“The Magic of Apricot,” by Fady Joudah
By Fady Joudah
The magic of apricot may well keep us alive
a little while longer than unnecessary
Poetry
The Persistence of Stars: An Interview with Toussaint St. Negritude
“People didn’t want Haitians teaching liberation to the rest of the world. All of those blockades from first-world countries left Haiti without infrastructure, without tools, without hospitals and schools. Here’s your freedom, but you’re on your own. Learning about that history was how I was introduced to the Negritude Poets.”
“Recordable,” by Nkosi Nkululeko
I was admitted into a hospital only for
the death of a tooth. There are negatives
of graveyards, albums of black rivers.
“Our Father,” by Peter Blickle
The word you hear in this land
is bless—short and sharp
and significant, a sword blade
reflecting the sun.
Mouth! King Mouth! Understanding Foreign Affairs in the Age of Trump via “War Music”
The last year and a half, since Trump’s poorly attended inauguration, has been anything but quiet; the apocryphal “may you live in interesting times” applies. It’s been hard to keep up! A lot has happened, especially on Twitter! How is one to make sense of the lunacy? Perhaps the Iliad can help.
