Hey, y’all. Fola here.
We’re more than halfway through May and our editors are working hard through the submissions. For this intro, I just wanted to share a few thoughts from the QC Family Tree Spring ‘24 Culture Bearer Residency Showcase last month.
Along with our EIC Ashley, two former Sistories contributors—Dionna Bright and Tiya Caniel—also featured moving works of art that are still up at the Arts Factory, so go and check it out! After taking in the exhibit, I jotted down a few notes in my journal about how our Sistories community’s work made me feel.
Dionna’s deft and creative use of self-portrait photography was so powerful because I felt like I could see myself in her self-portraiture.
Tiya’s work made nature come alive in both a visceral and deeply spiritual way, it felt like the nature she captured was speaking directly to me.
Ashley’s art revealed a true sense of vision that is so generous, it helps you also see yourself a little more hopefully and clearly.
Not a Sistories contributor, but the fourth artist Joseph played a song he wrote on his harp dedicated to the city of Charlotte and I’m ready for it to be on Spotify, it was so beautiful.
Anyway, art is alive and well in the South. Read on & support us with $$$ if you can!
SUSTAIN US!
Earlier this year, we launched our Sustainability Fundraiser that will help build the foundation for us to keep doing this work for the long run. We’ve already accomplished so much in just four years as you can see below!
Support us, tell a friend, share it far and wide!
SISTORIES NEWS
Our first podcast episode is officially live!
In this episode, host and Community Director Cidney Tiggett talks with Issue III contributor Sara Makeba Daise and Charleston Poet Laureate A$iahMae about what it means for the South to be a portal.
This episode was recorded at Queeny’s Burgers in Durham, NC as part of the first ever Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference!
Also, huge congratulations are in order for our Creative Director Mariah Webber who was named a 2024 Newcombe Fellow in support of her doctoral dissertation titled: Capturing Intimacies: Collaged Explorations of Black Sexuality in Strip Club Culture.
Learn more about it here!
SISTORIES IN THE FUTURE
I’ll be moderating a panel at this year’s Durag Fest for the first ever Durag Expo.
The panel will feature local award-winning interior designer Marie Cloud of Indigo Pruitt and the Executive Director of the McCrorey YMCA Niambi Goings.
We’ll be discussing mental health and cultivating safe spaces. The conversation will take place on Friday, June 21 at 3pm but there will be exciting panels and creative networking going all day.
Use this link to save 20% off your tickets!
SIS EXPRESS
Our former Sistories contributors are out in the world making WAVES!
Issue IV contributor Leah Whitcomb’s debut collection Apocalypse Still weaves the grotesque and the beautiful, the extraordinary and the mundane together in these tender tales of community, ancestral gifts, and the lengths we go through to survive.
A community storyteller from central Mississippi, Leah’s short story “The Pastor’s Wife” is featured in Issue IV - “The Hereafter.” She also co-hosts “Hoodoo Plant Mamas”, one of the top 5% of globally streamed pods on Spotify, with our prose editor Dani Bee!
Issue II contributor Juju Bae’s debut book The Book of Juju: Africana Spirituality for Healing, Liberation, and Self-Discovery will be out this summer on June 18!
Juju, who stars in Hulu's docuseries "Living for the Dead," is also the host of the iHeart Radio-nominated “A Little Juju” podcast.
WRITING & SO ON
Are you due for a re-read (or a first time read) of Toni Morrison’s Sula? Join Well-Read Black Girl this month for #50YearsofSula.
WaterSpout, a zine by SaltWater Sojourn’s deadline for submissions is May 26th. Artists and writers will still be compensated $35 per accepted submission.
Apply to design the 2nd anniversary 2024 poster for the Independent Picture House. Submissions are due on May 24!
👋🏿 SEE YA SIS
It’s heating up and we are back outside!
Don’t let anyone tell you that art and culture isn’t alive in the Queen City, because it very much is. And if you know someone struggling to believe it, send them this newsletter as proof.
Here’s what else I’m looking forward to for the rest of this month.
May 18: Time Off: A Dance Party Experience presented by Vacation Pay at The Rabbit Hole
May 23: Black Magic with Nicole Cardoza at The Independent Picture House
May 24: Opening Celebration - Qualeasha Wood: code_anima at the Harvey B. Gantt Center
Exhibits:
Open Wide the Door: The Story of Mary Cardwell Dawson and the National Negro Opera Company at the Charlotte Museum of History
“and sew it seems” curated by Alexandra Jane at the TFA Gallery in Charlotte
We see you out there, making a way out of no way, doing the best with what you have, and shining like you do. Take care of yourselves!
Peace,
Fola & the Sistories Team
Oh wow. Thank you for shouting out my book 🥹