By Jourdan Lobban • “Defiant!” “Fresh!” “Rude!” “A bad girl!” Those titles followed me all through my childhood and into my teen years. Anytime I did something bad, I knew what was coming. Lectures in yelling style, laced with fury, and if I didn’t shape up in time, the belt would make an appearance. It …
Riding Rising Waters
By Jourdan Lobban • It was endless The sea of self-doubt Rejection Beating me With its ruthless water Every chance it got It was brutal How it told me Over and Over “You’re bad, Worthless. Rude, Evil, A sinner who needs saving.” All the while I hung my head low Taking blow After blow …
Review: Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future
Courtesy of David Alberto Carmona Coto By Jourdan Lobban • Jourdan Lobban is a goddess with an edge. She aims to live life in all of its rising tides and calm waters, with some books, writing journals and dancing to a variety of clean (and mildly explicit) music.
Why We Skip the Middle
By Jourdan Lobban • After becoming frustratingly bored reading my latest book, my commitment was no more. Instead of powering through the dry spell, my fingers practiced the ultimate sin, which skipping through the book. And instead of reading for the plot, I was fishing for the romance sections that matched my expectations for the …
Analysis: How Racial Profiling Affects Black and Brown Women and Youth
By Stephanie Younger • Are all people in America served and protected by the law? In the documentary, “Profiled - The Mothers of Murdered Black and Latino Youth,” director Kathleen Foster utilizes the power of art, amplifies the voices of Black and Latin American women and youth, and directs attention to protest and dissent. This …
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Queer Windows in Dembow Music
By Princess Jiménez • In the Dominican Republic, where supposedly moral society and the Church often espouse virulent homophobia and transphobia, an unusual alliance has appeared among the very poorest: singers and producers of popular music genre Dembow are working with queer people and trans women, who have become huge stars in their own right. Princess …
An Excerpt from the E-Book, “The Therapeutic Alliance Handbook”
By Traycee Truth • The following excerpt is from Traycee Truth's e-book, the Therapeutic Alliance Handbook."Usually, it is customary to begin an essay/journal of this sort of measure with a precise definition regarding whiteness, yet what are the intersectionalities of this concept? Within most contemporary and progressive circles, it is assumed that the cultural group I …
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Broken Tree
By Kiarran T. L. Diaz • I will never know your happiness History only saved your pain Sleeping Ancestor, When we meet Will I represent your dreams, Or your shame? Ancestors tell me Where you sleep Where does your soul lie Do you laugh? Or do you weep Is there a home for you That …
Song of Harvest
By Shelby Moring • She’s so relaxed. That hazy daydream of myself that I conjure, praying on her to materialize any day now. She doesn’t exist apart from me, but she’s so far in the future, that it almost seems impossible to reach her sometimes. What does she have that I don’t? Where I long for …
Nine Phases: Black Women Crying in the Bathroom
By Krystal Tang • Take initiative - Okay here I go! I did it. Oh I did it slightly wrong...a different way? I didn’t do it right? Oops. Let me learn. Give me another chance? Teach me so I can grow.... “No”. Gets belittled, screamed at, no empathy, no sympathy, everything you did right before gets …
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