Introducing Black Canvases
Black Canvases (ISSN: 3066-8484) is a new Black cultural zine created by The Creative CoLab for artists, writers, scholar-practitioners, graduate students, and community leaders to share content related to Black fashion, culture, data science, digital humanities, digital projects, archival work, art, and BGLAM (Black Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums). The zine aims to showcase unpublished work that may be considered unconventional, creative, edgy, or unpublishable by academic standards. Black Canvases welcomes submissions of digital art, poetry, academic scholarship, short stories, photographs, and vignettes from writers of any ethnicity.
Black Canvases builds off The CoLab work done during The Relational Possibilities Project (2023 - 2024) to further explore the data and community relations of Black cultural heritage across disciplines, lived experiences, and sectors.
The theme for 2025 is express your politics. What emotions do you feel about the current political landscape in the world? What political issues evoke strong emotional responses in you?
Submission Requirements
Submission must fit the scope of the zine and volume and be written for its intended audience
500 words max
For scholarly pieces: text should include Chicago-style footnote citations
For digital art and photographs: Each art piece or photograph should include accompanying prose and an artist/photographer statement. Submitters must own copyrights to the work and be able to provide written proof if needed.
Projected Timeline
Call for Zine Material Released: March 5, 2025
Submissions Due: June 11, 2025
Notified of Acceptance: July 25, 2025
Final Draft Due to The CoLab: September 1, 2025
Expected Publication Date: December 5, 2025
How to Submit
Send your submissions in by filling out this form: https://tinyurl.com/2025ZineSubmit
Peer Review Rubric
Your submissions will be judged based on:
Scope/Fit: How well does the submission fit the theme of the zine and the special theme “express your politics”?
Length: Does it meet the 500 words maximum requirement?
Citations for scholarly pieces: Does the text include Chicago-style footnote citations?
Copyrights: Does the submitter own the copyrights to their submission?
Artwork: For digital art and photographs, does each art piece or photograph include accompanying prose and an artist/photographer statement?
Questions?
You can contact the Creative CoLab at CreativeColab365@gmail.com with questions.