Important Annoucement
W.E.O.C. is Stronger Together
An open letter to our W.E.O.C. team & writing community
Firstly, we want to thank everyone for their continued support of Writers and Editors of Color. WEOC is nothing without its members, supporters, and writing community. Because of your immense love and support, you deserve the utmost transparency on the recent changes made and our plans moving forward.
On October 30th, one of our Co-Founders, Teressa Price announced her dissolution from the WEOC collective. This decision was an unexpected one, as well as the separate email from Price, announcing her decision to leave.
Please Note: Co-founder Allison Gaines, and the remaining administrators were not copied on the email from Price and therefore have no control or access to the correspondence that ensued from Price’s email.
Any communications which took place outside of the WEOC collective do not represent the forward movement or mission of the WEOC organization.
We will continue to support Co-Founder, Teressa Price in her future endeavors and wish her continued success. Price will always be a founding member of WEOC and is welcome to rejoin the collective she profoundly helped create and cultivate.
WEOC will now be a council of 5 leaders, including Co-Founder, Allison Gaines, as well as:
We are truly grateful to our new council leaders for stepping up during this transitional time. If you’d like to get to know our new leadership team, please check them out above.
On October 31st, we also lost one of our valued members and editors, ZUVA who is the editor of AnInjustice Magazine! ZUVA expressed her decision to leave WEOC as a response to transphobic statements made by WEOC leadership. Because this email correspondence did not include the WEOC leadership team, we want to take the time to also address the comments in our open letter.
Please Note: The WEOC organization does not promote or support anti-LGBTQ+ and/or transphobic hate speech. WEOC is a BIPOC collective and organization that unapologetically amplifies the voices of its writers, editors, and members. We will continue to move forward with this mission.
We will also continue to support ZUVA in her future endeavors and wish her continued success. She will always be a contributing editor in the WEOC family and is welcome to rejoin the collective, to which she helped contribute.
No one has been removed from WEOC without prior requests from former members. No one will be removed from WEOC unless requested. We respect any member’s decision to leave WEOC, but we hope you all will continue to remain a part of the collective and community.
We respect your concerns and questions. As a valued member, supporter, and writer, you have every right to receive the level of transparency provided. If you still have questions or concerns, please feel free to leave us a private note on this letter or reach out to the founder and/or newly appointed editors. We are here for you.
Because W.E.O.C. is Stronger Together.
What’s Next for WEOC?
We still plan to connect with you all every Sunday at our weekly Writing for Change Speaker Series Meetings. Our next meeting will be this Sunday, November 14th, 2021 at 12 pm EST. Everyone is welcome.
We also host Skills Lab Meetings and Town Halls once a month. Our next Skills Lab Meeting will be this Wednesday, November 10th, 2021 at 7:30 pm EST via google meet for members only.
Also new to WEOC:
- We will begin meeting on Friday nights for the Afrosapiophile Twitter Spaces to discuss unapologetic, intelligent Black thought. If you would like to learn more about the Afrosapiophile publication, please click the hyperlink.
2. Be on the lookout for our upcoming promo for The Case for The 1619 Project. If you’d like to learn more, please click the hyperlink above.
Please note that as the WEOC collective continues to grow, challenges and changes are inevitable. We are still learning and growing together. However, our mission will never change.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the new changes, please let us know. If you would like to join WEOC today, please follow the link here.
We thank you for your support.
Stay (woke) WEOC.
