Women Who Submit stands in solidarity with the #blacklivesmatter movement as we work for equality and visibility of not just women writers but all marginalized people. As we each individually and as a collective search for ways to help the movement, we share the following collection of articles, interviews, poems and videos that we have found helpful in this dark time. We hope you find them helpful too.
ON #BLACKLIVESMATTER AND THE MOVEMENT
#blacklivesmatter response to Dallas Killings
“Law professor’s response to BLM shirt complaint” at imgur
“Alton Sterling and When Black Lives Stop Mattering” by Roxane Gay at The New York Times
“Dallas is a tragedy for all of us – and shouldn’t shut down calls for justice”
by Ijeoma Oluo at The Guardian
ON POLICE BRUTALITY AND REFORM
“Study Supports Suspicion That Police Are More Likely to Use Force on Blacks” by Timothy Williams at The New York Times
“Feeling unsafe in America: The emotional toll of police shootings and violence on the black conscious” by Brian Charles at Medium
“The Code Switch Podcast, Episode 8: No Words” by Kat Chow at NPR
“Police Reform Is Impossible in America” by Donovan X. Ramsey at Gawker
ON WHITE PRIVILEGE AND BEING AN ALLY
“What You Can Do Right Now About Police Brutality” by Ijeoma Oluo at The Huffington Post blog
“This is what white people can do to support #BlackLivesMatter” by Sally Kohn at The Washington Post
“The next time someone says ‘all lives matter,’ show them these 5 paragraphs” by Kevine Roose at Fusion
“I, Racist” by John Metta at The Huffington Post
“On Making Black Lives Matter” by Roxane Gay at Marie Claire
ON SOLIDARITY
“Asian-Americans Pen Powerful Open Letter to Their Families About Why Black Lives Matter” by Sarah Harvard at .Mic
“Poet Elizabeth Acevedo On Why #BlackLivesMatter Should Matter To Latinos” by Janice Davis at Vibe
ON SELF-CARE AND HEALING
“Music To Get You Through Times Like These” by Dianca London at The Establishment
“4 Self-Care Resources for Days When the World is Terrible” by Miriam Zoila PĂ©rez
“Breaking Isolation: Self Care and Community Care Tools for our People” from the Audre Lorde Project
“Caring For Each Other After Violence: 4 Things We Can Do To Create Trauma-Informed Communities in Our Schools, Organizations and Activist Groups” by CarmenLeah Ascencio at Black Girl Dangerous
“24 Tweets Of Kids That Are Everything You Didn’t Realize You Needed After A Difficult Week” by Clarissa-Jan Lim at A Plus
Tips for talking to children about mass violence from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
ON CRAFT
“A Call for Necessary Craft and Practice” by The Dark Noise Collective
“How Writers Can Join the Fight Against Police Violence” by The Dark Noise Collective
“How An Orchestra Is Using Music To Say Black Lives Matter” by Sarit Luban at The Establishment
POEMS
“17 Poems to Read when the World is Too Much” from BuzzFeed
I wasn’t Raised for Revolution at Mixed Reader
Bullet Points by Jericho Brown at BuzzFeed
Catching Copper by Natalie Diaz’s poem at BuzzFeed
Ars Poetica with Bacon by Terrance Hayes at The New Yorker
“Fulcrum: the support about which a lever turns; the part of an animal that serves as a hinge or support” by Ashaki M. Jackson at Cultural Weekly
Rules for My Future Son Should I have One by Latoya Jordan
We are not responsible by Harryette Mullen as read by Khadijah Queen with #blackpoetsspeakout
My Body is an Injury the World by Natalie Shapero at The New Yorker
It Doesn’t Feel Like A Time To Write by Danez Smith at BuzzFeed
not an elegy for Mike Brown by Danez Smith at Poets.org
For more resources check out THIS #blackpoetsspeakout page.