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Mar 23, 17
What: A call for art and article submissions on Awakening Resistance for the 2018 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar.
Deadline: May 15, 2017
The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective (www.certaindays.org) is releasing its 17th calendar this coming fall. The theme for 2018 is ‘Awakening Resistance,’ reflecting on organizing in the current political climate.
We are looking for 12 works of art and 12 short articles to feature in the calendar, which hangs in more than 2,500 homes, workplaces, prison cells, and community spaces around the world.
We encourage contributors to submit both new and existing work. We also seek submissions from prisoners – please forward to any prison-based artists and writers.
THEME GUIDELINES
The current political moment changes the landscape for radical organizing. Beyond the White House, communities worldwide are facing a climate that is more openly white supremacist, misogynist, and Islamophobic. Trump’s election, specifically, has woken up many elements on the left as well as the right, both north and south of the U.S.-Canadian border.
Some questions to consider: What can other periods of history teach us about what brought us to this moment, and what we can anticipate in the next few years? How do we bring in/work with newly politicized people, or those who could become politicized? How do we openly and decisively oppose fascist organizing? What does this moment look like, uniquely, within the Canadian state and in other global contexts? What does resistance look like for radical movements of all kinds — ecological, anti-colonial, migrant justice. queer- and trans-liberation struggles?
We would like Certain Days 2018 to contribute to our collective answer to these and other questions that the current political moment presents for social justice movements.
For some more inspiration, we invite you to read “The Context for the Trump Phenomenon” by political prisoner and calendar co-editor David Gilbert.
“There’s been an outpouring of Left analysis on who voted for Trump and why. Some of it is very helpful about race, class, and the economy. From what I’ve seen there’s been very little that puts all that in the global context, with the U.S. as the premier imperial power but in decline. Nor has there been enough that has rooted Trump’s rise in the developments of the past 45 years.
This is the challenge for our ongoing project of analysis and activism.” – David Gilbert
FORMAT GUIDELINES
ARTICLES:
• 500 words max. If you submit a longer piece, we will have to edit for length.
• Please include a suggested title.
ART:
1. The calendar is 11” tall by 8.5” wide, so art with a ‘portrait’ orientation is preferred. Some pieces may be printed with a border, so it need not fit those dimensions exactly.
2. We are interested in a diversity of media (paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, computer-designed graphics, collage, etc).
3. The calendar is printed in colour and we prefer colour images.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
1. Send your submissions by May 15, 2017 to [email protected].
2. ARTISTS: Please send images smaller than 10 MB. You can send a low-res file as a submission, but if your piece is chosen, we will need a high-res version of it to print (600 dpi).
3. You may send as many submissions as you like. Chosen artists and authors will receive a free copy of the calendar and promotional postcards. Because the calendar is a fundraiser, we cannot offer money to contributors.
ABOUT THE CALENDAR
The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, Toronto, and New York, in partnership with three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell. We are committed to doing work grounded in an anti-imperialist and anti-racist perspective. We work in solidarity with anti-colonial struggles, Political Prisoners and the rights of undocumented citizens and migrants. We are queer- and trans-liberationist. We raise awareness of Political Prisoners and Prisoners ofWar in the United States and abroad, many of whom are now in their fourth decade of imprisonment. People on the streets should understand the history of today’s social justice movements and how that history is linked to solidarity for PPs/POWs. In addition to building that historical awareness, we emphasize the ongoing involvement and continued commitment of PPs/POWs in these same movements.
Proceeds from the calendar will be used for direct support work for Political Prisoners and anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist struggles in the U.S. and Canada.
