Towards
Visibility
Poetry
by BIPOC, women, individuals with disabilities and non-binary voices
Guest
Editors: Anita Nahal, Candice Louisa Daquin & Sangeeta Sharma
This special issue of Setu will
showcase poetry by individuals who identify themselves either as BIPOC (Black,
Indigenous and People of Color), as women, as individuals with disabilities or as
non-binary voices. The current world demographics reveal that women are 49.58%,
Black people are 7.8 billion, Indigenous people are 6%, 1.3 billion individuals
with disability and about 2% of the population in 27 countries identified
themselves as non-binary in a 2023 survey.
Humans
are different. That is a fact. It’s also a verity that human nature prevents
most of us from recognizing and accepting the distinctive diversity of others. Au
contraire, mortals have the potential of generating bias and fear in their
brain synapses, consequently shifting to a “fight-or-flight”
mode rather quickly. Princeton university researchers, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov have concluded that it takes
only 1/10 of a second for us to make a judgement about someone based on optic
perceptions.
Keeping that in mind, we would like to present the assortment
of themes that BIPOC, women, individuals with disabilities and non-binary poets
across the globe are writing about. What attracts their interest and provides
an impetus for them to express?
Are they addressing bias, injustice, violence, abuse or
seeking the lost bonds of camaraderie, or lamenting over the digressing
environmental richness, or yearning for spatial connections with cherished or
disliked places or people, or engrossed in imaginary fascinations with
non-human species on our planet or beyond in space? Or is magic their main
poetic stay?
Or are they articulating their personal lives and beauties or
challenges therein, prejudices, and world views towards them or others? Or are
they writing poetry about love, loss, survival, family, parenthood, various
“isms”, music, dance, sports, food, travel, etc.?
Perhaps none of these themes can be viewed or expressed
artistically in a vacuum and poetry outpourings are an amalgam of related or
unrelated thoughts, feelings, and expressions.
Also, are these poets expressing in real or surreal terms?
What kind of semantics do they employ? And in what forms do they create
poetry—free verse, prose, haiku, ekphrastic, etc.?
As three women editors for this special Setu issue, each one
with varied experiences, we represent a multitude of divergences on the same
themes we write about. Our writing styles differ as well. Simply because we are
women, we are not monolithic. We have layered identities within us, lapping and
overlapping just like in British mathematician John Venn’s diagram, though
unlike his equal circles, our circles can change shapes and size depending upon
what is dear to us at a particular moment in time.
This special issue of Setu is, therefore exclusive as it’s
rare--to have a collection of so many minority voices in one issue.
Setu invites poetry submissions from BIPOC,
women, individuals with disabilities and non-binary voices to share with
readers what they are emoting in their written words.
We
look forward to receiving your contributions.
Kindly
peruse below the submission guidelines.
1. Submissions
are welcome from anyone who identifies themselves in any of the categories
listed: BIPOC, women, individuals with disabilities and non-binary individuals.
2. Each
person may submit a total of three poems, no longer than 20 lines each.
3. All poems
are to be sent in one word document in Times New Roman Font and 14 points.
4. Please
attach three separate documents:
· One
with the poems
· Second
with your 150-word bio
· Third
your picture in JPEG.
5. Please
email all three as attachments to: setuspecial.ed@gmail.com
6. Authors
must indicate authorship of poems submitted in the email.
7. Deadline
for submission: September 1, 2023
8.
Any
content that promotes enmity or hatred of any kind or against any individual,
group, region or nationality is not acceptable. Neither is porn.
Published by Statista Research Department and 9,
J. (2023) Gender Identity Worldwide by country 2021, Statista.
Available at:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1269778/gender-identity-worldwide-country/
(Accessed: 20 May 2023). (This foot note is only for
one of the above statistics. For others, please do a Google search.)
Wargo, E. (2006) How many seconds to a first impression?
Association for Psychological Science - APS. Available at:
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-many-seconds-to-a-first-impression
(Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Nahal, A. (2016) Diversity & Inclusion
applied in layers (DIAL) model by dr. Anita Nahal, CDP, Society for
Diversity. Available at:
https://societyfordiversity.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/diversity-inclusion-applied-in-layers-dial-model-by-dr-anita-nahal-cdp/
(Accessed: 20 May 2023).
