Griot: A Contemporary Poetry Journal Celebrating Black Female Voices in

Written by Stacey Cusson on Behalf of Amherst Artists & Writers 12/18/17

5 Cedar Street Westborough, MA 01581

December 18, 2017

Ms. Nicki Jacobs Director of Grants & Contracts Officers National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Literature 400 7th Street, SW Washington, DC 20506-0001

Dear Ms. Jacobs,

I am a student from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and it is with great pleasure that I submit this grant proposal to you on behalf of Amherst Artists & Writers (AWA) located in Amherst, Massachusetts. AWA is a non-profit, international arts organization dedicated to the principle that everyone can create art. We hope that by working with the National Endowment for Art’s program, Art Works Literature, we can create a platform for black women’s voices in Pioneer Valley. In response to the lack of representation of black women authors in the publishing industry, I came up with the idea of publishing a literary journal dedicated to celebrating these marginalized voices. I am an English major receiving my certificate in Creative Writing and attaining a minor in African-American Studies. Along with my experience as an Editorial Assistant for , my knowledge of grammar, style, organization, and effective communication will allow me to handle the responsibility of creating the new journal. By partnering with AWA which “was founded in 1983 with two missions: to publish and support the work of emerging and established writers; and to cross boundaries of class, race, and other difference by using writing as a tool of empowerment, giving voice to the silenced,” our two organizations can expand the notion of what is possible and valuable in a poem and can enlarge the American literary canon. This proposal seeks $44,188.87 in the form of an Art Works Literature grant to develop and publish a poetry journal focused on black women’s voices. We appreciate your consideration of our proposal, and look forward to the opportunity to create a platform for black voices in Pioneer Valley. Please feel free to contact me by either calling (508) 377-2002 or emailing me at [email protected].

Respectfully,

Stacey Cusson, Grant Author

Table of Contents

1. Statement of Problem ...... 1 1.1 Definition of Problem ...... 1 2. Statement of Request ...... 8 3. Description of Proposed Work ...... 9 3.1 Objectives of Project and Methods Used to Achieve Them ...... 9 3.2 Schedule ...... 10 4. Description of Available Facilities ...... 12 5. Qualifications of Personnel ...... 13 5.1 Names, Positions and Relevant Backgrounds of Employees ...... 13 5.2 Names and Positions of Remaining Staff ...... 15 6. Budget ...... 16 7. Summary and Conclusion ...... 18 7.1 Benefits ...... 18 7.2 Comparison to Similar Projects...... 19 7.3 Reassertion of Seriousness of Problem and Urge to Action ...... 21 8. Appendix of Figures and Tables ...... 23 8.1 Figures ...... 23 8.2 Tables...... 23 9. Bibliography ...... 24

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1. Statement of Problem

1.1 Definition of Problem

In the United States, over 33 million people are foreign born. Displaced groups often struggle to find places that engender a sense of attachment, define their identity, and sustain their well-being. Thus, it is important to create a space for displaced groups such as African

Americans to self-identify. One region in the United States that is home to displaced African

Americans is Pioneer Valley. Springfield, the largest city in the county and the third largest in

MA, has historically been a magnet for immigrants looking for economic opportunity. During

The Great Migration, “the Valley became a destination for thousands of black migrants fleeing the Jim Crow south and looking for a better life” (Armstrong). The African American demographics surrounding the Five College are as follows: Springfield 21.61%,

Amherst 5.03%, Holyoke 4.43%, and Northampton 2.79% (“Diversity Map of Massachusetts”).

Also, the demographics of the University of Massachusetts Amherst is 4.4% African-American

(“Race/Ethnicity of Undergraduate Students”). Given the size of the population in Pioneer

Valley, there should be proportionate representation of black voices—especially in literature where they can form identities. One study reported that

While all racial/ethnic minorities are underrepresented when compared to the general US population, the numbers show that some groups, such as Black/African Americans, are more severely underrepresented. This mirrors trends among children’s book authors. In 2014, just 2 percent of the books tracked by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center were by black authors (Low). While this study highlights the underrepresentation of black writers through children’s books statistics, there is also a lack of diversity in poetry. Another study reported poets published in

Poetry magazine within the last 50 issues are 90.72% white (Barryman). 2

Poetry magazine isn’t the only source to

disproportionately represent black voices.

Another study reported that “nearly 90% of the

books reviewed by The New York Times are

written by white writers” in 2011 (“Books

Reviewed in New York Times”). Ultimately, a

Figure 1: White vs. Non-White Poets Published in Last 50 journal based in Pioneer Valley that focuses on Issues of Poetry Magazine black voices and places them in conversation with black poets from around the country would ameliorate these problems of underrepresentation and isolation within the literary landscape. As the project helps one community, it can be expanded outward to other regions.

However, there is also the problem of the gender-gap in literature. Since 1950, when the

U.S. National Book Awards were established, only one quarter of the prizes in its fiction category have gone to women: “Katherine Anne Porter was the first woman to win the fiction prize in 1966 for the Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. In 1983, Alice Walker became the first black woman to win the prize for her groundbreaking novel The Color Purple”

(Mohdin). The same article discusses how

The Nobel Prize for literature, set up in 1901, which encompasses all languages, has been awarded to women just 14 times, the first of them being Swedish author Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf in 1909. American novelist Toni Morrison became the first (and so far only) black female laureate in 1993 (Mohdin). Thus, not only are black writers underrepresented in the literary world, women are too. For gender that comprises 51% of the U.S. population, there is unequal representation of their work.

Often, “it’s assumed that women writers will not write anything important—anything truly serious or necessary, revelatory or wise” ("Sexism in Publishing”). As the figures below suggest, 3

these sexist views are still prevalent within the publishing community and its effects are reflected in the past winners of major literary prizes.

Figure 2: Winners of Major Literary Prizes 2000-2015 Figure 3: Number of Major Literary Prizes Awarded to Women

In the period 2000-2015, 41 prizes were won by women and 48 by men—a disparity, yes, but far less than the one that exists between the prize-winning books that can be said to have a male- driven narrative versus a female one as Figure 2 suggests. Again, for Figure 3, the disparity is reflected in major awards, such as the Nobel Prize.

According to the Center for

American Progress, “…women of color will make up 53% of the

[female] population by 2050”

(Ahmad and Iverson). The following graph represents this future trend.

While it is clear that women of color Figure 4: Prediction of Female Population in 2015-2050 will make up the majority of women in the future, the systemic, economic and cultural obstacles they endure persist. Drawing attention to where disparities exist in the literary landscape is an important step towards making black women’s stories move from the margins to the center. Surfacing their literary contributions 4

serves to make the communities they represent more visible and powerful, as well as to elevate collective consciousness so that our shared recollection of history is more inclusive.

During the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, black arts writers viewed literature as a means of exhortation and poetry as the most immediate way to model and articulate the new black consciousness the movement sought to foster. Thus, poetry within the black community has always been a form that allowed freedom. Also, because poetry gives a voice to those who are voiceless, it can function as a source of healing. In the essay “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” Audre

Lorde expresses the significance of poetry in the lives of the poet and her audience. Lorde argues that poetry unearths “unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling...for women... poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change” (Lorde 37). Through poetry, black women can express self-empowerment and can reclaim their subjectivities which continue to be distorted by the dominant culture.

Currently, there exists a strong need to depict a full and accurate representation of

African American women. From the seventeenth century onward, African American women and girls have been portrayed as stereotypes such as “Mammy,” “Jezebel,” and “Sapphire.” The

Mammy was written fictitiously into history to make slavery appear more humane. Ladson-

Billings equates the character of the Mammy as being similar to the character of “Aunt Jemima,” who is the iconic maternal figure on the pancake box, and early film actresses such as Hattie

McDaniels, Louise Beavers, and Ethel Waters (Ladson-Billings qtd. in King). Then there’s the

Jezebel―an overly sexualized, promiscuous black woman. Her image was used to justify the sexual violence systematically inflicted upon black women in the antebellum South (Frank). The

Jezebel can be traced back to the Bible, since Jezebel was the name of a queen who turned her 5

husband King Ahab’s heart away from worshiping God (King 46). Today, examples include

Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, and Halle Berry as actresses who often play the role of the

Jezebel (King 46). There is also “Sapphire” depicted as an angry black woman. This stereotype is named for the one-dimensional character on the radio and TV show “Amos ‘n’ Andy” (King

46). This depiction refers to a history of atrocities committed again black women and instead suggests they are inherently hostile—a foil to the delicate femininity of white women.

Ultimately, these depictions marginalize black women (Brice qtd. in Muhammad 226). Hudson notes, “stereotypes simultaneously reflect and distort the ways in which black women view themselves (individually and collectively) and in which they are viewed by others” (Hudson

249). Media depictions can allow audiences to form certain opinions of entire racial and gender groups regardless of their merit. In spite of advances in civil rights, these images have endured and are often manifested in contemporary media outlets. These negative effects translate into institutional consequences. The modern Jezebel stereotype was related to attitudes toward sexual activity, such that endorsement of this image was related to a perception that risky sexual behaviors were less harmful. However, this image puts them in greater danger. Currently,

“African American girls are one of the fastest growing groups to contract HIV, with rates exceeding even those of African American boys. The emerging face of the Aids epidemic in the

U.S. is now young, Black, and female” (Lack). As Weaver discusses,

Media misrepresentation has also been linked to African Americans receiving less attention from doctors, harsher sentencing by judges, lower likelihood of being hired for a job or admitted to school, shorter life expectancy, lower odds of getting loans, and higher likelihood of being shot by polic … reduced self-esteem, low expectations for themselves, and implicit bias against members of their own race. It has also been proven to increase domestic abuse rates of African American women (Weaver 61). Furthermore, negative representations become a barrier that stifles black women’s quest for self- definition, self-determination, and empowerment. The UN defines women empowerment as: 6

a women’s sense of self-worth; their right to have and to determine choices; their right to have access to opportunities and resources; their right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally (“Women's Empowerment”). We need women empowerment because it should be possible for everyone to have a significant role in society. The quest for understanding the self is essential to development as young adults and college students. To get a “full vision” of African American women, there needs to be a space foregrounds their voices and places them at the center because without wider views, few voices become the dominant narrative.

When studying the writings of African American women throughout history, it becomes clear that they wrote to counter false and incomplete depictions that have long been prevalent in society. Using their pens to fight back, writing became a vehicle to define their lives. From colonial and antebellum periods to the twenty-first century, “black women expressed themselves across several themes involving beauty, gender, race, education, intellect, artistic sensibility, identity, religion, family, relationships, and intergenerational representations of health and life”

(Lee qtd. in Muhammad 227). These diverse categories represent the dynamic complexity of their identities. As they represented themselves, they also wrote about critical issues affecting their lives. This suggests that their writings intend to create awareness, advocacy, and social change. Their writing practices therefore were not just driven by goals of learning and advancing writing skills, but were marked by a greater purpose in their lives related to self-definition, which consequently created spaces for future generations of black women writers. With the ability to self-define comes agency. The journal will be a space for younger authors to enter the publishing world among encouraging voices rather than disparaging ones. They will be in conversation with other black women poets in order to foreground all types of black women’s experience. By 7

creating spaces that don’t marginalize black women, they can retake their agency to assert their own voices, ideals, perspectives, and truths. Thus, these identities counter hegemony and dominance to advocate for change among themselves and others. Ultimately, by offering wider views of representations from black women’s voices, broadening historical lens, enlarging the

American literary canon, and democratizing archives, the notions of what’s possible and valuable in a writing can be reconceptualized. Poetry can be a productive space for black women to write

without fear of censure or the need to defend subject matter or

language. It can be an intellectual and physical site where they

validate their own and their peers’ voices and know that s/he is

not “the only one.”

Our journal is entitled Griot, which is a member of a

hereditary caste among the peoples of western Africa whose

function is to keep an oral history of the tribe or village and to

Figure 5: Griot entertain with stories, poems, songs, dances, etc. Thus, we wanted our title to reflect our determination in representing black voices. To keep the journal contemporary, we wanted to represent voices of women who function as Griots like Morgan

Parker, a black female poet. Combining professionals such as Ms. Parker with voices of contemporary black women ages eighteen to fifty would contribute to a creation of a national community standing in solidarity. Like the NEA, we want our journal “to promote public knowledge and understanding about the value and impact of the arts in American life” (“How

Art Works” 32). We will promote a vital cultural conversation by publishing a twice-yearly journal that promotes contemporary literature through searching for and supporting emerging diverse writers. We will also actively develop and sustain an audience for this work. 8

2. Statement of Request

The primary purpose of this grant proposal is to secure a grant from the Art Works

Literature program of the National Endowment for The Arts in the amount of $44,188.87, for the

development and publication of a journal based in

Pioneer Valley. Griot will broaden the diversity

within the publishing industry by focusing on black

women’s voices. The journal will publish twice a

year—in the fall and in the spring. In addition, the

journal will be created in an office space located in

Amherst, MA. This location is optimal because it is

near the Five College Consortium and is located

within the Valley, which will provide ease of

access for those who want to read the journal and

Figure 6: Ojo Agi’s Daughters of Diaspora participate in it’s creation. By locating our office in the Valley, we will create solidarity within the community as all participants fight inequality.

Mainly, our budget covers the costs of production for the journal. Ultimately, Griot, with NEA’s contribution, can be form of resistance to the inequality not just in the publishing industry, but in the U.S. as well.

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3. Description of Proposed Work

3.1 Objectives of Project and Methods Used to Achieve Them

Goal 1: Creation—Expand the portfolio of American art.

• Create art that meets the highest standards of excellence across a diverse spectrum of

artistic disciplines and geographic locations. Through the creation of art, these projects

are intended to replenish and rejuvenate America's enduring cultural legacy.

o Objective 1: Promote the development and production of new work through the creation of Griot.

o Objective 2: Provide opportunities for black women poets to refine and share their work.

Goal 2: Engagement—Provide opportunities for Americans throughout the nation to experience diverse art.

• Promote public engagement with artistic excellence across a diverse spectrum of artistic

disciplines and geographic locations. Engage the public directly with the arts and provide

Americans with new opportunities to have profound and meaningful arts experiences.

o Objective 1: Raise awareness of cultural heritage through production, publication, and promotion of Griot.

o Objective 2: Document, preserve, and conserve diverse literary work.

o Objective 3: Extend the arts to underserved populations—those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, or economics.

Goal 3: Livability—Strengthen communities through the arts. 10

• Incorporate the arts into strategies to improve the livability of communities. Increase the

quality of life in Pioneer Valley by providing ample opportunities for social, civic, and

cultural engagement. The arts can enhance livability by providing new avenues for

expression and creativity.

o Objective 1: Contribute to community identity and sense of place through Griot.

o Objective 2: Improve community livability and enhance the unique characteristics of the community through the inclusion of underrepresented artists.

3.2 Schedule

Fall Semester Spring Semester • September: • January: Hire staff and volunteers, Call for submissions Call for submissions Contact professional poets to Contact professional poets to include their work include their work • February: • October: Contact poets who have been Contact poets who have been accepted and send their contracts, accepted and send their contracts, Begin creating journal in Begin creating journal in Adobe InDesign, Adobe InDesign, Send proofs to poets Send proofs to poets • March: • November: Have proof-readers check Have proof-readers check final draft, final draft, Send final copy to printer Send final copy to printer • April: • December: Distribute printed copies Distribute printed copies

Table 1: Schedule As the schedule communicates, this proposal has been designed around a poetry journal which publishes twice a year. For the Fall Semester, we will begin by hiring staff and volunteers to work on the journal for the rest of the year. From there, printing the journal will be the same each 11

time. We will begin by advertising a call for submissions of poetry and art in Pioneer Valley. We will then read the work through submittable as it comes in. We will also be concurrently reaching out to professional black female poets such as Morgan Parker to request they include their work. We will have the professional poets choose their favorite poem out of the submissions in order to create a dialogue between black female authors. Once this poem is picked, we will highlight it as the first poem in the journal. Then we will contact the poets who have been accepted so they can sign contracts and look for future emails regarding proofs and questions. At this point in February, a majority of our staff will work on copying the poems into

Adobe InDesign and mixing the artwork with it. By the next month we will have completed a draft of the journal and will give it to our proof-readers and editors to check one last time. Once that is finished, we will send it to the printers. As the journals are completed, we will advertise that people pick them up. 12

4. Description of Available Facilities

Because AWA does

not have office space, we will

locate our journal in a local

office space. This office is

located right in downtown

Amherst and is on the bus

route, which would allow

Figure 7: Outside the Office Building many residents of Pioneer

Valley and college students

to access it. Its close location

would allow students to

volunteer and work with us.

According to the listing, there

is a second-floor professional

office suite, a reception room, Figure 8: Office Space two private offices, a work area, and a restroom. However, the tenant is responsible for utilities. Also, there is off street parking for staff and visitors. This space, being 500 ft2, would be ample room for staff to create the journal and distribute it. This size space also provides room for the journal to grow as we establish an audience. 13

5. Qualifications of Personnel

5.1 Names, Positions and Relevant Backgrounds of Employees

We do not have a hired staff, so we will be advertising these positions once the journal is funded. We will not have an editor in chief, so the managing editor will take over the role. As the top editor, the managing editor will perform the duties of both positions—the administrative role of the editor in chief and the day-to-day management of the publication and staff that the managing editor would normally handle. Since the publication is smaller, the managing editor would not have as many duties as one in a larger publication, so it may be possible to handle both roles.

Managing Editor: We are looking for a skilled Managing Editor to oversee our company’s daily publishing operations. Our managing editor will perform the administrative role of an editor in chief. A managing editor combines the innovativeness of a writer with the practical focus of an operations manager. We expect excellent organizational and leaderships skills as well as a unique problem- solving ability. One of the major requirement we will be looking for is a candidate who shows us their passion for empowering black women in creative ways.

Responsibilities

• Plan and manage all daily operations

• Hire, coach and supervise personnel

• Determine issues’ content and topics

• Coordinate editorial publications and meetings

• Control schedules and enforce deadlines (for writers etc.)

• Oversee proofreading procedures and copy edit when necessary

• Assist in evaluating finalized copy for compliance with policies, style, and tone 14

• Resolve issues as they arise Requirements

• Proven experience as managing editor or relevant role

• Shown previous commitment to empowering black women

• Exceptional ability in copywriting and editing

• Proficiency in English

• Working knowledge of Adobe InDesign and Submittable

• Abilities in planning and coordinating people and operations

• Excellent organizational and leadership skills

• Outstanding communication and people abilities

• Reliability and efficiency

• Attention to detail

• BA in English or relevant field

Editorial Assistant Editorial assistants perform a range of administrative and editorial tasks necessary to the production of publications.

Responsibilities

• Support managing editor in all activities leading to publication

• Use computers for word processing, desktop publishing, and email correspondence

• Deal with phone and email queries, e.g. from writers and the public

• File, photocopy, and other routine administrative tasks

• Oversee proofreading procedures and copy edit when necessary

• Assist in evaluating finalized copy for compliance with policies, style, and tone

• Resolve issues as they arise Requirements

• Shown previous commitment to empowering black women

• Enthusiasm, interpersonal skills, self-motivation and flexibility 15

• IT, administrative and secretarial skills, including word processing skills; • A high standard of written and spoken English • Attention to detail, together with the ability to proofread • The ability to stay calm under pressure, work well with others and show initiative • Creativity, and in some cases digital-editing skills • Knowledge and experience of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter • Time management skills, including the ability to keep to tight deadlines. • BA in English or relevant field

• Working knowledge of Adobe InDesign and Submittable

5.2 Names and Positions of Remaining Staff

AWA Executive Director, Maureen Buchanan Jones: Maureen Buchanan Jones is the

Executive Director of Amherst Writers & Artists, serving also as Program Director of the AWA

Training Program. She is an AWA Affiliate, trained and mentored by Pat Schneider, and leads weekly workshops in Amherst, Massachusetts, as well as weekend retreats.

AWA Associate Director, Kate Frank: Kate is the Associate Director of Amherst Writers &

Artists. She is an AWA Affiliate and alumnus. In the past, she has worked for CALYX, Inc. and the Jones Library.

AWA Founder, Pat Schneider: Pat is a poet, playwright, librettist, and author of ten books of poetry and non-fiction. After a search for work took her single mother to St. Louis, from age ten

Pat lived in tenements and in an orphanage until she was given a scholarship to college. Those early experiences have deeply influenced her writing, and fueled her passion for those who have been denied voice through poverty and other misfortunes.

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6. Budget

Expense Cost

1000 6x9 copies (50 pages): $2,150.00 x two times a year = $4,300.00 Amazon CreateSpace Shipping = $403.00 x two times a year = $806.00

=$5106.00

iMac 21.5-inch desktop computer = $1,099.00

Equipment WorkForce WF-7110 Inkjet Printer = $199.99

=$1,298.99

Adobe InDesign Creative Cloud = $69.99/ Month x 12 months = $839.88 / year

Professional plan= Submittable $34 /month x 12 months = $408.00 x 50% discount with the coupon code “NonProfitArtLit” = $204.00 / year

Minimum wage in MA = $11/ hour x Part time hours = 30 hours/week = Staff Wages $330 / week x 39 weeks = $12,870 / year x 2 editors = $25,740.00

$250.00 per poem x 4 professional poems = Professional Poets $1,000 x two times a year= $2,000.00

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500ft2 commercial office space in downtown Facilities Amherst = $750 / month x 12 months = $9,000.000

Total Cost $44,188.87

Table 2: Budget As the table covers, AWA uses Amazon’s CreateSpace to print books, so our journal will do the same. We will be printing 1000 6x9 copies for the area at first because we do not have an established audience. We will also need Mac, which are better for design than windows computers, to complete these tasks. We chose the least costly desktop mainly because it does everything we need to do on it, so there would be no reason to get the other models. We will also need printers. Epson’s workforce printer is a great option for creative projects according to the website. We will also need to get Adobe InDesign through a Creative Cloud subscription.

Another subscription we will need is Submittable, which will be able to handle the submissions from the area. We will also need to pay part-time staff for their work. We will also pay the professional poets for their work in order to increase the likelihood that they will participate. We hope that the publicity they will receive will also be a significant factor in their choice to publish a poem with us. The reason that facilities are listed here is because we AWA does not have a storefront. However, there was an office space located right in downtown Amherst which will be easily accessible to anyone who wishes to get the book. Ultimately, the budget covers the publication and distribution of the journal’s issues, payments to staff and contributors, and covers the cost of technologies, which will deepen audiences' engagement with literature and provide writers with new platforms to share their voices. 18

7. Summary and Conclusion

7.1 Benefits

Our journal, along with AWA, wishes to publish and support the work of emerging and established writers; and to cross boundaries of class, race and other difference by using writing as a tool of empowerment, giving voice to the silenced. The AWA Method is based in the following philosophy. These affirmations rest on a definition of personhood based in equality, and a definition of writing as an art form available to all persons.

1. Everyone has a strong, unique voice. 2. Everyone is born with creative genius. 3. Writing as an art form belongs to all people, regardless of economic class or educational level. 4. The teaching of craft can be done without damage to a writer’s original voice or artistic self-esteem. 5. A writer is someone who writes. Thus, along with NEA we can cross boundaries of class, race, gender, and other differences by supporting “arts learning, [affirming] and [celebrating] America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and [by extending the NEA’s] work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America” (“About the NEA”).

What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation? If you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. The key to understanding the positive influence of 19

diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions, and perspectives. Business professors Cristian Deszö of the University of Maryland and David Ross of Columbia University

studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor's Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms' top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” They also measured the firms' “innovation intensity” through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks (Phillips). Gender diversity is not only important to publishing as this study notes—it can increase a business company’s value. In a similar study, the researchers surveyed executives at 177 national banks in the U.S., then put together a database comparing financial performance, racial diversity and the emphasis the bank presidents put on innovation:

Evidence for the benefits of diversity can be found well beyond the U.S. In August 2012 a team of researchers at the Credit Suisse Research Institute issued a report in which they examined 2,360 companies globally from 2005 to 2011, looking for a relationship between gender diversity on corporate management boards and financial performance. Sure enough, the researchers found that companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity, lower gearing (that is, net debt to equity) and better average growth (Phillips). For innovation-focused banks, increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance. Thus, the diversity that our journal can provide extends far beyond the publishing world. Social diversity is important in terms of innovation, which will greatly benefit society.

7.2 Comparison to Similar Projects

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PAST SIMILAR NEA GRANTS:

To support the print and electronic publication and promotion of the journal "A Public Space," as well as a program pairing A Public Space mentors with selected emerging writers to strengthen their stories for publication. Each issue includes fiction, poetry, essays, and art.

Grant Amount: $10,000

To support the publication and promotion of the magazine. Published in a newsprint tabloid format and as a digital edition, each American Poetry Review bimonthly issue of the magazine features poetry as well as columns, essays, and interviews.

Grant Amount: $10,000

To support the 20th Annual Writing Retreat and the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, core programs that nurture the work of emerging Cave Canem and mid-career African-American and minority poets.

Grant Amount: $25,000

To support the publication and promotion of a new poetry collection by Sueyeun Juliette Kore Press Lee, as well as promotion of the anthology "Letters to the Future: Experimental Writing by Black Women."

Grant Amount: $25,000

SIMILAR LITERARY JOURNALS:

An online literary magazine featuring black women writers and artists. Its goal is to expose readers to the diversity of the black 21

BLACKBERRY woman’s experience and strengthen the black female voice in both the mainstream and independent markets.

A nonprofit organization established to support and promote creative writing by Torch Literary Arts Black women and girls. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike.

Table 3: Similar Projects While these projects seem similar to our Griot journal, there is still a big difference. A Public

Space and American Poetry Review are not centered around any specific voices. Our journal can help ameliorate this diversity issue. While Cave Canem promotes black voices, they do not focus on women’s voices, which are just as underrepresented in the publishing industry. Kore Press focuses on black women’s voices, but they do not publish a poetry journal focusing on young and professional voices. BLACKBERRY is only an online literary magazine, which won’t have the same communal advantages with a press actually located in the area. Also, Torch Literary

Arts is not centered in the Pioneer Valley which can benefit greatly from representation.

7.3 Reassertion of Seriousness of Problem and Urge to Action

Generally, the most well-known books by writers of color in the English-speaking world focus on “othered” experiences. While white authors are valued for having “normal” experiences, black authors, for instance, are most valued when writing about slavery or poverty.

This limits their talent and leads to what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls “the single story,” in which the work of minority authors is used merely to highlight differences and reinforce stereotypes (Govinnage). Reading more diverse literature has the power to convey the 22

universality of human experience and show that we really have more in common with one another than expected.

One aspect of the publishing business is that the products we create and sell can potentially lead the conversations that change the world. Today’s publishing pros work in an era where America is visibly grappling with the ever-present effects of its slave history, playing out in police encounters and discriminatory housing policies. Where media portrayals of people of color still reek of caricature, and the zeitgeist cries out via hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter and

#OscarsSoWhite. It seems that now, more than ever, we should cherish opportunities to encourage dialogue about difficult subjects, to offer new hope and perspective to marginalized members of our society, and to advocate for the rights of the underserved in publishing. Being publishers and editors—curators and distributors of stories—has always been a privilege. But we also take seriously the responsibility to continue presenting poems that will uplift, inspire, and inform critical conversations—even as they entertain us and transport us into other worlds.

The problem of representation and diversity stretches beyond publishing. All forms of art and culture—visual arts, music, performance—need to reflect the increasingly diverse society in which they exist or risk irrelevance. Thus, the arts reform movement and the current civil rights moment are inextricably linked. The tumultuous fight for equality in arts is also rooted in a history of protests, disruption of the status quo, arguing of legal cases, strategic policy proposals, and a firm stand against structures and practices that perpetuate inequality. With the NEA’s help,

Griot can be one leap in resisting inequality and oppression, which has manifested within the publishing industry.

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8. Appendix of Figures and Tables

8.1 Figures

Figure 1: White vs. Non-White Poets Published in Last 50 Issues of Poetry Magazine. N.d. Internet Presence. Web. Figure 2: Winners of Major Literary Prizes 2000-2015. N.d. Quartz. Web. Figure 3: Number of Major Literary Prizes Awarded to Women. N.d. Quartz. Web. Figure 4: Prediction of Female Population in 2015-2050. N.d. Center for American Progress. Web. Figure 5: Griot. N.d. Wikipedia. Web. Figure 9: Ojo Agi’s Daughters of Diaspora. N.d. Gold Womyn. Web. Figure 10: Outside the Office Building. N.d. Craigslist. Web. Figure 11: Office Space. N.d. Craigslist. Web.

8.2 Tables

Table 1: A project schedule, detailing each project phase, as well as starting and finishing dates.

Table 2: A budget, detailing the corresponding cost for equipment and labor. 24

9. Bibliography

"About the NEA." National Endowment for the Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. Ahmad, Farah Z. Ahmad and Sarah Iverson Z., and Sarah Iverson. "The State of Women of Color in the United States." Center for American Progress. Center for American Progress, 24 Oct. 2013. Web. Armstrong, Price. "Posts about Demographics on Pioneer Valley Planner." Pioneer Valley Planner. N.p., n.d. Web. Barryman, Ted. "Is Poetry Magazine Racist?" Internet Presence. N.p., 09 Sept. 2013. Web. “Diversity Map of Massachusetts.” The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners, 04 Dec. 2014. Web.

Flood, Alison. "Books reviewed in New York Times are 'predominantly by white authors'." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 12 June 2012. Web. ——. "Sexism in publishing: 'My novel wasn't the problem, it was me, Catherine'." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 06 Aug. 2015. Web. Frank, Priscilla. "How Art Fights Back Against Stale Stereotypes About Black Women." The Huffington Post. N.p., 08 Dec. 2016. Web. Govinnage, Sunili. "I read books by only minority authors for a year. It showed me just how white our reading world is." The Washington Post. WP Company, 24 Apr. 2015. Web. "Guidelines on Women's Empowerment." United Nations. United Nations, n.d. Web. “How Art Works.” National Endowment for the Arts. N.p., n.d. PDF. Hudson, Shawna V. "Re‐Creational Television: The Paradox of Change and Continuity within Stereotypical Iconography." Sociological Inquiry 68.2 (1998): 242-257. King, Kendall. "Do African-American Female Stereotypes Still Exist in Television? A Descriptive Character Analysis of Olivia Pope." Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 6.2 (2015). 45-49. Web. Lack, Caleb. "The Impact of Stereotypes on African-American Females." Great Plains Skeptic. N.p., 28 Apr. 2015. Web. Lorde, Audre. "Poetry is not a luxury." (1978): 36-39. Low, Jason. “Where Is the Diversity in Publishing? The 2015 Diversity Baseline Survey Results.” Lee & Low Blog. N.p., 10 Feb. 2016. Web.

Mohdin, Aamna. "Women are horribly under-represented in the world’s top literary awards." Quartz. Quartz, 16 Nov. 2016. Web. 25

Muhammad, Gholnecsar E. “Searching for Full Vision: Writing Representations of African American Adolescent Girls.” Research in the Teaching of English 49.3 (2015): 224-47. Print. Phillips, Katherine W. "How Diversity Makes Us Smarter." Scientific American. N.p., 01 Oct. 2014. Web. “Race/Ethnicity of Undergraduate Students (U. S. Citizens) Fall 1998 to Fall 2017.” University of Massachusetts Amherst, n.d. PDF. Weaver Jr, Tony. "Analysis of Representations of African Americans in Non-linear Streaming Media Content." ELON JOURNAL (2016): 57-67. Web.