Latest News from our Graduates
Andrea Ambam
Andrea Ambam's play, TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMAN, is a recipient of the 2025 Perelman Performing Arts Center Democracy Cycle commission, in partnership with Civis Foundation. In January 2026, Level Forward, The Billie Holiday Theatre, and Hi-ARTS produced two sold-out staged readings of TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN presented at BAM Fisher. The Friday night reading concluded with a post-show dialogue between playwright, Andrea Ambam and Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw.
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Jessica Angima
Jessica Angima has two recent publications: From Creek to Fountain (Published as a part of her role in the New City Critics fellowship with The Architectural League of New York and Urban Design Forum) Equipment for Living: On the liberatory potential of Black movement and music and an embodied understanding of awakening
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Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is co-organizing To Collect & Collate: The Keepers of Black Photography with Dr. Emilie Boone (Art History, NYU), taking place March 10–12, 2026 in Accra, Ghana with NYU Accra.
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Alexander Cavaluzzo
Alexander Cavaluzzo is currently an MFA candidate in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia University, following a fellowship at the Writer’s Institute at the CUNY Graduate Center.
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Sienna Fekete
Sienna Fekete is the newly appointed Co-Director of Programs at The Center for Art and Advocacy. The Center for Art and Advocacy was established in 2022 to serve as a direct path to sustainability and equity for artists directly impacted by the criminal legal system.
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Kaylie Pykkonen
Kaylie Pykkonen is currently working on Touchstones, a curatorial project in partnership with WhiteBox, named for idiosyncratic pathways and peculiar landmarks that create intimacy in this vast city. The project explores place as a relational concept, always in flux and deeply personal.
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Judy Tate
Judy Tate has been a staff writer for "Beyond the Gates" on CBS/Paramount+ and co-produced by the NAACP. The groundbreaking daytime drama centers around a family of Black professionals and their wider circle. This winter Judy's play "The Language of Sight" was produced at Lafayette College. It is the story of David McDonogh who was the first Black Ophthalmologist in the U.S, who became so while he was still enslaved. The play is expected to move into a NYC theatre in 2026.
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Ngoc-Tran Vu
Ngoc-Tran Vu is currently the 2026 Benedetti Artist in Residence at Western Massachusetts.
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Asmaa Walton
Asmaa Walton’s nonprofit organization, Black Art Library, will be opening their permanent space on the east side of Detroit after nearly 6 years as operating as a pop up exhibition. They also recently launched their website where people can browse their collection and stay up to date on everything they have going on!
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Jasmine Narkita Wiley
Jasmine Narkita Wiley is one of the recipients for 2026 Barclay Simpson Masters of Fine Arts Award. Barclay Simpson (1921-2014) was a trustee and generous supporter of CCA for over 28 years. The Barclay Simpson Awards began in 1987 with a generous donation from Barclay and his wife, Sharon. Since its inception, the Barclay Simpson Award has been granted to over 116 students in CCA’s Graduate Program in Fine Arts, helping them finish their degree work and launch their careers. Each year, the award is juried by outside experts who assess the work of second-year MFA students and select four winners. The exhibition of the student award winners and its opening reception are among the hallmark events of the spring semester.
Read More.If you are an Arts Politics alum who would like to share an update, please email tisch.arpo@nyu.edu or fill out the profile link here.