Queer Vocal Voices 2.0

Hello!

If you can believe it, Queer Vocal Voices on Facebook is a year and a half old! We figured with the changing landscape on Vocal, which has caused low interaction across the board, we would make some changes to the group. Yeah, a glow up! Lets take a walk down memory lane to why we started this group, and what we hoped to accomplish. You coming?

Oneg, River and I (Jim) started this group in direct response to a comment written about the PRIDE community in a published piece. We wanted to set the record straight(ish) about the importance of a vibrant PRIDE community. So in January of 2024, Queer Vocal Voices was created. We had a couple of goals.

First, we wanted to increase the number of creators writing for the PRIDE community. We felt that by giving Queer creators a safe platform to share their work and to highlight Queer stories and poetry, lifting Queer voice, was a key.

Second, we wanted to offer multiple opportunities to share and connect with each other's work. So we had featured posts just about everyday. Some were successful, some were fun, and others didn't really catch.

We started to notice engagement was down, not only in our group, but other groups as well. We feel a large part of this is the major issues the Vocal platform experienced this year. I think it will be a while before people publish on Vocal the way they used to. Sadly, I know of more than a few creators who have left Vocal all together.

We tried some new things and new features. We have run contests, and the first few were successful, but engagement with those dropped off as well.

We have hosted an Open Mic night, our own Poetry Slam, and participated in another Poetry Slam. These have been wonderful times of connectedness, support, and love, raising money for important causes, and I encourage you to participate in those virtual events when we have them.

So. We find ourselves at a standstill, so to speak. Life is hard. Exhausting. and sometimes, life hurts. May people are feeling like writing is difficult right now. For Queer people, we are tired. and we are scared. Things like Facebook groups and writing platforms take a back seat.

We thought we would take this standstill as an opportunity to tweak our group a little. Yeah, a glow up! A new logo. A new set of posts. Changing how we do some things.

Admins

Before we re-introduce our admins, I would like to say that Jonathan Apollo has stepped down as admin. We are so happy to have had him, and wish him the best on his endeavors.

Oneg is one of our founding members. Truth be told, they are a key to this group's success. Oneg keeps us organized, they are our host with the most, and I appreciate everything they are. Oneg's profile is here.

Jim is a great guy. (LOL-I'm Jim). seriously though, my profile is here if you want to check it out.

Savannah joined us early on after River stepped aside to pursue their adventure-and they are loving it. Savannah has been a great addition to the team, and is dedicated to this group and helps us shape and execute our vision from half way across the world! Savannah's profile is here.

Weekly Features

We have decided to scale back on the features we do every week. We do want to encourage you all to post your work, not just your PRIDE work, but poetry, fiction-your work. One of the things that we all can start to do is read each other's posted works. That is a big part of success of a group like this, is reading each other's work. So share-and read!

Medium Monday (every other week)

This feature will be for sharing work from your pieces on Medium, for those of us that use Medium as well

Music Monday (every other week)

This will be about, you guessed it- music. The admin will post and give you the opportunity to share in the comments as well.

Wednesday

Wednesday will be Creator Feature. A member of our group will be highlighted in a post.

Sunday

A picture is worth how many words? (every other week)

Juicy Word (every other week)

Amongst these things there will be writing prompts here and there, random share posts mingling with the group, funny meme drops, and more virtual Open Mic and possibly Poetry Slams.

Your Part

Share your work. Check in on the group for participation opportunities. Share your work. Give other work a read. Share your work. Share the QVV group on PRIDE pieces you read. Noticing a pattern?

Please note: pieces overly political with subtext of discrimination, or hate-filled will not be permitted in this group.

In Closing

We want to thank you all for being a part of this group. It is one of my favorite things to come out of being on Vocal.

I want to encourage all of us. Create. Write. Share your stories. Vocal nonsense aside. History needs story tellers to tell the truth. Humanity needs story tellers to remind us we are all human. We need storytellers sharing the stories of all Queer people. So write. About love. About hurt. About sadness. And just as much as about joy.

If you want to join Queer Vocal Voices, We'd love to have you. The link is here: