Dear Friends,
The 7th annual Black Women’s Arts Festival (July 29th thru Aug 1st,2010) will be as special and thrilling as each year before it.
Some things that are being planned are in the works, and some have been completed. Some we’re making publicly known, and others are top secret.
Here are a few new updates:
1) The Rotunda will be our primary venue again. A wonderful community arts venue, the Rotunda was our sole venue in our early years and has remained a staple of BWAF events. I am thrilled to renew my connection with the Rotunda as the sole director of BWAF for only the 2nd time since 2003.
2) A very high percentage of the featured artists, workshop presenters, and vendors will be selected from the pool of those who processed their application online (via our official website http://BWAFphilly.org, click “Submissions”). Only a small amount will, or may be hand-picked without going through the submissions process.
3) Coming Soon: Chapbook Poetry Contest Guidelines! We haven’t heard from any non-black/non-female poetry judges to add to the diversity of our panel, and we don’t have the time nor the staff to recruit them, so we’re going to just continue working on the guidelines and reward information and will have them for you soon.
FAQs:
Here are some answers to questions which may or may not be clearly answered on our website and/or submissions page:
Q: Does BWAF pay or otherwise compensate its featured artists or workshop presenters?
A: No, the BWAF does not [have the funds to] pay featured artists or workshop presenters. At this time, the only informal compensation BWAF provides is online visibility of your name and hyperlink (For example: Monica McIntyre http://myspace.com/monicamcintyre) in our many online promotions (on Yahoo Groups, Blogger/Blogspot, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, among others). As time progresses, there may be more opportunities, such as free advertising via our print and online publications/websites, but that cannot be promised. Participating in BWAF as feature is an excellent opportunity to promote yourself to a new audience, and we are happy to assist you in that end, by printing your name and link as often as we can when appropriate. Being a BWAF feature also is a great way to network with other like-minded folks, and you are welcome to photograph or videotape yourself performing at BWAF and distribute or sell the footage as you wish. Someday, BWAF may be in a position to pay artists, but until such a time, it’s a wonderful, unforgettable, very special, non-paying gig.
Q: What type of artists is BWAF looking for/Or: How does BWAF select its artists?
A: A black female-identified individual (or a collective led by a black female-identified individual) artist (dancer, singer, filmmaker, etc.) who created the work(s). The featured act/workshop/vendor can be on any level of “accomplishment”. What is very important is a web presence. If you’re out in the world making art, you should at least have a MySpace page or free blog to link with and help us promote you to our networks. Another reason we want to work with people who have regular access to the internet is because 90% of our communications will (ideally) be via email. This is not only because that’s what works best for us right now, but also because email is a great way to maintain a mutually archived record of agreements between the artist and BWAF. Because we cannot compensate travel, gasoline, nor provide lodging for out of town artists, we are more likely to appeal to those who are local. However, if you are not Philadelphia-based, and you are in agreement with what we can offer, we’re happy to consider you. We are open to hearing from child-friendly acts as well as adult content, and will schedule you accordingly (we have some very exciting features and themes coming this summer)!
Overall, artists are selected by the quality of their content, their professionalism in communications, ability to either have and bring their following (even if their following is their students, neighbors, house-of-worship members and/or co-workers) and ABOVE ALL: THE ABILITY TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS and READ THE FINE PRINT. Many of the questions we receive are already answered, but people aren’t taking the time to read them. This not only makes our job harder, but it opens the door wide open to applicants who do read the content and follow the instructions therein. Applicants who go to the website, click “Submissions”, read the instructions, follow them, then pay the nominal submission fee either online or via postal mail, submit their materials either electronically or by postal mail, and wait to hear from us are on the top of the list for serious consideration. Also, it makes us much more confident about, and willing to be, working with them in the case they are selected as a feature.
So, please, if you’d like to be a part of the Festival, go to www.BWAFphilly.org and click “Submissions”. Read everything, follow the instructions, and we’ll be very happy to hear from you!
Q: What if I want to apply but I don’t have regular access to the internet?
A: Send a SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) to:
Black Women’s Arts Festival
Request for Submissions Application
3721 Midvale Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19129-1743
You must have a telephone number, and public contact information to promote your work/business online. We will send you an application and instructions.
Q: What if I can’t pay the submission fee?
A: We regret that we have no staff to operate a scholarship or discount system at this time. Neither are we equipped with staff to organize and operate a barter/trade system. Therefore, the low submission fee is a mandatory part of the application process. If you can’t afford it this year, put BWAF 2011 on your wish list for next year and wo/manifest it into being. We support and hold a vision of your increased financial abundance until you are able!
Q: I applied online and paid the fee two months ago. When will I hear whether I was selected?
A: As it clearly states on the Submissions Application page, we will let you know in June 2010 if you are selected. If you are NOT selected, we will NOT notify you. Only those who are selected will be notified. Please, and this is very important, please do NOT call or email, and especially, do not Facebook message us to ask the status of your application. We will contact you in June if you are selected. (This “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” request is also stated on the Submissions page.) If we had 20 people on staff to contact all applicants, honestly, it still wouldn’t be a good use of time. We are extremely short staffed. There was a time when we did send emails to everyone who applied. We may be able to do that in June, but we don’t want to promise that. If you’d like to send your submission via USPS (United States Postal Service www.usps.com), we recommend using Delivery Confirmation (costs less than a dollar) which will provide a tracking number to ensure your package reached its destination. If you pay by mail, we also recommend the USPS money order, which also costs only $1.05 and is trackable/replaceable. Those are some ways to track your order. Of course if you submit online, there’s a record of everything. Again, we will do our best to notify everyone we can, but we can only promise at this time to notify the selected features before the end of June 2010.
I will soon be updating the Black Women's Arts Festival official website's FAQs page to reflect the information in his newsletter.
If you have any questions that haven’t been addressed here, please email them to: BWAFphilly@yahoo.com. Do not reply to this message directly, as it may be coming from Facebook or a non-BWAF-official email address. Use our official email address only, please. I look forward to your questions, because they will be added to, and help improve our FAQs page for future inquiries.
I think that covers everything.
Once again, please:
Do not message us on Facebook, MySpace, or any other site other than our official website www.BWAFphilly.org or email address BWAFphilly@yahoo.com.
Do not call or email us about the status of your submission.
We will notify only those who have been selected in June 2010.
We cannot pay selected featured artists or workshop presenters.
You must have a website, MySpace page, or blog to be given serious, priority consideration as a featured artist or workshop presenter. Applicants who do not have any web presence at all will still be considered, including those without an email address, but this severely limits the likelihood that BWAF will be in regular contact, as we primarily use email and keep phone use to the barest minimum only when absolutely necessary. Also, being that what we most can offer is web presence, it limits our ability to serve those who do not have any web presence at all.
So, if you’ve been making arts, crafts, dancing, making films, or creating in any way, or you’ve been like a young Lisa Price (Carol’s Daughter) making natural skin and hair products and selling them at church bake sales and flea markets, we do want to hear from you, but it’s best to go to www.myspace.com or www.blogspot.com and create yourself a free and easy website. You can take it one step further and buy a domain name for less than ten bucks a year (at www.godaddy.com), something like “BettysDownHomeBakery.com” and just link that domain name to a MySpace page or blog. Lots of people do that, and their “websites” created this way are not only very attractive and effective, easy to maintain, but they’re also FREE! (Check out www.wordpress.com for more free website building ideas).
Of course we also have in the past featured and will feature in the future, artists with a more polished press kit, if you will, and all who are interested and agree with what we are able to provide are welcome to apply and contact us.
On a personal note, please know that as an artist, I use many methods of self-promotion online, and I often include news of BWAF in my notices, as it is my life’s work and related to my work as a multi-media artist. This means I may be sending notices from lots of sources that are NOT the official BWAFphilly@yahoo.com email address. If you'd like to contact me about anything other than the BWAF, feel free to message me personally at cxmusic@gmail.com.
That’s all for now, folks. We look forward to updating you again in the near future.
Thanks again for your interest, and for staying in touch with us.
Make yourself a beautiful day!
In art and community,
Cassende Xavier
Founder & Executive Director of Philadelphia's 7th Annual Black Women's Arts Festival
http://BWAFphilly.org
Please refer to the Black Women's Arts Festival website www.BWAFphilly.org for any further inquiries.
Please reply only via email to BWAFphilly@yahoo.com. No phone calls or other communications, please.
© Copyright 2010 by Cassendre Xavier/Black Women’s Arts Festival. All rights reserved.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Early Submissions over/Mid Submissions thru 3/15
Greetings, Friends!
Please note the Early Bird Submissions for the 7th Annual Black Women's Arts Festival (7/29 - 8/1/2010) ended today, Jan 15th. The application processing fee was only $10.
The Mid Submissions Cycle has just started today, and ends March 15, 2010. The fee for this cycle is $15.
Please visit http://bwaf2010submissions.eventbrite.com/ for details, and our official website http://BWAFphilly.org for any other inquiries, including volunteer opportunities.
Thank you to all who submitted to participate as an artists, workshop presenter, vendor or any combination of the above!
In art and community,
Cassendre Xavier
Founder & Executive Director of the Black Women's Arts Festival
http://BWAFphilly.org
Visit us on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogspot!
Please note the Early Bird Submissions for the 7th Annual Black Women's Arts Festival (7/29 - 8/1/2010) ended today, Jan 15th. The application processing fee was only $10.
The Mid Submissions Cycle has just started today, and ends March 15, 2010. The fee for this cycle is $15.
Please visit http://bwaf2010submissions.eventbrite.com/ for details, and our official website http://BWAFphilly.org for any other inquiries, including volunteer opportunities.
Thank you to all who submitted to participate as an artists, workshop presenter, vendor or any combination of the above!
In art and community,
Cassendre Xavier
Founder & Executive Director of the Black Women's Arts Festival
http://BWAFphilly.org
Visit us on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogspot!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Black Women’s Arts Festival Newsletter 1/2/10
Saturday, January 2nd. 2010
Please forgive typos as this was typed at a printer-less computer. I do my best proofreading on paper, not computer screen, unfortunately!]
IN THIS ISSUE:
THE ROTUNDA CONFIRMED AS PRIMARY VENUE OF 2010!
3 POETRY JUDGES ANNOUNCED!
2 MORE POETRY JUDGES WANTED!
2010 EARLY SUBMISSIONS ENDS JANUARY 15th!
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
PHONE BAD…EMAIL GOOD!
Hello and Happy New Year!
May 2010 bring you all the wonderful things you’ve dreamed about and worked towards, and may looking back at 2009 be minimal, except for any thoughts that make you feel good or give you an opportunity to change things for the better – to act, not to regret. I am very excited about 2010 for many reasons, and also because it’s when our next Festival will be!
In case you didn’t already know:
The Black Women’s Arts Festival, founded in 2003, is an acclaimed annual community arts showcase based in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Although it features self-identified black female artists, BWAF welcomes all respectful persons to attend and/or participate in various capacities. Our 7th annual Festival will be Thursday July 29th thru Aug 1st, 2010.
THE ROTUNDA CONFIRMED AS PRIMARY VENUE OF 2010!
We have recently confirmed The Rotunda as our primary venue this year. As you may know, the Rotunda is a highly acclaimed community arts venue and has been our “home” of sorts, since the beginning. We will be multi-venue again, but will be scaled down considerably from our 9+ venues of last year. Stay tuned for details about that!
3 POETRY JUDGES ANNOUNCED!
We now have 3 out of an ideal 5 confirmed judges for our first Poetry Chapbook Contest. (By the way, submission guidelines are coming soon!) We announced a call months ago and received many qualified responses. To qualify, the applicant had to follow the instructions given, which included emailing us at BWAFphilly(at)yahoo.com, which provides the system we use to organize and process the applicants. We have many web-based networks, including Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist, Twitter, Yahoo Groups, Blogger, Live Journal, and others. Being severely understaffed, we MUST use a system that works for us, and that is emailing only. Please note this in the future, should you wish to net/work with us, because there were some of you who did not follow the expressed instructions, and we just had to go ahead and process those applicants who followed the instructions AND met all the other qualifications as well.
Of these talented folks, three (3) were selected by myself (Cassendre Xavier, BWAF Founder & Executive Director) and BWAF staff member Ebony Malaika Collier, a long-time Philly-based poet and frequent previous BWAF feature.
I am thrilled to announce the first 3 judges of the Poetry Chapbook Contest are:
Tara Betts
Tamara Oakman
Stephanie Durann
Yay!! I am very excited about this! Let me tell you more about all three and include their bios as well:
Tara Betts was the first person to respond, and this was an absolute hoot to me, because she was the first person I’d thought of when I announced the contest. I wished, “Gosh, I hope we can get Tara for this. That would be a coup!” I met Tara when she featured at BWAF some time ago. I thought her work was really excellent, had the pleasure of meeting and dining with her and a whole BWAF group. Days later, we became MySpace friends and I got to read her bio and learn more about her work as a scholar and a poet. Here’s Tara’s bio:
Tara Betts is the author of Arc and Hue. Tara is a Cave Canem fellow, a graduate of the New England College MFA Program. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and journals such as Ninth Letter, Callaloo, Hanging Loose, Gathering Ground, Bum Rush the Page, and both Spoken Word Revolution anthologies. She represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam, coached youth who went on to Brave New Voices, and appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam". She currently teaches at Rutgers University and leads community-based workshops. For more information, visit http://www.tarabetts.net.
Tamara Oakman’s is a name I’ve seen many times on the internet waves in regards to Philadelphia poetry. She’s hosted, co-hosted, or created various venues in this town and our paths were going to cross! If you’re a burgeoning or performing poet in or near Philly, I highly recommend networking with Tamara and/or following her schedule! Here’s Tamara’s bio:
A graduate of Temple University, Tamara Oakman has won awards in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and drama. She has been published by Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories, Mad Poets Review, and other journals; reads poetry and fiction everywhere in Philadelphia and the tri-state area; judged a fiction and drama contest for Hidden River Arts, and has completed her Master's thesis in English at Arcadia University. She has hosted at venues such as; Book Corner, Robin's Bookstore and Voices and Visions Bookstore. She created, coordinated and hosted The Light of Unity Festival, is currently leading The Business of Words poetry workshop at Upenn Bookstore for Mad Poets Society, created a chapbook called "The Business of Words," and hosted a Fringe Festival performance at The Rotunda called Arsenic Pizza. She wrote freelance articles for Uwishunu.com, hosts and manages The Light of Unity Artist's and Writer's Series 2009 at The Parkway Central Library where she showcases the talents of new writers and musicians at library branches all over the city. Her efforts have been documented in The Metro, Arcadia University Bulletin, and The City Paper. She has read poetry at Robin's Bookstore, Voices and Visions Bookstore, Caramel, South Cafe, Kelly Writer's House, Lori Cosgrove Design, Arcadia University, Del Co. Institute, Mocha, Music and More (Newark) and many other places. She is the executive director of The Light of Unity Association and currently resides in Philadelphia. She says, "Whenever I read a work I don't get caught up on technique. Anybody can learn technique. Hanabi-Ko (Koko) the gorilla wrote Haiku's about bananas. What I like to read is something that cuts me up on the inside, makes me laugh, makes me see something in a different way, moves me. A poem could be about a stick on the ground and still be stirring. 'A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.'"
Stephanie Durann has been a fixture in the Philadelphia poetry scene since at least 2002 when I met her at my Women’s Writing & Spoken Word Series at Robin’s Bookstore. Like her contemporary Ebony Malaika Collier, her poetry influences and tastes are vastly diverse. And another thing I like about Stephanie is her writing – it’s very highly developed, and “thinkie” as I like to say. Hers is the kind of writing I best like to read off the page, as it’s just so beautiful. Stephanie also has valuable information about chapbook contests to combine with others’ that will help BWAF’s be not only special, but also as professional as our resources allow. Here’s Stephanie’s bio:
Stephanie Durann is a writer from Philadelphia, PA who has performed
under various reading series, festivals and cabarets in the city. The
graduate of Kutztown University has also won Honorable Mention for her
poetry in Byline Magazine and is one of four winners of the
Power99fm/Def Poetry Jam Contest in June 2002. She's was also
published in Hinge Online and The Worcester Review. She was also a
freelance writer for the University City Review and PAWPrint
(Philadelphia Area Writers) Magazine. She has read in various reading
series including Poets and Prophets, LadyFest Philly, Off Season! At
the Sedgwick Theater, Eternal Now, and Women’s Writing & Spoken Word
Series. She produced her first chapbook, The Rites of Individual
Passage in 2003. She was also a participant in the National Book
Foundation Summer Writing Camp in 2004.
2 MORE POETRY JUDGES WANTED!
We’d put out a call for 3-5 judges, and then when we had our [first] 3, I decided that since all the judges are female and for the most part, African-American or black-identified, that I’d like the last 2 (if we do have 2 more, and we don’t need to, but it would be nice) to be non-female and/or non-black. I think it would add a unique dimension to the contest if we had a more diverse panel of judges. Tara, Tamara, and Stephanie’s poetry, identities, backgrounds, and experience in the Philly poetry scene are all diverse enough, certainly. But I’d like to see what happens when we put out another call for more judges to add to our contest. So here goes:
NON-BLACK AND/OR NON-FEMALE JUDGES WANTED FOR 1st BLACK WOMEN’S ARTS FESTIVAL POETRY CHAPBOOK CONTEST
Philadelphia’s acclaimed 7th annual Black Women’s Arts Festival recently announced their first Poetry Chapbook Contest. The contest is to select and feature one winning self-identified black female poet (from anywhere in the world) and publish a chapbook of her work. 3-5 judges were sought, and so far 3 have been selected. All 3 are black women and the BWAF has requested that 1 or 2 more preferably non-black and/or non-female judges be added to the roster, to make the panel of judges more diverse, and also to broaden BWAF’s exposure to new and different audiences and communities. Calls for submissions of the chapbook contest will soon be released, along with further deadlines about the project, which will conclude within the year 2010. Please visit our website http://BWAFphilly.org to learn more about the Black Women’s Arts Festival. If you are interested in our work and would like to participate as a poetry judge, here are the qualifications:
a) You must have regular access to the internet, as email is our main mode of contact.
b) You must have regular access to a telephone, for possible conference call meetings with other judges.
c) Though you can be based anywhere in the world, preference will be given to those who are able to meet on occasion with other judges in or near Philadelphia, PA, USA.
d) You must have had your poetry published by someone other than yourself and be able to submit said information/proof in your bio.
e) You must email your interest and 100-word maximum bio to: BWAFphilly(at)yahoo.com (remove the “at” and replace it with @ before emailing.) We cannot accommodate those responding to us via Facebook, MySpace, voicemail, etc.
The deadline to respond to this call for 2 more judges is January 31, 2010. We look forward to hearing from all qualified applicants! (Remember, the best poetry judge who doesn’t email us is not a qualified applicant!)
2010 EARLY SUBMISSIONS ENDS JANUARY 15th!
If you’d like to be a feature at this year’s Festival (as a performer, exhibitor, or workshop presenter), please go to http://bwaf2010submissions.eventbrite.com/ or http://tinyurl.com/ya8bv67 for instructions. The submission fee is a discounted rate of only $10. We realize the 15th is just a few days away, and it may seem as if we’re only recently been making this reminder announcement, but please note the submission applications were posted in June, one month before last year’s actual festival even began. And we’ve had this info listed on our website and in this newsletter since then. It’s been 7 months and we’ve received no responses until our recent announcements. After January 15th, the rate will be increased to the next level, and again until the final deadline. The submission fee is much needed income for us, as a non-profit organization, and helps to defray the cost of many hours of processing the usual high level of applications we receive every year. We look forward to hearing from you!
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
It was only a matter of time before we joined the Twitter bandwagon. After all, if P. Diddy recommends it and Ellen De Generes uses it to keep in touch with her multitudinous fan base, then it must be good! For all you Tweeters out there, we’re at http://twitter.com/BWAFphilly. Visit us, won’t you?
PHONE BAD…EMAIL GOOD!
So, here’s the thing. As much as I like to use the word “we”, and as much as that term sometimes actually does include someone else, such as Ebony Malaika Collier, BWAF staff person who is helping with the Poetry Chapbook Contest, among other BWAF projects, BWAF pretty much is one chyk: Moi.
This means that even though the website has a list of people who are our board members (ask me the last time we had a meeting: NEVER!), and the occasional volunteer, BWAF is really one chyk running this party, occasionally with help. This is a major problem, yes, and it is being “fixed”. However, until it is, and until there is actually a real group of real people really and truly, and I mean actually “working”, that means that BWAF is one chyk. This means I have no time to answer every voicemail message I get, at least not in a timely fashion, anyway. (Luckily, we get very few voicemail messages anyway.)
This means that I must tweak things to work a bit. Yes, we have a voicemail number, and yes, messages are occasionally checked. But rather than allow the assumption that I’m sitting at a desk every day listening to and responding to these messages, I think I’ll just “come out” if you will, as having a much smaller staff of helpers than I do, and just be up front and say “Email, don’t call.” That’s to you, our close and personal friends! Our website and all other official thingies still lists the phone number as another mode of contact (which will soon change to requesting email primarily), but if you call, the new voicemail message I just recorded the other day says, “Hey, did you mean to call the Black Women’s Arts Festival? Sorry about the mistake. Please hang up immediately, and email us instead. Good-bye!” Just kidding, that’s not what I said, but a similar, albeit more professional greeting.
Basically, please leave the phone for folks who have no access to the internet. And, again, if you’re on our Facebook profile or Facebook Group or anything else, please feel free to post there, but if you’re responding to a call for submissions or anything else “official”, email is the official mode of contact.
Here are two little stories I like to recall that validate my need to make specific, albeit mildly inconvenient requests for the type contact needed:
1) Burt’s Bees: Many years ago, I fell in love with Burt’s Bees products – well, maybe “in love” is a strong term, but I liked their all-natural approach to cosmetics, so I visited their website http://burtsbees.com. When I clicked on “Contact Us” I found that they didn’t have a phone number. They listed only email contact and even went so far as to explain their reason for doing so. This was very impressive to me as I related to it and felt relief and validation. I knew if I were ever to have my own company, I would do the same thing. (I wish I’d known then that I didn’t need any examples to do that myself – I just could do it!)
2) Go Daddy: I was introduced to this company years ago when I bought my first domain name (they sell them really cheaply). I went to their website and saw that their phone number wasn’t a toll-free one. My friend Ross Landy, who had done my website and referred me to Go Daddy, explained that one reason Go Daddy’s prices were so low was that they cut costs other ways, including not having a toll-free number. Their website http://godaddy.com confirms this, as it also explains that they prefer not to pay for things like a toll-free number, because it’s not necessary to provide excellent customer service. (I also surmised that it was a good idea because it would cut down the number of unessential calls they received.)
So, you see? Not everyone needs an all-the-time staffed real live telephone number to do business.
We, at BWAF, are special. We’re different. And, oh, yeah, we are one. As in, one chyk. Yep. That’s all of us! So email “us” at BWAFphilly(at)yahoo.com, and add our email address to your Contacts list so that our messages back to you don’t end up in your Spam folder. Good enough, then? Excellent!
Have an excellent day and jump into 2010 with fervor and aplomb! “We” know “WE” will!
In art and community,
Cassendre Xavier
(aka Amethyste Rah, aka Amrita Waterfalls)
renaissance negresse (musician,author,visual artist,actress)
http://cassEndrExavier.com
Founder & Executive Director of the Black Women’s Arts Festival (Est. 2003, Philadelphia)
http://BWAFphilly.org
© 2010 by Cassendre Xavier/Black Women’s Arts Festival. All rights reserved.
Source: http://bwafphilly.blogspot.com/2010/01/black-womens-arts-festival-newsletter.html
Please forgive typos as this was typed at a printer-less computer. I do my best proofreading on paper, not computer screen, unfortunately!]
IN THIS ISSUE:
THE ROTUNDA CONFIRMED AS PRIMARY VENUE OF 2010!
3 POETRY JUDGES ANNOUNCED!
2 MORE POETRY JUDGES WANTED!
2010 EARLY SUBMISSIONS ENDS JANUARY 15th!
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
PHONE BAD…EMAIL GOOD!
Hello and Happy New Year!
May 2010 bring you all the wonderful things you’ve dreamed about and worked towards, and may looking back at 2009 be minimal, except for any thoughts that make you feel good or give you an opportunity to change things for the better – to act, not to regret. I am very excited about 2010 for many reasons, and also because it’s when our next Festival will be!
In case you didn’t already know:
The Black Women’s Arts Festival, founded in 2003, is an acclaimed annual community arts showcase based in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Although it features self-identified black female artists, BWAF welcomes all respectful persons to attend and/or participate in various capacities. Our 7th annual Festival will be Thursday July 29th thru Aug 1st, 2010.
THE ROTUNDA CONFIRMED AS PRIMARY VENUE OF 2010!
We have recently confirmed The Rotunda as our primary venue this year. As you may know, the Rotunda is a highly acclaimed community arts venue and has been our “home” of sorts, since the beginning. We will be multi-venue again, but will be scaled down considerably from our 9+ venues of last year. Stay tuned for details about that!
3 POETRY JUDGES ANNOUNCED!
We now have 3 out of an ideal 5 confirmed judges for our first Poetry Chapbook Contest. (By the way, submission guidelines are coming soon!) We announced a call months ago and received many qualified responses. To qualify, the applicant had to follow the instructions given, which included emailing us at BWAFphilly(at)yahoo.com, which provides the system we use to organize and process the applicants. We have many web-based networks, including Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist, Twitter, Yahoo Groups, Blogger, Live Journal, and others. Being severely understaffed, we MUST use a system that works for us, and that is emailing only. Please note this in the future, should you wish to net/work with us, because there were some of you who did not follow the expressed instructions, and we just had to go ahead and process those applicants who followed the instructions AND met all the other qualifications as well.
Of these talented folks, three (3) were selected by myself (Cassendre Xavier, BWAF Founder & Executive Director) and BWAF staff member Ebony Malaika Collier, a long-time Philly-based poet and frequent previous BWAF feature.
I am thrilled to announce the first 3 judges of the Poetry Chapbook Contest are:
Tara Betts
Tamara Oakman
Stephanie Durann
Yay!! I am very excited about this! Let me tell you more about all three and include their bios as well:
Tara Betts was the first person to respond, and this was an absolute hoot to me, because she was the first person I’d thought of when I announced the contest. I wished, “Gosh, I hope we can get Tara for this. That would be a coup!” I met Tara when she featured at BWAF some time ago. I thought her work was really excellent, had the pleasure of meeting and dining with her and a whole BWAF group. Days later, we became MySpace friends and I got to read her bio and learn more about her work as a scholar and a poet. Here’s Tara’s bio:
Tara Betts is the author of Arc and Hue. Tara is a Cave Canem fellow, a graduate of the New England College MFA Program. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and journals such as Ninth Letter, Callaloo, Hanging Loose, Gathering Ground, Bum Rush the Page, and both Spoken Word Revolution anthologies. She represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam, coached youth who went on to Brave New Voices, and appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam". She currently teaches at Rutgers University and leads community-based workshops. For more information, visit http://www.tarabetts.net.
Tamara Oakman’s is a name I’ve seen many times on the internet waves in regards to Philadelphia poetry. She’s hosted, co-hosted, or created various venues in this town and our paths were going to cross! If you’re a burgeoning or performing poet in or near Philly, I highly recommend networking with Tamara and/or following her schedule! Here’s Tamara’s bio:
A graduate of Temple University, Tamara Oakman has won awards in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and drama. She has been published by Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories, Mad Poets Review, and other journals; reads poetry and fiction everywhere in Philadelphia and the tri-state area; judged a fiction and drama contest for Hidden River Arts, and has completed her Master's thesis in English at Arcadia University. She has hosted at venues such as; Book Corner, Robin's Bookstore and Voices and Visions Bookstore. She created, coordinated and hosted The Light of Unity Festival, is currently leading The Business of Words poetry workshop at Upenn Bookstore for Mad Poets Society, created a chapbook called "The Business of Words," and hosted a Fringe Festival performance at The Rotunda called Arsenic Pizza. She wrote freelance articles for Uwishunu.com, hosts and manages The Light of Unity Artist's and Writer's Series 2009 at The Parkway Central Library where she showcases the talents of new writers and musicians at library branches all over the city. Her efforts have been documented in The Metro, Arcadia University Bulletin, and The City Paper. She has read poetry at Robin's Bookstore, Voices and Visions Bookstore, Caramel, South Cafe, Kelly Writer's House, Lori Cosgrove Design, Arcadia University, Del Co. Institute, Mocha, Music and More (Newark) and many other places. She is the executive director of The Light of Unity Association and currently resides in Philadelphia. She says, "Whenever I read a work I don't get caught up on technique. Anybody can learn technique. Hanabi-Ko (Koko) the gorilla wrote Haiku's about bananas. What I like to read is something that cuts me up on the inside, makes me laugh, makes me see something in a different way, moves me. A poem could be about a stick on the ground and still be stirring. 'A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.'"
Stephanie Durann has been a fixture in the Philadelphia poetry scene since at least 2002 when I met her at my Women’s Writing & Spoken Word Series at Robin’s Bookstore. Like her contemporary Ebony Malaika Collier, her poetry influences and tastes are vastly diverse. And another thing I like about Stephanie is her writing – it’s very highly developed, and “thinkie” as I like to say. Hers is the kind of writing I best like to read off the page, as it’s just so beautiful. Stephanie also has valuable information about chapbook contests to combine with others’ that will help BWAF’s be not only special, but also as professional as our resources allow. Here’s Stephanie’s bio:
Stephanie Durann is a writer from Philadelphia, PA who has performed
under various reading series, festivals and cabarets in the city. The
graduate of Kutztown University has also won Honorable Mention for her
poetry in Byline Magazine and is one of four winners of the
Power99fm/Def Poetry Jam Contest in June 2002. She's was also
published in Hinge Online and The Worcester Review. She was also a
freelance writer for the University City Review and PAWPrint
(Philadelphia Area Writers) Magazine. She has read in various reading
series including Poets and Prophets, LadyFest Philly, Off Season! At
the Sedgwick Theater, Eternal Now, and Women’s Writing & Spoken Word
Series. She produced her first chapbook, The Rites of Individual
Passage in 2003. She was also a participant in the National Book
Foundation Summer Writing Camp in 2004.
2 MORE POETRY JUDGES WANTED!
We’d put out a call for 3-5 judges, and then when we had our [first] 3, I decided that since all the judges are female and for the most part, African-American or black-identified, that I’d like the last 2 (if we do have 2 more, and we don’t need to, but it would be nice) to be non-female and/or non-black. I think it would add a unique dimension to the contest if we had a more diverse panel of judges. Tara, Tamara, and Stephanie’s poetry, identities, backgrounds, and experience in the Philly poetry scene are all diverse enough, certainly. But I’d like to see what happens when we put out another call for more judges to add to our contest. So here goes:
NON-BLACK AND/OR NON-FEMALE JUDGES WANTED FOR 1st BLACK WOMEN’S ARTS FESTIVAL POETRY CHAPBOOK CONTEST
Philadelphia’s acclaimed 7th annual Black Women’s Arts Festival recently announced their first Poetry Chapbook Contest. The contest is to select and feature one winning self-identified black female poet (from anywhere in the world) and publish a chapbook of her work. 3-5 judges were sought, and so far 3 have been selected. All 3 are black women and the BWAF has requested that 1 or 2 more preferably non-black and/or non-female judges be added to the roster, to make the panel of judges more diverse, and also to broaden BWAF’s exposure to new and different audiences and communities. Calls for submissions of the chapbook contest will soon be released, along with further deadlines about the project, which will conclude within the year 2010. Please visit our website http://BWAFphilly.org to learn more about the Black Women’s Arts Festival. If you are interested in our work and would like to participate as a poetry judge, here are the qualifications:
a) You must have regular access to the internet, as email is our main mode of contact.
b) You must have regular access to a telephone, for possible conference call meetings with other judges.
c) Though you can be based anywhere in the world, preference will be given to those who are able to meet on occasion with other judges in or near Philadelphia, PA, USA.
d) You must have had your poetry published by someone other than yourself and be able to submit said information/proof in your bio.
e) You must email your interest and 100-word maximum bio to: BWAFphilly(at)yahoo.com (remove the “at” and replace it with @ before emailing.) We cannot accommodate those responding to us via Facebook, MySpace, voicemail, etc.
The deadline to respond to this call for 2 more judges is January 31, 2010. We look forward to hearing from all qualified applicants! (Remember, the best poetry judge who doesn’t email us is not a qualified applicant!)
2010 EARLY SUBMISSIONS ENDS JANUARY 15th!
If you’d like to be a feature at this year’s Festival (as a performer, exhibitor, or workshop presenter), please go to http://bwaf2010submissions.eventbrite.com/ or http://tinyurl.com/ya8bv67 for instructions. The submission fee is a discounted rate of only $10. We realize the 15th is just a few days away, and it may seem as if we’re only recently been making this reminder announcement, but please note the submission applications were posted in June, one month before last year’s actual festival even began. And we’ve had this info listed on our website and in this newsletter since then. It’s been 7 months and we’ve received no responses until our recent announcements. After January 15th, the rate will be increased to the next level, and again until the final deadline. The submission fee is much needed income for us, as a non-profit organization, and helps to defray the cost of many hours of processing the usual high level of applications we receive every year. We look forward to hearing from you!
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
It was only a matter of time before we joined the Twitter bandwagon. After all, if P. Diddy recommends it and Ellen De Generes uses it to keep in touch with her multitudinous fan base, then it must be good! For all you Tweeters out there, we’re at http://twitter.com/BWAFphilly. Visit us, won’t you?
PHONE BAD…EMAIL GOOD!
So, here’s the thing. As much as I like to use the word “we”, and as much as that term sometimes actually does include someone else, such as Ebony Malaika Collier, BWAF staff person who is helping with the Poetry Chapbook Contest, among other BWAF projects, BWAF pretty much is one chyk: Moi.
This means that even though the website has a list of people who are our board members (ask me the last time we had a meeting: NEVER!), and the occasional volunteer, BWAF is really one chyk running this party, occasionally with help. This is a major problem, yes, and it is being “fixed”. However, until it is, and until there is actually a real group of real people really and truly, and I mean actually “working”, that means that BWAF is one chyk. This means I have no time to answer every voicemail message I get, at least not in a timely fashion, anyway. (Luckily, we get very few voicemail messages anyway.)
This means that I must tweak things to work a bit. Yes, we have a voicemail number, and yes, messages are occasionally checked. But rather than allow the assumption that I’m sitting at a desk every day listening to and responding to these messages, I think I’ll just “come out” if you will, as having a much smaller staff of helpers than I do, and just be up front and say “Email, don’t call.” That’s to you, our close and personal friends! Our website and all other official thingies still lists the phone number as another mode of contact (which will soon change to requesting email primarily), but if you call, the new voicemail message I just recorded the other day says, “Hey, did you mean to call the Black Women’s Arts Festival? Sorry about the mistake. Please hang up immediately, and email us instead. Good-bye!” Just kidding, that’s not what I said, but a similar, albeit more professional greeting.
Basically, please leave the phone for folks who have no access to the internet. And, again, if you’re on our Facebook profile or Facebook Group or anything else, please feel free to post there, but if you’re responding to a call for submissions or anything else “official”, email is the official mode of contact.
Here are two little stories I like to recall that validate my need to make specific, albeit mildly inconvenient requests for the type contact needed:
1) Burt’s Bees: Many years ago, I fell in love with Burt’s Bees products – well, maybe “in love” is a strong term, but I liked their all-natural approach to cosmetics, so I visited their website http://burtsbees.com. When I clicked on “Contact Us” I found that they didn’t have a phone number. They listed only email contact and even went so far as to explain their reason for doing so. This was very impressive to me as I related to it and felt relief and validation. I knew if I were ever to have my own company, I would do the same thing. (I wish I’d known then that I didn’t need any examples to do that myself – I just could do it!)
2) Go Daddy: I was introduced to this company years ago when I bought my first domain name (they sell them really cheaply). I went to their website and saw that their phone number wasn’t a toll-free one. My friend Ross Landy, who had done my website and referred me to Go Daddy, explained that one reason Go Daddy’s prices were so low was that they cut costs other ways, including not having a toll-free number. Their website http://godaddy.com confirms this, as it also explains that they prefer not to pay for things like a toll-free number, because it’s not necessary to provide excellent customer service. (I also surmised that it was a good idea because it would cut down the number of unessential calls they received.)
So, you see? Not everyone needs an all-the-time staffed real live telephone number to do business.
We, at BWAF, are special. We’re different. And, oh, yeah, we are one. As in, one chyk. Yep. That’s all of us! So email “us” at BWAFphilly(at)yahoo.com, and add our email address to your Contacts list so that our messages back to you don’t end up in your Spam folder. Good enough, then? Excellent!
Have an excellent day and jump into 2010 with fervor and aplomb! “We” know “WE” will!
In art and community,
Cassendre Xavier
(aka Amethyste Rah, aka Amrita Waterfalls)
renaissance negresse (musician,author,visual artist,actress)
http://cassEndrExavier.com
Founder & Executive Director of the Black Women’s Arts Festival (Est. 2003, Philadelphia)
http://BWAFphilly.org
© 2010 by Cassendre Xavier/Black Women’s Arts Festival. All rights reserved.
Source: http://bwafphilly.blogspot.com/2010/01/black-womens-arts-festival-newsletter.html
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