Interview by Rachna Contractor Nia King is a queer, mixed-race artist and activist from Canton, MA (Wampanoag land), living in Oakland, CA (Ohlone land). She is the author of Queer & Trans Artists of Color, volumes 1 and 2, and the host and producer of We Want the Airwaves podcast. Find more of...
Author - Plenitude Magazine
Love Poems
Raven Davis Love (1) How can I set you free my love? a kind of free your scalp feels when you take out your braids each thick black strand of kinked hair dancing amongst wandering white birches it seems like it’s taken you a lifetime to even begin to question why you have never been...
Poetry, Repent! A Review of Cat Fitzpatrick’s Glamourpuss
Reviewed by Evelyn Deshane When I teach poetry to my first-year students, they often don’t know what to say. As a genre, poetry seems to be too old, too stiff and formal, or too cavalier and obscene—depending on what student I poll that day. The only other genre that seems as contentious is...
Confronting Secrets in Poetry, with Trenton Pollard
What effect do negatives (“I did not come with a clean slate”, “I do not want to be my father”) and double negatives (“I do not want to not be my father”) have in poetry that confronts secrets and confessions? Lately I’ve been thinking about the photography of Diane Arbus, and how her work has a...
And Then, I Turn the Page: A Review of Daisy Hernández’s A Cup of Water under My Bed
Reviewed by Asam Ahmad A sprawling, expansive memoir that spans two continents and bridges different worlds in the process, Daisy Hernández’s A Cup of Water under My Bed revels in the complexities and the chaos of the queer immigrant experience. This is a book that refuses easy answers and...
Handy Tips to Limit a Queer’s Chances of Being Gunned Down
Michael V. Smith Strategy 1: Stand in a group on the street corner downtown with a sign: Gay Hugs. Give hugs. Strategy 2: Make more space for outsiders more outside than you. Strategy 3: Love our gay kids. Be kind- ly queer to parents in front of their children. Strategy 4: Organize more gay...
