Ancestors

Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah on the Musical and Cultural Legacy of New Orleans

Some African harmonic traditions and histories may have been redacted, but they’re not lost. In New Orleans, specifically among the tribes, they made sure to hold on to those histories and the skeleton keys of those expressions.

Home Invasions

Still, I hadn’t counted on real, live rats. “I’m surprised you hadn’t heard them before,” said Rat Guy #1, as he came to be known. “From the looks of it they’ve been here a while.”

My Bowstring Heart

On the field I was all animal instinct and brute force—a bruiser, a bone breaker. Every tackle was a rebuke against a life where fathers die. When I played rugby, I wasn’t a broke, lost little girl. I wasn’t a struggling amateur writer. I had goals. I was a winner. I was MVP. I was someone.

Struck

I often wonder if there was something I missed, if the thunder and lightning said something I couldn’t understand.

Rise

I wasn’t about to tell Simon what happened. Buddy Sikes was one of the popular kids. Simon wouldn’t understand. Not because of his differences, but because he was still at the age where a clear line separated right from wrong.

A Thousand Words

A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

Architecture in Music

My twenty-year career as a professional cellist has enabled me to bring an insider’s understanding of music to the visual exploration of instruments.

Back Cover

Boxer’s Fracture

My mother once put her fist / through drywall, nothing fractured // but that already-broken home, / a little more of her spirit and ours.

Separation

There is a dead snake on the cracked road. My son says it’s not a dead snake. He says the snake has just shed its skin and left it there.