Vol. 3, Issue 25

“When I receive a positive outcome in any of these endeavors, a number of platitudes come at me through the phone receiver when I call them up and tell them the news. For me, these proclamations take away agency, take away my own hard work and place it onto something outside of me. But for them, God was part of the process, his presence in my life (whether I believe it or not) is part of the reason for my success. This is their truth, and truth isn’t always as cut and dry as I’d like it to be.”

-Phillip Russell, “True in the Way it Needs to Be”
The Last Cup | Fiction

The Last Cup | Fiction

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Stories, Vol. 3, Issue 25

It cannot speak to her, I must speak through it. I must say in a moment what I could not otherwise say in a lifetime and what I did not manage to say in the lifetime I shared with her. The process itself is the statement, the making of it. Every time my fingers touch...
River Daughters I | Visual Art

River Daughters I | Visual Art

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Visual Art, Vol. 3, Issue 25

River Daughters I RIVER-DAUGHTERS, I, II, III, 2020 (Watercolor on canvas, 32.3 W x 46.5 H x 13 in), is a watercolor series that examines the beauty of womanhood and femininity. In the Yorubá tradition of mother Africa, the river goddess Oshun is the incorporation of...
True in the Way it Needs to Be | Nonfiction

True in the Way it Needs to Be | Nonfiction

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Nonfiction, Vol. 3, Issue 25

I cast my first and only spell inside Sarah’s garage one night just as summer was cresting into fall. Actually, it was her parent’s garage and we both were only in Grand Rapids, our hometown, for the weekend. I hadn’t seen her in years, we were close in high school,...