July/August 2024
Cover Artist: Lynne Yun at Space TypeIbe Liebenbergi calculate loss
like anyone
a fugitive to sleeping
- Felicia Zamora
- Staceyann Chin
- Ibe Liebenberg
- M. Seppola Simonsen
- Ronaldo V. Wilson
From this Issue
Poem
By Jessica Abughattas
The winter I leave him, I ask my parents to consider me
their oldest son. To bend the rules.
I could be a little tree, late to flourish,
focused on my underground career.
I tell them to buy me a house.
They’re 15 years divorced. We’re sitting around
my mother’s kitchen table. My father and I smoke.
My father: Remember, this is the…
their oldest son. To bend the rules.
I could be a little tree, late to flourish,
focused on my underground career.
I tell them to buy me a house.
They’re 15 years divorced. We’re sitting around
my mother’s kitchen table. My father and I smoke.
My father: Remember, this is the…
Poem
By Cheryl Clarke
Mother
Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church Nine
Senior pastor state senator
Name meaning “merciful”
Church eldress, oldest to be shot
Great grandnephew tries to shield her
First and youngest shot
College administrator and pastor
Doctor her last name not a title
Sunday school teacher
Track coach and pastor
Librarian
Church…
Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church Nine
Senior pastor state senator
Name meaning “merciful”
Church eldress, oldest to be shot
Great grandnephew tries to shield her
First and youngest shot
College administrator and pastor
Doctor her last name not a title
Sunday school teacher
Track coach and pastor
Librarian
Church…
Poem
By G.C. Waldrep
It was not a question of not having the language for it—
having two, in fact. The walking towards it,
and then the walking away. How that felt, all the green
gathering itself to the idea of green, lingering
right at the edge of the dark, what we call the dark.
And the languages, both of them, noticing that, envying
it. From their…
having two, in fact. The walking towards it,
and then the walking away. How that felt, all the green
gathering itself to the idea of green, lingering
right at the edge of the dark, what we call the dark.
And the languages, both of them, noticing that, envying
it. From their…
Table of Contents
POEMS
- Adrian Matejka
- Jessica Abughattas
- Cheryl Clarke
- G.C. Waldrep
- Brian Sneeden
- Phoebe Giannisi
- Ibe Liebenberg
- Brandon Young
- Felicia Zamora
- M. Seppola Simonsen
- Eirill Alvilde Falck
- Erin Belieu
- Angela Ball
- Joseph O. Legaspi
- Kinsale Drake
UP WE STEP: THE POETS OF FIRE & INK
- Samiya Bashir
- Sharon Bridgforth
- Marvin K. White
- Alexis Pauline Gumbs
- Phillip B. Williams
- Bettina Judd
- Dawn Lundy Martin
- Steven G Fullwood
- Rickey Laurentiis
- Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
- Cheryl Clarke
- t’ai freedom ford
- avery r. young
- Letta Neely
- R. Erica Doyle
- C.C. Carter
- Reginald Harris
- Rev. Robin G. White
- Ronaldo V. Wilson
- Staceyann Chin
- Dorothy Randall Gray
- Pamela Sneed
- Rosamond S. King
- Lenelle Moïse
- Alexis De Veaux
- Andrea Jenkins
- G. Winston James
- JP Howard
- Duriel E. Harris
- Amanda Johnston
COMMENT
CONTRIBUTORS
- Jessica Abughattas
- Angela Ball
- Samiya Bashir
- Erin Belieu
- Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
- Sharon Bridgforth
- C.C. Carter
- Staceyann Chin
- Cheryl Clarke
- Alexis De Veaux
- R. Erica Doyle
- Kinsale Drake
- Eirill Alvilde Falck
- Steven G Fullwood
- Phoebe Giannisi
- Dorothy Randall Gray
- Alexis Pauline Gumbs
- Reginald Harris
- Duriel E. Harris
- JP Howard
- G. Winston James
- Andrea Jenkins
- Amanda Johnston
- Bettina Judd
- Rosamond S. King
- Rickey Laurentiis
- Joseph O. Legaspi
- Ibe Liebenberg
- Dawn Lundy Martin
- Adrian Matejka
- Kim Moore
- Lenelle Moïse
- Letta Neely
- M. Seppola Simonsen
- Pamela Sneed
- Brian Sneeden
- G.C. Waldrep
- Marvin K. White
- Rev. Robin G. White
- Phillip B. Williams
- Ronaldo V. Wilson
- Brandon Young
- Felicia Zamora
- t’ai freedom ford
- avery r. young