Pitches wanted (reclaiming wealth, abundance) | $2,500 per piece

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: GUMBO MEDIA

Deadline: 5 September 2022

A NEW FOUNDATION: RECLAIMING WEALTH + LEGACY

A New Foundation is a storytelling initiative by Living Cities and Gumbo Media that builds on the explorations of Reckoning With Race and pushes us deeper through questions of wealth building and sustained abundance.

Gumbo is seeking pitches for story ideas from BIPOC journalists and writers to be featured in an ensemble storytelling project on the racial wealth gap and its impacts on homeownership and business starts and growth. We are currently accepting interest from folks in the following cities:

• Albuquerque (NM)
• Austin (TX)
• Memphis (TN)
• Minneapolis (MN)
• Rochester (NY)
• St. Paul (MN)

We will commission ONE writer from EACH of these six cities to write a long-form editorial that examines racial wealth gaps in their city and explores curiously and creatively how we might reorient our comprehension of wealth as something more human and dignified for all.

To apply, please submit a pitch that best meets the needs of the following prompts. You only have to submit your idea—NOT a completed piece. But please take time to ensure it is thoughtful, well composed, and expands conversations of wealth and racial equity in your city.

To learn more about the project, payment terms, timeline, and process, please continue to the following pages.

THESIS + PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

A New Foundation seeks a more abundant and dignified future where wealth is a tool for catalyzing human flourishing and honoring intrinsic prosperity.

This editorial ensemble examines the language and systematic realities of generational wealth building through the lenses of homeownership and business starts and growth. Anchoring in the six Reckoning With Race cities—Albuquerque, NM; Austin, TX; Memphis, TN; Minneapolis, MN; Rochester, NY and Saint Paul, MN—we utilize qualitative and quantitative data to analyze racist systems and generations-old inequities in wealth.

A New Foundation uses human-centered storytelling and creative expression to highlight existing abundance in BIPOC communities and push our imaginations about what is possible when we organize and ask:

• What does it look like to shift the center of wealth away from whiteness?
• What does it mean that the communities with the least historical monetary wealth are often the richest in culture, art, and expression?
• What would be the impact of reorienting our comprehension of wealth as something more human, more dignified for all?

Wealth is a tool through which the new majority can sustain freedom and interpersonal sovereignty. In these stories, we shift focus to a deeper resource, where wealth resides in what we do with and for community. A New Foundation galvanizes a culture of communal uplift, where wealth is realized through sustained joy and fulfilled needs. We encourage you to join us as we absorb conscientiously and curiously, question critically, and continue to reimagine radically.

KEY THEMES:

• Dreams
• Memory
• Community
• Identity
• Freedom / Sovereignty
• Resistance / Subversion
• Reimagining

DETAILS + GUIDELINES:

Each writer will be compensated $2,500 for their work.

The total commitment is about 3 months (Sept-Nov 2022) at an estimated max of 5 per week or 20 per hour per month. You will have ample space for writing and editing (because we know you have other important things going on, too).

Each writer will be paired with an editor and art director to bring their piece to life visually.

As we are only commissioning six (6) storytellers, we expect all applicants to fit the following requirements:

• Must have a connection to the city you’re applying for
• Strong writing and editing skills
• Strong approach to and understanding of journalism and research processes
• Excellent communicator (as this will be a highly collaborative process with consistent deadlines)
• Understands how the construct of race has impacted the distribution of wealth and opportunity in their city
• Also encouraged: a talent for bold artistic, imaginative, and creative thinking

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO HOLD THE FOLLOWING GUIDING QUESTIONS IN MIND AS YOU PITCH:

• How do BIPOC communities define wealth when we’ve never had it? How does it move us toward the fullness of life?
• How can memory and storytelling be cultivated to build new foundations?
• How have wealth-building strategies such as homeownership and entrepreneurship been designed to create the current inequitable economy?
• How are anti-racist community organizers working to redirect the center of wealth away from whiteness to a definition of wealth that is sustainable, dignified, and fully attainable for all.

Black, Indigenous, People of Color and/or people who identify as women, trans, non-binary, queer, disabled, youth, immigrant and / or formerly incarcerated are strongly encouraged to apply.

We'd love to hear from you! Good luck!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Submissions: Via the webform 

Website: https://gumbomedia.com/

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