The David Prize, an initiative of the Walentas Family Foundation, on Tuesday awarded five individuals, including one Brooklyn man, $200,000 each to continue their efforts to improve the city.
The David Prize invests in individuals who are committed to a better city, whether culturally, economically, environmentally or otherwise. Recipients are granted $200,000 each, no strings attached. This year’s 2025 David Prize winners include: Brooklynite Barry Cooper, Colby Xzavier King, Jennifer M. Bright, Jhody Devon Polk and Rana Abdelhamid.
Winners are selected through a nearly year-long process, including written submissions, interviews, reference and expert checks and site visits. The David Prize collaborates with a team of advisors who range in sector and borough expertise, mirroring the diversity of the city itself.
"If there's one thing true about New Yorkers, it's their obsession with their city. Every year, The David Prize hears from thousands of individuals dedicated to building the future of NYC across every block, neighborhood, and borough. This year is no different," said Erika Augustine, executive director of The David Prize. "What makes New York special is its people, and the Prize exists to celebrate them. This year's winners reflect the grit, dedication, and joy of this city."
The winners:
Barry Cooper, a trusted leader in Bed-Stuy, is the founder of The B.R.O. Experience Foundation. He supports the emotional well-being of young men of color by offering a joyful, identity-rooted alternative to traditional therapy through healing spaces grounded in rites of passage, mentorship, creative expression and fatherhood circles.
Colby Xzavier King, a Columbia University graduate and member of the House of Louboutin, founded the Kiki Arts Collaborative to bridge NYC’s ballroom culture with employment opportunities in the arts and beyond. The initiative offers a nine-month program that combines creative mentorship, job training and career access to empower queer youth of color with economic mobility while honoring their creativity and cultural legacy.
Jennifer Bright, founder of Friends of the Subway, is building a movement of community-led investment into NYC’s subways through public art, station activations and volunteer programming.
Jhody Polk is the founder of the Jailhouse Lawyer Initiative and The Legal Empowerment and Advocacy Hub (LEAH). Through these initiatives, Polk aims to equip New York City’s communities with access to legal education and community paralegals to prevent people from becoming victims of the criminal legal system all together. In collaboration with NYU’s Bernstein Institute, Polk is helping to build a credential program for ‘community paralegals’ to help legitimize jailhouse lawyering, and to empower incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals to know, use, and shape the law.
Rana Abdelhamid, a lifelong organizer, black belt and founder of Malikah, is scaling her work citywide to bring self-defense, trauma support and healing directly to NYC neighborhoods, with a focus on immigrant working-class North African communities and, more recently, African asylum seekers. Her mobile safety van builds on her grassroots efforts in Queens, where she has empowered over 20,000 New Yorkers across the city, operated mutual aid programs, led policy change and created community spaces that center safety, dignity and connection for all.
In addition to receiving funding, the winners become part of a community through a series of ongoing initiatives designed to foster connection and visibility. Monthly dinner parties bring winners together with diverse New York leaders, and New York Nerds, a monthly field trip series, invites curious New Yorkers to explore unappreciated spaces around the city.
This year also marks the first-ever multi-day event, See NYC. From Oct. 8-10, 150 New Yorkers who are shaping the city’s future will gather for a three-day, summer camp-style experience that is dedicated to building a better and brighter city. Attendees will experience bespoke site visits, intimate dinner parties and visionary fireside chats that spark curiosity and connection as they move through the city.
