About Contours

Contours: Arts. Activism. Pathways. is a decolonial feminist, open access publication that highlights scenes of neighborhood-based art and activism and invites a global dialogue over the aesthetics, politics, and rhythms of everyday life.

The Contours project entails a process of relationship-building among collaborators so that we can collectively write-with in an attempt to undo extractive, objectifying methods of writing-about. Contours encourages readers to contribute responses to the publication and to create a conversation across time, so that each edition might be read in relation to other editions. Article titles on the homepage appear in each author’s dominant language and offer a Spanish or English translation in this first edition.

Each edition of Contours is a gathering of activists–artists, scholars, and practitioners–who co-create and theorize aspects of their worlds through textual, imagistic, and other sensory illustrations. It invites entry to a particular place, space, and activity of activist practice and opens up new possibilities to connect and interact across the multiple dimensions within it. All prepared works go through a process of community peer review prior to publication. We also offer an academic peer review process for scholars upon request.

The collection of essays, original artwork, poetry, and other artifacts of creative analysis/synthesis is curated across the following categories:

  • Aterrizajes: the terrain covered in the edition
  • Contextos: the structures, histories, worldviews
  • Activaciones: the interactions and relationships within the contexts
  • Reflexiones: contemplative reflection on the themes of the edition
  • Refracciones: the everyday impact of the anti-racist, decolonial techne and praxis

Editor Biographies

  • Editor, Cindy García is a Dance and Performance Studies scholar who focuses on Race and Performance of the Americas at the University of Minnesota.
  • Design Editor, Maxine Nwigwe is a behavioral scientist, designer and futurist who is Clinical Professor and Learning Community Facilitator at CUNY School of Medicine.
  • Assistant Editor, Devon Severson is a young professional in the fields of Latin American and Caribbean foreign policy and human rights, currently working at the Inter-American Dialogue.
  • Guest Co-Editors and Community Peer Reviewers, Martiza López McBean, Idelsi Bárbara Alfonso Sandrino, Damayanti Matos Abreu, and Rolando Zulueta Zulueta form the Coordination Team of La Red Barrial Afrodescendiente in Cuba.

Publication Policies

How to Cite

Author names are listed on each contributed piece in Spanish and in English. Each piece should be cited with the appropriate author, for example: 

López McBean, Maritza . "Red Barrial Afrodescendiente, desde comunidades de base en la concientización antirracista" Contours: Arts. Activism. Pathways., Edición 1, 2022, https://contours.lib.umn.edu/article/red-barrial-afrodescendiente-desde-comunidades-de-base-en-la-concientizacion-antirracista/ 

Frequency

An open access, digital journal published through the University of Minnesota Libraries, Contours hopes to facilitate non-hierarchical exchanges of activist knowledge and practice from multiple spaces. Due to the uneven distribution of resources and political conditions that contributors negotiate, Contours sets working deadlines that potentially shift when necessary. As such, though we strive to offer a yearly publication, please know that delays are often due to attempts to prioritize the well-being of all collaborators. Please visit the Contribute page for more information.

Copyright

The author(s) retains full copyright in their work.

Licensing

All parts of Contours are distributed with a Creative Commons Noncommercial Attribution (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, meaning that authors hold the copyright to their work. This also means that users have the right to share or adapt the article, as long as the author(s) and source are cited and the use is for noncommercial purposes. Permission is not needed for these noncommercial uses. 

For uses beyond the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, please contact contact.contours@gmail.com. 

Open Access

Contours provides immediate open access to its content, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. This also means that Contours does not charge article processing fees. All articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Attribution license (CC BY-NC 4.0)