Interviewing the Caribbean
Call for Submissions for New Journal: “Interviewing the Caribbean”
A new online journal—Interviewing the Caribbean (IC)—has been founded by Jamaican poet and educator Opal Palmer Adisa. IC seeks poems, stories, creative non-fiction, and visual art in all media that celebrate Caribbean life. Caribbean artists at home and in the Diaspora are invited to participate. Submit by August 15, 2015, to be included in the inaugural issue along with junto Diaz, Leroy Clarke, Tamara Natalie Madden, and others. The launch is set for September 2015. The topic for the inaugural issue is “Intellectual Property” (IP).
Description: “All too often, when it comes to intellectual property, black artists are the ones who lose the rights to their work (The Root, LaToya Peterson, May 15, 2011). Who owns your work? Does it matter? Many are the black creators who have not reaped the monetary benefits of their success. How do you, as a creative voice, ensure that ownership of your work—and the royalties that go with it—accrues to you? In recent years, prominent black artists—and their estates—have challenged intellectual property misappropriation in the courts.
Some well-known cases: The artist formerly known as Prince did battle with Warner Bros. Records for years before winning back ownership of the master tapes for his hit albums. Just this year, Marvin Gaye’s estate challenged Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke on the similarity of their song “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up”—and won.
Some possibilities to consider: How is the concept of IP experienced by Caribbean artists—writers, visual artists, musicians, and others? How are ideas about IP evolving in Caribbean society at large? What is the future for intellectual property rights for artists in the Caribbean context? (Works that cover other, but related, themes will be considered.)
Please send submissions of writing as Word documents. Visual artists, please send photographs as jpegs at 300 dpi resolution. Submit via email to interviewingthecaribbean@gmail.com.
