The Etowah County Detention Center located in Gadsden, AL, currently houses approximately 300 male immigration detainees, pursuant to a contract between Etowah County and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold immigration detainees in the county jail. Organizations like Detention Watch Network and the Women's Refugee Commission have exposed the abuses and rampant human rights violations that have occurred inside Etowah, labeling it "among the worst" immigration detention centers in the country (click button below for more information). The detention center has repeatedly proven itself incapable of implementing necessary reforms to protect the basic personal safety of detainees in its care and comply with constitutional and internal ICE standards. Detainees at Etowah experience extremely inadequate medical care and nutrition, physical and verbal abuse, and prolonged detention in violation of Supreme Court precedent. They are kept indoors 24/7 with no access to outdoor recreation; visitation is only by videophone, and like other jails and detention centers, phone prices are exorbitant. The vast majority of detainees come from communities far away from Alabama, and some are longtime U.S. residents with deep family and community ties. Some detainees fear persecution or torture if returned to the countries where they were born; others are stateless or come from countries that lack diplomatic ties with the U.S. Detainees are sent to Etowah to distance them from their families, legal advocates, and support networks. Etowah County charges ICE among the lowest per diem prices in the country, so ICE treats Etowah as a warehouse for longer-term detainees. Regardless of their pasts, none of the men in immigration detention at Etowah are serving time — they are being caged merely to ensure their attendance at their immigration court hearings or because they are subject to a removal order, which they may be actively fighting in the courts. We are proud to announce that the 2018 100 Hundred Thousand Poets for Change Birmingham event will benefit Shut Down Etowah. We are also thrilled to partner with Glass: A Journal of Poetry to publish our featured poets for the event. Poets are encouraged to submit poems that address, envision, and/or urge social change. Academic poets, community poets, performance poets — all poets who live in Alabama (or are willing to drive to Alabama for a day in September) are welcome. While you don't have to reside in Birmingham to submit, please be advised that this feature is for Alabama residents only, as featured poets will be expected to perform at one of the two events in September. Although we are fundraising for Shut Down Etowah, the theme is not limited to immigrant rights but rather should be construed as a call for poems addressing all forms of economic, social, political, and institutional injustice. Ten selected poets be will featured at either of our two 100 Thousand Poets for Change events in September 2018 in Birmingham, Alabama, and their pieces will be published by Glass: A Journal of Poetry in a special feature. In an effort to raise funds and awareness about Shut Down Etowah, we will use winners' name and featured poem in our online promotions for the events and for our online fundraising effort. Submit three unpublished poems for consideration to birminghamchange@glass-poetry.com by August 9th. Submissions must be sent to birminghamchange@glass-poetry.com in the following manner: • In a doc, docx, or Google Doc, attach a file that contains your three unpublished poems without any identifying information. Please respect this call for a blind submission process. Your poems should appear on separate, numbered pages. • In the body of the email, please include your name, email address, and a list of the titles of poems you are submitting. • In the interest of time, we prefer that there be no simultaneous submissions. • Please note that if your poem is selected for publication, you must be able to attend one of the two September events as a featured reader: Bham Stands at Relevator Coffee Feature and Open Mic (Thursday, Sept. 27th at 7pm) or 100 Thousand Poets for Change: Birmingham (Saturday, September 29th, DISCO, 3pm). Our mission is to engage with the wider literary community. To do this, we are committed to publishing a variety of new, emerging and established voices. Further, we are committed to inclusion and equity in publishing. We highly encourage submissions from underrepresented voices. Unfortunately, we are unable to pay you for your poems other than through publication. Accepted poems will be published on the Glass website in perpetuity. If your work is accepted, we request First North American serial rights as well as the right to archive your work on our website and to use your work, with credit given to you as the author, for promotional purposes. Otherwise, upon publication, all rights revert back to the author under the condition that you will credit Glass: A Journal of Poetry as the original publisher should your work be reprinted. We are so excited, so grateful, and so ready to rock this world with poetry for change. Warmly, Us