Some updates
Scroll to the bottom for the audio version that is not as short as I promised at the beginning x
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
Psalm 9:10
To spare you, reader, from another long post like the last one, this one will be short and sweet, with links that will serve to redirect you to all the other writing I’ve been doing lately. I’ve had a great chance to practice and expand my range of writing because I’ve written personal essays, cultural pieces, feature interviews, historical pieces, and opinion pieces. RANGE! So, if you’re someone who commissions pieces then commission me! And if you’re not yet convinced by my blog, well, below are a few links that might persuade you.
‘The Women who saved us’ for Meeting of Minds UK
I had responded to a call for pitches for this one. Meeting of Minds was curating its Black History Month newsletter and was requesting pitches that would bring to light some Black women who were marginalised in history.
One of my missions in this life is to bring visibility to Guinea-Bissau so, true to form, I wrote about some of the women that led and fought in our independence war. I dedicated it to all the ones we know about and all the ones we don’t, and I hope that the piece does their memory justice.
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Titina Silá "the people's hero" |
Also, a particular side of Guinea-Bissau Twitter/Instragram has now found me and one day I have to talk about wanting to remain anonymous in this country lol.
Judith & Elizabeth EFITTER interview for The Pitch Fanzine
Whew, the lessons in this one.
1. Shoot your shot.
I found The Pitch Fanzine quite randomly. I was looking for platforms to be able to update the portfolio template (which, by the way, I haven’t updated in a while, so this is me kind of asking you, reader/listener to hold me accountable on updating it every few weeks) and I just happened upon their website. There wasn’t a call for submissions or anything, and I wasn’t even sure about the kind of content that they published but I saw “if you would like to get involved” and I was like “Yup! Getting myself involved!”. So, I emailed, and a few hours (maybe it was days though) I tweeted that you should shoot your shot. Shoot it!
2. Interviewing is a big responsibility
I was so excited to do this. I had shot my shot with The Pitch Fanzine and it turned out that the founder had been looking to commission some writers and took me onboard to do an interview. I had never done one before but I thought "how hard can it be?" Plus, it would be great to have that in my portfolio, I thought. And it is, but it turns out interviewing is very hard when you have no prior guidance or training.
I’m programming a future post about how I’m actively trying to improve my interviewing skills. Because it was my first time interviewing anyone, I was stressed about asking the right questions to make the most out of the little word count I had. Plus, I was interviewing 2 co-founders, one of whom is my friend. So, it kind of felt like “Yasmina you can’t f* this up! You have to do right by them!”
I am grateful for the experience (so much so – or is it masochism? – that I have signed up to do some more interviewing before the end of the month) though. It was humbling to feel challenged the way this piece challenged me. Also, and this might be internalised toxic capitalism speaking, but being stressed validated me in the sense that it felt like evidence that I was actually working, that freelancing is real work. But also, stress is not an indicator of whether or not you’re actually doing labour lol so don’t be like me.
P. S.: Check out EFITTER's website, podcast, Instagram and Twitter, for all things fashion and tech!
Love (in Colour) for Black Girls
This essay, like Bolu’s book, means a lot to me. I had felt so many emotions reading her book that I owed it to myself to write down coherently the conversations I was having internally and with my mother or partner.
I thought about putting it up on my blog (which by the way, I’m actually really unsure about how to transition from freelance reflection related posts to like… the kind of content that I would write for other platforms? If you have tips/ideas let me know cause otherwise I’m just going to post anything up. Also going to use this aside to ask what kind of content you, reader/listener would like to see on here?) but decided that I wanted more visibility for the piece.
On a different note, the essay was accepted onto a platform and I had expected it to be put up over a particular weekend and when it wasn’t, I found myself getting jittery??? Fellow freelancers, is this normal?? Loool. Cause in my head I have programmed this blogpost with the publication dates of these articles in mind and by the time this is up then I may or may not have a link to share with you (???) Is it socially acceptable to do a follow up after an essay has been accepted to ask when it will be up?
Someone should write a guide on freelance writing etiquette, and if it exists and someone knows about it, please post it in the comments!
n.b. make sure you come back to this post if the link isn't up by the time this is published (on 20/10/20) cause sooner or later it will be up!
‘Unpaid labour for Black History Month’ for SHADO
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| (TBLR) Tweets from @tobikyere; @ronkelawal; @kelechnekoff; @Beebabs; @mxmsworld; @BonitaRochelle |
I wrote an article on Black people being asked to do *FREE* labour like it was colonial/slave times for SHADO, and I even conducted interviews for it!
A few days before submitting the article, journalist Yomi Adegoke had her article about the same thing published and my immediate thought was “okay, so I don’t need to write it anymore.” It’s literally what I was talking about in my episode of the layover podcast, the feeling of everything having already been written. These moments I really thank God for my support system that breathes life into me and let these next affirmations breathe life into you:
Even if it’s already been said, it has not been said in your voice.
Your voice is still important. Your voice is always important.
I had to reprogram some stuff in my head; internalised toxic capitalism (yes, we are blaming everything on it) made me perceive the article as competition, which it isn’t. The best way for information to be spread is for several people to be talking about it.
By reprogramming my mind I am trying to see the circumstance (and future similar circumstances because they will come) for it they could be: a confirmation that it is something that many of us are experiencing and a tool to make knowledge more accessible to different networks in the world. If the point is to give access to knowledge to everyone, then let that be the case. Regardless of the impossibility (for me anyway because I know it’s definitely not impossible for white men) of having a monopoly over knowledge, I should not* desire that monopoly to begin with.
Also, the person who illustrated the article is sick, check out her website here. Also, it turns out she’s a fellow Guigui and I love that the editors chose her to illustrate!
That’s it from me for today, if you want to read some more of what I write, then definitely make sure to click the links above to browse through the articles. Once you do that, let me know what you think in the comments or you can email me!
Do you have any reflections about the work that you share and the process of creating it? Let me know about that in the comments too!
Thank you for spending this time with me and see you soon. x
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