Deadline: 18 August 2024
Applications are now open for the LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency Programme 2025 . Following the first Black Atlantic Residency of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD), the second iteration draws attention to the many movements, contemporary and historical, that promote demands for social and economic justice in Africa and the Diaspora.
Over generations, popular resistance in Africa and the Diaspora has forced seismic changes. From the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles of the 20th century to the #BlackLivesMatter, #ENDSARS and African feminist movements of this century, activists have built on the legacies of their predecessors while constructing their own history. By harnessing technology and building transnational networks, pan-African and global solidarities have been forged. Writers have been essential to these struggles. Through their work of imagination and documentation, novelists and essayists, poets and playwrights, journalists and academics have helped give voice to imagined movements and solutions.
For 2025, African Solidarities will consider the following issues:
- What does African solidarity mean to you?
- What forms of solidarity exist, or could exist, between Africans on the continent and among themselves, and between Africans on the continent and people of African descent in the diaspora?
- How closely are our destinies linked?
- What can we learn from the African solidarities of the past for the movements of the present?
- What role can writers play in building African solidarity?
- What role can fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction play in contemporary movements?
Generously supported by the Hawthornden Foundation, the LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency seeks to break down barriers between writers from across the continent and the Diaspora, bringing them together physically, in community, around a common purpose and theme.
Benefits
Candidates receive:
- Up to US$ 600 to cover travel costs to and from Ghana
- Note: They cannot provide any funding for travel to or from the USA due to the conditions of their funding. If you live in the United States and wish to apply, you will be responsible for your own travel costs to and from Ghana.
- Accommodation and meals for one month at LOATAD in Accra, Ghana.
- A grant of US$ 500.
- Access to the library's extensive resources.
- Trips to relevant places of interest in Ghana.
- Meetings with key players in the Ghanaian/African literary space.
EligibilityBeginning, emerging and established writers from and/or based in Africa, the Caribbean, North America, South America and Europe whose work engages with issues concerning Africa and/or the Diaspora, specifically The Black Atlantic.
Writers of fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, playwrights and academic texts with good publication credits in literary journals/magazines/newspapers, etc.
Writers can write in any language, but they must be able to communicate in English.
Writers must be 21 or over.
Writers must have a valid passport and be willing to travel to Ghana to take part in the residency.
Expectations
Residents must:
- Be willing to commit to the entire residency programme.
- Produce a text between 2,500 and 10,000 words on the topic What is Africa to us? African Solidarities for publication in the anthology to be published by LOATAD at the end of the residency.
- Be committed to the objectives of the residency and use the time and space provided to advance their work.
- Be prepared to work collectively and individually and to take part in critique sessions and workshops.
- Agree to participate in a public event at the end of the residency, photography and videography of the creation process, and any publicity that may arise from the programme.
Application
Fill in the application form and upload the following documents in a single PDF document by 18 August 2024, 23:59 GMT:
- Motivation letter (one page)
- Description of how your work to date has been involved with the themes of this residency
- Sample essay of no more than 1,500 words in English or with an English translation
- Name and contact details of two referees (they will only be contacted if your application is successful)
Name your PDF submission using the following convention: Last Name_Country_Genre For example, Lumumba_Patrice_DRC_Nonfiction
