Why We Started RaqsNews
Celebrating and Preserving the Art of Belly Dance*
Welcome to RaqsNews, your central online hub for all things belly dance. Our publication is dedicated to celebrating and preserving the rich heritage of Southwest Asian, North African, Turkish, and Hellenic dances, including belly dance. This article intends to share why we started RaqsNews, our mission, and values, and how we plan to make a positive impact on the belly dance community.
Why a Belly Dance Substack?
Nowadays, most belly dancers engage across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube to provide the latest and greatest about their journey with the art form. Social media has provided a platform for dancers to engage millions of viewers, which is amazing, but it has also diluted and siloed the belly dance community. Our social feeds show us content that aligns with our preferences, which may restrict the discovery of new ideas and information. It’s become harder to find information about events. Our community feels smaller and more disjointed, even though we can connect faster and easier on a global scale.
We’re also facing hard truths about our art form that need to be addressed. We are dancing an art form that is not our own and that has little representation from the cultures of origin. Dancers from the culture of origin sacrifice A LOT to do what they love. They do exist and their voice needs a platform. We hope to use RaqsNews as that platform for not only dancers of origin, but also BIPOC dancers and dancers with disabilities.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide a central online hub for ethical, accurate, and accessible articles relevant to the art of Southwest Asian, North African, Turkish, and Hellenic dances. We strive to foster a community where students, practitioners, and enthusiasts can deepen their knowledge, stay current with trends, and represent the art form in the best way possible.
Values that Drive Us
Our values are the foundation of everything we do at RaqsNews. They guide our editorial choices, community interactions, and long-term goals. Here are the core values that shape RaqsNews:
Ethical Journalism: We are committed to maintaining high ethical standards in all our articles. This includes ensuring that our content is accurate, well-researched, and respectful of the cultures and communities we cover.
Accessibility: We believe that knowledge should be accessible to everyone. Our content is free to the public via subscription.
Inclusivity: We prioritize content from Southwest Asian, North African, Turkish, and Hellenic communities, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), and people with disabilities. We provide a platform for underrepresented voices in the belly dance world.
Community Engagement: We aim to create a vibrant community of authors, researchers, and students. By providing an accessible platform, we hope to foster connections and encourage the exchange of knowledge and experiences.
How We Accomplish Our Mission
RaqsNews will curate and manage content across various relevant categories. Our editorial council oversees content selection and ensures that all articles meet our guidelines for accuracy, ethics, accessibility, and inclusivity.
Supporting Diverse Voices
We are committed to highlighting and prioritizing content from Southwest Asian, North African, Turkish, and Hellenic dancers of origin, BIPOC, and people with disabilities. By supporting diverse voices, we aim to provide a well-rounded perspective on belly dance and its cultural significance.
Content Categories and Tracks
For our initial launch, we have organized our content into several tracks, including:
Artist Spotlight
History
How-To’s
Music
News & Events
Business & Ethics
As we grow, we will add more tracks and use a tagging system to help subscribers easily find articles across all categories.
Funding and Sustainability
Our goal is to become a 501(c)(3) organization, sustaining ourselves through reader donations. We want to be able to use these funds to pay experts for their content contribution. We will offer various subscriber tiers, including free access to almost all content and premium tiers with exclusive benefits. Advertisement opportunities will be available as our subscriber base grows.
RaqsNews is more than just an online publication; it is a community dedicated to the art of belly dance. By providing ethical, accurate, and accessible content, we aim to preserve the rich heritage of Southwest Asian, North African, Turkish, and Hellenic dances and support the global belly dance community. Thank you for being a part of our journey, and we look forward to growing and evolving together.
Join Us
RaqsNews is a community, and we need your engagement to grow. We invite you to submit your events, pitch article ideas, comment on articles, and share your feedback. Together, we can ensure that the art of belly dance continues to thrive and inspire future generations.
*While the term “belly dance” has been debated in this community (and rightfully so), RaqsNews chose to use this term to be able to reach the widest possible audience and bring them into the fold. Stay tuned for an article on the subject :)