Schedule and Rules

[moddington]

Important Dates

Nominations: January 8 to January 19

Sign-up Opens: January 21

Sign-up Closes: January 29

Assignments Out: January 31 or earlier

Assignments Due: February 21

Works Revealed: February 28

Creators Revealed: March 7

All times at 11:59 p.m. EST

AO3 Collection

What is this?

Black Is Beautiful is a fic, art, vid, and podfic exchange for celebrating Black characters! In the U.S. and Canada, February is Black History Month, a time for remembering and celebrating the history of the African Diaspora in those places, along with the contributions, accomplishments, beauty, and talent of the Black community today. Characters do not need to be American nor Canadian nor diasporic, but I thought it was as good a time as any to get something rolling.

Who and how can I nominate?

This exchange will use character matching. Individuals should be nominated with standard character tags (ex. “Finn” for Star Wars) while relationships should use the “Group:” modifier (ex. “Group: Finn & Rey” for platonic relationships or “Group: Finn/Rey” for romantic relationships). Every group should centrally feature at least one Black character.

My goal is to be as inclusive as possible while maintaining the spirit of the exchange. Characters who are multiracial or who come from a society/universe that doesn’t have identical racial or ethnic structures as ours are welcome.

Racebending, on the other hand, is not. Characters without an established canonical race may be considered but should have some reason to be included—for example, I’d accept a song performed by a Black musician without a lyric that explicitly states, “I, a Black person, am in love with you, another Black person.”

Any RPF characters must be over eighteen and famous in their own right. Original Works will also be accepted.

What can I create and receive?

You will be matched on at least one fandom, one character, and one medium. The minimum for fic is 1,000 words of a previously unposted work. The minimum for art is finished lineart on an unlined canvas. Podfics must be at least 10 minutes long or of a fanfic that is at least 1,000 words. Vids must be at least 60 seconds long. All must be complete and legible. There are no maximum parameters for any medium. Treats do not have to meet the minimum but should still fit the recipient’s requests in terms of fandoms and Do Not Wants.

While this exchange does not have any content bans, the following topics cannot be included in your gift unless your recipient has explicitly opts into them:

— Slavery
— Hate crimes
— Racekink or raceplay

If there are additional tropes or kinks that would ruin a gift for you, they can be expressed in Do Not Wants (DNW) in your sign-up. DNWs should not be used to box your creator into writing one specific story or scenario, or make drastic changes to your requested canon. “DNW: anything but a coffeeshop AU,” for instance, is not how it should be used.

Nominations

— The tagset is here. You must have an AO3 account to nominate and sign up.
— Each participant may nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 characters or groups each. Each individual character, or at least one member of a group nomination, must be Black.
— Crossovers should be nominated under “Crossover Fandom.”
— Please avoid “All Media Types” and use specific shows/movies/arcs when nominating things for the MCUs, Star Wars, and Star Treks of the exchange world when it makes sense - further clarification here.
— For group nominations, / should be used for romantic relationships and & used for platonic relationships. They may also be used in combination (“Group: Mike Hanlon/Bill Denbrough & Pennywise”).
— Original Works are allowed. Feel free to get specific (“Female Black Professor Whose Department Is Going To Win This Softball Tournament If It’s The Last Thing She Does”) or general (“Group:Werewolf/Vampire”); the latter would mean either character can be any gender, and either or both could be Black
— Any RPF characters must be over eighteen and famous in their own right.

Signups

— You can request 3 to 10 fandoms, with 1 to 20 characters/pairings each. You must request at least one medium out of "Fic," "Art," "Podcast," or any combination. Each fandom must be unique.

— You must offer at least three fandoms with one character, to produce fic, art, podfic, vid, or or any.
— Additional information (likes, prompts, DNWs) may be added in your sign-up or a linked letter, and can be helpful to your creator.
— Do Not Wants (DNWs) are things you absolutely do not want in your gift, and your recip's gift should not include any of their DNWs. They should not contradict your requested pairing or be used to force your writer into fulfilling one particular prompt.
— If no offers can be matched to your request, then your will be sent out to pinch hit. Pinch hits will be posts on the Dreamwidth community. The collection will not open until everyone has a gift.
— If your offers cannot be matched to any assignment, you will be contacted. If in 24 hours I don’t hear back from you or you decide there is nothing else you can offer, your signup will be deleted

Assignments

— This exchange uses OR matching, meaning that you will be matched on the minimum of one fandom, one character/group, and medium. You are welcome to create for another one of your recip’s requests, but it must still fulfil each of those qualities.
— The minimum for fic is 1,000 words. The minimum for art is finished lineart on an unlined canvas. Both must be original; fics cannot be previously posted or part of an ongoing series, etc., and art cannot be photo manipulations. Podfics must be at least 10 minutes long or of a fanfic that is at least 1,000 words. Vids must be at least 60 seconds long. All must be complete and legible. They must be complete and legible.

— Assignments can be completed by posting your work under the “Fulfil Assignment” button under My Assignments on AO3.
— Your gift should remain a secret until author reveals. This means not discussing it in specific terms in public or attaching your name or social media until then.
— If you are unable to complete your assignment, please default. There are no penalties, but if the person you are assigned to also defaults, you will not be sent out for pinch hit.

Treats

— Treats do not have to meet the minimum but should still fit the recipient’s requests in terms of fandoms, DNWs, and medium.
— Alternatively, a work that doesn’t fit a specific recip’s requests but otherwise fits the exchange may be gifted to the collection.
— Treats can be added with the “Post to Collection” button under the collection’s profile. You do not need to sign up to treat.

Closing notes

The point of this exchange is to have fun and have some new fanworks featuring Black characters at the end of the month. Please respect other participants; I reserve the modly right to make decisions that I believe are in the best interests of the exchange.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment below! Anonymous commenting is on.

 

Comments

[hogwartstoalexandria]

Hello dear mod! This sounds amazing and I'm very excited to participate. Just wanted to let you know about this bit of the nom guidelines: — The tagset is here. You must have an AO3 assignment to nominate and sign up. which you probably meant to say account instead of assignment, in case someone gets confused 💙

Thank you again for running this!!

[moddington]

Thank you for pointing that out, looking forward to getting things going!