THIS JUST IN: VOICES Deadline Extended to 14 February
“As a difficult and expansive year winds down, we wish you rest, reflection and creativity. We know this year has required so much of Black women, as the shadows of the world came to light. This is our time to recharge, replenish and regain our creative magic. We are extending our submission deadline to allow for more space for Black women to be in deep listening, introspection, and creative flow. Our prompts are here to help you along the journey. Submit and share with your girls.” – VOICES
THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO
14 FEBRUARY 2021
Voices is a new interdisciplinary performance arts project and campaign grounded in Black women’s stories by V-Day to unify the vision of ending violence against women: cis women, trans women, and non binary people across the African Continent and African Diaspora. Directed by poet/organizer Aja Monet, V-Day’s new Artistic Creative Director, Voices Campaign. Our goal is to use art to embody and inspire solidarity-making in our collective imagination.
Now more than ever, we need this. We need art that is collective, functional and committing. Voices will be a dedication to the politics and artistic autonomy of both the process and project. If you love a Black woman, create more space for her to create. If there is a story she holds that can set her free, help her hold it. May all Black women write (or speak), free of grammatical straightjackets and forms that muzzle our telling. If there is a sister we know with a powerful story who cannot read or write it, offer to transcribe it for her. We need everyone willing and able in this effort.
Voices is a poetic performance piece and artistic campaign. The creative process is just as crucial as the piece itself. This is an urgent call for submissions of poems and monologues written by Black Women for all women and those who love them. The performance piece will ultimately be in service of and for women to speak to the complexities of their experiences as well as an inclusive vision for change, justice, compassion and solidarity. We seek to encourage and establish a world that nurtures radical truth telling love. We welcome all poems and monologues that speak to our hurt, our hope, and our wisdom. Poems that cast spells and poems that animate the future we know is possible. We want paintings, portraits, collages, and illustrations that establish our visions for a world where we are heard.
Here are several prompts to inspire and animate our submissions. Please feel free to write in response to any of these prompts:
For the full list of prompts, visit this page HERE.
View the Voices website and submission guidelines HERE.
READ Aja’s letter announcing her coming on board as V-Day Artistic Creative Director, Voices and V’s letter to activists on the announcement of VOICES, and The Vagina Monologues taking a bow from the V-Day movement.
READ the recent interview with Aja and V (formerly Eve Ensler) in The Guardian.
