ISSUE 2: ROANESQUE
This issue’s theme, whose title is a wordplay between pop phenomenon Chappell Roan and extravagant, Romanesque architecture, is about queer joy, queer audacity, and queer excess. In this issue, we encourage you to find your inner queen—What makes you unapologetically, defiantly proud? Also consider why celebration and pride are vital and powerful. Consider queer icons such as Chappell Roan and those who came before her—Janelle Monáe, Marsha P. Johnson, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. Consider your favorite drag queens. Above all, consider the beauty and power in chutzpah, both internal and external.
Sunita Ke Liye*
My immigrant mother stands at the trash can, peeling soaked almonds one-by-one, calluses warping the side of her brown fingers.
period peace
when i was too afraid to talk to you i was reading anarchism and other essays wondering why emma goldman always writes like a depressed teenager
Unravelled, Unrepentant
In whispered shadows, truths I dared not speak,I felt the pull of softness, lips like wine, Their touch, a lullaby that bruised my spine, Yet loathing stitched my heart—a thread so bleak.
In the Rooms of the Heart
There’s a place where the sun spills sideways,
and the walls hum with a melody only we know.