Courtesy of Jen, who recieved this press release because of her involvement in the Buffyverse, and a recent Huffington Post column.
FANS ANNOUNCE ANTHOLOGY IN RESPONSE TO ENTERTAINER'S ACTIVIST CHALLENGE
NEW YORK (7/1/07) --- Writers, editors and artists inspired by the impassioned plea of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon in response to the "honor killing" of 17-year-old Du'a Khalil Aswad have announced their intention to create Nothing But Red, an anthology of literary and visual arts, with proceeds to benefit Equality Now, an international human rights organization.
Aswad, an Iraqi adherent of the Yazidi religion, was stoned to death by family members and neighbors in early April 2007 after being accused of conversion to Islam. The brutal beating and murder was captured in a graphic video filmed by a witness or participant and spread on the Internet.
Shortly after learning of the murder, Whedon, creator of the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, and writer and director of the feature film Serenity, penned an emotional response on the fan-run site Whedonesque.com. His post spread from the topic of Aswad's murder to the popularity of "torture porn" horror films in American culture – specifically naming the upcoming release Captivity – and the contemplation of misogyny's transcendence of culture, religion and era. It ended on an appeal to his fans to do something active to change the cycle.
"It's no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news," Whedon wrote. "True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself... [Aswad's] face was nothing but red."
Nothing But Red takes its title from that description of Aswad's murder and was conceived as a response to Whedon's plea. It will be an open-format anthology of responses to Aswad's death and the topics raised by Whedon in his post, which will also be included in the volume. Essays, short stories, poems, photographs, drawings and other kinds of literary or visual arts will be considered for inclusion. Submissions will be open from August 1 to November 1, 2007. Further information on submitting work can be found at http://nothingbutred.wordpress.com.
Publication of Nothing But Red is currently planned for April 2008 to commemorate the one year anniversary of Aswad's death. The anthology will be self-published through Lulu.com. Equality Now was chosen as the recipient of the anthology's proceeds due to Whedon's public support of the organization and its mission to "[voice] a worldwide call for justice and equality for women," as stated on Equality Now's website.
http://nothingbutred.wordpress.com · nothingbutredbook@gmail.com
Here's Joss on why he creates strong women characters.
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