Native Country of the Heart is a firsthand account of trying to preserve one’s ancestral history when the pressures of elders or society tell you that you should forget one entire culture that led to your birth, for the alleged betterment of yourself. Moraga portrays a sadness and longing felt in part for herself and her burgeoning queer identity, which she initially felt she had to suppress for survival, and a sadness and longing felt in part for her native ancestors and the native populations of the Americas.

featuresSean RedmondDecember 31, 2019in review

in review: What's in a Name?

In this poetry collection, Ana Luísa Amaral explores the value of naming as a means of bestowing value on the people, places, and things in our world. Through these explorations, she tackles the difficult subject of immigration in a lament on the loss of dignity that refugees and other immigrants lose as they seek to re-establish themselves in a new world.

featuresSean RedmondDecember 31, 2019in review

in review: Joy

Erin McGraw’s latest collection, Joy, is a mosaic of 52 short stories that seamlessly and humorously capture the multifaceted bits of everyday life. McGraw’s slice-of-life drop-ins of Americans living within their own bubbles distill the essence of people who act with internal logic yet appear borderline absurd to those around them.

featuresSean RedmondDecember 31, 2019in review

Art in Conversation: Emma Lee Toyoda (ep. 8)

In this episode of Art in Conversation, Emma Lee Toyoda talks “soft punk,” their own take on Seattle’s DIY ethos. Finding strength in sensitivity, Toyoda talks about their music and their experience as a non-binary artist on the Seattle scene.

featuresSean RedmondDecember 29, 2019profiles & interviews

interview: Michele Mercure

We spoke with electronic sound artist Michele Mercure in advance of her performance at Interference Fest, taking place in Austin from September 5-8, 2019. Mercure shared insight into her instrumentation, how her music-making process has changed, the advantage of contemporary equipment, and how limiting yourself can, paradoxically, expand your sonic horizons.

featuresSean RedmondSeptember 4, 2019profiles & interviews

weekend links: art world philanthropy, specter of immigration, RIP Monofonus

In this edition of weekend links, we look at the paradox of big-money art world funding, Jane Wong’s haunting portrait of her family’s immigration, Cameron Hamon’s memoir This Is My Body, Austyn Tester’s exploration of the influencer lifestyle, and toast to Spray Paint’s return and the closing of DIY label Monofonus Press.

featuresSean RedmondAugust 30, 2019news

weekend links: the male physique, psychosexual animation, Chinese fake news

In this edition of weekend links, we look at David K. Johnson’s history of male physique magazines and their influence on gay culture, Wong Ping’s surreal psychosexual video art, the fake news of China’s College Daily, new music from Missy Elliott and more.

featuresSean RedmondAugust 23, 2019news

weekend links: 1,000 years of Native art, not-your-grandmother’s felt tapestries, textile protests

In this edition of weekend links, we look at a new exhibition exploring 1,000 years of Native American women’s art, the humorous felt tapestries of Michaela Younge, author Adam Fallon O’Price’s self-editing, a history of knitting in protest, and Carrie Goldberg’s memoir to help women fight back against revenge porn.

featuresSean RedmondAugust 16, 2019news

weekend links: Morrison & Berman tributes, Japanese art censorship, grayscale ocean

Tributes to Toni Morrison and David Berman, censorship at the Aichi Triennale, the accelerating trend of YA literature by Black female authors, Christian Vizl’s black-and-white ocean photography and Dan Perkins’s mesmerizing geographic paintings and more in weekend links.

featuresSean RedmondAugust 8, 2019news

weekend links: Spanish comics, Weil siblings, family “truths”

A look back at Spanish comic artist Ceesepe’s work, the first professional female Tuareg guitarist, Karen Olsson’s new Weil-siblings-inspired book, Mounira al-Solh’s inclusive portraits of Arab women and more in weekend links.

featuresSean RedmondAugust 2, 2019news

interview: Catherine Chen

Catherine Chen is a poet and performer living in New York. A recipient of fellowships from Poets House, Lambda Literary, and Sundress Academy for the Arts, their work has been published in Slate, The Rumpus, Asian American Writers' Workshop, Apogee, and Nat. Brut, among others. They are the author of the forthcoming chapbook Manifesto, or: Hysteria (Big Lucks).

Issue 11, featuresSean RedmondJuly 31, 2019profiles & interviews

interview: Kay Ulanday Barrett

Kay Ulanday Barrett was featured in "9 Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Writers You Should Know" in Vogue in 2018 and was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry. They are the 2018 Lambda Literary Review Writer-in-Residence for Poetry and 2018 guest faculty for the Poetry Foundation. Our editor Nia KB spoke with Barrett about their work in their eclectic apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Issue 11, featuresSean RedmondJuly 31, 2019profiles & interviews