🗽 Introducing The 2025 David Prize Finalists!
New Yorkers have this city's back.
We said in a newsletter recently that New Yorkers have, and always will have, this city's back. Not to quote ourselves… but as we introduce this list of outstanding individuals, that sentence could not ring more true. These 14 New Yorkers are improving our city in a million different ways: bringing art to empty storefronts, empowering jailhouse lawyers, creating sustainable opportunities for trans New Yorkers, using historical data to manage the city’s flooding, and more.
We promise you’ll find a lot to be hopeful about in these New Yorkers’ big ideas.
Drumroll please! 🥁🥁🥁
Barbara Anderson: Creating possibility on every block by transforming vacant storefronts
Barry Cooper: Making therapy accessible to the young men of Bed-Stuy through space, connection, and care
Colby Xzavier King: Creating economic pathways by bridging NYC’s ballroom culture with arts spaces
Davina Furbert: Helping New Yorkers’ navigate mental illness, one cleaning at a time
Eli Shalenberg: Supporting family caregivers of people with serious mental illness through a tech-enabled platform filling a critical gap in NYC’s mental health system
Transit Innovator: Building a movement of community-led investment into NYC’s subways through public art, station activations, and volunteer programming
Jhody Devon Polk: Transforming the justice system from within by empowering jailhouse lawyers to continue their practice once home
Jibreel Jalloh: Closing the advocacy gap through intergenerational civics training and grassroots mobilization
Jordyn Jay: Building an ecosystem for Black trans femme artists through art production, media access, and community care rooted in joy
Natalie Birnbaum: Making New York the beacon of reproductive healthcare access in America
Rana Abdelhamid: Bringing self-defense, trauma support, and healing workshops directly to NYC neighborhoods through a mobile safety van designed to empower vulnerable communities
Randi Berry: Demonstrating what’s possible when artists thrive in New York
Dr. Romare Antrobus: Harnessing microbes to turn New York waste streams into compostable, plastic-free nanocellulose packaging and support local regenerative economies
Samuel Robinson: Managing NYC’s flooding by facilitating community engagement and building outdoor mitigation retrofits, block by block
Each year, The David Prize serves as a reminder that New York’s brilliance is a reflection of the people that call it home. This year is no different. Thank you to every New Yorker dreaming up a better, brighter city.