The official term for what happened to my family when I was young is gentrification, but there is no word in the Somali language for it. The people who love me most cannot understand this concept, so I try to refrain from using it. In English, you could attempt to break gentrification down to "people who do not belong forcefully move into space because they can," but that sounds a little on the nose.
Read More“What I wanted more than anything was someone who understood me, and didn't shy away from who I truly was despite knowing my ugliest truths and deepest scars. But I was always a misfit no matter what I did.”
Read More“I stared at the table and sipped my coffee carefully. I knew full well he was giving me a familiar glare, one that I had known before, not quite sure where but it had definitely reared its head in the past, perhaps in a park?”
Read MoreWhen you grow up never clearly belonging to one place, and constantly being reminded of it, when you grow up with unanswered questions and patchy family histories, you build an identity based on what has been passed down to you through story, picture and memory.
Read More“These three poems delve into the trials and tribulations of love in various facets of life–the rocky, confusing love stories we have with others, the loves we let go and the tumultuous, challenging course of self-love.”
Read More“I realized that when I was participating in my life offline, I was thinking of how to capture and fit it into the diameters of a square photo. It was like everything I was experiencing needed to be documented to be real.”
Read More“In the end, we couldn’t change our luck. So in the dream realm, I bring you the feathers, of the crows that they took from us, and ask that you bring them back home, beneath the copper moon.”
Read More“My work deals with the modernizing of romantic literary sensibilities and explores recovery from chronic illness and trauma.”
Read More“When People Ask About The Breakup” is a series of poems outlining Cameron Chiovitti’s experience coming out of an intense relationship with their first love.
Read More“I start to become reminded of so many things at once. I don’t speak the language, but Spanish sounds familiar to me since I live in California. Familiar but also new.”
Read More“This self portrait series aims to depict what it means to be vulnerable. Not vulnerability with others, which most people would associate with the word, but the vulnerability that comes with spending a full day alone in your own space with music, maybe a book and your own thoughts.”
Read More“At night, I fall asleep to the car noise. My windows look out to the Panhandle park but also a large and busy street. I get used to waking up when the traffic starts up in the morning. I get used to the constant wind outside and seeing the trees swaying at night.”
Read MoreYour sister removes her earbuds and joins Mum and Dad on the lawn with beach bags in hand. “Coming?”, she asks, squinting at the sun. You catch your reflection in the car window. Anxiety and panic tug on your sleeve as you cross the street to join the rest of your family in the backyard.
Read MoreAbout a month ago, I travelled to Japan with a few close friends for two weeks. We visited Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. All three cities were amazing and each had a different atmosphere, but the city that truly captured my heart was Kyoto.
Read MoreSelf-expression is a characteristic that makes us human. We as people feel the need to create something that exemplifies the lives we live and who we are. It is a way of saying, "I am here and I matter." We all express this through different means and I have been no different.
Read More
