Sixty is teaming up with Illinois Humanities for the Envisioning Justice Residency for writers and photographers. We’re also looking for an Envisioning Justice Guest Editor.
Deadline to apply: Tuesday, March 6, 2018.
About the Project
Envisioning Justice is an initiative of Illinois Humanities that will engage Chicagoans of all neighborhoods, races, socio-economic backgrounds, and with a diversity of perspectives, in a citywide conversation about the impact of incarceration in local communities and will invite residents to use the arts and humanities to devise strategies for lessening this impact. Envisioning Justice seeks to strengthen efforts to reimagine our criminal legal system and is inspired by the goals of justice, accountability, safety, support, and restoration for all people.
About the Residency
The Envisioning Justice Residency is a 9-month residency supported by Illinois Humanities and created as part of Envisioning Justice for Chicago-based writers and photographers who demonstrate a deep interest and commitment to community-born arts, humanities, and justice work, particularly the topic of how incarceration and the criminal legal system impacts our city’s neighborhoods, communities, families, artists, and activists.
Each Writer-in-Residence and Photographer-in-Residence will be dedicated to a specific community hub (or hubs) and will spend the residency period getting to know the organizers, artists, and programming produced at that hub by attending and documenting events happening there throughout the year. Writers and photographers will work together to publish monthly articles (interviews, essays, experimental writings) on Sixty Inches From Center that highlight the events, artists, and themes that emerge within each hub. Additionally, their words and images will help to contextualize the programs of Envisioning Justice within a larger discussion across Chicago and the country around the topics of incarceration and criminal legal systems.
Priority will be given to those who have experience from living and working directly with and within communities most impacted by incarceration and the criminal legal system and those who demonstrate a knowledge of, ongoing concern with, and sensitivity to social justice issues across race, gender, ability, nationality, geography, and socio-economic status in Chicago.
One writer or photographer can be assigned to multiple community hubs depending on availability and will receive a $1,000 stipend per hub they are assigned to. One guest editor will oversee the editorial vision for the project. Envisioning Justice Community Hubs include Circles & Ciphers (Rogers Park), the Restorative Justice Community Court with Lawndale Christian Leadership and BBF Family Services (North Lawndale), Open Center for the Arts (Little Village), Breathing Room/LetUsBreathe Collective (Back of the Yards), Bright Star Community Outreach (Bronzeville), Cook County Jail (through a program called Just Art), and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (through Free Write Literacy and Arts).
Deadline to apply is Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Details on how to apply to each call are below.
Envisioning Justice Writer-in-Residence
Application Requirements: CV, writing samples (link or attachment), statement of interest, availability; Stipend: $1,000; Commitment: 7+ articles over 9 months, March – December 2018; monthly editorial meeting. Start Date: Sunday, March 18, 2018.
WRITERS APPLY HERE
Writers-in-Residence will act as the scribes for Envisioning Justice’s community hubs by articulating the art and dialogues being generated throughout their residency. Writers will work closely with the Guest Editor, Photographers-in-Residence, and Sixty’s editorial team to publish 7+ articles (approx. one article per month) about their observations and interactions at their designated community hub(s). Writers will also collaborate with the Photographers-in-Residence assigned to their hub to choose which events to document and what images will be used to complement written work. During the residency, writers will have full access to Sixty’s resources including transcription services, marketing support, an open invitation to continue writing for Sixty after the residency ends, and any other needs that will help make their writing successful.
Writers are welcome and encouraged to choose more than one community hub to be assigned to, depending on their availability.
Envisioning Justice Photographer-in-Residence
Application Requirements: CV, photography samples (link or attachment), statement of interest, availability; Stipend: $1,000; Commitment: documenting 7+ events and/or contributing photography to 7+ articles over 9 months, March – December 2018, monthly editorial meeting. Start Date: Sunday, March 18, 2018.
PHOTOGRAPHERS APPLY HERE
Photographers-in-Residence will bring their distinct photographic style into the Envisioning Justice residency and serve as a documentarian for their community hub(s). They will work closely with the Guest Editor, Writers-in-Residence, and Sixty’s editorial team to provide photography for 7+ articles (approx one article per month) on their designated community hub(s). Photographers will collaborate with the Writers-in-Residence assigned to their hub to choose which events to document and what images will be used to complement written work. During the residency, photographers will have full access to Sixty’s resources including marketing support and an open invitation to continue photographing for Sixty after the residency ends, and any other needs that will help make their residency successful.
Photographers are welcome and encouraged to choose more than one community hub to be assigned to, depending on their availability.
Envisioning Justice Guest Editor
Application Requirements: CV with examples of editing experience, up to 3 writing samples (link or attachment), statement of interest, availability; Stipend: $3,000; Time Commitment: 7 articles per month for 9 months, March – December 2018, monthly editorial meetings. Start Date: Sunday, March 18, 2018 (possibly sooner so the Guest Editor can have input in selecting writers-in-residence and photographers-in-residence.
Sixty is looking for a Guest Editor to serve as the editorial lead for Sixty’s Envisioning Justice Residency for Writers and Photographers. The Guest Editor will provide support to the Writers-in-Residence and Photographers-in-Residence and manage the editorial calendar for the duration of the project. The Guest Editor will oversee the editorial calendar, work directly with and be the point of contact for residents and community hubs, and be a connector between the Envisioning Justice writings and Sixty’s larger editorial scope. As the person reading and editing all of the content generated through the residency, the Guest Editor will serve as a curator of sorts, helping to identify points of overlap between residents, writings, and even Sixty’s other editorial content and interests that could be used to promote the project and artists involved or lead into other ideas.
Duties include working with a team of writers and photographers to create thoughtful content, editing up to 7 articles per month and publishing them on Sixty’s website, corresponding with residents in order to collect the required components of articles, promoting articles and Envisioning Justice events on social media and other outlets, making suggestions to strengthen the editorial quality and reach of articles, and finding stronger connections between the Envisioning Justice content and Sixty’s other editorial content. The Guest Editor will also determine the availability of residents in order to attend monthly staff meetings with the Sixty team.
This is largely a remote, work-from-anywhere position. The ideal candidate will have experience with this kind of work dynamic, and find meeting deadlines, timely and open communication, and self-direction to be important qualities and characteristics of their work style and ethic. Experience writing about, documenting, or leading art and education programs within detention centers, jails, or with formerly incarcerated people is a plus. We also encourage that they highlight any editorial experience that includes working with writers of all experience levels and across writing styles—which could mean everything from experimental to confessional, poetry, or academic.
