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ABOUT

THE WORD

More: Our Team  | Annual Reports 

Welcome to

THE WORD | A STORYTELLING SANCTUARY

Our work is toward collective abundance. Our seed is storytelling. Our path opens through expanding models of literary community & publishing.

OUR MISSION:

To promote voices from underserved communities and diverse backgrounds, to honor the stories of those who have faced adversity and injustice, and to provide a sanctuary space where these groups will see themselves in literature.

OUR METHOD OF MOVEMENT:

1.

Centering authentic storytelling from BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled and neurodiverse community

2.

Supporting and connecting writers, publishers, booksellers and literary citizens

3.

Exploring and building collective models for the literary ecosystem

4.

Holding safe space in community

OUR VALUES:

1. COLLECTIVE ABUNDANCE

  • Our work is toward collective abundance, including that:

    • we hold true that we can collectively hold and generate space for expansive and unlimited creative visions,

    • creators from our communities should have equal access to resources that will allow them to create and share their stories,

    • creators from our communities should have the freedom to share their own stories based on their own vision, including through abundant opportunities for linguistic play and creative narrative structure; and

    • no central arbiter of taste should assign relative value to stories, and The Word will refrain from assigning relative value.

  • We recognize the long history of cultural erasure that continues to affect marginalized communities today, including:

    • the paucity of opportunities for members from BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to share either their own experiences or their creative visions, and 

    • a history of stereotypes and misinformation perpetuated by creators from outside of these communities.

 

2. RESPECT FOR SELF-IDENTIFICATION

  • This organization recognizes the complexity of each individual’s identity, and does not make judgments about individual identities. 

  • We respect any self-identifying community member. 

  • We do not operate as “color-blind” but respect that among our communities varying experiences result in varying needs.

 

3. ACCOUNTABILITY WITH EMERGENCE

  • Our work will encourage and foster opportunities for individual and institutional growth. We recognize that mistakes may be opportunities for dialogue and change, and will act as a partner in these opportunities, using restorative, non-destructive processes. 

  • We will not condone ill-intentioned, nor neglectfully ill-informed, actions that result in discrimination or tokenizing.

 

4. WORK IN SERVICE OF COMMUNITY

  • We support programming and partnerships that are focused on serving BIPOC, LGTBQIA2S+, disabled and neurodiverse communities, working toward the goals of respect and equity, with consideration of the needs of those communities. 

  • We will refrain from participating in programming or partnerships that include our communities in a manner that tokenizes rather than serves. 

 

5. LISTENING

  • We will listen to learn the needs of community members, with an approach of trust and without skepticism.

 

6. CULTURAL HUMILITY

  • We recognize that understanding equity, identity, and an infinite variety of cultures is evolving work. We commit to regularly challenging our organizational knowledge and to revisiting our core values as we continue to learn.

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