Eastside Projects

Grief: A Love Letter – Call out for artists & writers

Deadline: 10 April 2023

A large billboard poster at street level. The billboard read in large white letter 'Wherever you are I hope you have found peace.'

 

‘All About Love’ is BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s first major curatorial and artist commission that will take over large-format billboards across Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester between April – September 2023. The project champions artists who are either born in those cities or live and work there.

This project is curated by Zarina Rossheart.

We are currently inviting 10 artists to participate and share existing work alongside Grace Ndiritu, responding more directly to the theme of ‘Grief’. Please note this is not a commission or request for new work. Selected participants will be paid a fee £100.

Please submit the piece you would like to read via the Online Application Form, including relevant information in the ‘Description’ box such as Website, Social Media, and a Brief Description about why this event interests you.

Artists are encouraged to submit no more than 4 pages of material, as estimated performance averages are at 4–5 minutes per reading/performance.

Deadline is Monday 10 April, and participants will be contacted by Friday 14 April. 

To submit your work, please use our online application form.

‘Important and radical changes are necessary, if love is to become a social and not a highly individualistic, marginal phenomenon.’ – Erich Fromm, cited in bell hooks’ ‘All About Love’.

‘All About Love’ is part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s ongoing Your Space Or Mine initiative, which gives artists and creatives across the UK a unique platform to present their work outdoors and connect with communities across our cities. Using hooks’ writing as a starting point the ‘All About Love’ commission aims to inspire audiences to create a better future together. Sacred, redemptive and healing – this project, along with hooks’ writing, offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness.

The point of departure for this newly launching commission was the quote from ‘All About Love’, the groundbreaking book, published in 2000, by a cultural critic, feminist theorist and author bell hooks:

‘Whether it is the ongoing worldwide presence of violence expressed by the persistence of the man-made war, hunger and starvation, the day-to-day reality of violence, the presence of life-threatening diseases that cause the unexpected deaths of friends, comrades, and loved ones, there is much that brings everyone to the brink of despair. Knowing love or the hope of knowing love is the anchor that keeps us from falling into the sea of despair.’

For more information on the ‘all about love’, see BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s website. You may also view our Google Doc for Further Details on the project.

See the PDF Summary of the Project here.