Our ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project saw the album ‘We Will Keep On‘ released on 12 June, to mark the five-year anniversary of the Orlando massacre. It features specially commissioned poems from 16 leading LGBTQ poets alongside interview excerpts from the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary.

However, we don’t want to stop there. The Orlando massacre sent shockwaves around the global LGBTQ community and we want to engage as many members of the community as possible. So, we’re issuing a call-out for written responses to ‘Disarm Hate’ and/or the aftermath of Orlando.

A selection of these submissions will be published in a PDF pamphlet, available to anybody who purchases the main album through our Bandcamp site. We’ll also dedicate our Instagram account to the submissions throughout the month of August.

We encourage submissions from a diverse range of LGBTQ poets at all stages of their careers. Any poems that are accepted will be subject to a very basic written agreement with the label. However, full copyright on the poem will remain with the individual poets and any agreement will only be for clarification’s sake.

As part of this call-out, we’re staging two free virtual workshops with poets featured on the album. Andrew McMillan is leading the session on Tuesday 6 July (tickets) and Ella Otomewo will be leading the session on Thursday 8 July (tickets).

Also, you should check out the album of our audio submissions, which we released alongside We Will Keep On earlier in the month. Here’s more info on ‘Sometimes, The Revolution is Small’, including a link to download the album for free.

Our requirements for the written submissions are as follows:

• Submissions deadline: Sunday 25 July at midnight BST
• Send via email attachment to matt@nymphsandthugs.net
• Poems to be no longer than 250 words
• A Microsoft Word document with your chosen formatting and layout would be preferable
• We have no preference or pre-judgement in terms of poetic form or style, including the use of rhyme
• This goes without saying, but any poems that are deemed to be offensive or inappropriate won’t be considered
• Finally, just be yourself

We can’t wait to read your responses. The five-year anniversary was a landmark event for the LGBTQ community and we want these poems to show the world what it meant, what it continues to mean, and what will be done in resistance.

Thanks in advance!