Meet Our Grantee-Partner: Zoeglossia
Mission: Zoeglossia is a literary organization seeking to pioneer a new, inclusive space for poets with disabilities. Zoeglossia fosters and promotes the work of poets with disabilities through publishing, residencies, readings, and an annual retreat.
In 2016, poets Sheila Black and Kathi Wolfe had a conversation discussing the barriers faced by poets with disabilities. Kathi questioned why there couldn’t be a non-profit focused specifically on supporting disabled poets. In 2017, Black, Jennifer Bartlett, and Connie Voisine did just that by forming Zoeglossia. In 2019, Zoeglossia began operations as a fellowship program offering a free annual conference featuring workshops and mentoring by a faculty of accomplished disabled poets. As of May 2022, Zoeglossia serves 36 fellows, including Jim Ferris, torrin a. greathouse, and heidi andrea restrepo rhodes. Past faculty have included Raymond Antrobus, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Meg Day, llya Kaminsky, and Khadijah Queen.
“I can’t quite put into words all that I feel after being with Zoeglossia kin this week, but what a profound experience it was to be held, to share, listen, connect, and to learn.”
—2023 Zoeglossia fellow
Beyond its annual fellowship conference, Zoeglossia also hosts a Poem of the Week (POTW) series on its website, soon to be relaunched as “A Liminal Space” on social media. Curated by a different disabled poet every month, POTW seeks to create a significant archive of disability poems, increasing the visibility of disabled poets. Themed contributions have included “The Personal & Political Archive,” curated by Tarik Dobbs and “Decolonizing Disability Poetics,” curated by Urayoán Noel.
“Disability experience is often erased, silenced or elided—overlooked in every conceivable way. Disabled artists are often hampered by economic limitations as well as ongoing difficulties of access. Yet we believe—we know—that disability experience is rich, vital, and offers crucial perspectives, especially in this time of social upheaval and climate change. The collectivity and models of care that come out of disabled experience, the notion of disability futures, is also human futures. We represent a community with a lot to say and a will to say it.”
—Sheila Black, Zoeglossia founder & interim executive director
Receiving a $10,000 Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation grant from the Poetry Foundation in fall 2022 has helped Zoeglossia “build confidence and capacity,” according to Black. With the help of new social media manager Walela Nehanda, Zoeglossia has been successful in building awareness of its work and providing education on disability poetics and history. In February 2023, they created a Black Disability History is Black History campaign that generated a lot of engagement on Instagram. In addition, the POTW series is being expanded to include video conversations with selected curators, curatorial statements that reflect on disability poetics, and supplementary materials to be shared through social media platforms, thereby building access and audience for disability poetry alongside knowledge and teaching tools on disability poetics.
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