As a modern day female, I don’t have to ask permission to learn, speak, or play sports. To live in a world where education, independence and self expression as assumed rights are in actuality a privilege that is taken for granted. Yet, the history of women’s rights reminds us that such freedoms were not freely…
As the music played through the loudspeaker I let it guide my body as I moved to the familiar rhythm. Counting the melody in my mind, I begin to dance the instinctual movements, the result of hours of practice. All other thoughts pushed aside, the world melts away; it is just me practicing my art,…
Every time I’m on social media, I see some crazy video that just makes me stop in awe and ask the question, “Is that really real?” Our digitalized world in the 21st century has spiraled out of control. The overabundance of media on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc. has become integrated into our lives…
Fine, I’ll admit it: I watch the news every night, and I’m proud of it. This is a fact that my friends and peers are often appalled to hear. “How could you do that to yourself?” they remark, or “I could never, that’s too depressing.” And, to the critics I say, “Yeah, you might be…
I’ve always been a firm believer in authenticity and establishing genuine relationships with people. However, this is something I continuously struggle with, as I feel that mostly people are solely interested and are content with casual relationships and transactional friendships. This is especially true in today’s day and age, where everything seems to be about…
Jeffrey Harrison’s poem “Amnesia,” describes a scene that most people reading the poem can easily immerse themselves in. A moment of remembering something, but it being on the tip of your tongue— a memory you can almost reach, yet one that becomes murky once specific details are required. Harrison was born in Cincinnati in 1957…
Yesenia Montilla was born and raised in New York City and she currently lives in Harlem New York. She received a BA from Hunter College and an MFA from Drew University in poetry and poetry in translation. Her second collection Muse Found in a Colonized Body, published by Four Way Books in 2022, was nominated…
Dr. Ruben Quesada is a poet who was born in 1976 in Los Angeles, California and currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. He is an instructor at Cedar Crest College and an affiliate faculty member at Antioch University. He has written multiple books, including Brutal Companion, which won a Barrow Street Poetry Prize, 2023 Editors’ Choice,…
Lucia Perillo’s “Samara” is a celebration of small and simple beauty. Perillo died at 58 in 2016, shortly after this poem appeared in the 2012 edition of The Best American Poetry. She died from complications of multiple sclerosis, a disease which inspired much of her poetry. Perhaps the awareness that her life might soon come…
The first time I read this poem, an interpretation so brilliant and illuminating came to me that I proudly jammed my bookmark in between the pages, ready to capture the magic into a piece of writing once I finished following the voice inconveniently calling me from the other room. This is not that. It’s been…