Douglas Ridloff at Play: The Poet Brings ASL Slam to the World

“Over time, I realized as I found my native language of expression, it led to poetry … and once I had that freedom in sign language, it led to so much more.” — Douglas Ridloff

Anniversary

by Jason Irwin All day I felt the need to call you, as if there was something important I should say. How to explain this restlessness, this feeling of being stranded when all around me the […]

A neighborhood cut down

by Frank G. Karioris

The smell of trees & nature holds the air steady
        juniper, maple, & pine.

Quiet is disrupted by mechanical whirs & hums
of machines digging ground outwards. …

A Morning Mambo with Bernstein and a Public Defender

by Lisa Brunner

Today on the morning commute, I decided that my soul could use a little Bernstein. Not decided. That’s too weak. Craved. The way I craved my coffee — a craving that doesn’t release until I burn my fingers on the mug. …

A Bellwether Banning: The Journey of Toni Morrison’s Beloved to the Banned Books List

With the ongoing struggles to prevent American history from being whitewashed in classrooms, which we’ve recently seen in Trump’s attack on the 1619 Project, we can’t ignore the removal of Beloved from high school curriculums. It’s journey, it seems, is likely not yet over. 

APRIL 20

by Dagny Felker

“The future can wait until next week I’m busy now burning/ the candle at both ends/ or should I say spluttering/ or should I say biting the wick”

chimera pantoum

“the protein slapped inside thin elastic pink tracts/ a forgotten closet in her skin tucked into flesh/ in every organ cancerous/ her fetal cells wait/ her skin behind her breast scratched ribs”