Ezra Berkley Nepon, photo by Karen Kirchoff

According to the Leeway Foundation, which just awarded Ezra Berkley Nepon a 2014 Leeway Foundation Transformation Award,  “Ezra’s work an artist and activist comes from their hunger for stories and spaces that allow marginalized people to know they are not alone.” Leeway’s Transformation Award recognizes women and trans* artists and cultural producers whose work has impacted a larger group, audience, or community.

Ezra, a graduate of Goddard’s IMA (2013) and IBA (2006), established new ground as a people’s historian using Transformative Language Arts approaches to tell the stories of arts-based activism in their thesis, Unleashing Power in Yiddishland and Faerieland: Spectacular Theatrical Strategies for Resistance and Resilience. Ezra also has an article, “Zamlers, Tricksters, and Queers: Re-Mixing Histories in Yiddishland and Faerieland,” published in the new anthology, Transformative Language Arts in Action, and Ezra is the author of Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of the New Jewish Agenda. See more about Ezra at their website, and see the Leeway Foundation Announcement.