Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Thanks to Morgan Flannery and Pedro Rosado from PRX Productions for additional recording.

Sanctuary, the power of resonance and ritual is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation and with support from the Center for the Arts at George Mason University through the Mason Artists in Residence Program.

I'm Rhianna Giddens.

Thanks for listening.

Having grown up watching her idol compete, Ahanath now advances to the quarterfinals after an extraordinary year in which she became India's first world junior squash champion and won women's singles silver at the 2026 Asian Games.

In event news, the University of California Santa Barbara has received a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to establish an interdisciplinary center dedicated to South Asian American studies led by Indian origin professors Jigna Desai and Samir Bandia.

The initiative aims to deepen research and teaching on South Asian American histories, cultures, and experiences, marking a significant investment in scholarship and the representation of South Asian communities in American academia.

That's it for today's Word on the Avenue.

We right now are working on a project a little outside of what we typically do.

We were able to get a grant from the Mellon Foundation through something they have called the Monuments Project.

And right now we're doing a deep dive into the monuments we have, the older artworks and statues that are in Civic Center Park, which as everyone knows probably is under construction right now.

So along with the construction, we're doing a deep dive into some of those pieces and I don't think it's any secret that some of those pieces have problematic histories.

Chris Haddix is a West Virginia University professor of sustainable design, but he's also spent years uncovering more information of those overlooked musicians.

He spoke to me about his work to shine a light on the musical talents of local miners, now with the help of a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

What inspired you to pursue the history of folk music in Southern West Virginia?

Well, I grew up in southern West Virginia.

Thanks to Morgan Flannery and Pedro Rosado from PRX Productions for additional recording.

Sanctuary, the power of resonance and ritual, is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation and with support from the Center for the Arts at George Mason University through the Mason Artists in Residence Program.

I'm

Rhianna Giddens.

Yeah.

And then we were able to get some funding from the Ford Foundation and from the Mellon Foundation and from the Tara Foundation.

That's great.

That's enabled us to do a lot of the more kind of expansive and intentional work that we've done this edition.

I did work for a brief period of time in Haiti, which was another very powerful experience.

There's a hospital there up in De Chapelle named after a doctor, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, and the Mellons had funded it.

And so I...

Did a little bit of volunteering there and then came back to the States and said, I've got to be in a city with international folks.