Add Femigritude Literary Lab blog post

[Copilot]

Adds blog post promoting the Femigritude Literary Lab project initiated by Diweng Mercy Dafong (PhD Candidate, UA Department of Modern Languages & Classics) - a literary empowerment initiative for young African women and girls.

Changes

• Created static/femigritude-literary-lab-blog.html: Standalone page with full blog content converted from markdown, including mission statement, submission guidelines, partnership opportunities, and external resource links
• Updated static/longblog.html: Added new blog entry at top of posts section with title, excerpt, and link to detail page

Implementation Notes

• Maintains existing design system (colors, fonts, spacing, layout structure)
• External links use target="_blank" with rel="noopener noreferrer" for security
• Responsive design with mobile breakpoints matching site patterns
• Bidirectional navigation between listing and detail pages

Screenshots

Blog listing with new entry:

Full blog post page:

Original prompt

Add Femigritude Literary Lab Blog Post

Objective

Add a new blog post about the Femigritude Literary Lab project to the website's blog section located in static/longblog.html.

Context

The blog post should promote the Femigritude Literary Lab, a project initiated by Diweng Mercy Dafong (PhD Candidate, Department of Modern Languages & Classics, The University of Alabama) that empowers African women through writing and creative expression.

Requirements

1. Update static/longblog.html

Add a new blog post entry to the existing blog posts section (after the existing two placeholder posts). The new blog post should be added as a new <article class="blog-post"> element.

Blog Post Content

Title: Join Us: Femigritude Literary Lab Invites Submissions

Excerpt (for preview):
The Femigritude Literary Lab invites young African women and girls to submit creative work. Learn about this transformative movement centering African women's voices through writing, healing, and empowerment.

Link: Create a new standalone HTML file at static/femigritude-literary-lab-blog.html containing the full blog post.

2. Create New File: static/femigritude-literary-lab-blog.html

Create a new, complete HTML page with the full blog post content. Use the same styling approach as static/longblog.html for consistency.

Full Blog Post Content:

# ✨ Join Us: Femigritude Literary Lab Invites You to Get Involved! ✨

**Empowering African Women Through the Written Word**

The **Femigritude Literary Lab** is calling on writers, organizations, sponsors, and allies to join a powerful movement centering African women—particularly young women and girls—as essential voices in literature, healing, and social transformation.

## 🌍 About the Lab & Our Founder

**Initiated by [Diweng Mercy Dafong](http://barefield.ua.edu/2026/01/20/french-student-brings-research-to-life-with-visit-to-burkina-faso/), PhD Candidate, Department of Modern Languages & Classics, The University of Alabama**, the Femigritude Literary Lab (FLL) was born from groundbreaking research and direct collaboration with Burkinabè women writers, artists, and intellectuals.

During her first research visit to Burkina Faso, Dafong worked directly with women and girls in refugee camps, partnered with **Mots d'Elles** (Burkina Faso's national association of female writers), and organized the inaugural **Concours d'Écriture Diweng Mercy Dafong**—a writing contest that gave young girls a platform to express their experiences, confront crises, and begin healing through creative expression.

### Our Mission

The Lab creates spaces where African women use writing as a tool for:

- **Healing and self-reclamation**
- **Analyzing lived realities**
- **Challenging erasure**
- **Envisioning alternative futures**

We believe that in the face of violence, migration, and insecurity, women are not peripheral witnesses or passive victims—they are central thinkers, creators, and architects of survival and societal reconstruction.

---

## ✍️ **FOR WRITERS: Submit Your Work**

We invite **young African women and girls**, including high school and university students, to share their creative voices through:

- **Short fiction**
- **Essays**
- **Poetry**
- **Creative nonfiction**

**Themes we explore:**
- Migration and displacement
- Women's roles in crisis and survival
- Healing and reconstruction
- Resilience in the face of social challenges
- Imagining new futures

### 📬 How to Submit

Submissions are accepted through our **annual themed competitions**, including the **Concours d'Écriture Diweng Mercy Dafong**. Our second edition is expanding to include university students in Burkina Faso and is supported by the Outstanding Service by Graduate Student Award from the Barefield College of Arts & Sciences at The University of Alabama.

👉 **Visit:** [https://sites.google.com/view/femigritude-literary-lab/home](https://sites.google.com/view/femigritude-literary-lab/home) for current calls and guidelines.

---

## 🤝 **FOR PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS: Get Involved**

There are many ways to support and collaborate with the Femigritude Literary Lab:

### 1. **Collaborate Ethically**
Join as a partner or collaborator, centering your involvement on ethical support of young women's creativity and story ownership. We prioritize respect, consent, and empowerment in all collaborations.

### 2. **Participate in Workshops**
Help organize or facilitate workshops and shared creative spaces where young women and girls can heal and reclaim their voices through writing.

### 3. **Support or Sponsor Initiatives**
Provide financial support, resources, or sponsorships to sustain Lab activities, contests, and programming that empower emerging female voices. Our second writing contest already has committed juries, collaborators, and sponsors—join us!

### 4. **Become a Community Partner**
Join organizations like **Mots d'Elles** (Burkina Faso's national association of female wr...

</details>



<!-- START COPILOT CODING AGENT SUFFIX -->

*This pull request was created from Copilot chat.*
>

<!-- START COPILOT CODING AGENT TIPS -->
---

💬 We'd love your input! Share your thoughts on Copilot coding agent in our [2 minute survey](https://gh.io/copilot-coding-agent-survey).