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