STAND FOUNDATION, IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE CENTRE FOR CREATIVE ARTS AND THE FOUNDATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: POETRY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
“Poetry is a powerful medium for addressing social injustices, to shift consciousness and it works as a particularly evocative call to action. This is not a new practice or form of activism for South African poets or for poets around the world.” says Mike van Graan, Coordinator of the STAND Foundation.During the festival, Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Foundation will co-host an online event as part of the Poetry for Human Rights project in which poetry is used to popularise, reflect on, critique and celebrate the state of human rights in South Africa. The project aims to provide a platform for and celebrate local poets in the context of a critical and celebratory reflection on human rights in South Africa.
The event will take place on 21 March, a momentous day since World Poetry Day and Human Rights Day coincide. The audience can expect a live stream on the festival’s social media, including readings and performances by selected poets.
Poets – including foreign nationals who reside in South Africa and South African poets who live abroad – are invited to submit poems for the project that reflect on human rights in contemporary South Africa. Established poets and co-curators Malika Ndlovu and Siphokazi Jonas, together with the organizers, will select poems that will not only be performed during the Time of the Writer International Festival alongside two celebrated guest poets but also published as a print and online publication.
Submitted poems need to follow the guidelines below:
- The poems’ themes should deal with human rights in South Africa – any human rights enshrined in the country’s Constitution. The poems can be critical, celebratory, educational or satirical in their commentary.
- The poems will be selected/curated according to their thematic content and their aesthetic and effective form or structure.
- Poets may submit up to three poems, of any length.
- Poems must not have been previously published or frequently performed on public platforms, although they may have been written prior to this call
- Poems may be submitted in any official South African language. In the online publication, the poems may be translated or poetically summarised in English to compliment the text in its original language.
- Each writer will be remunerated with R750.00 per poem that is selected for the publication.
- If poets are also invited to perform/present their selected poems at the Human Rights Day event they will receive a total honorarium of R1500.00 (including the R750 above).
- Poets retain the copyright of their original works and royalties earned through the publication’s sales will be shared among the writers included in the publication/s.
- The CCA, STAND Foundation and Foundation for Human Rights reserve the right to post the poems on their respective websites, on posters and in other formats to popularise the poems, in the build-up to or after the event for an indefinite period, unless limited on request by the poet.
- Those closely associated with the CCA, STAND Foundation and Foundation for Human Rights (staff, board members, etc.) may submit poems and may be selected for the publication and Human Rights Day event, however, may not receive payment for their
- The decisions about selections by the co-curators will be final and no further correspondence will be entered into once their decisions are made known publicly.
Poems are to be submitted to malika@invisiblestill.co.za by 17:00 on Monday 8 March 2021.
Writers are to submit their poems along with their name, email address, cell number, city of residence, province, their website (if any) and a brief bio of up to 150 words.
This project is made possible with financial support by the Foundation for Human Rights South Africa.
For further information, write to anchor@malikaspeaks.co.za or Siphokazi Jonas at nonkie.jonas@gmail.com
