Naming RitesFiske Nyirongo “What is your name?” Every person above the age of one has probably answered this question repeatedly. I have too. My name is Fiske, pronounced as Fisk-ye. The k is soft sounding, blending into the ye. But as a child, I pronounced it as...
A Mother Holds Her Knife by the BladeMélissa Laveaux When I was conceived, death was looming in my parents’ minds. Of course, I cannot remember my conception any more than I can recall my birth. Everything I know is what I’ve heard from my sister or cousin, and what...
Wrestling With HypnosSylvia Ilahuka Today was one of those days, so grey that the quiet cold ushered in sleep uninvited. I was in my chilly Boston office when slumber found me, unrelenting in its mischievous need to drag eyelids down. So I succumbed after a brief but...
Portrait of a Liberian’s Boy & Other Poems Jeremy T. Karn Portrait of a Liberian’s Boyabout an anonymous boy how do you hold another boy’s blood in your body?it will only dissolveinto nothing you have had another boydeep inside you,this made your...
What Is in a Mark? Femi Amogunla Traditional facial marks have a significance for the faces that carry them, individuals that bear them and their communities. For some, it is a sign of identity; for others, it beautifies them; for yet some others, it creates a sense...
