Miller Arts Scholars
Miller Arts Scholars
Micah Watson

Micah Watson

Year of Mini-grant
2015
Disciplines(s)
Grant Description
Micah received an Artist Minigrant to support the costs of travel to the Liturgical Praise Dance Conference with herdance troupe, Send Judah First.
Original Proposal
Proposal Outcome
Title
Liturgical Praise Dance Performance
Class Year
2018
Disciplines(s)
Arts Award Type
Proposal Outcome
Grant Description
I plan to intern with Black Entertainment Television Networks. As a Programming Intern, I will have the opportunity to create original programming, act as an on-set production assistant and study with the Writing Team. I will be able to be a part of the creative process of the television industry from beginning to end. Specifically, I will be under the tutelage of Senior Vice President, Connie Orlando in New York, New York. It is important that I learn the systems of the television and film industry so that, in the future, I will know the best ways to share my art.
Original Proposal
Title
Black Entertainment Television Networks Internship
Class Year
2018
Disciplines(s)
Arts Award Type
Proposal Outcome
Grant Description
Art is an articulation of the soul. It is a way to reinterpret the things that we have words to describe and to translate the things that words cannot explain. Often, creation is cathartic—it is cleansing, nourishing, and freeing for the body, mind and spirit. For many people, including myself art is a method of practicing self-care. I think that it is important to practice art in this way; art for the sake of the artist is a completely valid and sometimes necessary practice. However, as an African-American artist, I do not not have the luxury of creating selfishly. As a participant in the ongoing Liberation Struggle, as a result of the political condition of Blackness assigned to me at birth, I must use the tools that I have been gifted with to work towards Freedom. It is my duty.
Original Proposal
Title
Film Making Project

Micah Ariel Watson is a Drama and African-American Studies Distinguished major. As a playwright and filmmaker, her work focuses on the ways in which Black history and the contemporary moment mirror one another, often employing devices of poetry and hip-hop. In the fall of 2015 and 2016, Micah founded, produced, and directed The Black Monologues a groundbreaking theatrical production that explores the diversity of Blackness at UVA and beyond. Her films Edges and Educated Feet were shown at the Virginia Film Festival in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In the spring of 2017, Micah’s play Wake Up Music! was a part of the New Works Festival and the winner of the Clay E. Delauney Memorial Award.  Recently, Micah received the Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwriting Award for Canaan and is a finalist for the KCACTF Gary Garrison 10-Minute Play Award for Will Be Live. She will continue pursuing a career as a playwright and screenwriter by attending NYU Tisch School of The Arts Dramatic Writing Program in the fall of 2018.

2018