Information for those interested in telling their stories
Thank you for your interest in our project! We hope to gather material from participants which will explore what it means to be black or brown in rural areas. The project has been adapted due to the Covid 19 pandemic, and we are now delivering everything remotely.
We are looking for stories that can be featured on this website and in new episodes of the podcast. There are various ways you can get involved, outlined below. All stories can be told anonymously.
Themes being explored are: storytelling; legacy; nature; emotional wellbeing and resilience; the arts/music from the countryside; and rural/urban experiences.
We are open for submissions until August 10th 2020. Details on how you can tell your story below.
Writing your story
If you would like to tell your story but feel you need some support, download this storytelling pack. The pack provides reading and writing activities, and hints and tips on writing poetry and life writing.
Submission guidelines
If you’re already a confident writer and would like to submit your piece OR you’ve worked through storytelling pack, please send the following to louisaparker3@hotmail.com as a Word document:
- Text (fiction, poems, short article/personal essay) about your experiences up to 750 words max
- Images of yourself, family, ancestors, favourite objects, places etc.
Please write: Where are you really from submission in the subject line.
We will respond as soon as we can and let you know whether your submission has been successful. If it is, we will send you a publishing/recording agreement, and discuss edits with you before publishing your piece.
We are also keen to hear from local BAME musicians so we can consider their music to be featured in the podcasts.
Things to think about
When writing your story, you can use the themes and questions below for guidance:
Themes:
- Rural and urban black and brown identities – what are the differences between the two? Have you lived in both spaces? How did you negotiate each?
- Black and brown people ) and our relationship with land and nature
- Emotional well-being and resilience – how do we stay strong and resilient in the face of challenges relating to our ethnicity? What might we do to remain resilient?
- Legacy and the importance of telling our stories – why do they matter? Who are they for? What do we hope will change as a result?
- The Arts & music – what creative output comes from black and brown rural people British countryside? How does a rural background impact artists’ creative practice?
Online storytelling/sharing sessions
We will be holding several zoom sessions where people of African, Asian, mixed and other ‘non-white’ backgrounds can come together and share their experiences. These sessions will be informal and won’t be recorded or any information shared publicly. The project poet and other team members may attend, and what is discussed may be used to inspire new work. The project team may follow up with participants we’d like to record for the podcasts, however there will be no obligation to do so. We want to provide a safe space, so won’t be sharing the session invites publicly. Get in touch via the contact page for further details.