September 17, 2024
Wintergreen Women Writers Collective Receives $750,000 Award from Mellon Foundation to support “The Women Gather: Building a Network to Embrace Black Women Writers”
By Aloma Antao“The Women Gather” revolves around Black women writers’ claiming time for creative work. Wintergreen aims to build a network of excellence to embrace Black women writers and ensure that the reach and impact of Wintergreen Women are preserved and made accessible for generations to come. All of these efforts are in direct alignment with key elements of Mellon’s Public Knowledge program—including the preservation of the cultural and scholarly record that documents society’s complex, intertwined humanity. We are deeply grateful for Mellon’s continued generosity and trust.
Building on lessons from the “Sacred Work” planning grant (2023-4), the grant will support the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective’s work over the next three years, with a focus on several key areas of development.
Enhancing Operational Capacity: Collaborating with Educopia to bolster the Collective’s operational and communications infrastructure, ensuring sustainability and continued growth beyond the grant period.
Documenting Black Women Writers’ Stories: Continuing and expanding efforts to capture and preserve the narratives of Black women writers, thereby enriching the historical record and public knowledge.
Establishing Archives: Working with James Madison University Libraries to create and maintain Wintergreen’s archival records, including a comprehensive records management plan and periodic transfer workflows.
Supporting Scholarly Research: Funding a graduate student research fellowship at Virginia Tech University to explore connections between the papers/collections of individual Wintergreen Women and the Collective’s organizational records.
Piloting Strategic Partnerships: Launching new collaborations with Torch Literary Arts and Cita PresEDUs to broaden and amplify the Collective’s mission, extending its reach within the literary and cultural communities.
Hosting Convenings: Organizing and executing a series of in-person and virtual events designed to introduce the Wintergreen Women’s stories to diverse audiences, fostering greater engagement and understanding.
Taken together, these steps create structural “footprints” into the worlds of education, publishing, and archival collections–helping to make dissemination of the Collective’s knowledge inevitable and historical erasure impossible.
“The Women Gather” will be coordinated and undertaken by a core group of project team members that are uniquely qualified to advance the proposed work:
- Dr. Joanne Gabbin, Wintergreen Executive Director; Principal Investigator and “The Women Gather” Project Director
- Alysia Dempsey, Wintergreen Board Member; “The Women Gather” Events & Programs Coordinator
- Opal Moore, Wintergreen Board Secretary
- Dr. Trudier Harris, Wintergreen Board Treasurer
- Dr. Maryemma Graham, Wintergreen Board member
- Dr. Tyechia Thompson, Wintergreen Board member
- Jessica Meyerson, Educopia Co-Director and Wintergreen Organizational Development Consultant
- Aloma Antao, Educopia Marketing and Communications Manager and Wintergreen Strategic Communications and Marketing Consultant
- Caitlin Birch, JMU Libraries Director of Digital Scholarship & Distinctive Collections.
As Wintergreen Women Writers Collective’s fiscal sponsor, Educopia is honored to serve the Collective and their mission.
Other participating organizations in Wintergreen Women Writers Collective’s “The Women Gather” include Educopia, James Madison University Libraries, Virginia Tech University, Torch Literary Arts, and Cita Press.
For more information about the grant project, please visit the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective’s website.