Denver artists and organizations honored at annual arts awards ceremony
DENVER — “Everything is art, and art is always healing,” said Briannah Hill, the co-executive director for Sacred Voices.
Hill’s organization was one of the many individuals and groups honored Wednesday, Dec. 7 at the Mayor’s Awards for Excellence in Arts & Culture in Denver. The ceremony has been a yearly tradition since 1986.
Five different awards were given out: the Arts & Culture Youth Award, Arts & Culture Impact Award, Arts & Culture Innovation Award, Arts & Culture EDI Award and the Arts & Culture Global Award.
Hill and Astin Lopez, the other co-executive director for Sacred Voices, received the Arts & Culture Youth Award. Sacred Voices is a BIPOC and LGBTQ+ welcoming nonprofit that encourages children and young adults to practice music, art and poetry.
[Related: Denver nonprofit empowers youth to find their voice and power through spoken word poetry]
Hill said that for too long, people of color in this country — especially young people — have been told their stories and voices do not matter.
“But when you start to use those art tools — all of things that you have — you start to change the narrative of the world,” Hill said, “you start to rewrite stories that include you in the picture, you start to rewrite stories that include your friends, include the struggles of what it means to be a young person and especially a young person of color in this world.”
The nonprofit also provides mental health resources to people between the ages of 12 through 28. Hill said Sacred Voices works with mental health facilities like Joy As Resistance to deliver those services.
[Related: Old ambulance finds new purpose as mobile mental health clinic for LGBTQ+ youth]
“We really want young people to know that they have someone backing them up. Whether that’s through poetry, whether that’s through art, [and] whether that’s through giving them resources,” said Hill.
Hill expressed that poetry is healing.: “Without art I would not be here,” Hill added.
The other award recipients were:
Arts & Culture Impact Award: James Knapp, the artistic director of Denver Gay Men’s Chorus.
Arts & Culture Innovation Award: Danielle SeeWalker, a multi-disciplinary artist and youth mentor and leader in the American Indian Community in Denver. SeeWalker recently contributed artwork to an episode of Colorado Voices, which you can watch below.
Arts & Culture Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award: The Word, A Storytelling Sanctuary. A Denver-based nonprofit organization that builds cultural equity through the literary arts.
Arts & Culture Global Award: Gamelan Tuna Mekar. Mekar is an all-volunteer organization that presents traditional and new music for Balinese gamelan locally, nationally, and internationally, educating audiences about the music, dance and traditions of Bali and Indonesia.
Lindsey Ford is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at lindseyford@rmpbs.org.