the sublimely brilliant lyric hunter is editing an herbal by/for african-diasporic folks with production support from guillotine. please circulate the call for submissions widely!!!
B R U J A B E L L O W
W I T C H E S B L O O M
C O N J U R E B L O S S O M
You’re magic-makers, believers, writers, healers, community activists, health professionals, artists. You’re a black woman, you’re queer, you’re transgender, you’re genderfluid, you’re femme, you’re non-conforming. You’re differently-abled, you’re neuro-diverse, you’re thriving.
A traditional herbal is a recipe book that teaches how to recognize, cultivate, and make medicine, from plants. The writing you create in response to the questions below will form part of a creative, contemporary African-diasporic herbal. In this case, the herbal will be a collection of writings exploring both historical and contemporary herbal and spiritual practices intended to heal the body and spirit, in an effort to decolonize mind, body, and soul, and to reclaim healthcare for many people of the African diaspora in the U.S. Contributors whose work is selected to be included in the herbal will be compensated.
If you have a plant-tending, herbal healing, plant-spiritual practice; if your self-care intersects with your writing or art, I’m collecting poems, stories, anecdotes, recipes, rituals, spells, manifestos, analyses, maps, songs, memoirs, dreams--
in short, creative-theoretical-hypothetical-real-magic responses framed by the questions:
Are plants central to, or do they intersect with, your self-care practice?
Where do you find your plant (do you buy it, grow it, or forage for it)?
What does it look like, what are its properties? What drew you to it?
What emotional/spiritual/magical/practical significance does it carry
(how do you use it)? How do you feel when you see it, use it, share it with others?
How do you see the natural world intersecting with black health?
My name is Lyric Hunter and I am a writer from Queens, NY, and a graduate student in the MFA in Writing and Activism program at Pratt Institute. This herbal will be made available and easily accessible to black women and LGBTQ people in New York City.
Email lyric.hunter[at]gmail.com to submit or to ask questions.
Accepting submissions until February 15.