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Kweli Journal

@kweli.journal

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Award winning literary magazine & 501(c)(3). Kweli means truth. We seek out & publish the work of BIPOC writers that “sing the truth.”

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SOUND ⊙ STORY ⊙ COLLECTIVE RHYTHM

Throughout the globe, we, wild ones have had enough courage to find each through time. We’ve left clues in the pages of our patience and in the sorcery of our songs. The wind carries the sound of our spirits and in the melodies of our maternal meddling we strengthen the freedom of our souls to transform into whichever form we choose. We, the wild ones, don’t fear the woods.

“The wild nature carries the bundles for healing; she carries everything a woman needs to be and know. She carries the medicine for all things. She carries
stories and dreams and words and songs and signs and symbols. She is both vehicle and destination.”

Mexican-American writer Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Thank you @akwaabainns for being the sanctuary. Thank you @kweli.journal for trusting the community you’ve grown from your commitment to carving out a space for our bravery championed by your talents, advocacy, and unbridled strength.
Thank you @grisel_y_acosta for crafting such a brilliant container for your truth, so centered it reorganizes the constellation of our heart stars.
Thank you @theamatthews_ for teaching us how to tap into the technique of where form meets language.
Thank you @deborah_bklyn for being my heart beat.
Thank you @whatbluesees for preserving the moments that change/save/inspire lives.
Thank you to our community for supporting what we need to keep us breathing.
Thank you to the wild ones, I know where we are.

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Magazines never showed me love, only literary journals. I know where I belong. Thank you to @hungermtn @storyquarterly @laurelreview @buckmanjournal @south85journal @kweli.journal @nwreview @cagibilit @osuthejournal @westbranchmag Homies for life!

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SOUND ⊙ STORY ⊙ COLLECTIVE RHYTHM

Join us this Sunday for another can’t-miss gathering at Akwaaba in Brooklyn!

✨ Grisel Y. Acosta, an Afro-Latinx, queer poet of Colombian and Cuban ancestry, will have a reading and author conversation with Thea Matthews.

✨ And a live musical performance will feature kt madison (@kvmad) and Deborah Cowell @deborah_bklyn

It’s happening Sunday, October 4th, 2:00-4:00 p.m. EST at Akwaaba Mansion, 347 MacDonough St, Brooklyn, New York

🎟️ This event is FREE and OPEN to all, but RSVP is required. Email us at events@kwelijournal.org to SAVE YOUR SPOT!

The featured artwork in the graphic is titled “En el ingenio (At the Sugarmill), a 1929 work by Afro-Cuban landscape painter Maria Ariza y Delance.

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“Grief is a hunger you feed every day. And somehow we remember all it takes.”

“All The Blues in the Sky” by @kvmad played with @deborah_bklyn on percussion.

This song was adapted from @harlemportland ‘s brilliant 2026 John Newberry Medal winning and @kirkus_reviews and @nyply Book of Year of the same title “All The Blues in the Sky”

Thank you to everyone who joined in the space, celebrated, and collectively joined in learning an adapted new work.

Y’all already know they better watch out when they give us simply a pen, a paper, our bodies and an instrument to synchronize our collective rhythms.

Thank you Laura Pegram @kweli.journal @harlemnaturalhair @akwaabainns @theamatthews_ @jwpanama @whatbluesees @deborah_bklyn @harlemportland and ALL OF YOU!!!!!

I need this reflection in days when the blues in the sky ask us more through so much transition as find our way to the sun.

With stardust always, ✨
-kt

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Grab something delicious to drink. Bring someone you love or make the journey solo welcoming in the possibility of a space holding you as if you’ve known each other forever. Open a book. Take time with the words of the journey of putting pen to page manifested through many unseen hours of writing alone and conversing with teams trying to build the perfect container with a story living deeply in your heart.

Celebrate.

Celebrate yourself. Celebrate that journey. Celebrate the time it takes to be in conversation with discovery.

Trust your community to hold you. Every version you choose to be today, tomorrow and yesterday.

Let yourself be seen and celebrated knowing that the sweetest gift is being able to open your heart to the warmth of the world.

Move through all the shades of blue in the sky.

There will be more posts. @whatbluesees took so many beautiful photos.

Thank you @kweli.journal and Laura for bringing us all together. Thank you @akwaabainns for holding us. Thank you @harlemportland for writing and sharing countless texts that mean so much to so many, including myself. Thank you @theamatthews_ for your brilliantly crafted conversation. Thank you @jwpanama for supporting the celebration of the artistry of your daughter Anayansi. Thank you @deborah_bklyn for always saying yes and for reminding me that we are deserving of joy. Thank you @whatbluesees for sharing how and what you see and for being kind, honest and patient. Thank you @kenndances for being a real one. Your artistry, truth and joy grounds me. Thank you Roz for texting every morning and choosing me and @deborah_bklyn and loving us with the fierceness that only Pacific Street could have brought into my life. Thank you to Jalpa for your patience while I saved up the money to purchase your beautifully hand carved stamps in India to connect these words and the rhythms of our stories across the world reminding us that as hard as it feels, and is, to see beyond the block sometimes, that the truth is that this entire planet (while we fight to protect and preserve it) is ours to experience.

From shore to shore, you and I, we share the same sky.

*dm to help me tag everyone

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Deadline: September 14, 2026

Kweli Journal invites BIPOC writers to submit up to 10 pages of poetry for an opportunity to be published in their inaugural November 2026 all-poetry issue, guest edited by Ariana Benson.

Out of the selections published, Kweli editors will award one contributor a week-long residency (winter, spring, or fall 2027), inclusive of a $1,000 stipend for travel and food, at Writers & Books’ bucolic Gell Retreat in New York States’s Finger Lakes region. All contributors will receive payment after publication.

kwelijournal.submittable.com/submit

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Congratulations to my friend @aida_writes and to all the fabulous authors like my friend @nonieqa.ramos on the launch of their beautiful anthology, Sing Me a Story. 🎉📚🎤🎵

Just look at that gorgeous cover! The book is every bit as beautiful and unique, with short stories in verse exploring the power of music. 🎶✨

What a joy to celebrate these wonderful writers and their work, and to be in community together. 🎉✨📚

Grab a copy of this gorgeous book for yourself and for the book lovers in your life. 💛📚✨

#newbook #singmeastory #latinéauthors #booklaunchparty

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The gorgeous and necessary @kweli.journal has just published MOVING DAY -- my poem about what moves with us and can't be taken.

Thank you, Laura, for nurturing this poem with steadfast love. 💜💐

#poetry #poem #iran #persian

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There were sincerely like a 100 books I wanted to include in this list. It was so hard to choose. Pero here it is, my Sealey Challenge selections for Kweli Literary Journal.

In part, my choices were informed by the fact that I have noticed a startling lack of general support for Latinx authors these days. We are living in a moment where forces are attempting to violently erase our gente from the culture as well as the literal landscape. With this reality in mind, I felt a responsibility to make the majority of my selections Latinx poets as a means of pursuing some semblance of balance in the universe.

De todas formas, I hope you enjoy these collections by Kweli familia and other poets whose work I adore.

#sealeychallenge

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This monumental collection of my mother’s speeches, essays, and conversations was rereleased by ReLit/Levine Querido in 2024.
Forward by Laura Pegram, founder of Kweli; with an introduction by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, “mother of” multicultural children’s literature.
It was amazing for me, her son, to read these priceless pieces of literary wisdom. They shed new light on one of America’s greatest authors of children’s literature, and brought me even closer to this incredible woman I call mom. ❤️

My mother referred to much of her work as liberation literature, “…because the writer as well as the reader bears witness to and experiences vicariously the tribulations of others who triumph finally over hostile forces.”
My father spent countless hours editing this book. It was so important to him to be able to share this collection with the world.
#childrensbooks #virginiahamilton #kidlit

This is a frontispiece portrait of my mom, illustrated by Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon. The original portrait hangs in her hometown at the Yellow Springs Community Library.

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photo credit: @whatbluesees

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Acknowledging grief, love, remembrance, music, and All the Blues in the sky...
(special shout out to @kenndances @whatbluesees and Roz from around the way)

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