Issue 134: 15 December 2021

Writers Resist Reads: January 2022

Join us for a virtual reading and chat with the writers and visual artists of Writers Resist. 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC -8) Saturday 29 January 2022 Featuring the contributing writers and artists of the 15 December 2021 issue. RSVP to WritersResist@gmail.com for the Zoom link.          

Right to Life

By Remy Dambron Imagine instead if we incentivized our citizens to stalk and spy on to report and incriminate those among us preparing for an assault, purchasing pistols brandishing rifles and boasting bump stocks customizing scopes and fastening silencers loading up on boxes of bullets intended to pierce our flesh to break our bones to […]

Equity Begins at Home

By Katherine West Equity is something that is dealt with in D.C. or not dealt with in those red states that still use the “n” word or in big cities with big crime . . . where is the white channel on this police radio? not in this small town in this blue state where […]

Vacuum

By Guyon Prince     Artist’s Statement: This collage takes a smiling, vacuuming lady from a 1950s LIFE Magazine advertisement and recontextualizes her. As we know, in the 50s it was largely (and incorrectly) assumed that most women were happy to stay home and tend the house and kids every day, while men went out […]

26 Oct. 2020: A rap on Barrett’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court

By Kathleen Minor The dude who refused to denounce white supremacy, tried to nuke a hurricane and our democracy, puts kids in cages and promotes segregation. That dude? Rewrote the Declaration. We hold these truths to be self-evident: If you ain’t white, you must be irrelevant. Listen. There seems to be some confusion. We’ve been […]

Suffocating

By Keily Blair   The smell first strikes me while we’re traveling down the road, confined to a car. Brutal citrus and bitter herbs mingle in the air, gagging me. My grandmother notices this, and a rushed apology flees her lips despite the fact that I’ve told her countless times that strong scents send me […]

Deputized

By Holly A. Stovall   Congratulations! You are Deputized! Abortion after 6 weeks is illegal in Texas. Help enforce the law by reporting an illegal abortion in the anonymous form below! How do you think the law has been violated? I’ve had three spontaneous abortions (that’s doctor lingo for miscarriages) in three years, each at […]

A Letter for My Unborn Daughter

By Debasish Mishra   Dear daughter, this is a dark world Light is a mere plaything and if you were present here it’d diffract through the window and fall on your orange cheeks like petals of the sun But darkness is real How do I define it? Wherever you go, it’ll follow in the stares […]

Defiance

By Ethan Cunningham   Artist’s Statement For me, the true beauty of this image is that it suggests a powerful story with very little. But for each person, that story can be very personal and very different. The silhouette acts as a stand-in for the viewer. I like to imagine this is a woman who […]

⌘lzibongo for Black Women

By Kai Coggin a praise poem, after JP Howard, for my Sisters   praise you Black Woman because you never be praised enough let me lift your collective name here let me strip you of all your forced-on shame here praise you for the stars that unfold when you smile praise you for the way […]

Cell Block Tango

By Avra Margariti   A lullaby—seductive, hypnopaedic—slinks through the high security ward of the women’s prison. Morrigan, the phantom queen whistling between sharp teeth her very own Cell Block Tango, banshee call to arms. The doors all open wide locks broken, passwords hacked, guard uniforms painted red with life, never to be washed clean again. […]

Gender Neutral

By Jane Muschenetz To Skyler and the Diversionary Theatre, who stand proud and help all of us stand together.   They’re studying the effects of gendering on language and cultural norms — how the moon is feminine in Spanish and Russian, but masculine in German how this alters our perception of its qualifications — whether […]