Mariam's Writing-for-Freedom Summer
Donation protected
About Me:
Hi! I'm Mariam. I usually define myself as a Louisville, Kentucky writer and educator living in Philadelphia and pursuing an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in public history. The Toi Derricotte quote in the photo reflects my big vision: I want my writing to help guide readers to new revelations, speak the unspeakable, and heal deeply shadowed wounds by using various literary forms to connect history, spirituality, and critical analysis of the present, and to interweave these connections with autobiography. My writing is informed by feminism, womanism, black studies, spirituality, and the black church. My knowledge clash sometimes, but I use my writing to rigorously explore those and other conflicting ideologies. It's helping me get free, and I want to help others, especially other black women, do the same.
What I'm Raising Money For:
I'm attending three writing workshops this summer--
Sarah Lawrence Summer Seminar , VONA , and Disquiet International Writers Program --to help me connect with other writers and unearth my story. I received partial scholarships for all three, but there are still some expenses, like:
Remaining tuition balances
Airfare (to Miami for VONA and to Portugal for Disquiet)
Baggage Fees
Ground transit (Trains, buses, Uber/Lyft, Airport Shuttle, Taxi when absolutely necessary)
Lodging
Food
Making copies
Buying books after author readings and craft talks
Being a tourist
Incidentals
I've paid for my tuition balances and airfare with a credit card, as those were due some time ago, but the remaining expenses cost more than I foresaw. My writing summer begins on June 19th, and I'm accepting funds through July 18th, when the last program ends. Funds go to the list above and to credit card debt.
Why This Is Important:
Because of the mission. Between my blog, freelance op-ed writing, and the essays and poems I pen that don’t get published anywhere, I write at least two books every year. The vast majority of my work, even the small portion that I do get paid for, is available for free. No paywalls. No subscription requirement. Just a mission to help people get free.
To paraphrase Chance the Rapper, I do this for freedom, but I don’t want to do it for free--or in debt--forever. Patrons sponsoring artists appears to have gone out of fashion, but if you appreciate my vision, I hope you'll consider making a donation, in any amount, and/or sharing with others who you think would donate. I can do little more than continue to produce high-quality content, and eventually drop your name in the acknowledgements section of any book I produce as a result of work that began in these workshops, but I would be very grateful!
What I've Already Done to Raise Funds:
-Applied for 9 different scholarships (apparently, "rolling deadline" means "We only meet twice a year to discuss applicants, you're in between those times, and funds from our endowments are fickle.")
-Contacted people who have supported my work in the past
-Continued writing my column and teaching writing workshops
-Pitched my writing to media outlets that pay
-Sent applications to local temp agencies
-Submitted my application for a part-time position that I hope to be selected for and that would begin when I return
-Updated my "About" page and the "Support the Mission" page on my blog
-Tried to be less shy about self-promotion
What I'm Writing This Summer
Next year is my thesis year, and these workshops guarantee I'll spend the summer working on it. I now have two competing projects in mind for my thesis. One is a memoir about the development of my intersecting black, woman, feminist, Christian identities and their continued role in my life. I envision the memoir as a collection of lyric essays that place autobiographical events into a historical context and formatted as an epistle to another black woman trying to define her identity. The second project is a prose-poetry hybrid collection that chronicles the repeated loss of black life to state-sanctioned violence and the Black Lives Matter response from July 2014 to July 2015. I want to parallel these events alongside autobiographical content that includes revelations I had about blackness, religion, faith, love, and depression over the same time period and situate all of these events and epiphanies within a historical context. Each chapter of the book will also be titled by the month in which the events I chronicle took place. (A portion of the June 2015 chapter will be published towards the end of the summer in the online journal Bozalta.) The time period begins with a study abroad trip to Trinidad that influenced my perceptions on black identity and religion—a trip I took the same month that Eric Garner was murdered—and ends with Sandra Bland’s as yet unexplained death and my move from Louisville, KY, to Philadelphia.
Hi! I'm Mariam. I usually define myself as a Louisville, Kentucky writer and educator living in Philadelphia and pursuing an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in public history. The Toi Derricotte quote in the photo reflects my big vision: I want my writing to help guide readers to new revelations, speak the unspeakable, and heal deeply shadowed wounds by using various literary forms to connect history, spirituality, and critical analysis of the present, and to interweave these connections with autobiography. My writing is informed by feminism, womanism, black studies, spirituality, and the black church. My knowledge clash sometimes, but I use my writing to rigorously explore those and other conflicting ideologies. It's helping me get free, and I want to help others, especially other black women, do the same.
What I'm Raising Money For:
I'm attending three writing workshops this summer--
Sarah Lawrence Summer Seminar , VONA , and Disquiet International Writers Program --to help me connect with other writers and unearth my story. I received partial scholarships for all three, but there are still some expenses, like:
Remaining tuition balances
Airfare (to Miami for VONA and to Portugal for Disquiet)
Baggage Fees
Ground transit (Trains, buses, Uber/Lyft, Airport Shuttle, Taxi when absolutely necessary)
Lodging
Food
Making copies
Buying books after author readings and craft talks
Being a tourist
Incidentals
I've paid for my tuition balances and airfare with a credit card, as those were due some time ago, but the remaining expenses cost more than I foresaw. My writing summer begins on June 19th, and I'm accepting funds through July 18th, when the last program ends. Funds go to the list above and to credit card debt.
Why This Is Important:
Because of the mission. Between my blog, freelance op-ed writing, and the essays and poems I pen that don’t get published anywhere, I write at least two books every year. The vast majority of my work, even the small portion that I do get paid for, is available for free. No paywalls. No subscription requirement. Just a mission to help people get free.
To paraphrase Chance the Rapper, I do this for freedom, but I don’t want to do it for free--or in debt--forever. Patrons sponsoring artists appears to have gone out of fashion, but if you appreciate my vision, I hope you'll consider making a donation, in any amount, and/or sharing with others who you think would donate. I can do little more than continue to produce high-quality content, and eventually drop your name in the acknowledgements section of any book I produce as a result of work that began in these workshops, but I would be very grateful!
What I've Already Done to Raise Funds:
-Applied for 9 different scholarships (apparently, "rolling deadline" means "We only meet twice a year to discuss applicants, you're in between those times, and funds from our endowments are fickle.")
-Contacted people who have supported my work in the past
-Continued writing my column and teaching writing workshops
-Pitched my writing to media outlets that pay
-Sent applications to local temp agencies
-Submitted my application for a part-time position that I hope to be selected for and that would begin when I return
-Updated my "About" page and the "Support the Mission" page on my blog
-Tried to be less shy about self-promotion
What I'm Writing This Summer
Next year is my thesis year, and these workshops guarantee I'll spend the summer working on it. I now have two competing projects in mind for my thesis. One is a memoir about the development of my intersecting black, woman, feminist, Christian identities and their continued role in my life. I envision the memoir as a collection of lyric essays that place autobiographical events into a historical context and formatted as an epistle to another black woman trying to define her identity. The second project is a prose-poetry hybrid collection that chronicles the repeated loss of black life to state-sanctioned violence and the Black Lives Matter response from July 2014 to July 2015. I want to parallel these events alongside autobiographical content that includes revelations I had about blackness, religion, faith, love, and depression over the same time period and situate all of these events and epiphanies within a historical context. Each chapter of the book will also be titled by the month in which the events I chronicle took place. (A portion of the June 2015 chapter will be published towards the end of the summer in the online journal Bozalta.) The time period begins with a study abroad trip to Trinidad that influenced my perceptions on black identity and religion—a trip I took the same month that Eric Garner was murdered—and ends with Sandra Bland’s as yet unexplained death and my move from Louisville, KY, to Philadelphia.
Organizer
Mariam Williams
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA