Weekly Writing Round-Up: October 6, 2017

Before any discussion of what literature & the arts can and cannot do takes place, the direct, material needs of the oppressed must be addressed. Please take a moment to check out the following list of reputable Puerto Rican organizations and volunteer opportunities and do what you can to contribute or share.

You can also listen to Raquel Salas Rivera on colonialism, Puerto Rico and Maria on Radio Dispatch here.

This week I’m reading:

Testimony by Hafizah Geter
“I thought, my body is your body, // is a temple on fire, is a blinded mask, / is a jail cell, is light as a paper bag”

Poetry by Cynthia Dewi Oka
“My homeland lives like a witch in my house, turning the rice / yellow and filling my mouth with marbles // when my mother calls.”

don’t forget to send me courage by Emily Corwin
“the doctor said I / could meet you at the moment there in / the orchard where we stood sexual as / cherries”

Women Are Doomed to Be the Angels of Love by Nikki Wallschlaeger
“My heart is stone sore. My heart wants to / close forever // to protect me from market combat.”

A special feature of Erin Elizabeth Smith’s work in Yes, Poetry
“In her new apartment, / there is no heat—just a six-pack / and the mildew smell of sweaters / from the all-night laundromat”

Mysticism as a practice of contemporary femme artists, an essay by Marcia Elizabeth

We Are The Fire: On the death of Hugh Hefner, by A.V. Flox

Stephanie Kaylor in based in upstate New York and is currently a MA student in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought at European Graduate School. She holds a MA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University at Albany and is Managing Editor for Five:2:One Magazine and Reviews Editor for Glass: A Journal of Poetry.