To deliver the programme, Literature Wales is collaborating with organisations and individuals from across the arts and literature sector in Wales and the UK, including The Complete Works, Lucent Dreaming, Ledbury Poetry Critics Programme, Black History Wales, Poetry Wales, S4C, Race Council Cymru, Lumin Press and Speaking Volumes. Further partners will be announced and included as the programme develops throughout the year.
Black History is a global movement and an initiative to research and re-tell the history of people of African and African-Caribbean descent. In Wales, Black History is marginalised, overlooked and unrepresented, and Black History Wales’ (BHW) objective is to change that.
The Black History Wales network is made up of over 104 pan-Wales organisations such as; youth charities, grassroots groups, schools, Further Education and Higher Education institutions representing people of different cultures, faiths and geographical locations who sit on our steering committee.
https://bhmwales.org.uk/
Ledbury Poetry Festival is the biggest, brightest, most superlatively international celebration of poetry and spoken word in the UK. Since Ledbury Poetry Critics launched its first year-long intensive mentorship programme in 2017 recruiting and mentoring 12 critics of colour, it has been responsible for increasing the visibility of poets and critics of colour. The programme was founded by Sandeep Parmar and Sarah Howe with support from Ledbury Poetry Festival. They have now been joined by co-organisers Vidyan Ravinthiran, Janine Bradbury and Alycia Pirmohamed. Dave Coates will continue his invaluable statistical work for Ledbury Critics in 2021.
https://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/ledbury-emerging-critics-programme-2/
Lucent Dreaming is an independent magazine for emerging authors and artists worldwide. A quarterly print and online magazine publishing beautiful, strange and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from contributors worldwide.
https://lucentdreaming.com/
LUMIN are an indie small press, curatorial / collaborative collective & radio programme for experimental, radical & personal literature & art. Based in Cardiff, Wales, LUMIN consists of artists Sadia Pineda Hameed & Beau W. Beakhouse, forming a wider collective with their regular collaborators. Contact for commissions, workshops, listening/reading groups, talks etc.
https://lumin-press.com/
Founded in 1965, Poetry Wales is the national poetry magazine of Wales. Wales’ foremost poetry magazine, Poetry Wales publishes internationally respected contemporary poetry, features and reviews in its triannual print and digital magazine in its mission to sustain and preserve the artistic works both inspiring our literary present and shaping our literary future.
https://poetrywales.co.uk/
The Race Council Cymru (RCC) is the overarching umbrella body established by ethnic minority grassroots communities in Wales to bring key organisations and work together to combat racial prejudice, race discrimination, harassment, victimisation, abuse, violence.
https://racecouncilcymru.org.uk/
S4C is a Welsh language television channel who transmit live between 6 in the morning and late at night. It is also possible to watch their programmes and videos on other digital platforms at times that suit you.
There is a very wide range of programmes on S4C including news, drama, documentaries, music, entertainment and children programmes. The content on the web includes a short form service, aimed mainly at a 16-34-year-old audience and is called Hansh.
https://www.s4c.cymru/en/about-us/
Speaking Volumes is a live literature organisation specialising in getting underrepresented voices heard, reaching diverse audiences and finding exciting ways to present the work of writers.
https://speaking-volumes.org.uk/
In 2005 literary activist and writer Bernardine Evaristo MBE urged Arts Council England (ACE) to investigate the lack of diversity in British poetry. The resulting report, Free Verse, found that only 1% of the poetry published by major UK presses was by black and Asian poets. In response, Evaristo and ACE set up The Complete Works (TCW), a national programme which selected 10 outstanding black and Asian poets, and offered them mentoring, seminars, literature retreats and publication in a Bloodaxe anthology.
https://thecompleteworkspoetry.wordpress.com/
