The Face of Philanthropy

Dance as a Tool for Social Change Is Honored

November 2, 2021

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, a choreographer and founder of dance company Urban Bush Women, was named a 2021 MacArthur fellow. Urban Bush Women also received a $10 million gift from MacKenzie Scott this summer. — Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, a choreographer and founder of dance company Urban Bush Women, was named a 2021 MacArthur fellow. Urban Bush Women also received a $3 million gift from MacKenzie Scott this summer.

The performers in Urban Bush Women use dance, spoken word, and sound to bring under-told stories of the African diaspora to light from a woman-centered perspective. Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar started the ensemble in 1984, in part, because she wanted a group that makes art together and with the community.

The organization has since added a leadership program that trains dancers in how to use art for activism and civic engagement, as well as an effort to promote the work of Black women choreographers and women choreographers of color.

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The performers in Urban Bush Women use dance, spoken word, and sound to bring under-told stories of the African diaspora to light from a woman-centered perspective. Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar started the ensemble in 1984, in part because she wanted a group that makes art together and with the community.

Zollar’s innovative work has won her a 2021 MacArthur fellowship. Often referred to as “genius grants,” the fellowships each come with a stipend of $625,000 paid out over five years.

“I was pretty speechless,” Zollar, who is 70, says with mirth in her voice. “I thought I had aged out.”

It’s been a year of high-profile recognition. A few months ago, philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett made a $3 million gift to Urban Bush Women.

Last summer, after months of no performances and no ticket sales, the organization was in a very different place. “We were in complete despair,” Zollar says. “We were going to have to lay off quite a bit of our work force. We didn’t see how we were going to hang in and hang on.”

Support from grant makers got the ensemble through, and now the group can shore up operations. “Like many nonprofits, you have one person doing six jobs — and at some point, they burn out because it’s too much,” she says. “We’ve been able to invest in systems and invest in people.”

Zollar is still creating, and Urban Bush Women hasn’t stood still, either.

“I’m proud that we have not only stayed in existence but we’ve continued to examine ourselves, reinvent ourselves,” she says. “We’re not on autopilot. We’re constantly examining: What does it mean to do this work?”