Alyssha Edwards (2017 Winner)

Alyssha Edwards is the 2017 recipient of the HOPE + FACT Graduate Production Residency Award 2017. During the residency and using her personal experience of dyslexia, Edwards interviewed a group of people to ask the question: "does dyslexia define your identity?" The varied responses she received (ranging from ignorance of or indifference to the condition, to the very positive or negative effects it has on people) prompted her to create a way for the public to experience dyslexia in a way that doesn’t involve standardised information such as letters or words.

The resulting work comprises sounds - including clips from her original interviews - triggered by the placement of puzzle pieces on a board, inspired by dyslexic screening tests. Edwards’ intention is to offer some idea of what it's like to learn new tasks from the viewpoint of someone with dyslexia, offering a visual puzzle that can result in several different ‘correct’ outcomes and interpretations.

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Amber Akauna and Fauziya Johnson (2018 Winner)

In 2018, Amber Akaunu and Fauziya Johnson received the HOPE + FACT Graduate Production Residency Award. Together, Akauna and Johnson founded ROOT-ed Zine, a North-West based platform for creative people of colour.

During their residency, Akaunu and Johson developed and published the fourth issue of the zine, dedicated to hair, inspired by the founders' experience of negativity in regards to their natural textured/curly hair. To provide content for the zine, ROOT-ed delivered four consecutive workshops which allowed those who attended to explore the topic of hair. The sessions helped participants to understand the socio-political pressure that wearing your natural hair as a Person of Colour can have.

The residency culminated in an event, celebrating both Black History Month and the launch of the new issue of the zine.

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Ivy Kalungi (2019 Winner)

In 2019, Ivy Kalungi received the HOPE + FACT Graduate Production Residency Award. Using her personal experience of belonging to an African diaspora, Kalungi led two workshops during her residency that discussed memory. The varied responses she received (circling around the idea of storytelling and how to sustain collective memory) prompted her to ask the following questions about respectful archiving, “how do we make meaning from the past?” and “how can we sustain it?”

Kalungi's residency culminated in New Trail, Old Stories, an exhibition presented in collaboration with OUTPUT Gallery, that investigates collective history and memory in Kalerwe, a village just outside of Uganda's capital city, Kampala. The videos exhibited reflect personal, environment and shared experiences within the community from the late 1950’s onwards.

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