Broads Non Grata — Relaunch

This world needs more — Experiments/Rants/Scrutiny/Reflection/Diversity

Ashley Evenson and I started Broads Non Grata (BNG) with diversity as our motto. We wanted to create a space for everyone who wants to share their ideas/ emotions/ rants of how to make this world large enough for all sorts of people/ ideas/ energies/ discussions to fit in. Most of all we wished to create a safe space for all voices — we were interested in your raw emotions of feeling like an outsider to flourish (which I believe we all do in one setting or the other) in hope to work towards a more diverse/inclusive world.

Like true outsiders, in our first go — we failed.

We are extremely grateful to some beautiful writers — Yamini MacLean, Gabriella Salazar, Johanna Naomi, schian H and Anisesh (please find some of their heartfelt pieces at the bottom of this post) who have helped us launch off the ground when both of us weren’t terribly reliable as newcomers in this Medium world. To you, we apologize for not doing enough to take your voices at BNG go as far as they truly deserve to go. We are going to fix that.

We have put our heads together (again) and believe that we have come up with a way to channel our emotions towards the hard topic of diversity/inclusivity into BNG.

1. Disrupt Medium — We invite experiments — if you want to get creative and try a hand at a new style of writing/poetry, invent a writing style, explore topics/ fields/ themes that you haven’t yet or do not see much of around. We at BNG will be delighted to hear and learn from what you have to say.

By disruptive we don’t just mean new styles but also topics we don’t hear much about. Discover new voices or new aspects of our voices. To be disruptive all we need is to be is authentic, thankfully nature has put enough care in making us all fairly unique.

Inquiries — Would you like to to introduce styles from different cultures. Beats the world needs to learn about. Bring us your folklore, your ancestral lore, worlds you have created in your minds (inspired from books, movies, plays, conversations etc.) Your unique concoctions.

— Would you like to try out writing/poetic styles of the east, west, north, south. On their own, mix them up. Make up a Ghazal in Haikus? We invite your sufis and your shamans.

— Would you like to try Erasure poetry, Black out poetry, so on. Would you like to make a poetry style of your own?

— Would you like to do a book/ movie/ song/ food/ art review in a prose/ poem/ essay?

— Would you like to explore religion, rituals and so on.

2. Speak Up — anything you see worth mentioning on Medium/otherwise. Noteworthy work or author that you would like to highlight. Problematic patterns you would like to break. We would really like you/us to speak up. Celebrate/ Support/ Complain/Shout/ Be Angry if we have to be. We want to know how would you like the writing/poetic spaces at least within Medium to evolve. Let’s expand this corner of the world first. To do that we must find ways to encourage work that is already breaking boundaries, deeply analyse and poke stagnancy (or value it). How do we combine our forces to shake and stir this world. God knows we need to!

3. Who Are You? — We want to get into the depths of who you are. What is your story. How have you come so far. What do you struggle with. How you wish it were easier. What can we do to make this ride smoother. We want to go in the bowels of your writings, discuss your joys and your pains.

4. A Critical Forum — Ashley Evenson and I (with BNG writers and readers) intend to love your work. We mean to take a keen look — appreciate the beauty, explore the bumps of the work here. We want to speak to you about every special word and every special line of your work. With your permission we would also like to publicly discuss (in comments) what your work brings to this world and what more can we do — together. What are we still missing. I promise we won’t be rude at all. The idea is to skip the superficiality and get real. A bit muddy if that’s what it takes. Most of all celebrate the voice, intent and beauty of your work.

//We do not wish to overwhelm you. Please feel free to submit whenever you like but we will channel these ideas via prompts and newsletters. We will take feedback if something is not working and improve. //

The agenda of BNG is to support writing that disrupts small and big boundaries; that creates spaces for new voices to surface and nudges old voices to evolve.

The idea is to find the flexibility within us to adapt — to challenge the contours of this world/ of ourselves and make this universe of ours buzz to its full capacity!

(Note — When Vaishali Paliwal and I were discussing and starting #DiversityForReal this was an important aspect in our minds. Experiments in writings/voices that we don’t see — a)because they get buried under what is popular b)because we don’t reward experimental/ unique work enough. Here at BNG we are trying to take a step towards fixing that)

BNG is wholeheartedly dedicated to #DiversityForReal (Diversity For Real)

We would be delighted to have you on board, tagging some writers here — Vaishali Paliwal, Farida Haque, Michael Stang, novalis, Guérin Asante, Sylvia Wohlfarth, Dennett, Anna Rozwadowska, anna breslin, Lindsay Lonai Linegar, Carver Bain, Michelle Muses, Michelle Monet, Jenny Justice, Ashwini Dodani, Aaska Aejaz, Maymuuna, Chiedza Kikumi, Tre L. Loadholt, Pablo Pereyra, Simon Heathcote, Rebeca Ansar, Ré Harris, Jo Ann Harris, LB, Blue Fences, Jessica Lovejoy, Jessica Archuleta, Jessi Roman, kurt gasbarra, Fierce Force 💃🏼, Zarina Dara 🥀💃🏻, Christina Ward 🌼, Deborah Christensen, Sam Kimberle, Sean Michael, Thomas Gaudex, Agnes Louis, Samantha Lazar, David S., Suwimali Bandara, Wild Flower, Jk Mansi, Tracy Aston, Shruti Sinha, Shobha Roy, Sarah Book, Erika Burkhalter, Crystal E., Wild Flower, Austin Briggman, Joe Pregadio, Joe Váradi, Dana Sanford, G.R. MELVIN, Tapan Avasthi, wimpy af, Justcallmejillybean, Bridget Webber, Leah J., Kat of Magik, Kathy Jacobs, Radha Chetna Laxhmi, Priyanka Srivastava, Anish Lamichhane, MD, Keara Lou, Lucy King, Laura Manipura, John Piantanida, Harper Thorpe, djemal ua, Rusty Alderson, Brian Rowe, Brian Fehler, Ansel Allen, Elaine Hamilton, Elise

I must have forgotten to tag writers who would like to join — please forgive me and you know you are welcome. New writers who I do not know of — please see this as an invite

Please leave a comment if you would like to join BNG. Alternatively email us at BroadsNonGrata([email protected]). For more information — Submissions.

Some of our posts so far—