Resistance

by Thana Alexa featuring Staceyann Chin

Using my fear and pain Won’t sway My mind from my integrity

Won’t agree when only some Are free ...”

Full lyrics: https://genius.com/Thana-alexa-the-resistance-lyrics

BAND CAMP: https://thanaalexa.bandcamp.com/track/the-resistance-featstaceyann-chin

May 5th is a day of remembrance and action to rise up and stop violence against Indigenous Women and Girls across Canada and the USA.

“The National Partners Work Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and the MMIW Family Advisors are organizing a National Week of Action (May 1 - May 7, 2023) to call the nation and the world to action in honor of missing and murdered Indigenous women.”

Get involved and learn at niwrc.org/mmiwnatlweek23

Or visit nativehope.org/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiw

Pine Wilder (he/ze) is an autistic trans artist, poet, and healer whose work focuses on the interconnectedness of transness and queerness with nature. He makes art and offers energy work centering trans, neurodivergent, and disabled folks. All elements of nature used in Pine’s work are from fallen branches, and pieces otherwise headed to compost/trash.

Contact: ffluidtree@gmail.com

Instagram: @pinewilder_ and @ffluidtree

Iris Orpi

Isn’t it cool how we know what kind of people our people are before we find them, that somehow we just know that we would recognize them when we’re in the same room just by what they look like on the days they refuse to give up on their dreams, just by the language of their softness when the thing they love the most is in front of them, when they’re watching their sacrifices fall into place, just by the way the air around them feels when their inner wolves are at war and they’re trying to contain it, holding the conversation while surveying the landscape for a weapon, a parachute, a path to forgetting, a sharp turn of silence, a compass, a direction the compass points to.

Facing the frightening and disheartening and exhausting and relentless with everything they are, their survival linked to yours. What light speaks to them, what injustices break them, how many times they can break, what brave, unflinching art they make with the pieces. What griefs they consider worthy of the dignity of surrender.

How cool that the people we know are our people are mirrors of the best parts of ourselves, voices from a world we still believe in the poetry of the future we want to create.

Isn’t it cool how we can gather, in some place, send out invitations, and ourselves show up to the moment like a beacon to the people we want to be our people, and our people meet us and recognize us, speak to the heart that we’ve arrived wearing on our sleeves, speak to our souls spattered on the walls arranged in serendipitous sigils like affirmations, like hey, my people, here I am.

How cool is this. How alive we are.

Follow Iris on https://twitter.com/irisorpi & https://www.instagram.com/irisorpi/ & https://www.facebook.com/irisorpi

Jasmine Farrell

I didn’t just wake up one day and chose it. After years of brainwashing, self-loathing, praying for deliverance, slipping, falling stiving to be fixed, gritting my teeth, holding hands that make me think of everything else but the moment: I surrendered to it. Gave true acceptance a chance. Peace overtook me.

I didn’t just wake up one day and chose it. It was always there. I just finally decided to unpack and rediscovered another missing piece of me.

Jasmine Farrell, from Brooklyn, NY is a freelance writer and author. With poetry being her first love, she has published three full-length poetry collections: My Quintessence (2014), Phoenixes Groomed as Genesis Doves (2016), Long Live Phoenixes (2018). She released a poetry series that included three micro collections titled, The Release Series (2020). She recently published her debut novel, Sloppy (2022).

Website: www.jasminefarrell.com

Instagram: @justbreathejasmine

Twitter: @authorjfarrell

Nia is a queer, black, self-taught visual artist living in Baltimore City. For over 25 years Nia has created both large and small-scale projects, from murals and sign making to creating greeting cards and painting pet portraits. Their artwork focuses on the different living beings that make up this planet, including flora and fauna. As a co-owner of Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffee House and with the work they do with BRED, they hope to break the cycle of silenced emotions and create moments where feelings are present, raw, transformative and valid. Follow on Instagram.com/little.tree.art

Inisa Fajra

Blisters on the brain and thoughts that only run in circles And though my feet cannot complain I struggle yet with overcoming hurdles

And if I should trip and fall into a whirlpool of distrust I must remember it from all the times I’ve sunk this low I must remember it was imagined firstas above, and so below

There’s nothing new here and nothing’s unexpected I’m just running track of thoughts projected and reflected

And if I should ever question whether there is a point that marks arrival I must remember it’s the movement in each moment that equates survival.

Inisa Fajra is a writer & poet whose work explores our unconscious and our ego in equal measures, venturing into themes of alchemy & psychology. Symbolism is weaved throughout her poems and short stories to enable connection with the readers who might have experienced its influence in their own lives. Her book of poetry “New Skin (Rubedo Edition)” is available on Amazon. You can follow Inisa at instagram.com/inisa.fajra

My name is Ashton and my artwork is created with the intention of expressing myself freely and celebrating individuality. I create art with a focus on queer and bipoc culture and subjects. My goal is to celebrate these individuals who are often underrepresented and not given fair opportunities. I hope my art can inspire others in marginalized communities and uplift them. I want my art to spark conversations about modern society and reflect my personal experiences as a black queer woman. I explore topics from race, gender, beauty standards, sexuality, current social issues, and so much more. I want other people to relate and connect with my work, no matter how different they might seem. I believe we are all connected and art can help bring us closer together. @trinyti.co

To: those who create battlefields out of rose gardens

You grew up throwing knives and playing darts, aiming higher for the red with your father, lower for the bullseye with your mother, and still missing when you made a mark on either side of the board.

Don’t fret, challenger. You’ve taken the hardest step in realizing the choice is between sage and stardust, how long you’re willing to burn, and who for.

Taya Boyles is a Richmond-based writer, a woman of color, and an undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her inspiration comes from finding the light in 'the dark night' and writing as an attempt to answer the call of 'infinite immensity.' To go where instead of ceilings to break, she finds more space.

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tayabtheauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tayatheauthor/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tayaboylespoetry

Grief is most bluntly defined by your name

Grief is a broken bone that never sets quite right A battle scar that never fades but only I can see This war; it haunts my dreams at night This pain; how it consumes me

Your name is just another synonym for grief And just like grief, you are most profound in absence

I mourn for the love we could have had A life that I've only seen in dreams One that will always never be

Nathalia (as she is more mononymously known for her poetry) is a 20 year old poet living in Guyana. She has dreams of publishing her own book of sapphic poetry celebrating different forms of love between women, but faces the challenge of living in a society where same sex intimacy is still criminalised and there are little to no rights and protections for members of the LGBT+ community. Her work also ranges between mental health, mythology, friendship, social issues and nature. You can check out more of her work or reach out to discuss collaborations at instagram.com/nathalia_thepoet

Hola mis amores. My art is meant to inspire a love of self and healthy self-growth, of inner and outer peace, and the possibilities that we can all take action to be the change we want to see. I'm not on social media, you can enjoy my work at ImpowerYou.org. Gracias y abrazos - Leah

Oviedo