...
03/30/2026

Announcing our 2026 Winter Visual Grantee: María Rodríguez Jiménez

We are proud to support María’s upcoming installation, Crossroads. This immersive, double-sided quilted painting spans 18 feet and is crafted from found and donated textiles—fabrics that carry the "energies" of the local community through old garments and lived-in sheets.

By bisecting the gallery space at Pure Moon Studios, Crossroads invites viewers to move through a landscape of collective memory. While one side features intricate stitched patterns, the reverse reveals the "scars" of the construction, layered with oil and acrylic gestures that speak to age, touch, and the passage of time.
Congratulations, María! We can't wait to see this vision come to life.

Learn more: https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/maria-rodriguez-jimenez

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation is proud to support the latest project from Bessie Award-winning choreographer and pr...
03/28/2026

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation is proud to support the latest project from Bessie Award-winning choreographer and producer Benjamin Akio Kimitch.

His upcoming ensemble work—set for a New York City world premiere in Fall 2026—is a profound exploration of Japanese American identity. By examining the period between the 1945 Hiroshima bombing and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kimitch juxtaposes the postwar pressures of U.S. conformity with the expressive freedoms of art movements in occupied Japan.

Learn more: https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/benjamin-akio-kimitch

Announcing our 2026 Winter Literature Grantee: Sidik FofanaThe Café Royal Cultural Foundation is proud to award a 2026 W...
03/26/2026

Announcing our 2026 Winter Literature Grantee: Sidik Fofana

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation is proud to award a 2026 Winter Literature Grant to Sidik Fofana for his upcoming story collection, tentatively titled Brief Moments in Black History.

A public school teacher and acclaimed author (Stories from the Tenants Downstairs), Sidik brings a unique, pedagogical lens to this new project. Each story is designed to be read within a single class period, offering visceral, concise windows into the Black experience—ranging from a reimagining of To Kill a Mockingbird’s Tom Robinson to innovative renderings of modern police aggression.

Congratulations Sidik!

Learn more: https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/sidik-fofana

We are incredibly proud to unveil these visionary artists and creators who are shaping the cultural landscape of New Yor...
03/24/2026

We are incredibly proud to unveil these visionary artists and creators who are shaping the cultural landscape of New York City and beyond. From monumental installations to transformative literature and performance, these 2026 Winter Grantees represent the very best of contemporary craft:

• Literature: Sidik Fofana
• Performance: Benjamin Akio Kimitch
• Visual: María Rodríguez Jiménez
• Music Production: Patrick Cornelius

Learn more about them at https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/grantees

What happens to the "self" when everything we know is gone? Jerry Lieblich’s without mirrors is a profound exploration o...
02/07/2026

What happens to the "self" when everything we know is gone? Jerry Lieblich’s without mirrors is a profound exploration of that very question.

Featuring a virtuosic performance by the legendary David Greenspan, this experimental solo play (supported by our Spring 2025 Performance Grant) uses disjunctive language and stillness to create a powerful, immersive atmosphere. It’s a must-watch for anyone who loves theater that makes you think—and feel—deeply.

📅 When: February 12 - 28📍 Where: The Brick, Williamsburg 🎟️ Secure Your Seat: https://www.bricktheater.com/event/without-mirrors/2026-02-12/

Experience the magic of Jerry’s writing and David’s performance. See you there!

Next weekend, don't miss the final chapter of Stacy Grossfield’s incredible six-year journey. As a Café Royal Cultural F...
02/07/2026

Next weekend, don't miss the final chapter of Stacy Grossfield’s incredible six-year journey. As a Café Royal Cultural Foundation 2026 Performance Grantee, Stacy is bringing metamorphosis III - episode 4 to the Collapsable Hole, and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen.

Expect a collision of movement, live music from an alt-rock band, and state-of-the-art special effects. It’s a surreal, experimental experience that explores the very nature of evolution.

📅 When: February 12th, 13th, & 14th 📍 Where: Collapsable Hole 🎟️ Get Your Tickets Here: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/stacy-grossfield/metamorphosis-iii-ep4

We can't wait to see you in the audience!

We are thrilled to announce Catherine Bai as a recipient of our 2025 Fall Literature Grant! Catherine receives this gran...
12/23/2025

We are thrilled to announce Catherine Bai as a recipient of our 2025 Fall Literature Grant!

Catherine receives this grant for her new project, Five Diptychs, a translingual and experimental short story collection.
This work redefines connection—linking stories not through plot, but through "gestures of language." Passages reappear verbatim in different contexts to explore the "Chinese American condition" and the inherent helplessness of living between two separate worlds that cannot be fully unified. It is a work about the instability of selfhood and the ache for return.

Catherine’s fiction has appeared in Best Debut Short Stories 2022, is forthcoming in AGNI, and was longlisted for the 2025 Disquiet Prize. She is also a recipient of fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation.
We are honored to support this unique voice in fiction.

https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/catherine-bai

What does it mean to be self-sufficient? Our newest Visual Grantee, Kian McKeown, explores this question through a fasci...
12/22/2025

What does it mean to be self-sufficient?

Our newest Visual Grantee, Kian McKeown, explores this question through a fascinating blend of drawing and sculpture. We are proud to support his work for the upcoming "Body Bureau Bunker" exhibition at 205 Hudson Gallery.

Kian’s new pieces feature common hardware—brackets, hooks, and screws—positioned alongside or within the body. He posits that just as we need shoes to walk down the street or bicycles to move faster, we all rely on external support. His art serves as a metaphor for connection, debunking the myth that anyone moves through the world without aid.

A 2024 Skowhegan participant and current Hunter College MFA candidate, Kian creates work that is technically skilled and conceptually daring.

https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/kian-mckeown

Did you know our newest Music Production Grantee is both a master harmonica player and a Chair of Painting at The New Yo...
12/21/2025

Did you know our newest Music Production Grantee is both a master harmonica player and a Chair of Painting at The New York Academy of Art?

Please join us in congratulating Wade Schuman, founder of the genre-bending band Hazmat Modine, on receiving a 2025 Fall Music Production Grant!

Wade is receiving this award for "Good Friend," a recording project dedicated to the late Joseph Daley, a founding member of Hazmat Modine who sadly passed away this August. Wade has toured over 40 countries and collaborated with artists like Natalie Merchant and the Kronos Quartet. We can't wait to hear this new work.|

https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/wade-schuman

We are thrilled to announce Stacy Grossfield as a recipient of our 2025 Fall Performance Grant!Stacy receives this grant...
12/20/2025

We are thrilled to announce Stacy Grossfield as a recipient of our 2025 Fall Performance Grant!

Stacy receives this grant for "metamorphosis III episode 4," the ambitious capstone to her six-year performance trilogy.

Known for her surreal storytelling, Stacy is taking this final chapter into new terrain. The production will be a collage of dance, text, and sound, featuring live video, state-of-the-art special effects, and an on-stage alt-rock band. The work boldly explores the relationship between white feminism and nationalism.

A 2019 Bessie Award nominee and a fixture in the NYC dance scene since 2003, Stacy is presenting this fully independent production at Collapsable Hole on February 12th and 13th at 8pm.

Congratulations, Stacy!

https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/stacy-grossfield

Celebrating Excellence in NYC Arts: Announcing our 2025 Fall GranteesFrom surreal performance and sculptural installatio...
12/18/2025

Celebrating Excellence in NYC Arts: Announcing our 2025 Fall Grantees

From surreal performance and sculptural installations to genre-bending musical tributes and experimental fiction, the New York art scene is alive with innovation. The Café Royal Cultural Foundation is proud to award our 2025 Fall Grants to four artists whose work pushes boundaries and tells necessary stories.

We are honored to support:

Stacy Grossfield (Performance): A Bessie Award nominee, for "metamorphosis III episode 4," a multimedia dance collage that serves as the capstone to her six-year performance trilogy.

Kian McKeown (Visual Arts): A Hunter College MFA candidate, for his thesis exhibition "Body Bureau Bunker," which examines the intersection of the body and technology.

Wade Schuman (Music Production): A master of the diatonic harmonica and founder of Hazmat Modine, for his upcoming memorial recording, "Good Friend."

Catherine Bai (Literature): A fiction writer and fellow of the Vermont Studio Center, for her translingual story collection, Five Diptychs.
Congratulations to Stacy, Kian, Wade, and Catherine. We look forward to seeing these projects come to fruition.

Learn more: https://caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/2025-fall-grantees

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