Rain Taxi opposes racism and discrimination in all of its forms.

As an organization and as individuals, we are committed to working in solidarity with the Black community, indigenous people, and other people of color, and unequivocally condemn predatory policing and other forms of systemic oppression and white supremacy. We are committed to working on behalf of anti-racism and to adding, in voice and in practice, to the development of systemic change, particularly in our corner of the publishing industry, which has a long history of excluding and marginalizing the voices, contributions, and artistry of BIPOC individuals.

Rain Taxi’s mission to champion aesthetically adventurous literature is driven by several core values, foremost among them to explore challenging work from diverse voices in multiple genres and formats. We are proud to have focused on a lot of great writing by and about people of color through our various publications and programs—but we can and will do better. As Board Members of an anti-racist organization, we commit to the following:

1) We will continue to identify, discuss, and challenge issues of race and color and the impact they have on Rain Taxi and its community. We will also challenge ourselves to understand and correct any inequities we discover and gain a better understanding of ourselves during this purposeful process.

2) We will continue to focus attention on literary art by and about people of color through our print magazine, website, and events, including our annual Twin Cities Book Festival. As well, we will expand our efforts to attract reviewers and artists who are people of color to represent their voices and interests in our pages. We will also increase our outreach to BIPOC book lovers so that the community within our pages and at our events will more accurately reflect the diverse communities in which we live.

3) We will expand our efforts to increase the diversity of our Board and working groups by proactively seeking ways Rain Taxi can support and engage with BIPOC literary artists and include them in our leadership to more fully represent diverse literary voices and perspectives. As part of this, we will initiate a Board mentorship program designed to attract younger people of color in our community who may not yet have experience in nonprofit governance.

4) Because our organization’s home base of Minneapolis has been a key site of sorrow and aspiration regarding racial injustice, we will publish, this fall, a chapbook anthology of poems by Black writers in the Twin Cities responding to events here.

These are not the only actions Rain Taxi will take to pursue greater equity in our own communities and in society at large, but they are a start. In all ways, we will continue to seek opportunities to use our platform to promote anti-racist thought and action in our participants and audiences.

Sincerely,

The Board and Staff of Rain Taxi, June 2020