Congratulations to our 2026 Grantees for Cycle II!

July 16, 2026

HUMANITIES/HIGHLIGHT

Congratulations 2026 Cycle II Grant Recipients!

Announcing our 2026 Cycle II Grantees!

DC Oral History Collaborative - Continuing Oral History Project Grantees

Christ House - Healing & Hope: The Christ House Oral History Project
DC Fire & EMS Foundation - 25 Years Since the 9/11 Attack on the Pentagon: DC Firefighter Stories
DC Music Summit - You Gotta Leave DC to Get Love: Why the DC Music Scene Needs Sustainable Infrastructure
Yuki Kato - Local Food Provisioning in DC’s Black Communities

DC Oral History Collaborative - Beyond the Archives Grantees

Carletta Hurt - Oxon Run - Chasing Environmental Freedom
Dance Institute of Washington - Forty Years of the Dance Institute of Washington: A Living Oral History from Founder to Future
Maxime Jarquin - Buzzer Beaters: The Story of “It’s Academic"
Young Playwrights’ Theater - U Street & Black Broadway: Interpreting Oral Histories from DC’s Black Renaissance

General Operating Support Grantees

Fun facts about our 2026 grantmaking:

This year, we distributed $916,000 to 59 total grantees. Nearly 100 volunteers donated thousands of hours to review a record-breaking 336 applications this year. We are proud to share that both our grant reviewers and grantees span across all 8 wards, demonstrating our commitment to supporting humanists around the city. Thank you to our grant reviewers, and congratulations to our 2026 grantees!

Click here to view our full list of 2026 grantees. Learn more about our grantmaking at humanitiesdc.org/about-our-grantmaking/.

HUMANITIES/HAPPENINGS

Left: Audience members dance to a welcome song. Right: Verbal Gymnastics cast members interpret an audience member's story.
Photos by Cindy Centeno.

Thank you to the more than 60 guests who joined us at the Anacostia Community Museum for Step Into the Story: hometown DC On Stage!

Last Saturday, John Johnson and the talented cast of the Verbal Gymnastics Theater Company used their unique Playback Theater method to bring to life stories shared by hometown DC oral history narrators Ernestine Byrd Hamilton, Edward Underwood, and Babatunde Oloyede. We are deeply grateful to our narrators for sharing their lived experiences, to Verbal Gymnastics for their incredible performance, and to our amazing audience members who jumped in to share their own DC memories. If you missed the show or want to revisit these powerful stories, you can listen to the featured oral history clips from our narrators here.

Be sure to visit a hometown DC neighborhood exhibit—currently on view through September 12—at eight DC Public Library locations across the city. The complete collection will then come together for a final display at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library from September 15 to October 5. Learn more and find a location near you at hometown.dchistory.org.

Left: Ernestine Byrd Hamilton reacts to her oral history clip. Right: Verbal Gymnastics musicians enhance each performance with live music.
Photos by Cindy Centeno.