As everyone is coming back from their Christmas breaks, we've been busy putting the heads together of the Sound Walk September Awards Grand Jury, to get them to select a winner and honourable mention for the SWS Awards 2023. Read up on the details here, and know that the top two spots were tightly contested by four sound walks.

Interestingly, these four each were submitted by creators from different countries; Ireland, Canada, Australia, and the UK. The SWS23 shortlist was quite diverse in the material's origins, and this came through in the pieces the Grand Jury identified as the best of 2023.
That said, we're clearly still heavily slanted towards the anglophone world; I very much would like to see many more submissions from countries where English is not the main language, and particularly I'd like to see more submissions from the Global South. More on the latter, hopefully, very soon.

The winner and runner up both receive a plaque to hang on their walls. And, for the first time, they also receive a cash prize. You recall that the height of the prize is dependent on the total value of the community support we receive from you. For a while, we've been close to reaching the threshold of doubling the prize money, thanks to our recent platinum members Echoes and Soundtrails, but we, sadly, fell short on the day it mattered, when announcing the winner and honourable mention.

However, as you know, we are coming close to announcing the winners of the Marŝarto Awards 2023, and, with a little bit of extra support, it's possible to pass the threshold by the time we announce the winners of that inaugural competition.

Support WLC today, allowing us to support our community, you.

Curious who won? Check out the announcement, now.

Ready to get going for the SWS Awards 2024? Submit your work today!

Meanwhile, unless you've been living under a rock, or have only been watching CNN or the BBC, you know that South Africa has brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of genocide.
The case is watertight. Or, rather, should be, but Israel has powerful friends, most notably the US, of course, and also Germany, though most European politicians make nothing of the 23.000 Palestinians which Israel has killed, 70% of which are women and children, or the 85% of the population of Gaza which has been displaced.
It's no surprise that two countries that do recognise the excesses of colonialism for what they are, are South Africa, and Ireland, both of which have very much been on the receiving end of these.

The ICJ is based in The Hague, in an imposing building, the Peace Palace. The edifice was only built in 1913, and attended by Andrew Carnegie, among others. At the opening ceremony, Carnegie went out on a limb and predicted that the end of war was "as certain to come, and come soon, as day follows night."
That was, as you saw, in 1913. And, here we are.

If you are able to, consider showing your solidarity with Palestine in The Hague, and with the artists which Israel has murdered.

You might also appreciate Little Amal, a huge puppet which has been 'walking' for a few years to highlight the plight of refugees. Originally focussing on Syria, we can only expect additional multitudes of refugees to come out of the Middle East, soon, with the current conflict threatening to spill over into additional theaters.

In solidarity,

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