Land Acknowledgement

“To recognize the land is an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory you reside on and a way of honoring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial.”

• Rutgers University Equity & Inclusion 

The land on which WAYE Small Press operates is part of the ancestral territory of the Munsee Lenape people. We pay respect to Munsee Lenape peoples, past, present, and future and support their continuing presence both in the homeland and throughout the Lenape diaspora. 

Donate to the Munsee Three Sisters Farm | Support the Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation 

DEAI Plan

Vision.

WAYE Small Press is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of Jersey City in all program activities, including its print publication, By the WAYE, and amplifying the diversity of creative talent in our city. It is committed to modeling diversity and inclusion, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

WAYE Small Press operates in the rapidly gentrifying Heights neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey. We work to cultivate a community, physical space, and virtual platform that amplifies artists of color, artists with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ artists, female artists, and local artists, and to provide programming where people can interact in a way that is respectful, life-affirming, and anti-oppressive. We are sensitive to the ways that people have, and continue to be, disenfranchised and marginalized in distinct and intersecting ways.

WAYE Small Press is a project led by John T. Trigonis and Marinell Montales. We are committed to practicing DEAI at a human scale.  

Goals.

WAYE Small Press endeavors to:

• Reflect the diversity of Jersey City in all program activities and provide a welcoming environment for all, especially historically marginalized and oppressed peoples.

• Center equity, inclusion, and accountability in our culture and decision-making to ensure the well-being of our contributors, artists, and the communities we serve.

• Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our program and services, and explore 1) potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness, 2) the ways systemic inequities impact our project’s work, and 3) how best to address it in a way that is consistent with our project’s purpose.

• Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.

• Lead with respect and tolerance. 

Plans.

WAYE Small Press works toward our goals in the following ways:

• Strongly and explicitly encourage underrepresented groups and people with marginalized identities to participate in our programs through our marketing and submission forms.

• Maintain diversity in program leadership.

• Implement an ADA plan that we can reliably execute at human scale.

• Adopt Jersey City census data as our guiding metric, collect demographic data from creative contributors and audiences, assess performance against the census data, and adjust daily practices as often as possible.

• Invite accountability from program participants by requesting feedback in a variety of ways, from informal conversation to formal grievances.

• Hold periodic leadership meetings to explore and address underlying assumptions and systemic inequities negatively impacting our project.

• Get help from knowledgeable advisors and trusted resources when facing an unfamiliar challenge. 

• Hold ourselves to a high standard of transparency in all program activities and lead our community by example.

This is a living document. It was last revised February 10, 2026. WAYE Small Press welcomes your input at waye.poetry@gmail.com.

Sources:

https://thewalters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/deai-goals-1.pdf

https://blog.ongig.com/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-and-inclusion-plan-template/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vm-IgwIl_lCQYbXcGf2LzvCaTdZNk69UhSCv2UZWjtA/edit