Congratulations to Three Fellowship Winners!

We have selected Dedoceo Habi, Ava Tiye Kinsey, and Carla Wilson, three deserving winners of the $2500 Fellowship for African American Perspectives, who will start their Basic Training on Saturday, March 4th.  Each will develop their project from idea through three drafts over the 10-week process.

—Graduating with degrees in Film and Entertainment Business, Dedoceo Habi hails from Savannah, Georgia, now makes his home in the Los Angeles area, has served honorably in the U.S. Marine Corp and Air Force, and has committed his life to using media to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue with the ultimate goal of influencing the lives of all his work touches to make a better world.

—Ava Tiye Kinsey, a daughter of Dallas, Texas who currently resides in Dunellen, New Jersey, graduated from the illustrious Howard University and seeks to use her background in theater, writing, and Africana Studies to center narratives about the presence of African traditions in African American culture — how they’ve remained and how they’ve shifted — on the large and small screen.

—Southern California native and American Film Institute alum, Carla Wilson is an award-winning filmmaker recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities for her work on social justice issues; she continues to pursue her goals of being a feature writer and director.

As always, the winners were evaluated on a combination of factors, including artistic background, the unique quality and perspective of their answers within their application responses and commentary, and the clarity of conceptual distinctions.  Once the larger field was narrowed down based on the caliber of applications, the winners were selected from the smaller group of highly ranked writers based on the viability and entertainment potential of the project ideas.  In effect, in each Fellowship category the overall quality of application answers will illustrate the writer’s potential to execute the writing quality of their project.

We’re very happy to support the creative goals of these three winners as they become active alumni in our Writers Boot Camp community!