Two Columbia Artists Named Honoraria Recipients at the 2022 Princess Grace Awards
Alumnus Shayok Misha Chowdhury '16 and fifth-year Directing student Hazel McKibbin have been named honoraria recipients of the esteemed 2022 Princess Grace Awards.
Presented by The Princess Grace Foundation-USA, the annual award supports extraordinary emerging artists in theater, dance, and film through career-advancing grants. Chowdhury and McKibbin are among the six talented honoraria recipients named in 2022, joining a community of over 800 award winners and honoraria.
Brisa Carleton, CEO of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, shared the following statement via press release: “I am thrilled to celebrate the 2022 Princess Grace Award winners and honoraria. They are a distinguished group of individuals that represent the next generation of artistry. The Princess Grace Foundation’s mission of identifying extraordinary talent could not be possible without our Arts Advisory Board and selection panelists, and we thank them for their commitment and time. We look forward to celebrating these talented artists with this esteemed group in the presence of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, at our Princess Grace Awards Celebration on November 3.”
As honoraria recipients, Chowdhury and McKibbin will receive a $1,000 unrestricted cash grant in support of their blossoming careers as artists. The foundation also provides exclusive opportunities in additional grant funding, career development, and networking to its community of alumni.
"As an artist, I am interested in female characters who cannot or do not drive the story overtly, but have an extraordinary, dignified power over their ordinary destinies,” McKibbin said. “Ultimately, I feel these quieter, subtextual dramas reveal more about the complex ways in which humans relate to one another. Receiving the Princess Grace honoraria in Film is a resounding affirmation of the work I am doing, and I am so thrilled to be part of such an incredible group of artists."
Chowdhury also noted the affirmation for his work, saying, "I feel so humbled to be honored by the Princess Grace Awards and to follow in the footsteps of former awardees like Reza Abdoh, Tony Kushner, Tina Landau, Sam Gold, Lila Neugebauer, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and so many other visionaries who inspire me as a director and a playwright. Making theater takes a lot of tenacity, and sometimes a little recognition goes a long way toward refilling the fuel tank. Right now, I'm working on writing and directing a new play, Public Obscenities, premiering at Soho Rep this upcoming season."
Nominated by Soho Repertory Theatre for the Princess Grace Awards, Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a many-tentacled writer, director, and performer. Awards and fellowships include Jonathan Larson Grant, Sundance, Fulbright, NYSCA/NYFA. Commissions include Public Obscenities (Soho Rep, NAATCO); Rheology (HERE Arts Center). Collaborations include Brother, Brother (New York Theatre Workshop) with Aleshea Harris; MukhAgni (Under the Radar) with Kameron Neal; Calling All Dawns (Grammy-winning album) with Christopher Tin. Misha is the creator of VICHITRA, a series of cinematic experiments: Englandbashi (Ann Arbor Film Festival), The Other Other (Ars Nova), In Order to Become (Bushwick Starr), An Anthology of Queer Dreams (Audio Unbound Award finalist). He is an alumnus of NYTW 2050, The Public’s Devised Theater Working Group, Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, NYSAF Nexus, and Soho Rep’s Project Number One and Writer/Director Lab. His publications have been featured in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Asian American Literary Review, and elsewhere. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University.
Nominated by Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Hazel McKibbin is an award-winning British-American writer and director based between North London and Brooklyn, New York. McKibbin is a BAFTA Newcomer and is currently working on her thesis at Columbia University where she is pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting and Directing. Trained as an editor, she finds herself drawn towards realism, often through a feminist lens, and the idea that compelling stories can be created from ordinary relationships and interactions. Her directorial debut Doublespeak has been featured on Short of the Week, as well as being selected as Vimeo Staff Pick Best of the Month for July 2020. The film had its festival premiere at the Sundance 2021 Film Festival before going on to screen at festivals worldwide. Her second short, She Always Wins, will premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Princess Grace Foundation will celebrate the new class of Princess Grace Award winners and honoraria recipients at its annual Princess Grace Awards Summit and Celebration November 2-3 in New York City.