Lit Youngstown receives more than $50,000 for programming, operating costs

Lit Youngstown recently was awarded more than 50,000 in grants for programming and operating costs.

Here’s a look at the funding the literary arts nonprofit received:

• The Ohio Arts Council has awarded $15,000 from the Arts Resiliency Initiative to fund three writers-in-residence: poets Quartez Harris of Cleveland and Manuel Iris of Cincinnati and playwright Mike Geither of Cleveland. This initiative is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
• An $11,113 Ohio SHARP grant for operating support was awarded by Ohio Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
• The Youngstown Foundation awarded $9,100 to partially fund the 2022 Fall Literary Festival, scheduled for October, as well as the First Wednesday Readers Series, outreach, writing workshops, grant writing and operational expenses. The Williamson Family Fund of The Youngstown Foundation also awarded an additional unrestricted grant of 2,425.
• A $6,600 Fund Making Grant, a component fund of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, was awarded to help fund the Winter Writing Camp, scheduled for Feb. 26, as well as outreach and grant writing.
• The Nathalie and James Andrew Foundation awarded $6,000 in unrestricted funds.
• The Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown collected $255 in contributions in support of the Fall Literary Festival.

“We are so honored and grateful to have this support and encouragement,” Karen Schubert, Lit Youngstown director, said in a news release. “We thank these foundations and donors for the ways they are lifting up our community.”