The Sony Alpha Female+ Grant Team is excited to announce that the final of 12 grants for 2020/2021 has been awarded to Lisa Janae. Janae is a Black, queer multimedia artist, activist and actor from Los Angeles, CA currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. She won the Alpha Female+ Grant for a docu-series project where she will document the experiences of an Afro-Queer performance artist living in Brooklyn.
Multimedia artist Lisa Janae wins Alpha Female+ grant for docu-series project on the life of an Afro-Queer performance artist in Brooklyn.
Janae’s docu-series project will follow the lived experience of WILLIE the GENIUS (@williethegenius), an Afro-Queer performance artist from Houston Texas currently residing in Brooklyn, NY during filming of his episodic variety show entitled “WILLIE Gets Naked.” This docu-series will chronicle the unfamiliar, often uncomfortable territory of his liberation and self-realization in a manner that is raw and unfiltered. With this footage, Janae plans on creating the pilot episode of a new conceptual series called Common Characters.
“The goal of the series is to showcase the lives of talents, creatives and changemakers of color pushing their dreams forward and reminding us that we’re all connected,” explains Janae. “Common Characters is human driven and will provide intimate portraits of four individuals during their most sacred moments and their most joyous, beginning with WILLIE.”
Janae says she is drawn to create art centered in the Black, LGBT+ cultural experience, and her work uses photography and film as a medium for connecting individuals. Believing that people can go beyond the confines of one discipline, she has dedicated herself to existing and performing without limitations, all of which is reflected in her photography and film work.
"I love photography and film as mediums of self expression," says Janae. "It’s absolutely freeing to be able to explore yourself and others so intimately. I love the human connection aspect. The storytelling is just a side effect. I’ve learned the most about myself and others doing this method of art than anything else in my life."
See all of the Alpha Female+ Grant past winners HERE. You can also contribute to the Alpha Female+ Community by joining the Alpha Female Facebook group, following @sonyalpha and @sonyalphafemale on Instagram and tagging your posts with #sonyalphafemale for a chance to have your work featured.
