Over a year ago, what used to be grey concrete turned to gold – a radiantly colorful mural unified a community of local residents, visionary youth, vulnerable unsheltered people, and more through an amalgamation of dancing noodles, a majestic dragon, illuminated candles to both celebrate birth and as a vigil to honor those who are gone, and a dialogue of… Read more →
The award-winning Haitian-born multidisciplinary artist Nicolas Hyacinthe presents his powerful spoken word called “Ayisyen” (which means Haiti in Haitian Creole) and shares a thought-provoking artistic discourse at his 2021 in-person solo exhibition called Carrefour / Crossroads in Malden, MA. Coincidentally, the president of Haiti at the time was assassinated days before the opening of his in-person exhibition and the country also… Read more →
Your aunt’s blind dog Patsy turns corners in your sleep. Patsy felt her way around, the way an egg will curl against the corner of a pan. Now you doubt this is your memory at all, embraced and protected in a thin carton of scrambled images. Move and the egg spins inside of you. One turn with the spatula and… Read more →
i. My harp Check it out. Ten holes, steel cover plate, wooden comb, brass reeds hidden within the holes. Engraved onto the top of the cover plate is a Victorian-style portrait, a man’s profile, high collar, sideburns down to his jawline, surrounded by a garland of flowers, and the words Marine Band, M. Hohner. It fits in the palm of… Read more →
For Jesse Jesse was the youngest boy of thirteen boys and I was the youngest girl of eight one quiet childless house groaning between ours as we teemed from the windows and made smears of our fingerprints on the glass Jesse had an imaginary friend and it told him to key all the cars on our street pour sugar into… Read more →
We lock every window and door, a futile effort to keep our children safe from hazed atmosphere. But I do not want to talk about the air or how much my eyelids itch. Instead, I have chosen to fall in love with your wrist and relish in the way it bends as you chop an onion, how you cradle the… Read more →
Let me be a monster, or a child. Does not play well with others. Let me be cruel for once; owner of the ferocious dog, unapologetic of its snarl. I, too, am feral. I, too, have teeth that sink into animal. Let me tell the truth, risk losing you for good. I have earned this darkness. Paid for it with… Read more →
Excerpted from Fighting Pollution and Climate Change: An EPA Veteran’s Guide How to Join in Saving our Life on Planet Earth, by Richard W. Emory, Jr. www.fightingpollutionbook.com, BookLocker Publishing, August 2020. At the sounding of the horn, some women—permanent residents of our little town—grabbed their sharpest knives and rushed out their front doors. In the street, they were joined by… Read more →
Not the blood moon in its fullest phase. Not the wedding ring I yanked from my finger. Not the cold mouth of the bottle I held to the O of my lips to drown myself inside. Not the womb I came from, that tight balled fist. But my child’s face, round and soft, perfect in the well of my palms… Read more →
We didn’t believe Vivian when she said she was going to hide in the busted refrigerator, the one Mr. Wilson kept saying he was going to take to the dump. Even as she skipped toward it we fanned out, wedging ourselves under parked cars, knifing into rotted tool sheds, monkey climbing magnolia trees. We held perfectly still until olly, olly,… Read more →