A New Hampshire nonprofit offers unrestricted grants for young people of color who are making a difference in their communities. Late last year, the NH PANTHER Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Grants were disbursed to three activists, all under thirty.
Amaranthia Sepia, Samrawit Silva and Fisto Ndayishimiye found inspiration for their work from experiences with systemic racism in New Hampshire. They have found callings advocating for refugees, artists and creatives with disabilities, and young people in need of a little extra support.
SAMRAWIT SILVA
Samrawit Silva has spoken with NHPR before; back in 2022, about her advocacy work for the people of Tigray, more than 600,000 of whom have been killed in the face of an ongoing genocide. Three years later, her work continues. She’s been traveling back and forth to get eyes on the ground in Tigray.
“The most recent time that I went, in September [of 2024], was to spend time with my family – the ones that managed to survive,” Silva said.
Silva lives in Concord and says, growing up, she always attended predominantly white institutions where racism tended to be ignored by staff.
“New Hampshire is a predominantly white state [so] when it does happen, one, it's kind of minimized and or two, like shoved under the rug,” Silva said. “There's this narrative that New Hampshire is innocent and racism doesn't really exist there, or systemic racism doesn't exist there, [so] when things do happen, people aren't really associating it with a systemic level.”
Silva said her activism and voice blossomed when she joined the Black Student Union at the University of New Hampshire.
“I think having the community there to help me unlearn a lot of the stuff that I was doing and also be able to explain the injustices that were happening to me…” Silva said. “Because growing up, being one of the only students of color, there were always a lot of things that were being said – whether they're microaggressions or just blatant racism – and I never had the knowledge to be able to explain or speak up for myself in the way that I would like to.”
Since then, she’s joined the climate justice organization 350 New Hampshire and Black Lives Matter New Hampshire. All the while, she manages to hold down a full time job as a legal accountant. Silva plans to use the grant funds to continue her traveling, fundraising and awareness efforts. She helps organize online fundraisers, demonstrations and marches, and she was recently in Sudan to meet with Tigrayan refugees. She says it can be devastating to see the reality there – especially for young children – but it’s necessary for the advocacy work she does.
I asked her if a younger version of herself would have imagined the work she’s doing now. She said her mom probably saw it coming.
“I think there was a point in time where I chose this life instead of like, OK, stick to the corporate world, make money, live lavishly, be that rich auntie or whatnot… Little me would be surprised, but I think proud because I stuck to my principles and my values. And in situations I feel like she would be able to look up to the person that I am now based off of the decisions that I made in life.”
FISTO NDAYISHIMIYE
Fisto Ndayishimiye’s work also has roots in the educational system in New Hampshire. The 27-year-old came to the state when he was 18 as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Soon after, he enrolled at Concord High School. He says his experience here was starkly different from the DRC, and it was challenging to adapt. He says he, and some of his peers, faced racism and discrimination within the school system. He decided to focus his work on empowering young people after he graduated, including other refugees.
“It was really different,” Ndayishimiye said. “It wasn't easy for me to thrive and learn English and learn the system. It's very, very different from where I lived back home… So because I understand how [it] is difficult to be able to thrive in and adapt to new life, to [a] new environment, I had to engage”
Ndayishimiye now splits his time between several nonprofits and organizing efforts that advocate for marginalized youth. His main job is with Change for Concord, which works to foster a more welcoming and inclusive community for young people in the capital city. He’s a mentor to many.
“I want to see young people thinking like leaders, thinking that they have potential,” Ndayishimiye said. “They have power within their hearts… They have purpose. Because everybody has something to better our community. We want to see young people thriving.”
Ndayishimiye volunteers with several other organizations and is a business owner and homeowner. When I asked if he if manages to find any free time, he laughed. He’s also a competitive runner.
Ndayishimiye says he plans to use the grant from NH PANTHER to build out a creative outlet for the young people he works with: a podcast. That way, they can tell their own stories, in their own words.
“I think it takes an education for people to understand where things are broken,” Ndayishimiye said. “I'm going to make sure that I can create that space where people can debate, can talk about stories, education, opportunities, leadership… but also focus on the issues that are happening in our community. That's my starting point.”
AMARANTHIA SEPIA
Amaranthia Sepia, a multimedia artist based in Concord, already does some podcasting and online streaming as part of her work. Sepia is African American and Barbadian and says she turned more toward art after facing racism and discrimination in school in New Hampshire. She says she hosted anti-bullying and anti-racism workshops and programming, and some teachers were supportive. Others, not so much.
“They walked out,” Sepia said. “I was just really distraught about it.”
She ended up turning to homeschooling, but her art was always there for her as an outlet.
“It kind of just isolated me. So I just kept going,” Sepia said. “I was like ‘OK, well, if this is the case, then it's just going to be me and my art and I'm just going to fight with that.’”
Sepia’s creative efforts expanded in recent years as she and her mom, Claire Jones, founded the virtual project Sista Creatives Rising. It builds on the anti-racism and anti-bullying work Amaranthia has done and provides a platform for artists of marginalized identities and varying abilities to share their work.
“We want to take these artists who have dealt with discrimination in any way and make sure that they get seen,” Sepia said.
She helps do that through the art show she puts on: “Art in Mind.” Sepia has amassed thousands of followers on social media for her work, which she uses to connect and collaborate with new artists. That includes people outside of the Northeast, including people on different continents.
Most of Sepia and Jones’ work is virtual, and that’s intentional. Sepia is disabled and Jones is in preventative cancer treatment, so virtual community engagement is a safer and more accessible way of getting their message out there. They say that’s the case for many of the artists they work with as well. Their creative projects have brought them closer.
“It's just a lot of unconditional love,” Sepia said. “I'm just so grateful to have her. She's just a great business partner and mom. Just amazing mom.”
I asked Jones if she could describe her daughter in three words. She responded with “smart, powerful and badass.”
Sepia started small with her grant from NH PANTHER. A printer arrived during our interview that will help her with her art. She says she’ll use more of the funds to get some commissions off the ground and help build out Sista Creatives Rising.
“Now it's all coming together,” Sepia said. “All the things I wanted to manifest back then, it's like actually manifesting now.”
