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| Long John |
Congratulations are in order to Zimbabwean Comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, popularly known as Long John who was recently announced as one of the four grant recipients of Steel City Arts Foundation, a live/work/play environment for comedians in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Many comedians applied to the initial call which boiled down to 15 semi-finalists, 6 finalists and then 4 winners. Long John is the only African/Black and non American recipient.
Other winners include Cavin Eggleston from Washington, Caroline Hawthorne from Los Angeles, California and Joe Harman From Kansas City, Missouri
The grant will cover rent, housing comedians for 6 months at a time, on a rotating basis and provide access to editing bays, a gym, podcast studio, mentorship, and more. There is also a digital showroom with broadcasting capabilities that can be used for open-mics and Zoom shows.
"Thank you so much Steel City Arts Foundation for this opportunity. It was one of my dreams to take my comedy to America. This really means a lot to me, I really appreciate it." said Long John in a statement
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| Steel City AF Buildings, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Funded by donations, Steel City Arts Foundation was created by Steve, in honor of his father Martin Hofstetter who passed on in 2014
"The goal was to help up-and-coming comedians come up a bit quicker. We provided grants to comedians to help with rent, car payments, and other bills so they could quit their day jobs and concentrate on their art full time. When COVID destroyed every comedian's ability to tour, we changed the grant system - and were able to provide $1,000 grants to 30 comedians to help cover some of their expenses. In addition, the Social Distancing Social Club provided over $50,000 more in work for otherwise unemployed comedians. And now, Steel City AF takes that to a whole new level." Said The Chairman and Founder Steve Hofstetter in a statement