Giorno Poetry Systems, a nonprofit organization founded by the artist and downtown New York scenemaker John Giorno in 1965, has launched a new need-based grant program inspired by a decade-long AIDS Treatment Project that Giorno oversaw in the 1980s and ’90s.

The new Treat a Stranger Grant awards $4,545 each to a group of 12 artists: Samiya Bashir, Malcolm-X Betts, Pe Ferreira, Mercy Kelly, Agosto Machado, Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), Gavilán Rayna Russom, Jacolby Satterwhite, Keioui Keijaun Thomas, Christopher Udemezue, and two who chose to remain anonymous. (The funds for Machado will be given to his estate following his death last month, after the selection process was complete.)