homodachizine:Homodachi and Friends Call For Submissions #1!!!! Visibility / Invisibility!!!
homodachizine: Homodachi and Friends Call For Submissions #1!!!! Visibility / Invisibility!!! Welcome to the first issue of Homodachi and Friends. We are dedicated to archiving the diverse voices of the queer and trans community living in Japan. We believe that in telling our stories, we not only empower ourselves, but we also begin to carve space for others to claim their own experiences and identities as well. It is with this hope that we write this call for submissions for the project.In line with our mission statement for the project, the first theme of the first issue will be related to (In)Visibility(s). *Potential ideas include, but are not limited to:* How has the visibility of queerness in your home country compared and contrasted with the visibility of queerness in your area of residence in Japan? How has invisibility also compared and contrasted?What does (in)visibility mean for the queer/trans community? How are these meanings guided by cultural and other discursive forces?In the West, there is a high value assigned to being “out” and “proud,” and often times this can be an entry point in to the community and its politics. How has this conditioned your queerness/transness? How is this in conversation with a Japanese sensibility of tatemae (public, outer face for work / certain spaces) and honne (the true self, the inwards facing self.)?How have you gauged when to be visible and when to be invisible? When was a moment when you felt conflicted about this decision?We as queer/trans folks are never 100% “out.” Coming out is never a complete process, we are always meeting new people and having to come out over and over again. How have you understood this process? How has this process shaped your experiences in your home country and abroad/in Japan?How is visibility and invisibility guided by language? In other words, a lot of our identities are produced when we articulate them, when we speak them. How have language barriers produced visibility / invisibility? What is your relationship to language acquisition / ability and your identity as a queer/trans person in Japan?In Japan, the transgender narrative/body is hypervisible, while the LGB body is comparatively invisible. How has this scripting of queer/trans bodies affected your experiences here in Japan? How has this scripting created communicative moments or moments of intense misunderstanding?_______________________________________ As mentioned above, please do not feel that submissions need to be restricted to or specifically answer these questions. Homodachi is interested in hearing as many different voices as possible, in whatever form or on whatever topic they choose to speak. If in the process of writing your piece unfolds into something else and deviates from the questions above, we’d still love to take a look. If you have an older piece which you think might be relevant to this issue (or not, hey, we’ll read it anyway) please feel free to submit it, too. Prose, memoir, journal entries, meditations, theorizations, poems, rants, letters, and any other genres are more than welcome!Homodachi has a commitment to local artists, poets, and musicians—we would love to have your work in the next issue. If your work is multimedia, we can publish the material here on this blog and on our facebook for our readers!***Please aim to have finalized submissions emailed to us by June 21st, 2014 at HomodachiZine@gmail.com***Included in your submission, please include the name that you would like to be printed under, contact information (email, blog, website, etc.) for our readers, and any other information that you would like to be printed alongside your submission. Also, please include a current mailing address so that the editors can send you a complimentary copy of the first issue as a thanks for helping out with the project :]! Also, the Homodachi editors will need help with layouts and collages, if you would like to participate in a zine-making / background-making session, please email or message the editors.The best way to stay up to date with the project is to “like” the facebook page and to (continue) following the tumblr blog.We greatly appreciate all of the time and effort of the contributors, fellow zinesters, friends, and supporters of the project.We greatly anticipate your work, comments, suggestions, and love. In solidarity:Homodachi Editorial Team https://www.facebook.com/events/1425198971075417/ -- source link