I WOKE UP ONE DAY WHEN I WAS SIX wanting to build a spaceship. I imagined a saucer-shaped vehicle, vaguely like a classic UFO, with an engine, a control board, and a windshield for looking at the stars ahead. I could see myself getting into the ship and taking off over the mountains, escaping into the sky, the saucer spinning, my freedom ahead. I figured with all of the machines […]
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Anna Marie Alkin | Awakening from the nightmare
WE ARE A BODY DIVIDED. Our recent election was the collective dream of a body divided into red states vs blue states, cities vs rural areas, whites vs people of color, and lower income vs. upper income peoples. With each line we draw, we dis-member ourselves. With each line we draw, we fall deeper into the nightmare. We are body divided, dreaming. Smashed and shattered, cut off at the roots […]
Nicholas Powers | How to topple a wall with a heartbeat
“HE WON WITH A METAPHOR.” I pressed my hands against the air as if touching a surface. “He won with the image of a wall.” They looked at me, waiting for words to strike like a flint on reality, to spark a flash and make everything briefly visible. “We’re scared.” I walked to the stage’s edge. The audience was sparse but a classic New York crowd. A mix of everyone. […]
Martin Leyva | Love will keep us together
Eight years ago when Martin Leyva walked out of Chino State Prison, a guard told him: “We’ll leave the lights on for you…” insinuating that Leyva would be back. Instead, seven years later, Leyva walked across the stage to accept his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts/psychology from Antioch University in Santa Barbara. Leyva’s youth and early adulthood reflected the toughness and bravado he believed were required for survival. Dropping out […]
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