CREATE Council on the Arts and Free Columbia Mon., Dec. 7, announced the recipients of the newly established Free to Create Grant for Black Artists Living in the Hudson Valley. The awardees are Claire Cousin, Michael Krajeski, Kulton McCall and Ehm West. According to a press release, "CREATE [formerly the Greene County Council on the Arts] and Free Columbia are...ecstatic to support the brilliant work of the first awardees of this grant." Four of nine proposals submitted were selected for the first round of awards. Claire Cousin is a 27-year-old Hudson native. She is a singer and songwriter, painter, and amateur photographer. Cousin will document her experiences as a biracial woman involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, the fight for affordable housing and the fight for black liberation. Michael Krajeski is 24 years old, and a resident of Durham. He works in drawing, photography, videography, graphic design and music. Krajeski will create a video documenting his experience growing up in Greene County. Kulton McCall, known as Kulton The Maker, is 26 years old. McCall will create a new EP that shares his black narrative to dissolve stereotypes of black men and violence, and criticize a system that seeks to punish people of color with higher conviction rates and life sentences. Ehm West is a sound and moving image artist and researcher in New York. West is the co-curator of Ellipsis, a roaming screening series that premiered in May 2019 at Spectacle Theater, Center for Performance Research, and Light Industry in Brooklyn. Ehm will create a documentary essay film that investigates a human obsession with efficiency and narrative. A second cycle for this grant opportunity will be announced in in the spring. Read more at greenhearts [dot] com.