ROY DeCARAVA

(December 9, 1919 – October 27, 2009) 

 

Roy DeCarava, one of my Friday Inspirations back in August passed away this week at the age of 89.

Roy DeCarava trained to be a painter, but while using a camera to gather images for his printmaking work, he began to gravitate toward photography, in part because of its immediacy but also because of the limitations he saw all around him for a black artist in a segregated nation. Over a career spanning almost 70 years, DeCarava came to be regarded as the founder of a school of African-American photography that broke with the social documentary traditions of his time. He turned his neighborhood of Harlem into his canvas and became one of the most important photographers of his generation by chronicling its people

The NY Times has a slideshow and more information.

Roy DeCarava was born in December 1919 in the Harlem section of New York City, where he was raised by his single mother. He began working at an early age to earn money, and continued to hold odd jobs throughout most of his career as a photographer. He eventually secured admission to The Cooper Union, but left after two years to attend classes at the Harlem Art Center.

In 1955, DeCarava and his wife opened a gallery in the front part of their brownstone apartment on 85th Street called, A Photographer’s Gallery. Although the gallery was only open for two years, it helped pioneer an effort to win recognition for photography as a fine art. Because he felt very strongly about maintaining the artistic integrity of his images, he eventually gave up magazine and freelance work in order to take on a job teaching at Hunter College, where he’s been for over thirty years.

DeCarava was the first African American photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work has been the subject of 15 solo exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art in 1996. And in 2006 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

 

© 2001-2011 Thomas Murphy

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>via: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/10/decarava.html

SARRAOUNIA

sarraounia:

Sarraounia

(une reine Africaine),

Med Hondo, 1986

One of my favorite movies from one of my favorite directors. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Nigerien author Abdoulaye Mamani, in which he tells the Battle of Lougou.

Sarraounia was a warrior queen hailing from Lougou. She was a Azna (a group of resistant Animists who rejected Christianity and Islam, most of them were Hausa) who fought against French colonialism, and particularly the barbaric Voulet-Chanoine mission during which the French attempted to lay claim to territories from the Niger river to Lac Chad. 

Although there are controversies among Nigeriens about the ethnic group she belonged to, Sarraounia was probably Hausa. She was one of few leaders that resisted the advances of French expansionists Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine.

Wiki synopsis: The story takes place in Niger (but filmed in Burkina Faso) and the surrounding region of the Sahel. It begins with the initiation and establishment as queen of the Aznas of a young girl. The young queen, Sarraounia, becomes an accomplished warrior when she defends her tribe from an enemy tribe. Accomplished in archery and herbalism, she is a renowned “sorceress”. Meanwhile, French colonialists Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine set out to conquer new lands for the French colonial empire. As they advance across the land they rape women and leave burning villages in their wake.

When Abdoulaye Mamani published the novel, he gave a copy to Med Hondo who decided to adapt it into a film. As well as using the book for reference, Hondo conducted research with Mamani, interviewing older Nigerien people and accessing material in the national archives. Aï Keïta, the actress playing Sarraounia was chosen after Med Hondo witnessed a confrontation between her and a family member. He initially had her in mind for a small role (Amina, a loyal friend of Sarraounia)…

Sarraounia won the Étalon de Yennenga prize at the 1987 Panafrican Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). Historian Frank Ukadike called it “a landmark of African cinema, the most ambitious for its inventiveness, professionalism and dedication.” Writing for The Boston Phoenix, Chris Fujiwara said that the film avoids clichés, calling it a “large-scale epic drama” that is “both ironic and celebratory”. I definitely recommend this movie, simply one of the best African film I have ever seen (aesthetic and historical perspectives).

Trailer

(via afrikanwomen)

Rape on Campus

By Kenrya Rankin

One in five female students has been sexually assaulted

 

For most students, college is a dream, full of promise, ripe with new experiences for academic and social growth. But for too many women enrolled in undergraduate school, college ends up being a waking nightmare. One in five female students experience either attempted or completed sexual assault during their tenure, according to a study in the Journal of American College Health, making rape the most common violent crime on college campuses nationwide (6 percent of men are assaulted). Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) may be a bastion of opportunity for black women, but nearly one in seven have reported assault there, too.

Beyond campus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that women are four times more likely to be violated between the ages of 18 and 24 than at any other time. And while 17.7 percent of all white women experience some type of sexual assault in their lifetime, that rate is 18.8 percent for black women, and 24.4 percent for those who identify as mixed race.

But these numbers don’t tell the whole story—the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that just 27 percent of all rapes were reported last year. On college campuses, that report rate drops to a mere 5 percent.

There seems to be a perfect storm of issues that make students especially vulnerable to sexual assault during their college years. “College campuses can foster a false sense of security. Rapists look to exploit vulnerabilities that can arise in these environments, as students let their guards down in social situations. The majority of these assaults are committed by someone known to the victim,” says Katherine Hull, spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

That’s the case at least 80 percent of the time, whether they are currently in an intimate relationship or casual acquaintances. Women (and men) are less likely to report assault when it’s at the hands of someone they know for many reasons, including fear of retaliation, concern that the school won’t help them, uncertainty as to whether it was rape, worry that they won’t be believed, and feelings of guilt and shame.

[ALSO READ: Republicans and Their Obsession with Rape]

Alcohol and drug consumption are also tied to an increased risk of assault. Nine out of 10 campus cases involve alcohol, according to the Center for Problem Oriented Policing, with both offenders and victims imbibing before the attack. Drinking is associated with heightened aggression, misreading of cues, and a decreased ability to protect oneself.

The job of protecting students naturally falls to the universities where the assaults are happening. But recent high-profile cases, like one at Amherst College that resulted in suicide, have left some wondering if they are doing enough. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) research shows that nearly half of all college students ages 18 to 24 have five or more drinks in one sitting at least once a month. Yet six years after NIAAA issued evidence-based recommendations to colleges to reduce student drinking, a follow-up study found that only 3 percent of colleges had implemented all of them (just 39 percent had executed some of them). The National Institute of Justice found that only 40 percent of schools offer sexual violence prevention programs, and less than one-third of those programs include information on reducing acquaintance rape, despite the fact that it is the most common type.

Things don’t look much better when it comes to prosecuting rapists. The Center for Public Integrity’s yearlong probe found that even when students are deemed “responsible” for a sexual assault, they don’t meet with consequences that victims and advocates consider adequate. In fact, they discovered that among approximately 130 schools included in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women’s database, only 10 percent to 25 percent of perpetrators found to be at fault are expelled. Schools say they treat the assaults as teachable moments, choosing not to deter the men from earning their education, instead opting for social probation, counseling, research assignments about sexual violence, letters of apology and short-term suspension in hopes of reforming them.

The problem with that? A 20-year study found that most men who commit rape in college aren’t guys who accidentally crossed the line in a drunken case of misunderstanding. They are often serial rapists—more than half of them are repeat offenders, responsible for, on average, 5.8 offenses. “Colleges and universities must take action on all incidents and work with local law enforcement, rather than handle cases internally,” Hull says. “Schools need to clearly convey that sexual assault is a crime that they take seriously. This will not only make survivors feel supported, but it will convey to perpetrators that this crime will not be tolerated.”

The consequences of those crimes can extend far beyond a woman’s college career. In the United States, 32,000 women are impregnated each year as a result of rape. Survivors are more likely than other women to experience depression and post traumatic stress disorder. They are 26 times more likely to use drugs, 13 times more likely to drink, and 4 times more likely to consider suicide.

[ALSO READ: Rape Kits Go Untested]

Last year, the U.S. Department of Education provided new guidance to schools in response to criticism, making it clear that to receive federal funding, schools must follow all tenets of Title IX, which requires that they respond effectively to sexual violence that occurs both on and off campus. “Our first goal is prevention through education. Information is always the best way to combat sexual violence. Our larger goal is to raise awareness to an issue that should have no place in society and especially in our schools,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, during the official announcement. The Administration’s guidance outlines prevention tactics and rules for response, which include ending “hostile environments” for survivors, which could include expulsion. Guidelines do not require schools to involve local police unless it is requested.

But the best remedy is prevention. While rape is never the fault of the victim, there are things students can do to lower their risk. “Trust your instincts. If you feel unsafe in any situation, go with your gut and leave. Also, it’s important to make people earn your trust. Just because you recognize someone from class, or s/he is in your social group, doesn’t mean that they’ll look out for your best interests. Get to know people first and then decide whether to trust them,” Hull says. Find more tipson the RAINN website.

For those who have already survived an assault, there is help. Take Hull’s advice:  “It’s never too late to begin the recovery process. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) to be connected with your local rape crisis center, or chat online with a RAINN staff member.”

Solar Sister

Posted: December 8, 2012

Click for website

Solar Sister is an innovative social enterprise that empowers women in Africa with economic opportunity and clean energy. Solar Sister combines the breakthrough potential of innovations in affordable, portable and durable micro-solar technology with a deliberately woman-centered direct sales network.

Women use their “business in a bag” to become Solar Sister entrepreneurs, earning an income and bringing much needed clean energy. Access to clean energy technology enhances education, improves health and safety and provides economic opportunity.  Through economic opportunity and the transforming benefits of solar technology, women are able to lift themselves, their families and their communities out of poverty.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has developed the concept of “Momentum for Change” as a way to demonstrate the multiple benefits of addressing climate change and to transform misperceptions surrounding taking action on climate change. Solar Sister has been recognized for their positive efforts to address climate change in Uganda.

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We write what we like

about Steve Biko

December 18, 2012 By Dan Magaziner 2 Comments

Had he not died, Steve Biko would have turned 66 years old today. But since the Apartheid police murdered him two months shy of his 31st birthday, we the living are left once more to think, through Biko, about what could have been. This has been a big year for “Bikoists,” as the Johannesburg-based commentator Andile Mngxitama describes himself and his comrades. Two Biko biographies emerged—one, Steve Biko, is a short, Jacana Press/Ohio University Press pocket book by documentary filmmaker Lindy Wilson; the other, Biko: A Biography, is a greatly anticipated tome by the former director of the Steve Biko Foundation, “internationally respected political analyst and commentator” (in his publisher’s words) Xolela Mangcu.

Separately, Google’s new “Cultural Institute” collaborated with the Biko Foundation to put a “Biko archive” online and accessible to people with an internet connection. Finally, earlier this month, the Biko Foundation (founded by Biko’s son) celebrated the opening of the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, the Black Consciousness leader’s hometown in the Eastern Cape, an event attended by luminaries ranging from Biko’s comrades like Mamphela Ramphele, to Mireille Fanon, daughter of the famed post-colonial theorist and Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president. As the Biko Foundation put it in a tweet: “The crowd is chanting Biko!!! Biko!!! Biko!!!Biko!!! Ohhhhhhh you have to love Biko’s people. He Lives!” Indeed.

Yet what does it mean for a dead man to live through us, as we chant his name and claim him? Mangcu’s Biko: A Biography is a useful place to start.

Xolela Mangcu (who has a PhD in city planning from Cornell) is well known in South Africa for his columns in the Business Day newspaper and his prolific publications on the post-apartheid era. He also comes from Ginsberg and has close ties to the Biko family. Despite his legend, Biko has never had a full biography, and at over 300 pages, Mangcu’s volume attempts to satisfy that demand. Yet it is an exceedingly odd book.

The first third of Mangcu’s book is essentially a rehash of historian Noel Mostert’s Frontiers—a study of conquest and resistance in the nineteenth century Eastern Cape—with bits of various other scholars thrown in. Mangcu appears to have two arguments: the first is that as someone from the Eastern Cape, Biko was heir to a centuries-long tradition of resistance to white rule in that part of what is today South Africa. That point is well taken, if not exactly original. His second argument is harder to swallow. Thinking of Biko’s insistence that “black” was a category inclusive of South Africa’s African, Indian and Coloured populations, Mangcu writes that “Steve Biko’s political articulation of BC is reminiscent of the solidarities forged by the Xhosa and the Khoi and San in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Northern Cape frontier and the Xhosa on the nineteenth century Eastern Cape frontier—in short, between Africans and the diverse communities that go under the term ‘Coloured.’” This is both poor biography and terrible history. Never mind that South African historians have long argued that the lines between Xhosa and Khoi were blurred along their edges; never mind that it’s profoundly ahistorical to read current day (or apartheid era) tribal identities back 300 years onto a past when they would have made little sense. Is Mangcu arguing that this precedent is what Biko and late 20th century Black Consciousness had in mind?

For Bikoists like Mngxitama, Mangcu’s exegesis of Eastern Cape history was too much to bear. In a much-tweeted piece published by South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper, Mngxitama accused Mangcu of reducing Biko to “a Xhosa boy from the Ginsberg township,” rather than capturing the wholeness of a thinker comfortable with the complexities of Fanon and the radical desire to “make a revolution.” Mngxitama judged Mangcu’s biography ultimately “unbearable.” (Mangcu later responded by charging his accuser, essentially of being too obsessed with Fanon.)

Mngxitama was perhaps a bit too harsh. As a student of the Black Consciousness past—especially during the last wave of Biko reminiscence, on the 30th anniversary of his death in 2007—he ought to sympathize with Mangcu’s plight. Despite its many faults, the journey through Eastern Cape history is actually the most original part of Mangcu’s book. The rest, save a few titillating personal details, is entirely derivative of the few sources we have on Biko—the handful of his writings excerpted from the SASO Newsletter and elsewhere, and published in the oft-reprinted I Write What I Like volume; his testimony to the Pretoria Court in May, 1976; the odd interviews published in the press in the wake of Black Consciousness’s apparent importance after the June, 1976 Soweto uprising. Mangcu’s footnotes and bibliography reveal little original research, beyond that which Lindy Wilson did when writing the first draft of her biography in the late 1980s. (Wilson, in turn, acknowledges that her 2012 book is only an expansion of the biographical sketch she published in Bounds of Possibility in 1990.) For those who know the story of Biko, there is precious little new here; instead, Mangcu’s Biko teaches us a good deal about Xolela Mangcu—what he likes to read, with whom he is friendly, what Biko means to him. The book is easily critiqued and perhaps just as easily dismissed.

But where does that leave us? The problem is not with Mangcu or Mngxitama or the Biko Foundation or anyone else who writes or speaks in Biko’s name. Rather, the problem is with the past. Notably, both Mangcu and Wilson begin their accounts where most knowledge about Steve Biko begins—that in 1977 he was murdered by the South African state. Wilson’s approach is internationalist—Peter Gabriel’s “Biko”—Mangcu’s, not surprisingly, localist—with Biko’s cousin delivering the news of his death. These books about a man’s life thus begin at the end. They privilege not his life experience, but those that came after he was gone, and from the outset consign him to the time of memory, not history.

Mangcu, Mngxitama, the Foundation, myself—our desires, conscious or not, distort that past time when Biko could speak for himself, and the time even further past, when he could write for himself, rather than have others write for him.

When I was researching my book on Black Consciousness, I made a parlor game of asking almost everyone I met—both in South Africa and elsewhere—what they knew about Steve Biko. Overwhelmingly, it was that he had died. His death was the most famous thing about him; his murder and the publicity that surrounded it elevated his writings (written years before, and in very different contexts) to high political theory; his celebrity, the inchoate groups known as “black consciousness” to a Movement that rivaled the decades-long political organizing of the ANC.

To be sure, there were some who knew him better—comrades who worked with him in Durban and King Williamstown, family who bore their personal and public grief, others who remembered the impact that he had had on their own lives. Mangcu excels at citing his neighbors’ reminiscences, for example; “Steve got us all into politics here in Ginsberg,” remembers one of his informants, “He got everyone into politics … he would smuggle pamphlets and publications such as Staffrider.” That Staffrider was not published until after Biko’s death demonstrates the care with which memory needs to be handled (something at which Mangcu most definitely does not excel…). Yet even those who knew him well and mourned him privately are subject to time’s passing. One of the laws of historical practice is that what happens after cannot influence what happened before. However, each of us in our own lives knows that as events accumulate in our minds, they deposit sediments that sometimes seep into the bedrock beneath. Biko did not know AZAPO nor the UDF, nor the Mandela, Zuma, and ANC that we know today—nor organizations like the foundation that bears his name. Yet all still speak in his name, seek his recognition, and claim that through them, he lives.

Google’s Biko archive is by far the most modest of this year’s Bikoist submissions. It is also the only one in which Biko is fully reduced to history, to a life concluded, to a timeline of events belonging to a century long past. Ironically, it is there where we get closest to what it meant for a man named Steve Biko to have lived. It is a totally unremarkable collection—some photographs of family, of an ordinary township house, a transcript, early writings of a decidedly non-struggle nature. It is an archive of the raw materials of an intellectual life: family, school, friends, home. Of course, it is also as shot through with ideology as the other entrants in the 2012 Biko memorial sweepstakes—its unspoken message is that from these raw materials came a history-worthy life, which in turn casts a sacral light on these otherwise ordinary items. The Biko we remember renders this archive extraordinary, and urges us to learn from his example. The archive distorts the past, however modestly, to suit the needs of the present—like Mangcu, like Mngxitama, and like I’m doing right now.

As a historian, it makes me uncomfortable to see the past deployed in the present, whether subtly, bombastically, or only to disabuse today of its hubris. And yet, as a teacher, I also believe that we must learn from the past, and so the question is, in 2012, what do we learn from Biko? The grandeur of biography aside, from the Google Cultural Institute archive we see the foundation for what was to come, the first instances of Biko’s active mind in time and place. We see how he used the materials available to him in his time, to create something that would live into our own. He read Fanon, as Mngxitama insists; he thought about Hintsa, perhaps more than we know, as Mangcu asserts. He gathered materials and thought his way through his present to a hoped for future, which, all agree, has yet to arrive. During the last great Biko remembrance in 2007, Mngxitama and his colleagues published the political scientist Gail Gerhart’s 1972 interview with Biko in their edited collection, Biko Lives! In that interview, Biko revealed something of his intellectual method: “personally, I do very little reading,” he admitted, “I rarely finish a book, I always go to find something from a book.” In other words, Biko’s method was to edit, to distort—to approach someone else’s intellectual production with the needs of his, Steve Biko’s, context in mind and to suit his, Steve Biko’s, purposes. What is the lesson? From Biko, we today might learn the honesty of conscious distortion; just as he distorted Fanon to suit his purposes, so do we distort Biko to suit our own.

In what would have been his sixty-seventh year, Biko lives only as a memory we use to claim our present. He is dead and past and although we mourn him, we must admit that his continued life is subject to the whims of we who live. Maybe in his 68th year we will be honest about this, and stop claiming that he would recognize himself in our writing, in our policies, in our pretensions. We might instead aspire to do the best we can to twist and distort him, to write what we like, and thus to contribute to the creative and ongoing production of the present, in hopes that it might live to become a past worth remembering.

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* Dan Magaziner teaches African history at Yale University. The author of The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968 – 1977 (Ohio University Press / Jacana Press, 2010), he is currently writing a history of artists and art education in South Africa, from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Afropop Worldwide Presents

Hip Deep Angola Part 1 & 2

Afropop Worldwide put together a really great 4 part series on Angola entitled Hip Deep Angola. There 4 part series provides a snapshot into the development of Angola since independence until the present.

This program is a survey of how various genres of music have played an instrumental part in the cultivation of various forms of expression that have shaped Angolan cultural identity. Check out out. – LOM

2012 NEW AMERICAN POETRY PRIZE

The submission period for the 2012 New American Poetry Prize opens October 1. Winner will receive a publication contract, including 25 complimentary copies and $1,000.

Final judge this year is David Kirby, the author of more than two dozen volumes of criticism, essays, children’s literature, pedagogy, and poetry. His numerous collections of poetry include The Ha-Ha (2003), short-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and The House on Boulevard Street: New and Selected Poems (2007), a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Florida Book Award and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Award. Kirby has also won several Pushcart Prizes, the Guy Owen Prize, the Kay Deeter Award, the James Dickey Prize, the Brittingham Prize, and the Millennium Cultural Recognition Award. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Florida Arts Council. Since 1969 he has taught at Florida State University, where he has received several teaching awards.

We prefer online submissions, which save paper and help to keep things organized. To use our convenient online submission system, please click here.

To submit using traditional post, please send your manuscript (approx. 48-100 pages) and the $20 reading fee to the following address (checks payable to "New American Press"):

   New American Poetry Contest
   Attn: Okla Elliott
   2003-A S. Orchard St.
   Urbana, IL 61801

We read manuscripts blind, so please include a separate cover sheet with your manuscript's title and your name, address, telephone number, and email address, but be sure to exclude any identifying information from the manuscript itself.

Postmark deadline is December 31, 2012.

 

Please see our Frequently Asked Questions for more info.

Further questions can be directed to David Bowen.

Attention Kenyan Musicians!

Applications for OneBeat 2013,

Now Open [From Dec. 17 2012]

December 17, 2012

 

njathika

OneBeat is open to musicians ages 19-35, who demonstrate both an advanced proficiency in their musical work, an interest in cross-genre collaboration, and experience with or interest in developing strategies to use music as a way to improve their communities. If you are an adventurous, socially-committed young musician looking for a chance to collaborate with other like-minded musicians from around the world, please consider applying!

 

Program Overview: September 9 – October 6, 2013
OneBeat is an international cultural exchange that celebrates the transformative power of the arts through the creation of original, inventive music, and people-to-people diplomacy. In the fall of 2013, approximately 25 musicians (ages 19-35) from around the world will come together in the U.S. for four weeks to collaboratively write, produce, and perform original music, and develop ways that music can make a positive impact on our local and global communities.

OneBeat 2013 will take place from September 9 to October 6, and is divided into two segments, a residency and a tour. During the residency, OneBeat Fellows will spend two weeks at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in central Florida, immersed in a process of collaborative music creation and experimentation. During the two-week tour, OneBeat ensembles will collaborate with local musicians to give public performances and lead workshops with youth and community groups. OneBeat Fellows will also work with a diverse group of expert Collaborating Artists— including luminaries of classical music, hip-hop, jazz and more—to develop and deepen the scope of their collaborative work.

Eligibility
OneBeat is open to musicians ages 19-35, who demonstrate both an advanced proficiency in their musical work, an interest in cross-genre collaboration, and experience with or interest in developing strategies to use music as a way to improve their communities.

Eligible Countries
In this second year of the program, applications are open to musicians who are both residents and citizens of the following countries:
Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Egypt, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam.

Important Information for Applicants
We are glad that you are interested in applying to be a 2013 OneBeat Fellow! To prepare for the 2013 application potential applicants should plan to write about their musical background and interests as well as future projects and goals. Potential applicants will submit 3-5 solo and collaborative samples of their work (both audio and video are accepted).

Here are a few important things to know when applying for OneBeat:

1) Musicians from all musical backgrounds are welcome. Musicians from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply, with or without formal musical training, from all genres, including but not limited to: hip hop, traditional, experimental, electronic, jazz, classical, sound design, beat-making, multimedia art, or any combination of these styles. In additional to full-time professional musicians, we also invite adventurous musicians who double as community organizers, instrument builders, writers, videographers, musicologists, educators, storytellers, dancers, shadow-puppeteers, and more.

2) Collaboration is central. OneBeat offers musicians the opportunity to collaborate on new projects, and to explore new musical traditions. Rather than simply showcasing solo talent, OneBeat is meant for musicians to work together across across stylistic and cultural divides in the pursuit of new musical possibilities.

3) OneBeat is socially engaged. We are particularly looking for musicians who have a strong commitment to their communities and who are seeking new ways to engage in youth development, music education, music therapy, conflict resolution, and other musical ways of working towards more egalitarian and democratic societies.

4) OneBeat is a FREE program! (but not a paying gig) OneBeat is a free fellowship program, with all Fellows’ travel, transportation, food, and lodging costs covered. We also offer Fellows a modest stipend, as well as a per diem to cover food and other expenses while on tour. While we are not able to pay Fellows performance fees, OneBeat will offer Fellows a lot of visibility, as well as the chance to create new material, establish lifelong musical partnerships, learn new marketable skills, and develop professional connections.

 

Review Criteria

1. Musical Excellence – A high level of performance, composition, improvisational, production and/or technological skill. Ideally OneBeat musicians will be innovating either stylistically, lyrically, or technologically within their musical worlds.

2. Collaboration — Applicants’ willingness to cross cultural and musical divides in creating original music, or re-interpreting traditional music, while respecting the essence of each tradition.

3. Social Engagement – Musicians who have used music to serve their communities or greater societies. This might consist of starting a music school, promoting peace and democracy through musical content, reviving dying musical traditions, and more.

4. English Proficiency – Applicants should be able to converse in basic English, as it will be the common language of all OneBeat Fellows. Interpreters will be provided during the first and last days of the program if necessary.

5. Internet Proficiency – When possible, OneBeat Fellows should actively use email and be able to connect to the internet to participate in OneBeat website-based activities.

OneBeatSM is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and produced by Bang on A Can’s Found Sound Nation.

Full info available here: http://www.1beat.org/2013apply/

AFRICAN WRITING Online

Submissions Guidelines

We welcome submissions from our readers. Our preference is for new, unpublished work. Our natural constituency of writers and material are African or Diasporan (please interpret boldly) but we will publish any writer who writes into the African Condition (please interpret boldly). We are adventurous in our definition of Africana, but we will also publish good literature generally.

Please read us before submitting. If you are a poet, send a long poem or four smaller pieces. Essays, fiction, memoirs and other prose pieces should be 1,500 to 6000 words. Please attach a third person biography and a photograph. We aim to acknowledge submissions. Editorial decisions are usually made within a month.

We actively encourage the submission of literature in translation. We are keen to publish good writers who are not particularly familiar to readers in English. We accept submisssions throughout the year and are happy to hear your proposals for projects.

We will not publish hate literature.

We do not currently pay for submissions. This policy will soon change.

Please query before sending reviews. We are happy to receive books for review that may be of interest to our readers.

We are happy to publish event information of interest to the writing world. We are happy to receive advertising enquiries for the print and online editions.

Please send your queries and submissions to the editor