About the Journal
SoulClap is an annual, multi-genre journal that features groundbreaking research about Black Joy and creative writing (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry) inspired by Black Joy. Each issue will be dedicated to a specific domain of Black Joy. The inaugural issue, for example, will be designed around Black Joy and nature. Future domains include: music, faith and spirituality, kinship, and literature.
The foundation of SoulClap is the creative, academic, and healing power of Black Joy through the eyes of Black students, Black culture, and the Black initiative and entrepreneurial spirit. Although pain is part of the Black experience, this annual publication will serve as a creative and scholarly journal, featuring scholarship, storytelling, interview that seek to shift the dominant mainstream narrative about African diaspora people away from trauma. This shift is crucial for the emotional, social, physical, and spiritual well-being of Black people.
Editorial sponsorship of SoulClap is provided by The OMNI Institute.
Mission
The mission of SoulClap is to shift the dominant mainstream narrative about African diasporic people from trauma by exploring the creative, communal, academic, and healing power of Black Joy. This shift is crucial for the emotional, social, physical, and spiritual well-being of Black people.
Focus and Scope
SoulClap is an annual, open-access publication that features scholarship, creative writing, and interviews that seek to disrupt the common deficit narrative often associated with the Black experience. SoulClap centers work that addresses lived experiences, research, innovations, theory, and practices of African diasporic people. The inaugural issue will be designed around the theme of Black Joy and nature. Future topics of interest include:
- Black Joy and music
- Black Joy and faith/spirituality
- Black Joy and kinship
- Black Joy and literature
- Black Joy and hair
Authors and contributors are encouraged to emphasize the practical applications of their lived experiences as it relates to the annual theme.
Sections
- Creative Writing
- Fiction
- Creative nonfiction
- Poetry
- Research
- Public Interest Communication
Open Access Policy
SoulClap provides immediate public access to its content on the principle that making creative and scholarly works freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. There are no processing charges, submissions fees, or any other costs required of authors and contributors to submit their work to this journal.
SoulClap contributors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish but otherwise retain the copyright in any original work that they publish in the journal. As such, readers must obtain permission from SoulClap contributors before sharing or reusing their works for any purpose that is not covered under the Fair Use Doctrine (17 U.S. Code § 107 | https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107)
Because SoulClap contributors retain the copyright in their works, they also retain the right to enter into publishing or licensing agreements with other entities that may be interested in publishing their work in the future. For example, if an author of a poem published in SoulClap wishes to include that poem in a published anthology of their poetry, they have every right to do that. In such cases, the Editors ask that authors credit SoulClap as the publication in which their work was originally published.