Art and Creativity

Ancestors

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:45 -0400

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.

Back Cover

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400

Practicing

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400

Taking piano lessons, learning to speak Russian, seeking enlightenment

Architecture in Music

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400

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.

The Coast of Nowhere II

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Sleet and black rain / pelting the eaves, the kind of predawn / that reaches through the window, hissing, / Your heart never was a bird let alone / a bright-red singing one.

Sunbeams

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power.

Frederick Douglass

Selected Poems

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500

It all reminds me of that moment when you take off your sunglasses / after a long drive and realize it’s earlier / and lighter out than you had accounted for.

Plastiscenes

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500

To show the impact of litter on what should be pristine beaches, I’ve been exploring a new way of processing my photographs: First, I take a traditional seascape. Then, using a transfer lift, I print it onto marine litter collected at the same location, usually on the same day.

A Thousand Words

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500

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

Nicknames

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0500

Get to know Boxcar Betty, Stick Dick, Lali, and the Cajun Asian

Stirring the Pot

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Leading a strike, starting trouble between sisters, feeding strangers

Become a Friend of The Sun

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Putting this magazine together has remained a profoundly human endeavor, the work of many hands, even as the media landscape has become more automated.

Graffiti

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0400

A tag on a dumpster, poetry in an outhouse, Viking runes in an underground tomb

Rude and Raw

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0400

If you were around then, you probably blinked and missed Rude and Raw. Not many people noticed when they came on the scene, and even fewer paid attention when they left. They weren’t easily categorized. They weren’t hard rock or power pop, and veered off several exits short of punk. They probably had people telling them they should be more of this or less of that, but if so, they didn’t heed any of it. They seemed caught in this never-ending state of becoming, trying to figure things out as they went, as strange and undefinable to themselves as they were to others.

Thread

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0400

So, all right then: What was it like to be transformed into what I am now? I’ll tell you. It was like a sundering. A splitting. Icy lightning cleaved along my limbs. At the same time, my skin was turning fruit-rind tough, dully reflective like obsidian, and punctured by small hairs the size and strength of claws.

Red Desert

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0400

Sometimes I think of my early years of living in the city, that watery phase of life when you don’t plan beyond the next week, or even the next day, and every new connection is imbued with promise.

Manicure

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0400

What remains of their visit is memory, residue, / trickles of sand from our trip to the beach. / I confess, I like my bedazzled talons . . .

There, Here, Jazz

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0400

The first time I walked into our new old house, it was the light / that surprised me—how much of it fell through the four windows / facing south and landed wide across the floorboards . . .

Ode to Middle School Band

Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:50 -0400

All shuffle into this stuffy / school gym to behold / the clumsy miracle of hands— / where to put them, how, when.

Records

Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:00 -0400

A favorite album, a fastest time, a handwritten note about an adoption

Collectors

Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:00 -0400

For years I’ve hauled my own records from house to house, city to city, relationship to relationship. They’ve outlasted two marriages. They’ve outlasted my father. They’ve outlasted pets and therapists. I’ve got a few rare 45s and some treasured signed Smiths albums, but also twelve-inch singles that are warped or skip. I’ve often thought about getting rid of all of them. Like nearly everyone else, I get most of my music from an app these days. But I’ve kept them the way I’ve kept a few good friends. All of us collectors. All of us records of everything that’s been pressed into us over time.

Look at Me Longer

scotto.writing@gmail.com — Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:00 -0400

I turned a corner and saw a tall, handsome man staring right at me. He wore a green sweatshirt, black basketball shorts, and white Nikes. His face was expressive, wise, large-featured. Five-o’clock shadow. A shock of salt-and-pepper hair.

He was me. I was looking into a mirror.

I usually thought of myself as a slob: Dry, blotchy skin. Big belly. Thinning hair. But my reflection was actually pretty nice-looking. I only became a “slob” when I realized who I was looking at, when I understood the mess behind the face.

Back Cover

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0400

Sunbeams

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 11:00:00 -0400

In the beginning was the beat, and the beat was the rhythm of God, and the rhythm of God became the harmony of humanity.

Clarence Glover

A Thousand Words

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0400

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

Riverside

brody@soultrue.org — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Once we had settled into the new post-Helene normal, I felt called to venture into Asheville’s beloved River Arts District to document the storm’s aftermath. I wanted to honor the artisans, artists, and small-business owners who have poured their souls into this vibrant, creative community. The scale of the devastation and the sheer power of wind and water and mud were almost beyond comprehension.

Back Cover

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Art During Wartime

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

In opposition to Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Ukrainian performing artists are reasserting their national identity. When I photographed the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, they were rehearsing the works of Stankovych and Barvinsky, Ukrainian composers who’d been banned during the Soviet era. This declaration of Ukrainian culture was considered so important that fighting-aged male symphony members were permitted to leave the country when the symphony took up residency in Germany.

Become a Friend of The Sun

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -0500

There’s something about art that too often goes unnoticed: art requires we engage. Each month we receive thousands of submissions of prose, poetry, and photography from people hoping to be published in The Sun. And we engage with each submission in hopes of finding those that will resonate most with you. Our commitment is to bring you the best we can find, the writing and photography that help to unwrap the layers of gauze we wind around ourselves and which obscure the things that matter most. We are profoundly grateful for your support.

Back Cover

ismaelf1@yahoo.com — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400