Apogee Journal

Our 6th reason to give: we want to reclaim the margins, and we are committed to help others do so with words. Check out our Writing in the Margins Workshops. There are too few spaces that allow writers and artists to grapple with their complex social and political identities, and use that interrogation to expand the scope and relevance of literature. This was the aim of Writing in the Margins, our 8-week writing and critical discussion group in Brooklyn. We demand relevant literature! We are working to create it, are you? Read some of the incredible writing by the workshop participants on Perigee: I remember the immediate bond we felt as young widows whose husbands had been taken from us by the AIDS epidemic. Mari’s husband Reinaldo had returned from the war in Angola in 1985, around the same time that my husband Clarence had finally kicked a 13 year heroin habit that started when he served in Vietnam. Different wars, different countries…two women unknowingly at risk. Every time I visited with Mari I had the same unspoken thought––why her, why not me? I was painfully aware of the different route the virus had taken through each...

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Tibetan Resilience: an interview with Jamyang Norbu

Apogee Journal

21 Sep 2015

Apogee Benefit Preview #1 This week we’re posting interviews and previews for our annual benefit on Friday September 25th. Today’s interview features Tibetan writer and intellectual, Jamyang Norbu, one of our four benefit readers. Tibetan resilience: an interview with Jamyang Norbu by Tenzin Dickie I talked to Tibetan writer and intellectual Jamyang Norbu, who lives in Tennessee, on Skype the other night. His Skype handle includes the numbers 59, referring to the year the Chinese army consolidated its occupation of Tibet, an event that radically changed the trajectory of JN’s life. As a teenager growing up in the Indian border town of Darjeeling where a substantial Tibetan refugee community had resettled, JN dropped out of school to join the Tibetan resistance forces based in the Himalayan kingdom of Mustang in Nepal. Still in his late teens, he taught the Khampa guerillas Nepali and military history. The CIA had been covertly supporting the Tibetan resistance but when they began pulling out, the Tibetan government sent JN to Paris. He was successful in his mission and French intelligence supported the guerillas for two more years. Coming back to Dharamsala, the Tibetan capital of exile in northern India, as...

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Reason to Give #5: We praxis what we preach

Apogee Journal

18 Sep 2015

Our fifth Reason to Give is simple: We praxis what we preach Apogee staff is committed to the power of merging literature and social justice, not only in our journal but also in classrooms, writing groups, and community centers. Thanks to NY Writer’s Coalition and the amazing students at Benjamin Banneker Academy, Apogee editors worked side by side with the after school writing program to produce the first ever edition of GUMBO: Great United Minds Believing in Ourselves. Over the course of a semester, editors met weekly with youth to discuss creative writing, revision and editing. We cultivated individual mentorships, fostered leadership and group accountability. Most importantly, we all had the most fun ever doing it. By supporting Apogee, you support not only our publication but also our project to grow literature and social justice in our communities. Make a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas.

Tibetan Resilience: an interview with Jamyang Norbu

Reason to Give #5: We praxis what we preach

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