The “VS Podcast’’ has opened submissions for content from Black poets, scholars, and creators from across the diaspora for “Roll Call”.
“Roll Call“ is a 4-5 episode miniseries of the ”VS Podcast“ where poets confront the ideas that move them.
This is the enticing invitation to dive into the legacy and possibility of Black poetics, all dreamed, researched and created by you, with funding and production support from the Poetry Foundation, a Chicago-based American foundation created to promote poetry in the wider culture.
Hosted by poets Danez Smith and Franny Choi, produced by Daniel Kisslinger and presented by the Poetry Foundation and Postloudness, it is dedicated to the past, present and future of Black poetry.
It will be a submission-based, anthology-style show collecting audio-based, hour-long, content from Black poets, scholars, and creators from across the diaspora.
Individual contributors will be paid over R15 000 per episode.
No prior experience in podcasting, audio production or editing is necessary in exploring histories, both hyper-local and transnational, to spotlight urgent and emergent conversations in contemporary poetry.
Envisioned is a series in which episodes span both content and form. Some examples of possible episodes:
- Interviews with Black elders in your local writing community
- Poets responding to archival audio footage of poets from the Black Arts Movement
- A roundtable reading and discussion with Black femme Afro-futurist poets
- Solo and collaborative sound poetry experiments
- An episode that looks to multiple sources to try to answer the question, What is Black trans poetics?
Additional costs of production will be covered by the Poetry Foundation, upon approval.
Forward Prize winner Smith will select the pitches with a group of Black poets.
The VS team will match hosts with an audio producer and each episode will have editorial guidance from Smith and “Still Processing” co-host and “Black Futures” editor Jenna Wortham.
If you have an idea for an episode, or are interested in being a producer for this project, then send a submission via email to [email protected]
For finer details, visit the Poetry Foundation website.