Category: Uncategorized
-
// laid bare
I saw a headline that said George Floyd’s death “laid bare America’s racial wounds.” But they were already laid bare—by Emmett Till’s murder. And if not by him, then by Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. And if not by him, then by Rodney King’s beating. And if not by him, then by Oscar Grant…
-
// ghost ship
The Ghost Ship fire is almost too horrifying to contemplate. Multiple friends of friends are still among those unaccounted for. Any of us who have lived in Oakland and engaged with the art scene know spaces like it. Any of us who are artists anywhere know them. They make so much possible. My ex…
-
// the dust of a tuning fork
I flew home via El Salvador in the middle of the night after spending the last month working on an organic finca in Costa Rica. More on that another time. It was gratifying to learn that sped continued to have a life of its own, though I roamed the jungle plantation with a…
-
// this is not the real cover, and other stories
My father used to line up water bottles of diluted Tang and Country Time lemonade, pile up bagels on a sawhorse in the garage, turn on a VHS of the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia recorded from TV, and ride his bike on rollers. Rollers are different from a stationary stand; they consist…
-
// blissful (un)democracy
My last semester at Mills, I sent my MFA thesis to O Books out of a combination of Why not? and Just maybe… I was fortunate enough to receive a detailed response with feedback from the late Leslie Scalapino. I’d included a standard cover letter with some throwaway description of the general theme. One sentence…
Teresa K. Miller, poet and essayist 