this week
the streets are alive [lifestyle]
by Gabriel Herrera on April 24
What sound do your shoes make when they hit the pavement?
mama, it's me [feature]
by Elena Jiang on April 24
On our second visit, Xiao Li tells us of a breakthrough: If you knot the top corners of the blanket around the first metal bar on each side of the bed, lao lao won’t get up at night. The contraption is simple: she tries to sit up, the blanket holds her down. With such little room between the mattress ...
[feature] out of bloom
by Samira Lakhiani on April 10
“They’re just trees; no more pictures!” whines a boy, maybe six years old, to his parents. He is much more invested in the line of ice cream trucks a few meters away than posing with the sakura.
[feature] my aerophobia and i
by Joyce Gao on April 3
The cabin was dark. I sat amidst sleeping strangers and a baby crying nonstop. Maybe it was because everything from my hair to the provided blankets smelled like stale coffee that I sat wide awake, staring at the in-flight travel monitor—the only source of light in my vicinity. On the screen, a small ...
[feature] on "on photography"
by Alissa Simon on March 20
I forget exactly when I first became uneasy with my photograph.
knowing love [feature]
by Audrey Wijono on March 6
It is May of 1981. Tempo Magazine, one of Indonesia’s largest weekly newspapers, has just published an article about a wedding. “Their affections for one another are a little excessive, even in front of all their guests,” the author writes, seemingly amused. “Bonnie is pinching their ‘husband’s’ ...
family ties [feature]
by Samira Lakhiani on February 28
As my mom reads off every name, my sister and I try our hardest to commit them to memory. We are six and eight years old, excitedly staring at the family tree in front of us. It is astonishing and extensive, with some very familiar names and others that I have only heard of as characters from my parents’ ...
nollywood [feature]
by Ayoola Fadahunsi on February 21
“I am a product of Nollywood and my loyalty remains unshaken.” -Genevieve Nnaji
treasure under our feet [feature]
by Sydney Pearson on February 7
“I walk, all day, across the heaven-verging field.” - Mary Oliver, “Upstream”
these platonic loves [feature]
by Elena Jiang on December 6
This summer, I started journaling more consistently, generating list after list to wrangle my otherwise incoherent jumble of thoughts—favorite songs of the month, all-nighters ranked from most-bad to sorta-fun, top five core memories, most transformative friendships. I lingered on the last one longer ...
deserted [feature]
by Ellyse Givens on November 29
On my ninth birthday, my Grandpa Bill gifted me a copy of The Little Prince. I remember the cover with the blonde boy who stood amongst the stars, but I didn’t read the story until recently, when Bill sent a letter that reminded me of the image.
our first lives [feature]
by Audrey Wijono on November 16
tw: body image, disordered eating/body image, some mention of gender dysphoria
breaking bread [feature]
by Samira Lakhiani on November 8
Upon returning home from a family reunion trip two summers ago, I was welcomed back by the presence of two very conspicuous solid lines on the white plastic Covid-19 test in my hand. I had not (to my knowledge) had Covid since the pandemic had started. It was bound to happen at some point, I thought ...
send my love [feature]
by Ellyse Givens on November 1
Nearly all seventeen species of penguins are intensely colonial, gathering in “great teeming masses” to court one another. To win a female’s affection, males swing their heads side to side or raise their flippers or throw their beaks to the sky to carol their best trills and squawks. Some gentoo ...
speaking in tongues [feature]
by Audrey Wijono on October 18
After hundreds of years of disruption, displacement, and colonial violence in Indonesia, I’m learning Dutch. Rudimentary, garbled Dutch, but Dutch nonetheless.
write about it [feature]
by Ayoola Fadahunsi on October 4
“And the winner of poetry interpretation is…”
the beginning, take two [feature]
by Cat Gao on September 27
“‘I dream backwards now. You won’t believe how backwards you’ll dream someday.’”
on coastlines and other beginnings [feature]
by Elena Jiang on September 20
“You’re you, you see, and nobody else. You are you, right?”
