SOZO IMPACT
An arts-based 501(c)3 social impact organization dedicated to supporting cultural change makers & innovators
ABOUT US
Sozo Impact partners with high caliber artists, creative producers and institutions, to connect people, bridge communities and promote empathy, understanding and action.
Founded in 2018 by Rika Iino, SOZO Impact is an incubation space for multidisciplinary artists and creative producers to create new work and scale their impact across communities in the Bay area and the US. SOZO offers creative producing, strategic business support, grant writing, and fiscal sponsorship services, while meeting the needs of audiences and communities who seek their cultures to be visible. SOZO Impact was conceived out of the belief that emerging and mid-career BIPOC artists and creative producers are in consistent need of infrastructural, financial and strategic support and mentorship to realize their fullest potential; and that the arts field must innovate and adopt more equitable systems.
“At Sozo Impact, we believe in amplifying the voices of underserved communities and effecting a positive shift through the arts.”
PROJECTS
THE JUST AND THE BLIND
A short film series and a stage performance, tracing the diasporic journey through poetry, music, movement and visuals, by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Daniel Bernard Roumain.
A WALL IS JUST A WALL
A Wall is Just a Wall (WJW) is a multimedia storytelling initiative focused on healing through creative expressions. Drawing upon the performance work and film series of The Just and the Blind serving as its thematic core, WJW was designed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph in collaboration with SOZO Impact for youth and young adults of color and their families
EARTH.SPEAKS
EARTH.SPEAKS is a land-based public art project aimed at healing through community creation of earth markers, a sustainable practice of structure building. Centering Indigenous identity and led by Osage interdisciplinary artist Brooke Smiley, the project’s urgency is rooted in the deep need for sustained body and land based healing processes.
ALPHABET ROCKERS
A GRAMMY-winning intergenerational hip hop group making anti-racism music and curriculum for families, embracing Black liberation, Queer liberation, Indigenous rights, immigrant rights, and intersectionality.
THEY STILL WANT TO KILL US
A pocket opera and a short film by Haitian-American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, commemorating the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
#45LIES
A Rapid Response Movement: 45 artists challenge the lies of the 45th “President” each in 45 seconds.
RIDE OUT TO VOTE
The short film follows a relay of diverse equestrians of color carrying ballots through ranches, grasslands, and mountains where a saddlebag full of ballots is dropped off at the courthouse in Oakland.
#IMPERFECT
A double entendre of “I’m perfect” and “imperfect,” #IMPERFECT is a multidisciplinary project that draws parallels between childhood bullying and the history of ancestral traumas carried down through our lineages.
LOVE HEALS ALL WOUNDS
Love Heals All Wounds is an evening-length dance performance interwoven with spoken word, original music and projections to chart a movement towards reflection, growth and healing through sharing the dreams and visions of a world we create together.
SUPPORTERS
SOZO Impact, Inc. is a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)3 of the IRS code. Your tax deductible donations provide vital support for our live and digital works, and curricula. Donations made to SOZO Impact are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
FUNDERS
National Endowment for the Arts
California Arts Council
Pop Culture Collaborative
Ford Foundation
MAP Fund
New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project
The Quiet Fund
Alameda Arts Fund
Anonymous Donors
Individual Donors
TEAM
Rika Iino, President, Founding Producer
Kaoru Shimizu, Board Member
April Thibeault, Board Member
Dana Greenfield, Producer
Sarah Benvenuti, Development Lead
Candace Tabbs, Development/Grants Consultant
M’Balou Camara, Grant Writer
Hugo Barreca, Advisor
