In Case You Missed It: Go Back and Get It Welcomes the Griots of the Creatorship to 'The SafeHouse!'

Welcome our new contributing partners, Creatorship of the Griots!

Housekeeping first: Last night, many of you, my dear followers, received a rather mysterious dummy email from GBAGI that consisted of little more than "Testing 1-2-3."

Let's blame Mercury Retrograde and call it an unscheduled dress rehearsal.

The spell has since been corrected, the gremlins have been appeased, and the post we actually meant to send is now live.

You can find it HERE!

Part of the Fellowship of the Griots family of offerings, Creatorship of the Griots Co-Writing Space is built with speculative writers in mind. Gathering twice each week, participants write and create alongside one another in "Creatorship", cultivating words, connections, and new possibilities through the transformative power of imagination and the generative force of community.

GBAGI is proud to publish works from the Creatorship of the Griots SafeHouse Collection, a playful publishing experiment born from the conversations, prompts, reflections, and friendships cultivated within the Creatorship co-writing space.

The idea emerged, as many things do in Creatorship, during one of our cherished community recesses inbetween writing sprints. Inspired by a check-in prompt exploring creativity as a living, divine force, participants began imagining what it might look like to honor the creative impulse not only through writing, but through the act of sharing that writing with the world.

What followed was the spontaneous creation of SafeHouse Publishing: an imaginary publishing house devoted to helping writers cross the threshold from creation to submission. Part moon magic ritual, part creative mischief, and part collective act of faith, SafeHouse invites us to practice seeing ourselves as published authors before permission, perfection, or certainty arrive.

The works to be gathered will reflect that spirit. Created in community and offered in service of possibility, they celebrate courage over polish, experimentation over certainty, getting to the finish line. SafeHouse is a place to play, to practice, to take creative risks, and to remember that sometimes the most powerful act is simply to submit the work.

We are eager to welcome you to the collection, working title: Classified. TBA.

(Fellowship of the Griots is a community organization centering the power of Black writers and our allies. If you are such a writer, check out their many offerings; there is something for everyone!)

Creatorship of the Griots is a co-writing space for Black, Brown, and Global Majority writers. Meeting every Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eastern, we gather to cultivate imagination, nurture creative practice, and write in community with one another.

Click HERE to register.

Updates

Fellow Griot and Co-Founder of Creatorship of the Griots, Miss Lady Andi, resident expert in whimsy, wonder, and all things woo-woo, has taken matters slightly further and into her magical hands. With the call for submissions as seed-intentions for the Gemini New Moon having been enthusiastically answered, she undertook a Road Opener spell as a prelaunch to help fling the doors wide open to inspired genius, creative abundance, and unexpected opportunities.

A little magic never hurt anyone... probably.

Either way, we're about to find out.

For those curious about the workings behind the workings, you can learn more about the Road Opener spell and the words of magic spoken in support of this creative endeavor in this linked POST.

And now, with the doors thoroughly nudged, coaxed, and ceremonially flung open...

We are delighted to announce the first forthcoming publication from the SafeHouse Collection.

Tomorrow, we will feature "Ripeness Refusing Shame" by fellow Griot Aishatu Ado.

Afro-German artist, author, poet, peace technologist, and co-founding member of Aroko Cooperative, Aishatu brings an extraordinary depth of imagination, experience and accomplishment to the page. Winner of the 2025 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest and a 2025 Clarion West graduate, her work has been recognized by some of the most respected literary institutions and communities writing today.

I wake thousands of miles away
with soil beneath my fingernails,
though I have planted nothing
except the impossible wish
that my life might finally resemble
its own longing.

~ Aishatu Ado

We are honored to welcome her contribution to the imaginary Creatorship SafeHouse Anthology Collection.

All things begin in I-Mage-I-Nation Land

See you all tomorrow!