Social Justice Artists: Apply for an Anne Feeney Hellraiser Grant
“Up-and-coming artists need more than just encouragement, they need material support,” said Evan Greer, one of Anne Feeney’s collaborators. “We launched the Anne Feeney Hellraiser Fund to continue the work that she did throughout her life,” she said.
UPDATE: We received 70 applications for the Anne Feeney Hellraiser Scholarship and were blown away by the creativity and talent. Narrowing it down to three winners was nearly impossible. The 2025 recipients are Crys Matthews, Taina Asili’s Fever Pitch Pilgrimage, and Creekbed Carter Hogan—artists continuing Anne Feeney’s legacy of promoting social justice and “raising hell” through their work.
Crys Matthews aims to “amplify the voices of the unheard, to shed light on the unseen, and to be a steadfast reminder that hope and love are the truest pathways to equity and justice.” Matthews will use the grant to produce vinyl copies of her 2025 release Reclamation. “This album is both sonically and ideologically the fullest representation of who I am as an artist and as a human,” says Matthews. crysmatthews.com
Taina Asili, a Puerto Rican singer, interdisciplinary artist, and activist, will use the scholarship to support the Fever Pitch Pilgrimage in September—a 150-mile walk from Albany to NYC, bringing climate justice performance to grassroots communities along the way. Inspired by Dr. John Francis and artists like Anne Feeney, the journey merges music, movement, and storytelling as tools for resistance, healing, and imagination. tainaasili.com/feverpitchpilgrimage
Carter Hogan writes, “Before my identities as a professional folk musician and writer, a trans nonbinary activist, a member of the working class, a former Catholic, or even as a gender refugee from the American South: I am a worker, and proud of it.” Hogan will use the scholarship to finish GODSEYE, an album weaving 14th-century peasant uprisings, 20th-century labor movements, and today’s fight against fascism into a unified vision of a future built together. creekbedcarter.com
Past grantees include Neffy (who went on to win NPR's Tiny Desk Contest) and labor-rapper Mickey O’Brien.
Anne Feeney, once called “the best labor singer in North America” by Utah Phillips, was known for lifting up the voices of working-class, queer and trans, and BIPOC artists. The fund honors her lifelong commitment to mentoring and supporting artists who “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” To make a donation to the Anne Feeney Hellraiser Fund, please visit: https://www.laborheritage.org/content.aspx?page_id=305&club_id=533040&it...
Friends and family of legendary folk musician and “hellraiser” Anne Feeney have come together to announce a new round of grants for artists “on the frontlines of the fight against fascism.”
The Anne Feeney Hellraiser Memorial Fund will provide three grants of up to $1,000 for emerging artists of any discipline who create art in support of social movements for justice. Past recipients include Neffy—who subsequently won NPR’s Tiny Desk contest—and labor-rapper Mickey O’Brien.
“I was a 19 year old punk kid with no following when Anne took me under her wing, took me on tour with her, and jump-started what has now become a lifelong career for me as both a musician and activist,” said Evan Greer. “She taught me everything I know not just about touring and making a living as a working musician, but about the true meaning of solidarity.”
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Greer said that Feeney recognized that “up-and-coming artists need more than just encouragement, they need material support.
“We launched the Anne Feeney Hellraiser Fund to continue the work that she did throughout her life,” she said.
Applications open today and are due by August 18, 2025. Winners will be announced on Labor Day, September 1, 2025. You can apply here.
The fund is fiscally sponsored by the Labor Heritage Foundation. You can support the fund by donating here.
