Edited by Tyrese Coleman.
Celebrating Valentine’s Day 2020 with poetry, prose, and art.
Read More“Softness is a Radical Act,” by Donyae Coles
love issue
Joy as an Act of Resistance: spotlight on Julia Mallory
Julia Mallory takes grief head on in her new book Survivor’s Guilt, a collection of poetry and prose that is a meditation on the death of her eldest son Julian in a shooting in 2017, as well as reflection on other losses in her family and among the wider Black community.
Read MoreFrom the Editor: The Love Issue
I’ve been spending a lot of time imagining myself in love scenes. Not always sex scenes, though sometimes, my imagination involves sex, I’m not gonna lie. But mostly, thinking about myself as the heroine of a sprawling love story, or a deeper narrative that feels consequential to the meaning or understanding of womxnhood, regardless of the cliche. …
Read More"Chasing Waterfalls" and "Edges," by Julia Mallory
A month after my 17 year old son's earthly shell joined his spirit, I was up in the mountains chasing waterfalls with a man I loved but had not yet told. I needed a body of water to baptize my grieving being into. An experience to remind me that I was not numb, that my heart, while broken, was a mosaic, reflecting light and still beating in my chest. …
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“My Own Two,” by Donyae Coles
High-top Serenade, by Serena Simpson
When you’re a little kid growing up in urban America, especially a little kid growing up in public housing in urban America, hardly anything gains you more clout on school grounds than the right pair of kicks. Wait, don’t picture generic commercial images of “the cool kids” wearing cool clothes and cool shoes. I mean that, in under-resourced urban communities, footwear can be a very accurate tell for one’s social pecking order. Living in the projects is one thing, looking like a broke ass motherfucker is an entirely different thing. …
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