Certain Days Political Prisoners Calendar call out for art and articles – deadline May 24, for prisoners June 7

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective (www.certaindays.org) is releasing its 19th calendar this coming fall. The theme for 2020 is “Knitting Together the Struggles,” reflecting on the ways that different movements and groups can work toward a common goal of liberation.

We are looking for 12 works of art and 12 short articles to feature in the calendar, which hangs in more than 5,000 homes, workplaces, prison cells and community spaces around the world.

We encourage contributors to submit both new and existing work. We especially seek submissions from prisoners – please forward to any prison-based artists and writers.

Theme guidelines

We often talk about the importance of “intersectionality” in our social justice work, but are we really practicing it?

We have been inspired by examples of organizing that reaches across borders, across generations, across struggles. At the same time, we have seen groups confronted with major splits based on miscommunication, privilege, competing needs and incompatible visions.

How can we address these very significant challenges in working to build a better world, together? What historical and current successes or missteps can we learn from? We would love to hear practical examples of groups who are grappling with these ideas and making new connections.

Some topics that could be explored include:

• Organizing across borders and in different geographical locations
• Making connections across prison walls
• Sustaining our fellow organizers as they move through different life phases and challenges
• Supporting prisoners, and families of prisoners in their activism
• The intersection of Indigenous and environmental struggles
• Confronting privilege, racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia in organizing circles
• Bridging the gap between tactical campaigns and revolutionary change
• Examples of intergenerational groups and how they work together
• Making tangible links between local and global struggles

Format Guidelines

Articles:

• 500 words max. If you submit a longer piece, we will have to edit for length.
• Poetry is also welcome but needs to be significantly shorter than 500 words to accommodate layout.
• Please include a suggested title.

Art:

1. The calendar is 11” tall by 8.5” wide, so art with a “portrait” orientation is preferred. Some pieces may be printed with a border, so it need not fit those dimensions exactly.
2. We are interested in a diversity of media (paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, computer-designed graphics, collage etc).
3. The calendar is printed in color and we prefer color images.

Due to time and space limitations, submissions may be lightly edited for clarity, with no change to the original intent.

Submission guidelines

1. Send your submissions by May 24, 2019, to [email protected].
2. ARTISTS: Please send images smaller than 10 MB. You can send a low-res file as a submission, but if your piece is chosen, we will need a high-res version of it to print (600 dpi).
3. You may send as many submissions as you like. Chosen artists and authors will receive a free copy of the calendar and promotional postcards. Because the calendar is a fundraiser, we cannot offer money to contributors.

Prisoner submissions are due June 7, 2019 and can be mailed to:

• Certain Days, c/o Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St., Buffalo, NY 14213, USA, or
• Certain Days, c/o QPIRG Concordia, 1455 de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada

About the calendar

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, Hamilton, New York and Baltimore, in partnership with political prisoners including David Gilbert, who is currently held in a maximum-security prison in New York State. All of the current members of the outside collective are grounded in day-to-day organizing work other than the calendar, on issues ranging from migrant justice to community media to prisoner solidarity. We work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer- and trans-liberationist position.