Submission Open: September 7, 2020
Submission Close: October 4, 2020
Storytelling of Active Resilience
Resilience is often defined as our ability to overcome adversity. It’s seen as a reactionary response, and often means some version of “still here, in spite of”: Chinatown is still here, in spite of gentrification. Indigenous communities and cultures are still here and have always been here, in spite of the individual and systemic violence that have attempted to eradicate them for centuries. We are still here, in spite of the harm and grief COVID-19 has caused our communities and those we love.
What are the stories that underlie our resilience? There is agency and depth to our responses to shocks, stresses, and other forms of violence. What have we had to let go of to survive this pandemic? What have we had to change about the ways in which we face forms of oppression to resist and to fight another day?
In this issue of Chinatown Stories, we aim to reimagine resilience as active resistance. We hope to foster ongoing conversations about what resilience can look like, not simply as reactions to adversity, but rather as forms of resistance. We explore how the intangible heritage of Chinatown contributes to its resilience, and conversely, how resilience becomes a form of intangible heritage that enables Chinatown to thrive in the face of precarity caused by systemic oppressive forces.
In your submissions, we invite you to consider the following questions:
- What does resilience mean to you?
- How has COVID-19 changed your understanding of it, and how has it changed your relationship to Vancouver’s Chinatown? And,
- What are some ways you’ve documented your COVID-19 journey, and your relationship to Chinatown, community, and resilience?
We want to centre your voices and stories.
Eligibility
- Participants do not necessarily need to reside within Chinatown but should have some connection to Chinatown (economic, social, utility, geographic, cultural, historical, community connection, etc).
- Additionally, zoning blurs with peripheries of the DTES and we hope to also include those narratives.
For Multiple Media Submissions:
- Written pieces (online and print):
- No more than 1,000 words
- Please send in one Word file named “Your Name_Title_Type of Writing”
- Photography, illustration, painting, and other 2D files (online and print):
- maximum 5 images in .jpg or .png format
- Maximum image size should not exceed 4MB each
- Please name each file “01_Your Name_Title_medium”
- Video/audio recording (online, option for transcript being included in print):
- No more than 10 minutes in total
- Please send the links to the video/audio files in one Word file named “Your name_Video/Audio”, and specify each title to the corresponding link in the document
Genres can include but are not limited to illustrations, photography, video/sound clips, writings, and recipes.
We also welcome and encourage pieces that challenge and defy genre categories listed here. For instance, we are enthusiastic about written pieces accompanied by photography/illustration and/or sound recordings. If applicable, and you want to submit a video or audio recording (which can only be included in the web publication), please feel free to submit a transcript to be included in the print version. All accepted submissions will be paid to industry standards.
Along with your submission, we ask that you also include a short write-up in a separate word file that’s no more than 250 words on what resilience means to you in the context of COVID-19 in relation to the submitted documents and a short bio. If your artwork is included in the publication (print and/or online edition), the write-up will be published with it. Please name the document “Your Name_Statement and Bio”
Please send your submissions to submissions@chinatown.today with all pieces attached. Please put “Your Name – Storytelling Submission” in the email subject.
NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS: Chinatown Today purchases first North American Serial Rights for published works that revert back to the author/contributor upon publication. We ask that the pieces we publish are appearing in publication for the first time. We accept pieces that have appeared on personal blogs or portfolios. This includes social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. We ask that you include a statement of acknowledgment to Chinatown Today in any subsequent reprints.
This project is a collaboration between Chinatown Today and the Relationship Building, Public Education, Capacity Building (REC) Working Group from the Vancouver Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group. This project is generously supported by the City of Vancouver – Chinatown Transformation Team.
If you have any questions, please email submissions@chinatown.today, and we will be more than happy to get back to you as soon as possible!
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