Editor's Note

This year has already been rough for most of us, and it’s only February. Whether or not you’re affected by fascism, we’ve entered difficult times.  For many of us, our rights and freedoms are at stake, so much so that there is already a body count.

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We forget sometimes, that throughout history, we’ve resisted evil by creating. We write our way through difficult times, to rebel. We paint a path so brave and true that even the darkness will retreat, and we will find light at the end of the tunnel because there is always hope. Always, there is a pen in your hand and a mouth to speak with. You will always have yourself. Nobody can take that from you, and should they try, they’ll be facing a movement.

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This issue shows that we still have our unapologetic strength and love. This issue shows our “refusal to be emptied,” (Joey Reisberg). How “sonder” (Richa Gupta) is how we come together. This issue strives to become one of “many ways to be hungered” (Kristin Chang) and “to find, to seek, to search,” (Monet Jorgenson) for something better. This issue dreams of “catching stars” (Betsy Jenifer). This issue is “an individual, it’s a people, it’s a nation,” (Valerie Wu), and it is eternal.

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We’re in the dark, but sooner or later we will reach the end of these struggles. There, we will find joy, and forgiveness, and everything else that we’ve had to leave behind. There, in the blinding light, we will see who we’ve become.

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Farah Ghafoor

Editor-in-Chief