Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Sex Crimes Against Black Girls: The Anthology - Share Your Story

Two sistah girl friends of mine are calling for submissions for this very important anthology they are editing.  Here is a note they sent me recently.  Please read the instructions below if you're interested in participating.



sex crimes against black girls: the anthology

Edited by:
Shantrelle P. Lewis & Yaba A. Blay, Ph.D.

Share your Story.

Since we put out the Call for Submissions last month, we have been overwhelmed with not only inquiries and submissions, but with general words of support and encouragement. Many of the people we've spoken to have said to us I want to submit something...but I don't know what to write. Knowing that the topic of sex crimes touches so many of us, we want to make every effort to include as many people as would like to be a part of the project as possible. After all, part of the purpose of this work is to "give voice" to those who have been silenced.

We would like to include a series of first-person narratives (memoirs) in the sex crimes against black girls anthology. Each memoir will be accompanied by the person's portrait taken by a professional photographer. In doing this, we intend to put a face with a story - figuratively and literally. Potential contributors would not have to write their own memoir. Instead, we will interview you, transcribe the conversation, and edit your memoir from it. We will work with you on the final edits - you will have the final say in what gets published. We will then arrange to have your photograph taken.

Have a story to share? Please email us at blackgirlvoice@gmail.com by May 30, 2011. Please include "my story" in the subject line and give a brief, general description of your personal story (1 paragraph). Though we anticipate receiving a large number of stories, we will not be able to include each and every one. Should we select your story, we will contact you by June 15 to schedule the phone interview.

Please note that although we welcome the participation of women of all ages, we are particularly interested in connecting with women in the 40+ age sets.

Because of the location of the photographers we will be working with, we are only able to accept stories from individuals in, near, or who can easily get to one of the following cities:

NYC

Newark, NJ

Philadelphia

Washington D.C.

New Orleans, LA

Kingston Jamaica

Lima, Peru

Port au Prince, Haiti

For more information about the Sex Crimes against Black Girls project, please visit http://www.sexcrimesagainstblackgirls.com/.