Two Ph.D. students have been selected for Imagining America’s Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) Fellowship, a program that provides graduate students in the field of humanities, arts, and design with collaborative professional opportunities.

Stephany Bravo, a dual-degree Ph.D. student in English and Chicano/Latino Studies, and Will Langford, a Ph.D. student in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education (CITE), will join PAGE’s network of arts and humanities scholars for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Through the fellowship, Bravo and Langford will receive a year’s worth of mentorship, professional development training, and community support, as well as a travel stipend to attend a Fellows Summit during the national conference.

As two publicly engaged artists, the fellowship will give Bravo and Langford access to a national network of scholars in the arts and humanities and allow them to expand on their work in an informed and meaningful way.

Stephany Bravo

Bravo, a third-year Ph.D. student, focuses her research on how Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) in Southern California account for their lived realities through poetry, murals, photographs, and archives.

“The stories that I share come embedded with the histories, theories, and epistemologies needed to transform the world as we continue to tackle issues of race, class, sex, and gender rooted in colonialism,” Bravo said. “Stories are powerful and when they are shared can serve as the coalitional praxis needed for people to meet in all their difference and find ways to create acts of solidarity.”

As a first-generation college student and woman of color, Bravo aims to reimagine fields, disciplines, and institutions to benefit those who have been historically excluded through storytelling. She is a member of Electric Marronage, a multi-disciplinary collaborative group of Black, brown, and queer artists, and GLAM-WOCollective, two organizations that amplify her work.

As a PAGE Fellow, Bravo will continue her work of documenting and disseminating important and inclusive stories, such as her most recent project, a podcast miniseries in which she interviews BIPOC graduate students to recollect their pandemic experiences.

Will Langford

Langford is a Detroit native poet and teaching artist whose work centers around connecting with communities and creating meaningful impact. Langford put his community engagement skills into action as a Fulbright scholar in Africa, where he connected students in Kenya’s Western Province to students in Detroit, Michigan through an international post and art exchange. Langford plans to share the lessons he learned abroad with fellow educators and community leaders in the PAGE network.

“As a community-engaged teaching artist, connecting with communities and creating meaningful impact is at the core of my work,” Langford said. “My acceptance into the 2021-2022 PAGE Program offers a chance to enhance not only the impact and scale of my educational projects—it also offers a network of peer/scholar support, as I continue my lifelong education.”

Currently, Langford is launching a series of free art-based community workshops alongside the debut of his gallery show, “Eat Up Detroit!” at Granny’s Chandelier Art Gallery. Workshops will allow participants to engage with fabric, poetry, and other visual art activities.

“Each PAGE Fellow has a story to tell, and practice-based wisdom to share,” Langford said. “I am confident that the cross-pollination of our work will bear beautiful fruit—in our local communities, and across the globe!”