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Update #3: Endangered Language and Poetry Project Update
Thank you, fellow language activists, for your generous support of our project, endangered languages, and the Isthmus Zapotec poets of Oaxaca. Our Kickstarter fundraising campaign has come to a close and our pledges did not meet the goal. We appreciate your generous support, and would like to let you know that we will not receive the amount you pledged on Kickstarter and that your credit/debit cards will not be charged. Our time on Kickstarter has been great for our exposure and enthusiasm, and we're very grateful to you, our Kickstarter supporters, and the Kickstarter team. We are still very excited about the next steps of this project and we need your support as we raise awareness about endangered languages and literatures in Mexico!
Please visit our new project website where you can read about our plans and progress, and donate to us directly via PayPal or by check. I do hope that you'll consider funding our project through that site, which will soon feature a streamlined contributors benefit program.
Again, an enormous thank you for standing with us on this journey! We hope you'll visit our new site.
David, Ben, and Víctor
Update #2: Poetry Tuesday - Spread the word!
A quick poem for your Tuesday afternoon, read first in English by me, then in Isthmus Zapotec by Víctor. Click here to enjoy!
If you were a city
I could give perfect directions
to wherever they asked me.
I think this poem proves that our donor rewards make great Valentine's Day gifts—Víctor writes exquisite love poems, and what's more romantic than saving an endangered language? Make your lover(s) proud, look cultured yourself, and hopefully your donor rewards help you get lucky!
We'll have some more updates for you later this week, but in the meantime, please spread the word! Facebook updates, tweets, blog posts, word of mouth—we need it all.
Update #1: Three Weeks to Go!
Diuxquíxepe' lii! Thank you! First to our Kickstarter partners—we can't do this without you guys, and we really do consider you partners in our creative endeavor. Ben, Víctor, and I have been encouraged by your outpouring of support at all levels.
Our first week on Kickstarter has netted us lots of link love: we were plastered on Facebook walls, tweeted about by the American Literary Translators Association and World Literature Today, selected as a Kickstarter Staff Pick, and supported by 17 wonderful donors.
I'd like to point you to a special guest post I wrote for Three Percent, one of the best translation blogs on the web, edited by translation advocate Chad Post, associated with his great publishing house Open Letter and the much-needed Best Translated Book Award. In the post I talk about my own background as Víctor's translator, and how he inspired me to pursue this project.
I also wanted to mention that World Literature Today has an inspired essay on their website now, by Clare Sullivan, who won an NEA Grant to complete her translations of Natalia Toledo's Isthmus Zapotec poetry. That essay, evocatively subtitled "Can Poetry Save an Endangered Culture?," summarizes poetry's role in preserving the Isthmus Zapotec language and culture. It certainly inspires me, and serves as an important companion piece to our Kickstarter page. WLT also features an image gallery with work by several Isthmus Zapotec artists, and a bilingual audio gallery featuring work by Natalia Toledo, Irma Pineda, and our own Víctor Terán. Clare is doing some important work as a scholar and translator, and I'm proud to count her among one of our earliest Kickstarter supporters!
I hope you'll continue to spread the word about our project by posting it on Facebook, Twitter, and any other online venues. Ben, Víctor, and I are happy to offer ourselves to be interviewed, to write guest posts, or do almost anything in support of our project, and we appreciate any connections you can facilitate or suggest. We've come a long way, but we've got an even longer way to go to get to Oaxaca, so we hope we can count on your continued support.
Diuxquíxepe' lii! Thanks again!
39
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$3,257
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on February 18.
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You've supported Isthmus Zapotec and other endangered languages in their struggle for survival, and you''ll be formally thanked on our project websites.
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One poetry chapbook from the five-chapbook set to be published by Phoneme Books, featuring original work translated from Isthmus Zapotec, Zoque, Huichol, Yucatec Maya, and Mazatec. This level includes the $1 Reward, too.
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The entire five-chapbook set of indigenous Mexican poets, a digital download of the film (available after festival screenings), and the $1 Reward benefits.
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A bilingual broadside of Víctor Terán's poem "The North Wind Whips," designed by Zapotec artist Soid Pastrana in a limited edition of 50 copies, signed by Terán, Pastrana, and translator Shook. This level includes the $1 Reward, too.
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A handwritten Isthmus Zapotec poem by Terán, matted and suitable for framing, plus the $1 and $30 Rewards.
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A signed, limited-edition print from Terán and an Isthmus Zapotec painter's collaborative work incorporating original poetry, plus the $1 and $30 Rewards.
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A credit as Associate Producer in the film and on its websites, plus a Producer-exclusive Painter/Terán print, two complete sets of chapbooks, a thank you printed inside each of the chapbooks in the five-chapbook set, and the $1 Reward.
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A credit as Producer in the film and on its websites, plus all benefits of the $1000 Reward.
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A credit as Executive Produce in the film, on its websites, and in all promotional material, an original piece of artwork by an Isthmus Zapotec painter, plus all benefits of the $2500 Reward.
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Join Ben and David in Oaxaca for a week of film production (lodging and food included, transportation to Oaxaca not included) culminating in a celebratory dinner in your honor, featuring live performances by Isthmus Zapotec poets, musicians, and dancers, plus all the benefits of the $5000 Reward.
Project By
Connected as David Shook (1329 friends)
David Shook is a poet, translator, and writer in Los Angeles. He studied endangered languages in Oklahoma and poetry at Oxford. He's currently at work on a poetry documentary shot in Equatorial Guinea and a collection of travel poems.
