RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the Arts in Society grant. This collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare. 

We love highlighting our Arts in Society (AiS) grant recipients and all the unique and impactful projects made possible by their grant.

We’re excited continue this series with the 2024 AiS Grantee: The Word, A Storytelling Sanctuary!

Learn all about their AiS project [margins.] Literary Conference and Book Festival, and how The Word explores and builds collective, equitable models for writing, publishing, and bookselling.

Tell us about your organization

The Word is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2016 to support literary creatives identifying from BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, neurodiverse and disabled communities.

We are community-led, with a 100% BIPOC-identifying board and staff, with intersectional identities in LGBTQIA2S+, and disabled communities.

We explore and build collective models for writing, publishing, and bookselling, through programs that provide concrete tools and knowledge; build intentional community; increase visibility; and amplify equity conversations.

The Word is a 2022 recipient of a Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture. Our work is realized through a robust series of programs:

• The Editor-Writer Mentorship

  • Annually connects upcoming writers from BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled, and neurodiverse communities with an experienced acquiring editor for a yearlong mentorship and review of a complete manuscript.

• Margins Bookselling Month

  • Annual celebration of bookstores run by and for BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled and neurodiverse communities, with bookstore & bookseller spotlights, online events, and opportunities for readers to engage and support. We continue to support these Booksellers year round with exclusive pre-publication events, access to The Word's preview library, and with conversations exploring new pathways in bookselling.

• The Duende-Word BIPOC Bookseller Award

  • Annual celebration of booksellers uplifting community through leadership, innovation, and activism.

• Writing Paths

  • Offers year round writing workshops and community events.

Tell us about your first project that will utilize your Arts in Society grant

Our Arts in Society grant is dedicated to the fourth [margins.] Literary Conference and Book Festival. The conference is the only one of its kind created by and for BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, neurodiverse and disabled writers to explore emerging trends in literature and the many pathways to storytelling, visioning, and creating.

This year’s conference will take place virtually as well as in Denver, CO in the Art District on Santa Fe (ADSF) and explores the theme “Reclamation.”

Speakers from across the publishing industry—including award-winning authors, poets, graphic novelists, booksellers, publicists, and educators—discuss three tracks: writing craft, the business of book publishing, and community activism. Panelists and audience members will ground themselves in reclaiming space, truth, and context and create new definitions for creative practice.

Our panelists represent local and national voices including Ingrid Rojas Contreras (The Man Who Could Move Clouds), Sasha Geffen (Glitter Up the Dark), Jose Olivarez (Promises of Gold), Franklin Leonard of the Blacklist, Lupita (Reads) Aquino, D.L. Cordero, Sydney Fowler, Joe Ponce, and many more.

This year, we’re running both a virtual and an in-person conference. The virtual programming is September 9-14, 2024 and the in-person programming is September 19-21.

The [margins.] festival is a celebration of all of these voices and is open to the public. It takes place in the Art District on Santa Fe at the Su Teatro Cultural Center, the Metropolitan State Center for Visual Art, and in partnership with several of the galleries, shops, and boutiques on Santa Fe.

We’re excited to host a program of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, featuring authors Aaliyah Bilal and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. The festival also coincides with Banned Books Week, and the American Booksellers Association is hosting a panel on that topic.

What’s next in the pipeline for your organization? What other projects are you dreaming up for next year, and how will your Arts in Society grant help to support these efforts?

We’ll be turning our attention to Word Unbound, an in-depth literary workshop series offering 3-hour, 4-week, and 8-week styled workshops to dive more deeply into writing areas. It has been something that our participants have asked for pretty frequently over the years, and we're finally getting to answer those calls.

Our hope is to really open up these long-form writing classes into topics that are not as explored by other literary programs, and of course as always we want to uplift authors from our core communities and provide safe, intimate spaces.

What was your experience like when applying for an AiS? What tips would you share with artists looking to apply for an Arts in Society Artist grant?

We’ve had a great experience both applying to AiS and being part of the community cohort. We would strongly encourage anyone who is interested to take the dive and apply.

We wouldn’t be able to offer the [margins.] program without the support of Arts in Society, and we know that is likely the case for so many talented artists and organizations.

Networking through our cohort has also been vital to help us round out our programming and tap into media resources to highlight our work.