Issue 160
Summer & Fall 2021
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TriQuarterly expresses immense gratitude to guest editors Luther Hughes, Tara Stringfellow, Andre Perry, and Spring Ulmer for compiling these selections by Black writers and artists.
Fiction Editor: Tara Stringfellow
Nonfiction Editor: Andre Perry
Poetry Editor: Luther Hughes
Film Editor: Spring Ulmer
Faculty Advisor: Susan Harris
Director of Planning: Reginald Gibbons
Copy Editor: Lys Ann Weiss
Media Architect: Ken Panko
Technical Advisors: Rodolfo Vieira, Gerard Panganiban, Garrett Gassensmith
Supporting Editors: Sarah Minor, Vanessa Chan, Jennifer Companik,Erin Branning Keogh, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Emily Mirengoff, Starr Davis, Daniel Fliegel, Joshua Bohnsack, Aram Mrjoian
Staff: Adrienne Rozells, Amanda Vitale, April Yee, Ashton Carlile, Audrey Fierberg, Bonnie Etherington, Cecilia Rabess, Corey Miller, Dane Hamann, Elijah Patten, Ellen Hainen, Emma Fuchs, Erica Hughes, Erika Carey, Freda Love Smith, Gillian Barth, Grace Musante, Hillary Pelan, Ivis Whitright, Jameka Williams, Jonathan Jones, Laura Humble, Laura Joyce-Hubbard, Liz Howey, Marcella Mencotti, Megan Sullivan, Michele Popadich, Miranda Garbaciak, ML Chan, Myra Thompson, Natalie Rose Richardson, Nimra Chohan, Pascale Bishop, Patrick Bernhard, Prince Bush, Rebecca van Laer, Rishee Batra, Salwa Halloway, Susan Lerner
Image from Flee
An Introduction to Poetry
When I was approached to be the guest poetry editor for TriQuarterly’s 160th issue focusing on Black voices, I didn’t hesitate to say, “yes,” because I was, and am always excited to curate a wonderful reading experience, and, of course Black voices, Black experiences, Black stories need to be told.
portrait of rage with caution tape & bullhorns
Erica Garner Will Not Stop Marching — ABC News
No matter who we lost, the cab drivers are stiff
in anti-protest. the corrupt streets, like
jails, are in season & exasperated tax dollars do
their thing
Word Problems
for Victor Steen
at 15 miles per hour / 1,000 pounds
is a wagon of 166 bricks running a stoplight
is a donkey kicking your entire body at once
is a fully stacked bench press free falling into an esophagus
Ussin, or America’s Grammar Book Penumbra
~after Hortense J. Spillers & Cheryl I. Harris
The love worship of whiteness is the root of all evil, & you,
conspiratorial spiritati who never rue crimes you should
atone, always ride me breathless with guilt for offenses
I FEEL LIKE IF I'M NOT WRITING POLITICAL POEMS I'M WASTING MY TIME SO I MADE THIS CONTAINER FOR MYSELF IN WHICH NOT TO BE POLITICAL
The first thing I thought this morning was mayonnaise would be a good name for a dog.
I could scream Mayonnaise! Mayonnaise, Mayonnaise! into the dark of my backyard.
ON DAYS I BELIEVE IN THE DEATH PENALTY
After Birmingham, non-violence
wasn’t holding down its side of the scale.
I guess to learn not to hate
you have to learn to hate, first.
a hole is the mirror of an intention to let things through
to the small fellow in the future who has not known
how to begin the past, begin. you will put a name
to a face only to see it walk away, anyway.
Bronx Heirlooms
I hadn’t seen a sunflower in real life
until 7th grade when Ms. Garcia took our class
to the Botanical Garden though we all wanted to go to the Bronx Zoo