Issue 03

With a new elegant design and powerful cover art from the inimitable photographer and poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths, this issue of Apogee represents our commitment to push literary conversations beyond the status quo. Like our previous two issues, Issue Three aims to highlight inequalities in the arts and society more generally. We are particularly proud of the diverse writers and artists presented here. David Mura’s dissection of gender roles in the gay and lesbian world; Chinelo Okparanta’s gaze at colonial legacy; a special reprinting of an excerpt of late, great activist Jose Esteban Muñoz’s book Cruising Utopia; an interview on race with journalist-adventurer Rich Benjamin; and the poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art of a number of diverse and engaged artists and writers all represent our effort to give voice to, and to celebrate, perspectives that the mainstream literary world marginalizes.

Also featuring Mahogany L. Browne, Morgan Parker, Christopher Soto, Mai Der Vang, Amber Atiya, and Kaitlyn Greenidge.

Table of Contents
Letter from the Editor


Nonfiction

Stacy Parker Le Melle, This is for All the Best Dancers at St. Bernadette’s
Melody Nixon, Seeing in Color: An Interview with Rich Benjamin
Adriana E. Ramírez, Border Song
David Mura, Bondage and Liberation
Rebecca Sumner Burgos, Rumors: Remembering José Esteban Muñoz (1967-2013)
José Esteban Muñoz, A Body: Approaching Aviance

Fiction

James Yeh, Your Giant New Loft
Chinelo Okparanta, Ife Adigo Market–1978
Kaitlyn Greenidge, A Mindful World
Molly Giles, First Time


Poetry

Morgan Parker, Their Grandmothers Never Did the Laundry
Morgan Parker, negro sunshine
Amber Atiya, my sister breaks bread in the streets
Isaac Fornarola, the bacon act
Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, Confirmation
Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, Learning the Language
James Ducat, Could Be
Christopher Soto, i wonder if heaven got a gay ghetto
Eva Saavedra, After the Japanese Footbridge at Giverny, ca 1922 II
Nicholas Wright, The Lonely Crowded West
Nicholas Wright, In Some Distant but not Too Distant Era
Mai Der Vang, Sky Rescue
Martin Ott, Diplomacy
Mitchell Grabois, Vick
Anna Wilkes, Complete Hysterectomy
Mahogany L. Browne, stormy weather
Cynthia Dewi Oka, Suppose You Were a Komodo Dragon

Visual Art
Esteban Cabeza de Baca
Ryan Pierce
Loie Hollowel
Pamela Council
Riaki Enyama
Emily Raboteau
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Jovan Julien
Lehna Huie
Stacey Parker Le Melle
Xu Wang