Announcing Futurepoem's 2020 Open Call Selections
We are thrilled to announce the two books selected for publication by our 2020 Open Call guest editors: Rosa Alcalá, Marie Buck, and Farnoosh Fathi:
u know how much i hate being alone in social situations// by Stephon Lawrence
&
Nerve Curriculum by Manuel Paul López!
Stephon Lawrence is a Brooklyn born & based writer, and artist. She is a graduate of the MFA in Writing at Pratt Institute and is co-founder and an editor of The Felt, a journal of otherworldly poetics interested in the creation and cultivation of emancipatory poetic spaces for felt sentiments that have been marginalized, displaced, or estranged from the dominant culture. Her work has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, Horesless Press, Queen Mob's Teahouse, GlitterMOB, Fanzine & other places. Her micro-chap //GERMZ is available from Ghost City Press. And her chapbook //EVIL TWIN is available from Resolving Host. She is a recipient of a Summer Workshop Scholarship at The Fine Arts Work Center. Stephon spends her free time watching anime and kdramas, training muay thai, yelling about white supremacy, and being cute for the 'gram. Her work aims to encapsulate all of this. She is almost always online. You can find her on twitter @nnohpetss and instagram @alphaheaux.
Manuel Paul López's books and chapbook include These Days of Candy (Noemi Press, Akrilica Series 2017), The Yearning Feed (University of Notre Dame Press 2013), winner of the Ernest Sandeen Poetry Prize, 1984 (Amsterdam Press 2010), and Death of a Mexican and Other Poems (Bear Star Press 2006). He also co-edited two anthologies, Reclaiming Our Stories 2 (City Works Press 2020) and Reclaiming Our Stories (City Works 2017), both generated from a community-based writers workshop of the same name that he's co-facilitated since 2016 in Southeast San Diego. A CantoMundo fellow, his work has been published in Bilingual Review, Denver Quarterly, Fairy Tale Review, Hanging Loose, Huizache, New American Writing, Puerto del Sol, and ZYZZYVA. He lives in San Diego and teaches at San Diego City College.
In Solidarity
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and all protests to end police and state violence against Black people, and in support of the astonishing and emancipatory world vision we see so many articulating and enacting right now on the streets: we will be giving 25% of the profit from all web site sales for the month of June to Equality for Flatbush and the Sister Outsider Relief Grant.
In addition, if you make a direct donation of $30 or more to any of the following organizations, we will mail you a free book from our catalogue. We'll continue until we've sent out 100 books. To receive a book, please email info [at] futurepoem [dot] com with your mailing address and a screenshot of your donation.
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Equality for Flatbush (E4F) is a people of color-led, multi-national grassroots organization that does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification/anti-displacement organizing in Flatbush, East Flatbush, and Brooklyn-wide.
Launched by the Free Black Womens Library, the Sister Outsider Relief Grant is a mutual aid funding initiative to honor and nurture single Black mother artists, writers and cultural workers. The Free Black Women's Library is a social art project and mobile library that features over two thousand books written by Black women.
GLITS INC approaches the health and rights crises faced by transgender sex workers holistically using harm reduction, human rights principles, economic and social justice, along with a commitment to empowerment and pride in finding solutions from within the community. GLITS is currently raising money to purchase two buildings in Manhattan that will provide longterm housing for Black trans people.
Justice for Black Girls' Oluwatoyin Salau Freedom Fighter's Fund is designed to provide monetary relief for Black girl activists, like Toyin, who are on the frontlines. This fund allows Black girls to request grants up to $750 for overnight housing, rent relief, food or other life-sustaining supports.
For the Gworls’ Rent and Gender-Affirming Surgery Fund accepts applications from Black, transgender people nationwide. With this fund, For The Gworls actively fights to reduce homelessness rates in the Black transgender community, as well as lower the risk for affirmative surgeries being done in ways that put them at greater health risks.
BKShowsLove Emergency Fund to Feed Brooklynites was started by Equality for Flatbush and Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network. It has committed to feeding Brooklynites and providing other forms of material aid until May 2021, and maybe even longer depending on the circumstances. As of May 2020, it has doubled its food distribution work, and has committed to providing two large bags of non-perishable food and COVID-19 household supplies to more than 400 households.
The Okra Project's Nina Pop Mental Health Recovery Fund and Tony McDade Mental Health Recovery Fund will purchase therapy sessions with licensed Black practitioners for Black trans people.
The Black Trans Travel Fund is a mutual-aid fund developed for the purpose of providing Black transgender women with the financial resources necessary for them to be able to access their self-determined safest alternatives to travel.
Black Visions Collective shapes a political home for Black people across Minnesota, centering their work in healing and transformative justice and developing Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership to lead powerful campaigns.
COVID Bailout NYC posts bail for medically vulnerable people held in New York City jails and provides comprehensive post-release support, such as shelter and food, for these individuals.
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund deploys funds received to pay demonstrators' bail to other funds in New York City, New York State, and around the country where there is need. BCBF will also support grassroots, Black-led organizations fighting for systems change; and the continued fight to get people out of cages.
Black Youth Project 100 is dedicated to improving the lived experiences of Black people. Funds raised will provide mutual aid, legal support, bail funds, and other logistic/supportive services related to this work.
Bed-Stuy Strong is a group of neighbors helping neighbors in a spirit of solidarity. Bed-Stuy Strong is a mutual aid network of over 3,000 people from across Bed-Stuy who are supporting the community during the COVID-19 crisis. They crowdsource donations and use them to provide no-contact grocery deliveries for vulnerable members of Bed-Stuy communities.
Crown Heights Mutual Aid is a network designed to help Crown Heights residents support one another and the most vulnerable in the community in the face of COVID-19. Donations help purchase groceries, critical household goods, or other aid for Crown Heights residents impacted by COVID-19.
The Black Lesbian and Queer Digital Residency Fund provides digital residencies in the form of micro grants to Black Lesbian, Queer, and Trans women scholars, archivists, artists, and content creators on Instagram with the goal of creating more digital spaces and giving more support to the spaces that already exist that exclusively share Black lesbian and queer culture, art, and archival works.
BAJI educates and engages African American and black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for racial, social and economic justice.
Black AIDS Institute is a think and do tank that provides high quality direct HIV services and linkage to care to Black people.
Founded in September 2002, Families for Freedom is a New York-based multi-ethnic human rights organization by and for families facing and fighting deportation.
Go Fund Me pages to support the families of
in their fights for justice.
A Message to our Community: Resources for Artists in Need
This is an extremely challenging time for our writing and small press publishing community. We know not everyone is dealing with health concerns but the significant economic impact to individual writers, artists, and arts organizations - including small press publishers.
What follows are lists from fellow arts organizations of resources for artists and non-profits in regard to health, funding, work opportunities, and more in response to the international spread of COVID-19. We hope these are useful to you and that they get into the hands that need them most. Above all, we hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy in these strange, uncertain times. Thank you for your continued support.
Resources for New York State Arts and Culture organizations, including information regarding event safety, news sources, legal support, arts education support, community building and others.
Resources for artists in times of need including grants, artist's funds, job listings, and sources of daily information on the development of COVID-19, plus upcoming opportunities and deadlines in March and April 2020.
Resources including advice for general preparedness, advocacy alerts, emergency funding, international resources, online platforms, health and mental health resources, temporary and remote job opportunities and more.
A message from Michael L. Royce, Executive Director of NYFA, and a list of resources for preparedness and response to COVID-19 geared toward artists from arts organizations.
A short message and list from the AAAA including arts and culture organizations' responses to COVID-19 and their resources, as well as those of NY State Public Health organizations.
Lots of great resources on this page including relief funds for queer writers and writers of color, as well as a virtual writing community led by Cave Canem with prompts and links to poetry-related readings.
A letter from GIA's President and CEO, Eddie Torres, and a list of resources regarding support for artists, relevant news outlets, and guidance for non-profits.
Resources for employers and employees, response to COVID-19, and response funds and funding opportunities.
Thank you to everyone who helped us reach our 2019 end-of-year fundraising goal!
Thank you so much to everyone who supported our end of the year campaign. We really really appreciate your help and encouragement. Thanks to you we successfully met and exceeded our end of year fundraising goal through combined donations through our website, facebook and other platforms. With that support, we are excited to publish some amazing new books of poetry and cross-genre literature in 2020. It will also enable us to support our publication opportunities like our annual open reading period and our new Other Futures Award in the spring/early summer. In addition, your support will help us continue to develop our new online publishing space futurefeed that supports online residencies by noted writers and to continue to host free literary events for the public in New York City and nationally. It will also enable us to pay our freelance editors and designers a fair wage that supports the quality work they are doing on behalf of our authors and the press.
All of our new and recent supporters are featured on our Supporter page on our web site.
If you missed our end of year campaign and would still like to learn more about ways to get involved, please visit our Ways to Support page.
Thanks again for your continued and generous support!
The Editors