As we put this zine together we were inspired by the potential of uncertainty, transition phases, and how confusion takes you away from yourself so that you might become more bound with others. External pressures constantly threaten to alienate us from one another – put us in competition, transform us into cruel operators who flatten ourselves and others into the dull monotony of living as a caricature, a shadow. The letters, poetry, and visual art within this zine represent the struggle to live as your full self in a world where that’s often inconvenient.
This zine seeks to dismantle the constricting notion that our complicated, sometimes painful pasts are bad portends of the future – we take from them what we need and honor the memory of who we can never be again. I am endlessly grateful for my co-creators and contributors and I hope their work can remind you, as it has reminded me, that the more generously we share our open hearts with others, the less we lose.
