Actor and Playwright Youlim Nam Receives City Artist Corps Grant

Actor and Playwright Youlim Nam is one of 3,000 New York City-based artists to receive $5,000 through the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre.

Youlim Nam was recognized for her new play 'a connected place,' which will be born onto the stage as a staged reading at Gene Frankel Theatre, the historical off-off-Broadway theatre in Noho, Manhattan, on the 24th of Oct at 2 pm.

On the surface, Nam's piece reflects a young writer Jane (played by Youlim Nam) constantly being challenged by her partner Bill (played by Delil Baran) concerning her "unconventional" and "precarious" lifestyle as an artist in the contemporary world. However, as Jane starts confronting her deep consciousness, she regains true freedom.

Director Sophia Treanor, a founding director of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project and Six Viewpoints Institute, sources practices from the Six Viewpoints, a postmodern philosophy that establishes a non-hierarchical value on all the materials of performance (space, shape, time, emotion, movement, and story) during the rehearsal process. Her work centers around the ways artists integrate and envision imaginative circumstances with the truth of our shared reality.

Delil Baran (Bill), a Kurd born and raised in Germany, and Youlim Nam (Jane) hailing from Seoul, Korea are joined by California-bred Sophia Treanor to share the story. Finding that their cultural diversity helps them explore the multiplicious and prismatic truths of their generation, they are poised to offer a sensationally honest theatrical event.

Over the course of three award cycles, more than 3,000 artists will receive $5,000 grants to engage the public with artist activities across New York City's five boroughs this summer and fall. Artists can use the grant to create new work or phase of a work or restage preexisting creative activities across any discipline.

Members of the public can participate in City Artist Corps Grants programming by following the hashtag #CityArtistCorps on social media.

City Artist Corps Grants was launched in June 2021 by NYFA and DCLA with support from the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre. The program is funded by the $25 million New York City Artist Corps recovery initiative announced by Mayor de Blasio and DCLA earlier this year. The grants are intended to support NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. It is strongly recommended that a portion of the grant be used to support artist fees, both for the applying artist and any other artist that is engaged to support the project.

Starring Delil Baran and Youlim Nam with direction by Sophia Treanor. Showing Oct 24, 2021, at 2 pm at Gene Frankel Theatre in downtown Manhattan. Puls online streaming Oct 27th, 2021 at 2 pm EST on Zoom. Both are followed by Q&A with the cast and director.

All shows are FREE, RSVP required for the in-person show on Oct 24th https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-connected-place-tickets-172830419437 and Online streaming on Oct 27th https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-connected-place-by-youlim-nam-tickets-172847871637