POETRY: SOMETIMES / BLUES FOR SARAH

photo by Alex Lear

SOMETIMES / Blues For Sarah

(a meditation in 6/8)

Hello.

sometimes we be talking but not sharing

all the thoughts we need to say/

need to hear

even as we mean and appreciate

every word we exchange

how typical and terrifying

for a Nanny spirited sistren to spend mature years

up to her ears in tears and fiscal vexations

the scratch simply insufficient to do more

than skim the surface of survival

but what if there was dust on your tracks?

what if you have enough money to meet the man?

what then? would it matter? would you be happy?

the immediate answer is yes! hell yessss!

but i think not

it is not money we miss most, sometimes

all of us are so alone

sometimes worriation starts with just a longing

to be wrapped in the home of another body who cares,

to go liquid and be drunk by a thirsty lover

who will be rejuvenated by the brewing,

to sing hip movements and the fine feathers

of squeezing nakednesses together,

to grow in a space where talk is silence

but communication is real, is live, is flashing

instantaneous music,

—black music, bright and beatific—to be a vibration

and become the shape of the flying piano keys cascading

masterfully up and down,

strong upthrusting drum notes,

cymbals shimmering,

rimshots skittering to the outer edges of giddiness

and a bass blowing huge in the dark,

sometimes to be music and be together and still,

between tunes, between sets, be right up under each other

doing all the things you are in unison

but no.

this is america.

we are black.

and our music—even the fast tunes—

is all blues…

sometimes, we try, we really try harder

to be sane amidst the chaos surrounding us

we skillfully host cultural programs,

we reluctantly go to the slave,

responsibly raise our children

and sometimes wait

for the phone to ring

sometimes

as we choke on a chest full of songs

wishing only for an opportunity to join

a serious band

P.S. the money does make a difference

especially when all the gigs are one nighters,

it’s just that, out music demands so much more

than merely solos

Goodbye.

—kalamu ya salaam

HISTORY: African American Scouts

The African American

Boy Scout Movement,

A Story

Date:

Mon, 1911-07-31

The Scout Oath: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

This date celebrates the founding of America’s first “Negro Boy Scout” troop in 1911. Initially started in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, opposition was encountered immediately, but troops continued to meet in increasing numbers. In 1916, the first official Boy Scout Council-promoted Negro Troop 75 began in Louisville, KY. By the next year, there were four official black troops in the area. By 1926, there were 248 all-black troops, with 4,923 black scouts and within ten years, there was only one Council in the entire South that refused to accept any black troops.

The founding of America’s first “Negro Boy Scout” troop, July 31, 1911

During this time as more troops started up, the Inter-racial Committee was established in January of 1927, with Stanley Harris as its leader. Also as part of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Inter-racial Service was “Program Outreach,” a program that combined racial minorities with rural, poor, and handicapped boys. These programs were often ineffective, especially with immigrants who feared the BSA as a means to recruit for the Army. Another problem with Program Outreach was that it often didn’t distinguish between the boys it viewed as “less chance” and those who were simply not white.

For example, the program’s reports categorize some scouts as “Feeble-minded, Delinquency Areas, Orphanages, and Settlements.” Many of the scouts in “Delinquent Areas” were blacks, who were measured as “Special Troops.” Instead of embracing black Scouting, the BSA systematically categorized blacks, bringing a literal meaning to “racial handicap” as the color of their skin was why they were considered “special.”

First African American Girl Scout Troop, ca. late 1930s

Scouting for minorities wasn’t just confined to cities, Scouting in rural areas were also common. One of these programs was called “railroad scouting,” where employees of the BSA would ride trains throughout the rural South, stopping at every town on the way to distribute information and encourage the formation of troops. This policy originated to cut down on railroad vandalism, and the BSA realized it was a great way to promote its organization. Native Americans were also a large portion of the minority Scouts, and lived in settlements in rural areas. With the help of these programs, the two Southern Regions, Region V in Memphis and Region VI in Atlanta, had growth rates of 28.2% and 47.9%, respectively. In 1937, 57.9% of black Scouts were from these two regions.

By the 1960s, with the industrialization of the South, the BSA shifted more towards urban expansion and improvement. In 1961, the Inter-Racial Service turned into the Urban Relationship Service and added inner-city children of all races. William Murray, author of “History of the Boy Scouts,” wrote, “Negro lads in the South and in the northern industrial centers were somewhat out of the stream of American boy life and needed special aid.” The Inner-City Rural Program was also developed to expose rural Scouts to the city and vice versa, but was small in scope. Programs targeting gangs were unexpectedly successful, and in many cities as many as 25% of boys living in housing projects were enrolled in the Scouts, many former gang members.

In the South, with the “separate but equal” mindset of the times, black troops were not treated equally. They were often not allowed to wear scout uniforms, and had far smaller budgets and insufficient facilities to work with. The BSA on a national level was often defensive about its stance on segregation. “The Boy Scouts of America] never drew the color line, but the movement stayed in step with the prevailing mores.” Even so, there was only one integrated troop before 1954 in the Deep South compared to the frequent occurrence of integration in the North. Also, the Scouts in the South did not support social agencies that were allies of the BSA. The YMCA was historically one of the BSA’s strongest supporters, but in Richmond, Virginia, blacks were not allowed to use the Y’s facilities to earn merit badges, specifically for swimming.

While nationally the BSA has a large endowment (approximately $2.6 billion), local councils had to raise money on their own. BSA is not a non-profit organization, and if local councils had pushed for integrated troops, it would not have gone over well with the general public and it would have made raising money difficult. It would have also been dangerous, because the Ku Klux Klan had strongly denounced the Scouts for even having segregated black troops. They claimed the BSA was a puppet of the Catholic Church, and it was not unheard of for Scout Jamborees and rallies to be broken up, often violently, by the Klan.

After the Civil Rights Act, slowly, troops began to integrate throughout the nation, even in the South. Currently several troops remain all black. After integration, many segregated black organizations, especially churches, remained segregated, not by law but by choice. It provided a heightened sense of community and unity that complemented their internal needs. If they made it this far under such extreme oppression, why should they happily submit themselves to white churches and social clubs? Since these organizations sponsored such a large number of Scout troops, many remained all black by choice. In 1974, after 53 years of segregation, the Old Hickory Council (North Carolina) and BSA councils throughout the South, started to integrate troops.

As an organization dedicated to developing morally strong and virtuous men out of boys, the BSA stresses the importance of understanding what it means to be a Scout. When applying for the Eagle Scout Award, the highest rank in Scouting, applicants must submit an essay along with documentation of their earned merit badges. In the essays, Scouts are asked, “In your own words, describe what it would mean to you to become an Eagle Scout.” Essay lengths differ greatly, from one sentence to four handwritten pages. Generally, Eagle Award applicants write about what it has meant to work several years to receive this award, and what they plan on doing after the receive it.

In the responses immediately following integration, different values and goals emerged based on race and oppression. One young man says, “When applying for a job or trying to enter college being an Eagle Scout is a great advantage.” “Being white in Winston-Salem, opportunities to go to college and to get a good job were there. As a black young person, such opportunities did not always exist, and instead of mentioning college and a job, there was a tendency to make more references to the army and military. Not necessarily saying outright that a future in the military is what they are striving for, but there are references like, ‘[if I get my Eagle Award] it will be like ‘becoming an Eagle Scout is like being a Captain or lieutenant in an army, working towards the Generals position.'”

Historically, the military has been one of the few ways blacks achieved distinction and respect. These youths had seen their fathers and uncles come back from World War II and the Korean War with medals and get the help of the G.I. Bill. Many saw this as their only way to eventually get into college or have a good career. With the aid of the civil rights movement, black Scouts saw the Eagle Award as a further means of proving their dignity and achievement. blacks in the first half of the 20th century were not allowed much dignity. America and the South were set up to make sure this dignity was never achieved. Through Scouting, black young people finally had something to be proud of, something that would make them, in at least one realm, equal or even superior to white children. It gave them a sense of identity that was lacking for centuries. They were no longer just “Boy,” they were an Eagle Scout.

Before de-segregation, in nearly all-white Eagle Scout applications, the essays included references to leadership opportunities to come out of their Award. Leadership is mentioned much less often among the black applicants, having not seen the same opportunities for leadership in their communities as they progressed through the Scouts. Another theme among the pre-civil rights applications was the frequent mentioning of God and Church in the white applications, compared to the black applications. The white applications tended to connect God and Country together as an important trait of an Eagle Scout, as, for example, “The Eagle award would show me that I have been doing my duty to God and my Country as a Scout.” The black Scouts did not mention citizenship nearly as often and when they did, it was usually in a secular manner. “I am an American on whom the future of this wonderful Country depends . . . learning to be of service to others.” This distinction the result of the lack of citizenship experienced by blacks from the beginning of this country.

It is telling that an organization like the Boy Scouts of America, dedicated from its inception to raising men of high moral strength and conviction supported racism. But at the same time, on a national and local level, the Scouts did have certain leaders that pressed against the grain of society for racial change. In the end, though, our most valuable insight is into the minds of these young black men who wrote of an equal chance for distinction and success in their Eagle Award essays. This relatively small achievement may have helped and inspired them to push on in their fight for liberty.

Contributing reference:
Kurt Banas,
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
336.758.5255

>via: http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/african-american-boy-scout-movement-story

INFO: Best Angles on Obama’s Visit to Federal Prison

July 17, 2015

Best Angles on Obama’s

Visit to Federal Prison

1. I like Pete Souza’s shot quite a bit. It captures Obama both in the belly of the beast, and also squarely facing the larger institutional problem.

Obama-prison-visit-cell-123

2. The 123 is a nice touch. It speaks to the possibility of a logical and identifiable set of steps to follow (123’s… ABC’s…) to reform this country’s rampant and discriminatory incarceration system. It made perfect sense, by the way, that the President would avoid being photographed inside a cell. This is a very different context than the time he was photographed inside Mandela’s cell on Robben Island. That was about putting himself in the other man’s shoes (and aura). In this case, it’s about bearing witness to a broken system. Also, the corridor view denies the haters any more Photoshop material.

barack-obama-prison-VICE

3. VICE indeed scored a coup with this POTUS sit down. I’ve been outspoken in criticizing how much the White House has traded access for exposure, especially in chasing pop culture cred and/or media access to a younger demographic. In this case, VICE profits, the still serving double duty in promoting a joint program with HBO down the road starring the President of the free world.

Obama-prison-meeting-w-prisoners-VICE

As for the shot itself, yeah it’s a home run, applying an impressive degree of intimacy to the first presidential visit to a federal prison. In his presence and his empathy (accentuated in the cropped “counselor-in-chief” version), Obama’s presence transforms these inmates from pariahs to men with stories; men who made mistakes; men who might not even be here were it not for the draconian treatment of (and the timely light shone on) non-violent drug offenders.

Obama-prison-teaching-moment

4. As a man on a mission, there are just two words (amplified by the screen in the background) to describe this photo: “Teaching Moment.”

(photo 1: Pete Souza/White House caption: President Barack Obama walks in the Residential Drug Abuse Prevention Unit at El Reno Prison after making a statement to the press, in El Reno, Okla., July 16, 2015.photo 2 & 4: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images caption: US President Barack Obama, Charles Samuels, right, Bureau of Prisons Director, and Ronald Warlick, left, a correctional officer, looks at a prison cell as he tours the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution, July 16, 2015, in El Reno, Okla. photo 3: VICE News caption: President Obama talks with inmates inside El Reno Federal Correctional Institution.)

>via: http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2015/07/the-best-angles-on-obamas-visit-to-federal-prison/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Bagnewsnotes+%28BAGnewsNotes%29

VIDEO + AUDIO: Dirty Wars

america-wakiewakie:

Documentary recommendation for the week:

Dirty Wars.

From DirtyWars.org:

Dirty Wars follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the heart of America’s covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond.

Part political thriller and part detective story, Dirty Wars is a gripping journey into one of the most important and underreported stories of our time.

What begins as a report into a U.S. night raid gone terribly wrong in a remote corner of Afghanistan quickly turns into a global investigation of the secretive and powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

As Scahill digs deeper into the activities of JSOC, he is pulled into a world of covert operations unknown to the public and carried out across the globe by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. In military jargon, JSOC teams “find, fix, and finish” their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the “kill list,” including U.S. citizens.

Drawn into the stories and lives of the people he meets along the way, Scahill is forced to confront the painful consequences of a war spinning out of control, as well as his own role as a journalist.

We encounter two parallel casts of characters.

The CIA agents, Special Forces operators, military generals, and U.S.-backed warlords who populate the dark side of American wars go on camera and on the record, some for the first time.

We also see and hear directly from survivors of night raids and drone strikes, including the family of the first American citizen marked for death and being hunted by his own government.

Dirty Wars takes viewers to remote corners of the globe to see first-hand wars fought in their name and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a high-stakes investigation.

We are left with haunting questions about freedom and democracy, war and justice.

Watch the full film here. I highly suggest this one, so signal boost the information for us all.

>via: http://americawakiewakie.com/post/73592068323/america-wakiewakie-documentary-recommendation

INTERVIEW + AUDIO: Claudia Rankine

JULY 30, 2015

Claudia Rankine’s

Citizen

In the time of Ferguson, Baltimore, and Charleston, the poet Claudia Rankine has been the lyric teller of our deepest hurt. Her new book, Citizen: An American Lyric, was a best-seller and something of a lifeline this year, mapping America’s racial traumas — from the Katrina travesty (2005) to the death of Trayvon Martin (2012) and the now-and-then travails of Serena Williams.

Rankine says that American life is made of these moments when race gets us “by the throat.” Only some are nationally noted tragedies. The rest: millions of episodes between friends and loved ones, errors of human interaction, when “citizens” of different races trip up, and damage each other, typically without realizing it.

She calls them microaggressions. An example:

A friend tells you he has seen a photograph of you on the Internet and he wants to know why you look so angry. You and the photographer chose the photograph he refers to because you both decided it looked the most relaxed. Do you look angry? You wouldn’t have said so. Obviously this unsmiling image of you makes him uncomfortable, and he needs you to account for that.

If you were smiling, what would that tell him about your composure in his imagination?

We had gathered a poets’ panel in Chris Lydon’s living room led by Harvard’s Stephen Burt earlier this year, and the conversation about Citizen took over. Burt and company were ready to compare Rankine’s poetry to The Wasteland or Howl, and they marveled over Citizen’sWhitmanian multitudes: elegiac verse, poetic prose that reads as diary or essay, video scripts, and diptychs of words and art.

Rankine works every angle to take us inside the reality of what it’s like to be a black person in America — how “black bodies” are contained, how the smallest slights replay history, and how racial judgment in first class cabins and subway cars hurts everybody:

We followed Claudia Rankine to a packed house at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, where she described Citizen’s last page, which depicts J.M.W. Turner’s terrifying painting The Slave Ship, and her wary brand of hope:

I didn’t want to create false hope… I thought, “Gosh, this problem has been around since the market—since black bodies were part of the market. When they were objects. When they were considered property.” And that equation between whiteness and the black body as property of whiteness is the equation we can’t get out of… I wanted to end [Citizen] with Turner because people always say, “Well, I didn’t know. It wasn’t my intention. I wish I had known more about this…” But Turner knew better in the 1800s. He knew better. And this is 2015. So, there it was. The end.

Rankine told the ICA crowd that she has always loved Turner. He shows her that not everyone is stuck all of the time. The micro- space where people live and create is where we fail each other every day, but it’s also the place where sometimes we surpass ourselves.

As our own conversation closed, Claudia Rankine took heart from Samuel Beckett’s old advice. “We will always fail each other,” she said. Her hope is that we will not fail the same way forever — that we will “fail better” or, more realistically, “fail other.”

Can any of us listen to Claudia Rankine without asking:
How have I failed this year? How have you? So tell us
on Facebook: When does race have you by the throat?
And, just what does it feel like in your skin?
— Pat Tomaino.
Photograph by Don Usner/Lannan Foundation.

Whose Words These Are:

A Questionnaire

After a long interview, Claudia Rankine agreed to field our sometime questionnaire for poets and writers, which we’re bringing back in 2015. See the other questionnaires here.

As a poet, who’s in the conversation with you, living or dead?
Toni Morrison, of course: “This is not a story to pass on” — the last line of Beloved. J. M. Coetzee: I love the way he sees blacks, whites, everyone, as failing, failed, anxious, self-interested individuals, which we all are. Fred Moten, The Feel Trio. Louise Glück, who taught me at Williams, whose ability to interrogate a moment has stayed with me. Claire Denis, the filmmaker. Chris Marker.

Who do you think of as doing the work of your spirit in a different medium?

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow is a really important book to me right now, in terms of “the school-to-prison pipeline.” Many of the visual artists in Citizen, people like Glenn Ligon and Wangechi Mutu.

Steve McQueen — did you see that film he did, called Hunger? It’s the most beautiful film, on a hunger strike in Ireland. One of the things I love about him, the sense that one can interrogate a social condition through beauty. Beauty doesn’t just fall by the wayside. Because the eye is always looking, it’s always seeking, you know?

When you walk down the street, who do people see?
That’s odd. I don’t know. I’m looking myself. I’m always looking. I love being outside. I love overhearing conversations. Maybe what they see is somebody who’s watching.

What is the talent that you’d most love to have that you don’t have (yet)?
My husband is a filmmaker; I wish I had his ability to see, actually. It’s astounding to me, sometimes, what he can point out visually. I listen the way he looks. Maybe together we’re one being. (Laughter.)

What’s the keynote of your personality, as a poet?
I think I’m patient on the page. I will stay with something for as long as takes for me to feel that whatever I wish to communicate is being communicated. And if that’s the whole book on one thing, that’s OK.

Who’s your favorite character in fiction?
In J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, the plot in a sentence is that the guy who’s in charge of the village. He has a black housekeeper who he falls in love with. And at a certain point of the story he says to her, “You can leave, or you can stay with me.” And he’s very torn up about what she’s going to do. I love that character, because you know she’s going to leave — and she does leave. She’s always been a favorite character of mine.

What is your favorite quality in a man?
Man or woman, I love anyone who will laugh — at anything. At things I say, at things they say, at things they see, at things that aren’t even funny.

I was going to ask you: what’s your favorite quality in a woman?
I love women who don’t care, who are not being controlled by external ideas about what it means to be a woman. And you know those women when you see them — they just don’t care. It’s sort of Sula, in Toni Morrison: women who make their own terms.

What are your desert-island discs?
I would take Miles Davis, Kind of Blue. I know it’s traditional, but I would take it. I would take Adele, 21. I love Adele; I love that voice. The third one would be the hardest one to choose: I guess I would take a radio.

What’s your motto?
There’s a quote from Romare Bearden, the collagist. He said, “There are all kinds of people, and they will help you if you let them.” As somebody who collaborates a lot, I take that to heart, and I certainly would hope that other people would see me as one of those people who would help them, if they would let me.

What’s your city for all time?
New York. I know I live in L.A., but… New York.

How would you like to die?
Old, I’d like to die old — and laughing.

Guest List

Claudia Rankine
writer and poet of Citizen and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely.

Reading List

‘The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning’
Claudia Rankine, The New York Times Magazine

In the days after the Charleston massacre, Rankine raised
the dead bodies of black Americans as a sorry reminder of
the state of the union:

We live in a country where Americans assimilate corpses in their daily comings and goings. Dead blacks are a part of normal life here. Dying in ship hulls, tossed into the Atlantic, hanging from trees, beaten, shot in churches, gunned down by the police or warehoused in prisons: Historically, there is no quotidian without the enslaved, chained or dead black body to gaze upon or to hear about or to position a self against. When blacks become overwhelmed by our culture’s disorder and protest (ultimately to our own detriment, because protest gives the police justification to militarize, as they did in Ferguson), the wrongheaded question that is asked is, What kind of savages are we? Rather than, What kind of country do we live in?

from Citizen, VI, part 2
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
Play the video above while you read these lines about the
suspicion that adheres to black males and the guilt that fills
train cars. This poem joins Rankine’s various styles. It’s a
scene from navigating race in daily life, but almost every
character seems a composite. And, it’s a verse poem that
reads almost as prose. Browse the website of the Academy
of American Poets for more excerpts from Citizen: An
American Lyric.

‘A New Way of Writing About Race’
Nick Laird, New York Review of Books
Laird’s review of Citizen focuses on Rankine’s poetic techniques,
which put readers (as she put it with us) “inside the feeling of
the thing.” To put readers inside the hurt of racism, Rankine
dares to unite words with images, juxtapose police killings with
campus microaggressions, and join together all the black men
who died in different ways for the same reason:

When we march under one banner for different causes, when we gather many different cases under the title “Black Lives Matter,” for example, simplification is needed. Political movements require basic statements like these in order to gather disparate groups into one powerful bloc. But lyric poetry tends not to work like that. It chases particulars. Its symbols are not public ones. It aspires to compress without simplifying. Citizen dares to reject those tenets. It suggests that because white culture is prevailingly reductionist, seeing a black man and feeling fear, viewing blackness as one monolithic construct (Rankine refers to “the ‘all black people look the same’ moment”), the poetry that responds should likewise be unafraid to adopt those modes, to link and equate the deaths of different black men without regard to respective circumstances.

Artists in Conversation: Claudia Rankine
Lauren Berlant, BOMB
Lit-Crit Alert: Rankine and her friend Lauren Berlant fill in some
of the theory behind Citizen, how poetry speaks truth to power,
and what is said by the book’s striking art images like Little Girl
by Kate Clark:

Clark uses taxidermy to create her sculptures. In the particular piece I used in Citizen, she attached the black girl’s face on this deer-like body—it says it’s an infant caribou in the caption—and I was transfixed by the memory that my historical body on this continent began as property no different from an animal. It was a thing hunted and the hunting continues on a certain level. So when someone says, “I didn’t know black women could get cancer,” as was said of me, I see that I am not being seen as human, and that is fascinating to me, even as it is hurtful in a more superficial way, since my stomach hurts more from the chemo—or is it the diagnosis?

>via: http://radioopensource.org/claudia-rankine/

VIDEO: Tango Negro: The African Roots of Tango

July 29, 2015

‘Tango Negro:

The African Roots

of Tango’

Gets an August

Limited Theatrical Run

(Trailer)

By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act

“Tango Negro: The African Roots of Tango”

A film that highlights the contributions of varied African cultures in the creation of the dance popularly known as the tango, “Tango Negro: The African Roots of Tango,” will see a limited release starting on August 14, 2015, in both Chicago at Facets Cinematheque (1517 West Fullerton Ave) and in New York City at MIST Harlem (46 West 116th), getting one-week theatrical runs in both cities, followed by screenings in Washington DC at the Goethe Institut (812 Seventh St, NW) as part of the 9th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival.

Directed by Angolan filmmaker Dom Pedro, the film “details the dance’s early cultural significance as a depiction of the social life of captured African slaves and provides an expansive compilation of musical performances and interviews from tango enthusiasts and historians alike,” providing “novel insight into the depth of tango’s sub-Saharan African musical influence, a presence that has crossed oceans and endured the tides of forced bondage.”

For more information about the film, as well as its upcoming release, visit: http://www.tangonegrofilm.com/.

Check out a trailer below:

>via: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tango-negro-the-african-roots-of-tango-gets-an-august-limited-theatrical-run-trailer-20150729

PUB: The Saraba Manuscript Project

The Saraba Manuscript Project

AUGUST 1, 2015

There is a growing interest in literature published and discussed within African countries. Saraba Magazine, a leading literary publishing outfit based in Nigeria, has been at the forefront of this conversation by championing the work of emerging writers. The Saraba Manuscript Project will consolidate this mission.

Nigerian writers resident in Nigeria or elsewhere in the world are invited to submit completed fiction or non-fiction manuscripts. Please note that each writer is expected to submit only one manuscript for either the fiction or non-fiction category. The contest will produce a shortlist of ten writers, five in each category. All shortlisted manuscripts will initially be published as e-books and audio-books. In addition, Saraba Literary Trust will look to partner with one of the foremost literary publishers in Nigeria to publish the winning manuscripts from each category.

After publication, the shortlisted works will be promoted over the period of a year across major cities in Nigeria. Readings will be held at cultural centers and on university campuses. An intensive online campaign will also follow, which will feature collaborative social media interaction.

The prize includes an award of N100,000 to the winning manuscripts in the fiction and the non-fiction categories. All shortlisted entrants will receive a publishing deal from Saraba, including N100,000 advance against royalties.

Visit manuscript.sarabamag.com for information on how to submit, judges, and partners.

>via: http://www.sarabamag.com/the-saraba-manuscript-prize/#.Vb-EhmWlBt0.twitter

PUB: The Jeli Story Project

Publication Opportunity for African Writers

The Jeli Story Project

By Ainehi Edoro

Dear Brittlepaperians, here is a publishing opportunity for all you aspiring writers.

The Jeli is a literary platform that supports innovative storytelling projects. They are calling for submission.

According to the ad placed on their website, they are on the look out for “writers who are not well represented in mainstream publishing, particularly black women.”

So finish up that story you’ve been working on and ship it off to them.

Here is a quick overview of the key details:

STYLE & SUBJECT: We publish fiction. Every story is different, but it would be advisable to read our stories to get a sense of whether your story will fit into our project. You can read the stories here.

LENGTH: So far, the Jeli stories have ranged from approximately 2,500 and just over 6,000 words. Our focus is quality not quantity so the length is up to you. Please note that you only need to submit a short story, other elements, such as a monologue and imagery, will be worked on if your story is accepted.

HOW TO SUBMIT

When preparing your manuscript for submission, please ensure that the following information is contained in the header of your document on each page:

Your Name

Your Date of Birth

Your Email Address

Story Word Count

Story Title

You will need to submit an url which provides access to the document in a web-accessible format, e.g. a link to a Google Doc or a link to a cloud-based storage platform such as Dropbox, where an MS word document can be downloaded.

Once you have the document ready, you can make your submission using this form.

For more info, click HERE. Twitter: @thejelistories

************

Image via thejeli.co

>via: http://brittlepaper.com/2015/08/publication-opportunity-african-writers-jeli-story-project/#sthash.2NwRE6gS.dpuf

PUB: Black Warrior Review Literary Contest

BWR LITERARY CONTEST

BWR’s eleventh-annual contest opened on April 1, 2015.

This year we are honored to have Heather Christle (Poetry), Alissa Nutting (Fiction/Prose), and Mary Roach (Nonfiction) as our guest judges.

Winners in each genre receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BWR 42.2, our Spring/Summer 2016 issue. One runner-up from each genre will receive $100 and finalists will receive notation in that issue and are considered for publication.

Please submit your $20 entry fee and your work to bwr.submittable.com/submit by September 1. Each entry comes with a one-year subscription to BWR. The entry fee covers one 7,000 word fiction or nonfiction submission, or one packet of up to three poems.

You may submit multiple entries. We accept only previously unpublished work. We do allow simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you notify us promptly of publication elsewhere. Winners will be announced in October.

Conflicts of Interest: Similar to our regular editorial policy, students, faculty, staff, or administrators currently affiliated with University of Alabama are ineligible for consideration or publication. Additionally, anyone with affiliation with a judge is ineligible to enter in that category. We ask that previous winners wait three years after their winning entry is published before entering again.

Black Warrior Review adheres to the CLMP Contest Code of Ethics. You can find the CLMP Code of Ethics and our Contest Procedures here, and do email any questions to blackwarriorreview@gmail.com.

Deadline: September 1, 2015

>via: http://bwr.ua.edu/submit/contest/?utm_content=18320734&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

VIDEO + AUDIO: Joey Alexander

JOEY ALEXANDER