Just showed up on my radar, courtesy of Racialicious. The documentary features conversations between two formidable women who dedicated their lives to civil rights struggles in the US. Scholar/activist, Angela Davis, and Yuri Kochiyama, a revered grassroots community activist and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Offering critical lessons, topics discussed include the role of women in social movements of the 20th century, community empowerment, the prison industrial complex, war and the cultural arts.
The award-winning film debuted at the San Francisco Black Film Festival this June (according to IMDB), and has been screening around the country since then, with its first non-US play-date happening next month, in South Africa.
Keep up with future screening announcements via the production company’s website HERE.
Until this past week I knew Nicki Minaj before I even heard of Jasmine Mans. My inbox was being flooded with subject lines, "Poet Slams Nicki", "Poet Puts Nicki in Her Place", and "This Girl Is Hating on Minaj or Schooling Her? What You Think?"
I started to ignore it as some more built up "beef game" between the two people. Plus I've never listened to a Nicki Minaj song--only heard one verse from one song. Can't even think of the song let alone tell you what she said. I just mostly know her from the images I've seen of her circulated on the Internet. I heard comparisons to Lil Kim, Drake's so-called obsessions with her and I even have a few of my former students who love her to death--even rock their hair like her.
My point? I wouldn't know if Jasmine Mans was dissing her or not, because I don't know much about Nicki Minaj. However, I'm sure my assumptions about her presentation is on point. She's selling sex and giving the consumers what they want. It's not anything new but a change is needed.
Soooooo, I decided to go to AllHipHop.com to see what all of the Jasmine Mans hype is all about. She performed an original poem titled “The Mis-Education of a Barbie” during the 2010 Stomp Da Madness competition at the University of Wisconsin. I admit the first time I watched it, I was caught up in her delivery style more than the words.
I pressed rewind and read the lyrics along with her delivery the second time. I was impressed with the content, and I didn't see it as a diss. I saw it as encouragement from another sistah. Watch it for yourself, and please read the words before you judge.
Jasmine Mans at the 2010 Stomp Da Madness at University of Wisconsin- Madison.
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///////LYRICS///////
Nicki Minaj Poem
You are being traded paper in exchange for you to be plasticAll Dolls will evidentially mal-function(I don't even know why you girls bother at this point like give it up, it 's me I win you lose)Nicki MInaj,(It's me)I must admit(Its, its me)I have always been intrigued by your ass,I guess that's what the world looked like after falling from your shoulders.(Like give it up)You have the heartbeat of a suicide bomber A baseline breathing out of your pulseYour thighs play storage for the weight of the worldI dreamt that you used to back packed, the lost raps, of Female MCs who could not find their way out the cipher(Its just like I single handedly annihilated like every rape bitch in the build)Traded in your crown for unsharpened pencils and blank CDs(Like give it up)Do you ever feel a cord gripping on your neck, choke, spit?Don't let this industry fuck the Assata out of you(Harijuku-Barbie)Can and will never be code for queenYou are a Queen no matter how many times they try to shuffle you back in tape decks.Bi Sex, straight, you've earned my respect(You da Bestest)But I know your spine binds and crooked linesAnd you can't seem to write a rhyme for your broken daughtersSlaughter, bent over back, ass cracked, bitch slapped, in videosThere is nothing pedal bike pretty about brokenDo you know what this media is trying to do to you?They will porcelain(Barbie)Doll the shit out of youLeave you noose necked hanging from Zion they will Lauryn Hill youThe mis-education of a Barbie doll coming soon(I just had an epiphany)Barbie, I think NYC is making you forget you come from QueensIts scary when you have wack MCs trying to ghost write your obituary(You should buy a 16 cuz I write it good)Your existence is not recyclable to me(Barbie)Stop spitting me toy storiesOf Woodys and Buzzlight Years who only come alive when no body is watchingFake breastOnce upon a time before puberty and tissue filled training bras all little girls wanted a toy chestWhat do you treasure? *You have turned your G-spot into a land-mindDirty, disgustingWe have been waiting centuries for a woman like you to carve your stiletto in historyThis microphone is not a dildo so you are going to have to cum a little harder than that,(I, win, I win, you lose)Come a little harder for rapToo many women before you have laid down tracks -- UNIT...Y?So you wouldn't have to record your on your backSpit some shit it for girls who kiss girls and got beat down to their backsWe will remember you for thatLips sync your screams and remember your inflections and copyright your rapsMC(Barbie)For young money anyone can buy themselves their own ( I'm Nick Minaj, Nicki Lewinski, Nicki Barbie, the boss)Crown, Vagina, Womanhood, and Talent,All Sold separately(Barbie)You are being stabbed in the backInserted with a wind up string and a tag?(R, R, R, Roger that)
Jasmine Mans was on point.
I think Nicki Minaj isn't the only one in the rap game selling sex, degrading self, spitting un-cultivating content (I could be wrong) and riding the wave of their moment. That includes the men.
The problem I think is that the power and presence of the female MC is so extinct right now that Nicki Minaj is an easy target. She's the only thing hot right now--from the people's perspective. Who is her contender? What about the ones who spit conscious lyrics and represent high civilization? Do you even know who they are? Do they have a PR machine, major sponsors and labels behind them like Nicki Minaj? Uhm, nope!
Matter of fact I hate that it took all of this hype for me to hear of Jasmine Mans. She's brilliant!
Hip-Hop artist Queen Yonasda wrote in a editorial "Hip Hop Needs The Balance of the Feminine Power", "Something I have been telling people in the past 7 years I have been rapping professionally is that Hip Hop isn't dead it just needs a balance it needs a queen.. but not just one "queen" it needs the balance of the feminine power." (Note: I support her. Please read the entire editorial)
The lyrics by Jasmine go beyond Nicki Minaj. I don't know how long she will be around, but I know somewhere in every inner city in America another "Nicki Minaj" is being groomed in the club, the projects, the video shoot, and even in the schools. Somewhere there is a mother yelling to her baby girl "shake it baby" as she's mimicking the latest dance moves. It's a systemic problem rooted in a mindset that has to be destroyed. That's what I saw Jasmine addressing--a culture of degradation.
But of course including Nicki Minaj in your piece adds to the hype—even if the hype wasn’t Jasmine’s aim. You know what, maybe people should have asked Jasmine what did she set out to accomplish with this piece? In a recent post on her blog she said, "My piece is not a “diss,” it is a dare....I dare Nicki Minaj to be a PHENOMENAL WOMAN and not a phenomenal "Barbie."
I chose to look past the hype and extract the message. And since this video has exceeded 100,000 views, maybe Nicki Minaj had a chance to view it. Her crew may have chalked it up as "hatin" like most did. I didn't. I saw it as sincere advice.
Two hip hop artists I've had on my blog, Jasiri X and Dee-1, were accused of hating on certain popular rappers when they only spoke truth about them in their videos “Just A Minstrel” and “Jay, 50 and Weezy”, respectively.
Personally, I rarely buy hip hop music anymore and I’m not into 99% of the magazines on the shelf right now because it’s more sex ads than intellectually stimulating content. I prefer reading print and online publications like The Final Call Newspaper and Hurt 2 Healing Magazine.
Critique is not hatin’. Grow up, already!
Jasmine Mans came with truth. She said in the poem, "You are being traded paper in exchange for you to be plastic/All Dolls will evidentially mal-function."
The message I got from this is: How about YOU be the next real you and stop living a fake life. That's not just for Nicki Minaj....because alot of us living like malfunctioning dolls in our daily lives impersonating someone else. So we hide behind masks the other 364 days outside of Halloween.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad says, "Accept Your Own and Be Yourself."
P.S.--Once you have calmed down from the hype (smile), check out Jasmine's piece "Michelle Obama"...now let's see if this one gets 100,000 views....uhm. Probably won't.
(You're welcome to follow Brother Jesse Muhammad further onTwitter or become a friend onFacebook)
Tanya Simon, a literary agent, asked herself that question while pregnant with her daughter, now 4. She answered by reaching back in time to Zora Neale Hurston, a canonical Harlem Renaissance writer, and imagining her as a girl detective. Ms. Simon and her close friend Victoria Bond put flesh on that idea with “Zora and Me,” an evocative mystery published last month by Candlewick Press.
The novel depicts Hurston as a bright, imaginative fourth grader, living with her family and friends in an all-black Florida town, around 1900. Zora, Carrie (the first-person narrator) and their friend Teddy try to figure out what happened when a man’s headless body is discovered by the railroad tracks.
Erin Baiano for The New York Times
Lucy Anne Hurston, center, with the authors Victoria Bond, left, and T. R. Simon, who both wrote "Zora and Me."
“Fictionalizing Zora gave us creative freedom,” said Ms. Bond, a 31-year-old lecturer in composition and classics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who has an M.F.A. in creative writing.
Added Ms. Simon, 44, who writes under the name T. R. Simon: “We wanted to write a book that would help people fall in love with Zora. I wanted them to be able to see that bridge from childhood intellectual curiosity to adult production.”
“Zora and Me” is the first book not written by Hurston that has been endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust, created in 2002 to manage the business of bringing Hurston’s work to a widening audience. (Some 500,000 copies of her books are sold each year, according to the trust.) The buzz so far has been good: Kirkus Reviews called the 192-page mystery “absolutely outstanding.”
Victoria Sanders, the agent for the book and the literary representative for the trust, said the endorsement helped the authors obtain a six-figure advance and a deal with Candlewick to produce two sequels. Ms. Simon even subsequently joined Ms. Sanders’s literary agency.
In Hurston the writers have a heroine whose life story had enough adventure to fill many more novels.
Courtesy of American Philosophical Society Producer: Thirteen/WNET New York
The Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston.
Born in 1891, Hurston wrote four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays and essays, the most famous being her 1937 novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” about a woman’s lifelong struggle to be true to herself amid family and social pressures. Beyond the novels, Hurston studied anthropology at Barnard College, received a Guggenheim Fellowship to observe West Indian spiritual practices, and collected black folk tales in the South.
While she died in poverty and obscurity in 1960, she entered the literary canon in the 1980s after the 1978 reissue of “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The rerelease was due largely to Alice Walker, the author of “The Color Purple,” who credited Hurston as a huge influence on her own writing, and to Robert E. Hemenway’s revelatory Hurston biography in 1977.
At a recent fish-and-chips dinner in New York, Lucy Anne Hurston, a niece of Hurston’s and another of her biographers, grew teary-eyed as she talked with Ms. Bond and Ms. Simon about the new project. “This was the most reverent representation of Zora I’d ever seen,” said Ms. Hurston, an associate professor of sociology at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, and one of the trustees of the estate.
While the trust has created a Hurston Web site with HarperCollins (which publishes Hurston’s books), ZoraNealeHurston.com, and supports efforts like literary awards programs, most of the projects that have come its way over the years have fallen short, Ms. Hurston said.
Many overtures were shoddy proposals for theatrical productions and films, Ms. Sanders said. Here, she added, was a project that deeply appealed to her.
“Zora and Me” is set in Hurston’s real hometown, Eatonville, Fla., which bills itself as the country’s oldest incorporated black township. Its main characters — Zora, who tells outrageous stories (including one about a murderous human-gator creature); Carrie, an observant tomboy; and Teddy, a sweet farm boy — are best friends. In solving the murder of a stranger named Ivory they confront adult secrets and grapple with the meaning of death.
Mostly, “Zora and Me” evokes a world of un-self-conscious blackness and children steeped in games and fantasy in a moral, tightknit community. Although Zora, Carrie and Teddy remain unscarred by the racial politics of the Jim Crow era (there is a subplot about passing), their parents sometimes disappoint them. And there is the inevitable gaggle of mean girls.
“I tried to stick to how she perceived herself as a kid,” Ms. Bond said of the book’s depiction of a young Hurston. “She loved herself, but not in a cloying, narcissistic way.”
Ms. Bond, who lives in Manhattan, and Ms. Simon, who lives in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., finished their novel in a year. They traded revised drafts and researched Hurston’s life by reading her work, biographies and her 1942 autobiography, “Dust Tracks on a Road.” Their book includes a timeline of Hurston’s life and a bibliography of the children’s folk tales collected by Hurston that have been adapted by various authors.
Lisa Von Drasek, the children’s librarian at the Bank Street College of Education in Manhattan, said “Zora and Me” had generated excitement. “I’ve got 50 kids reading it,” Ms. Von Drasek said. “I think it’s exquisite. It’s everything we want from historical fiction — that sense of place and time.”
The book is especially welcome because of the paucity of black characters in quality children’s literature, said Kathleen T. Horning, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. According to the center’s statistics, about 5,000 children’s books were published in the United States in 2009, and 157 featured major black characters.
Numbers aside, Ms. Simon and Ms. Bond said that their biggest hope was to have woven a good tale, one starring black children who are as bright and brave as Zora Neale Hurston herself.
“We are the ultimate plucky heroines!” Ms. Simon said. “Black girls!”
The legal ability of people with felony convictions to vote varies from state to state. Some states allow felons to vote from prison while other states permanently ban felons from voting even after being released from prison, parole, and probation, and having paid all their fines.
The chart below provides links to each state's laws on felon voting and places each US state within one of five categories ranging from harshest (column A) to least restrictive (column E). For the 12 most restrictive states in column Amoredetails have been provided, including applications for re-enfranchisement and clemency.
No federal laws exist on felon voting per se. Felon voting has not been regulated federally although some argue that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be applied to felon disenfranchisement and that Congress has the authority to legislate felon voting in federal elections.
Anyone convicted of a misdemeanor in the District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, South Carolina, and South Dakota may not vote while incarcerated. In Iowa, only persons convicted of an "aggravated" misdemeanor cannot vote while incarcerated. In West Virginia, persons convicted of an elections related misdemeanor cannot vote while incarcerated. In the remaining 40 states, individuals may vote by absentee ballot while incarcerated.
Kentucky and Missouri additionally require an executive pardon before allowing people convicted of certain misdemeanors ("high misdemeanors” in KY and "elections-related misdemeanors” in MO) from ever voting again.
Notes and Re-enfranchisement Applications:
Alabama - Some persons convicted of a felony may apply to have their vote restored immediately upon completion of their full sentence. Those convicted of certain felony offenses such as murder, rape, incest, sexual crime against children, and treason are not eligible for re-enfranchisement. Instructions for Voting Restoration, State of Alabama (18KB) (as of July 31, 2008) Alabama Code: Section 17-3-31 (7KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Arizona - Automatic voting restoration upon completion of sentence and payment of all fines for first-time, single felony offenders. Second time felony offenders may apply for restoration with their county after completion of their sentence. Instructions for Voting Restoration, State of Arizona (25KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Delaware - Persons convicted of a felony must wait five years after completion of their sentence to automatically regain the ability to vote. Persons convicted of some violent felonies such as murder, manslaughter, and sex offenses must seek a formal pardon from the governor. Delaware Code: Section 2 (7KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Florida - Some individuals convicted of non-violent felonies are re-enfranchised automatically by the Clemency Board upon completion of their full sentence, including payment of fines and fees. Individuals who have previously been convicted of certain felonies such as murder, assault, child abuse, drug trafficking, arson, etc. are not eligible for automatic voting restoration. Individuals convicted of such crimes may apply to the governor for clemency to ask that the ability to vote be restored. Florida Rules of Executive Clemency (76KB) (as of July 31, 2008) Florida Clemency Application (64KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Iowa - "Executive Order 42 grants a blanket restoration of citizenship rights [including voting restoration and holding public office] for all offenders that completely discharged their sentences, including any term of probation, parole, or supervised release as of July 4, 2005. After July 4, 2005, the Department of Corrections will forward to the Governor each month a record of offenders that have discharged their sentences, including any accompanying term of probation, parole, or supervised release. The Governor will consider without undue delay these individuals for a restoration of citizenship rights. If granted, a restoration of citizenship certificate will be issued to the offender’s last known address. [...] For offenders that will completely discharge their sentences after July 4, 2005, a record of their names will automatically be sent each month to the Governor, who will determine whether restoration is warranted. Offenders may still file an application for a restoration of citizenship rights to the Governor at any time after a conviction."
Although the Governor has discretion over whether or not to grant restoration, in practice (as of Sep. 23, 2008), persons convicted of a felony have been automatically re-enfranchised in the state of Iowa. May 10, 2007, "Restoration of Citizenship Rights – Frequently Asked Questions," website of the Governor of Iowa Executive Order 42 (686KB) - Signed July 4, 2005, Thomas J. Vilsack, JD, Governor (D) Iowa Clemency Application (115KB) (as of July 31, 2008) Iowa Voter Brochure (430KB) (as of Sep. 22, 2008)
Kentucky - The ability to vote can be restored only when the Governor approves an application for an executive pardon from an individual convicted of a felony after completion of his/her sentence. Application for Restoration of Civil Rights, State of Kentucky (69KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Mississippi - Persons convicted of a felony are barred from voting only if they have been convicted of one or more of the following 21 specific felony crimes (in alphabetical order): armed robbery, arson, bigamy, bribery, carjacking, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, statutory rape, theft, timber larceny, and unlawful taking of a vehicle. Individuals convicted of felonies other than the 21 listed above may vote at all times - including while they are incarcerated.
To regain the ability to vote, an individual, after completion of his/her sentence, must go to his/her state representative and convince them to personally author a bill reenfranchising that individual. Both houses of the legislature must then pass the bill. Re-enfranchisement can also be granted directly by the governor.
Nebraska - Persons convicted of a felony are automatically permitted to vote two years after completion of their sentence for all convictions except treason. A Guide to Ex Felon Voting Rights in Nebraska (72KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Nevada - The vote is automatically restored to all persons convicted of a non-violent felony after the sentence completion. Persons convicted of a violent felony and all second- time felony offenders (whether violent or non-violent) are not automatically re-enfranchised. Those individuals must seek restoration of their voting abilities in the court in which they were convicted. Nevada Code (26KB) (as of Sep. 22, 2008)
Tennessee - All persons convicted of a felony since 1981, except for some serious felonies such as murder, rape, treason and voter fraud, may apply to the Board of Probation and Parole for voting restoration upon completion of their sentence. Tennessee General Assembly, Public Chapter 860 (31KB) (as of July 31, 2008) Tennessee Voting Restoration Application (66KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Washington- On Jan. 5, 2010, a three judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in Farrakhan v. Gregoire (229 KB) that Washington's felon disenfranchisement law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and that plaintiffs "demonstrated that the discriminatory impact of Washington’s felon disenfranchisement is attributable to racial discrimination." According to a press release (95 KB) from Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, the ruling will allow "inmates currently behind bars to vote in Washington."
[Editors Note:In an interview with ProCon.org on Jan. 6, 2010, Sam Reed's office stated that they were expecting the Attorney General to appeal this decision (the office announced later that day that the case will be appealed to the US Supreme Court). The office also stated that until guidance is received from the Washington Attorney General's Office as to how this ruling should be implemented, the "status quo" remains in place; incarcerated felons will not be allowed to vote.]
Previous rulings in Washington:In 2006, in the case of Madison v. State of Washington, voting was restored "to all felons who have satisfied the terms of their sentences except for paying legal financial obligations, and who, due to their financial status, are unable to pay their legal financial obligations immediately."This language, from a King County superior Court order (583KB), was appealed to the Washington State Supreme Court (630KB).
On July 26, 2007, the Washington State Supreme Court reversed the King County superior Court order and ruled that persons convicted of a felony in the state of Washington who were convicted after July 1, 1984 have their ability to vote restored once all probation/parole is completed and all fines are paid.
Wyoming - People convicted of a first-time non-violent felony may apply to the Board of Parole for voting restoration five years after completion of their sentence, all others convicted of a felony must apply directly to the governor five years after completion of their sentence to have their voting ability restored. 2003 Restoration of Voting Rights Bill (123KB) Wyoming Restoration of Voting Rights Application (14KB) (as of July 31, 2008)
Susana Esther Baca de la Colina (b. Chorrillos, Lima Province, Peru, 1944) is a prominentPeruvian singer of Afro-Peruvian descent. She has been a key figure in the revival of Afro-Peruvian music within Peru (see, for example, dancers from the Perú Negro troupe, as well as "Festejo" music), which, like the culture that produced it, had previously been little recognized, but which is now regarded as an important part of Peruvian culture. Baca has contributed much to its international popularity, which began in 1995 with the release of the compilation CD The Soul of Black Peru. The album, which features the Baca song "Maria Lando", was released by the Luaka Bop record label, which belongs to ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. —Wikipedia
Live at Joe's
Susana Baca and her band with guests David Byrne, John Medeski and Marc Ribot
Samba Malató
La Gran SUSANA BACA interpretando SAMBA MALATO en el gran Concierto en Washinton junto a Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Stefan y otros famosos... Su grupo musical esta integrado por grandes musicos peruanos como: David Pinto, bajista y director musical, Hugo Bravo en la Persusión Jose Medrano " Cotito" en el Cajón, y Favio Muñoz en la Guitarra... ARRIBA LA MUSICA PERUANA..........
Live in Athens
LIVE FROM WOMAD 2002 ATHENS GREECE ΑΘΗΝΑ FILMED BY THITAKAPA
Trailer for upcoming film by Eshe Lewis and Gabriela Rodriguez....
The legacy of slavery and has reached every corner of the Americas, and as diasporic racialized people, we went to Peru to have conversations about what racism and resistance looks like there, and how it relates to racism and resistance in Canada, our home.In a world where people tend to quantify some places as "more racist" or "less racist" than others, this film makes the resolute point that we must understand spaces as "differently" racist, but never "more" or "less" so than others. From Peru to Canada, and everywhere else for that matter, people are actively resisting racism in its many potent and diverse forms.The conversations in this film explore the role of music in black identity, how "black" means many different things to many different people, and about the unique experience of blackness in Peru. Most importantly, however, it sheds light on the universality of localized liberatory struggles against racism, and reminds us of the need for nuanced understanding and adamant resistence to racism across borders.
$2,000 and publication for a first book of poems
Judge: David Wojahn
Guidelines:
Eligibility: Poets writing in English who have not previously published or self-published a full-length collection (48+ pages) of poems.
Please include a $15 reading fee. Checks should be made payable to New Issues Press.
Postmark Deadline: November 30, 2010. The winning manuscript will be named in April 2011 and published in the spring of 2012.
General Guidelines:
Submit a manuscript at least 48 pages in length, typed on one side, single-spaced preferred. Photocopies are acceptable. Please do not bind manuscript. Include a brief bio, relevant publication information, cover page with name, address, phone number, and title of the manuscript, and a page with only the title.
Enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification that the manuscript has been received. For notification of title and author of the winning manuscript enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Manuscripts will be recycled.
A manuscript may be submitted that is being considered elsewhere but New Issues should be notified upon the manuscript’s acceptance elsewhere.
Send manuscripts and queries to:
The New Issues Poetry Prize
(or) The Green Rose Prize
New Issues Poetry & Prose
Western Michigan University
1903 West Michigan Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5463
James Bertolino’s tenth volume of poetry, Finding Water, Holding Stone, was published in 2009 by Cherry Grove Collections. He has taught creative writing at Cornell University, University of Cincinnati, Western Washington University and Willamette University, where he was Writer in Residence. His own work has received several national prizes, and he served as judge for the 2009 and 2010 American Book Awards in poetry.
Submission Guidelines
We prefer chapbooks that have a theme, either obvious (i.e. chapbook about a divorce) or understated (i.e. all the poems mention the color blue). We like a collection that feels more like a whole than a sampling of work. We have no preference as to formal or free verse.
16 to 26 pages of poetry, plus a table of contents and acknowledgements (if applicable).
Please number all your pages.
Include 2 cover sheets, one with title, author information (including email and phone), and one just with the title.
Reading Fee: $20, checks payable to Concrete Wolf.
SASE for results only. Manuscripts cannot be returned.
Include a 10 by 12 postage-paid envelope stamped with $2.10 postage, if you'd like a copy of the winning chapbook.
Simultaneous and multiple submissions okay. Notify us by email if you need to remove your chapbook from consideration.
Winner will be announced in February 2011 and published Fall 2011.
Each year we award the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize ($1,000 and publication) to a writer living west of the central time zone. The contest also serves as our best pool for finding new voices. You need not enter the contest to submit to us, but our first allegiance is to manuscripts that come with a reading fee since they help to keep the press going. Like many small independent presses Bear Star is a labor of love. The editors do not make a salary from the contest.
Competition Information & Guidelines
Manuscripts will be read in September, October, and November. Postmark deadline is 30 November 2010.
Manuscripts should be between 50 and 65 pages in length.
All work must be original and accompanied by a $20 reading fee. Previously published poems can be included in your manuscript if you retain the copyright (this is standard).
Writer must currently reside in the Western States (those within Mountain or Pacific time zones, plus Alaska & Hawaii). Previously unpublished writers are welcome to submit!
Any form or subject is acceptable. Use a plain 10-12 font.
Rights revert to author upon publication.
Simultaneous submissions absolutely fine so long as we are apprised of changes in manuscript status.
Please do not send your manuscript by registered mail (doing so necessitates a 40-mile roundtrip drive to the P.O., very inconvenient for us). If you want to know whether we have received your work, simply enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard.
Winner notified on or before February 2010. Check web site for winner information or send a SASE marked “results.”
Publication by Fall 2010 (with luck, in Summer 2010).
Name, address, and phone number should appear on a separate cover sheet only.
No manuscripts will be returned. They will be recycled. Please do not send your only copy. Please DO send SASE for contest results.
Electronic submissions are strongly encouraged as they save us a trek to the mailbox. Using Submishmash—developed by writers for writers—is fast and easy. Click here to submit.
If you are unable to submit electronically, mail submissions to:
Bear Star Press 185 Hollow Oak Dr. Cohasset, CA 95973
Good Luck!
And since you asked... Manuscripts are judged in-house. Depending on volume, other readers are tapped, but they are always poets too. Since it is entirely likely that entering more than once means your manuscript will be read by one or more of the same readers as before, it is probably in your best interest to rework your material a little before resubmitting. In accordance with CLMP's code of ethics, friends and former students of readers will be automatically disqualified from entering the contest.
________________________
Dorothy Brunsman Spencer was born in LaMoure, North Dakota. As the oldest daughter of seven children in a farming family she had a lot of responsibilities, but whenever she wasn't working she had her nose in a book, a habit that has persisted to this day. Now 84, she lives in Placitas, New Mexico, with her husband Donald, a playwright. Politically active, especially in pro-choice matters, she is also an accomplished photographer. She insists that her brother John Brunsman receive partial credit for the prize awarded in her name since he left her the stipend from which it comes. (Thanks, Uncle John, and rest in peace.) Without her support and generosity, Bear Star would likely never have gotten off the ground. A million thanks, Mom!
Poet, novelist, and activist Alice Walker discusses her new poetry collection "Hard Times Require Furious Dancing" and shares her thoughts on writing. Host Michel Martin speaks with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
Excerpt: 'Hard Times Require Furious Dancing'
by Alice Walker
New World Library
October 20, 2010
Preface
I am the youngest of eight siblings. Five of us have died. I share losses, health concerns, and other challenges common to the human condition, especially in these times of war, poverty, environmental devastation, and greed that are quite beyond the most creative imagination. Sometimes it all feels a bit too much to bear. Once a person of periodic deep depressions, a sign of mental suffering in my family that affected each sibling differently, I have matured into someone I never dreamed I would become: an unbridled optimist who sees the glass as always full of something. It may be half full of water, precious in itself, but in the other half there’s a rainbow that could exist only in the vacant space. I have learned to dance.
New World Library
It isn’t that I didn’t know how to dance before; everyone in my community knew how to dance, even those with several left feet. I just didn’t know how basic it is for maintaining balance. That Africans are always dancing (in their ceremonies and rituals) shows an awareness of this. It struck me one day, while dancing, that the marvelous moves African Americans are famous for on the dance floor came about because the dancers, especially in the old days, were contorting away various knots of stress. Some of the lower-back movements handed down to us that have seemed merely sensual were no doubt created after a day’s work bending over a plow or hoe on a slave driver’s plantation.
Wishing to honor the role of dance in the healing of families, communities, and nations, I hired a local hall and a local band and invited friends and family from near and far to come together, on Thanksgiving, to dance our sorrows away, or at least to integrate them more smoothly into our daily existence. The next generation of my family, mourning the recent death of a mother, my sister-in-law, created a spirited line dance that assured me that, though we have all encountered our share of grief and troubles, we can still hold the line of beauty, form, and beat — no small accomplishment in a world as challenging as this one.
Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is the proof.
Calling All Grand Mothers
We have to live differently
or we will die in the same
old ways.
Therefore I call on all Grand Mothers everywhere on the planet to rise and take your place in the leadership of the world
Come out of the kitchen out of the fields out of the beauty parlors out of the television
Step forward & assume the role for which you were created: To lead humanity to health, happiness & sanity.
I call on all the Grand Mothers of Earth & every person who possesses the Grand Mother spirit of respect for life & protection of the young to rise & lead. The life of our species depends on it.
& I call on all men of Earth to gracefully and gratefully
stand aside & let them (let us) do so.
From the book Hard Times Require Furious Dancing. Copyright 2010 by Alice Walker. Printed with permission from New World Library.
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(229 KB) that Washington's felon disenfranchisement law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and that plaintiffs "demonstrated that the discriminatory impact of Washington’s felon disenfranchisement is attributable to racial discrimination." According to a 
