Perigee

A Common Amnesia

  A Common Amnesia By Alex Cuff Originally published in Apogee Issue 4   But not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul; and more strange and far more portentous—why, as we have seen, it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the Christian’s Deity; and yet should be as it is, the intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind. –Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851 white butcher paper wrapping the white bagel with the white sesame seeds inside white wax paper white spray paint tagging the framing store on metropolitan before 1691 the word white did not exist white letters of Brooklyn Seoul six white people in the bagel store white napkins the white Nissan sedan parked across the street left over dirty white snow before 1691 the word white did not exist in a legal document the white help wanted sign in the bagel store window me a white girl sitting under the bright white light bulb that many things I do or do not do think or do not think say or do not say...
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One of His Advantages

  One of His Advantages By T.K. Dalton Excerpted from original publication on The Millions   Count weather among the forces that I move through life without understanding. What is its origin? What shapes its future? Parenting is humbling, and I end most days shuffling unwieldy questions like this, rarely dealing out anything like an answer. One frigid Saturday, wind and sleet scratched my plans to grocery-shop with my 16-month-old. He and I detoured, to our nearby library. More than basmati rice or cauliflower, in that moment he needed open space, the familiar thick carpet where he could squat and squeal freely. He needed the warm light of enormous lampshades embossed with ants, birds, and humpback whales. He needed more books. Actually, for different reasons, we both did. My son hadn’t tired of Good Dog, Carl or My Friends. He’d started requesting Tickle, Tickle by name. His mother invoked Knuffle Bunny while he handed her laundry, and Brush Your Teeth, Please had helped me transform a grim chore into something like dessert. (Grape-flavored toothpaste deserves some credit here). For weeks, maybe months, books had reliably engaged him, exciting or calming him depending on the title, the time of day, and...
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A Pair of Chancletas

  A Pair of Chancletas By Elena Schwolsky   The sweet, sticky smell from an overflowing dumpster follows me as I turn the corner onto Calle Amistad—Friendship Street—but I smile to think of my dear friend of many years who I will see in a few short minutes. Threading my way around piles of dog shit and oily puddles from the afternoon rains, I walk in the street like everyone else––moving to the crumbling, narrow sidewalk only when a motorcycle, pedicab or antique car lumbers by. I remember how, years ago, when I first visited Havana in the early 90’s, no matter how hard I tried to fit in, boys would follow me down the block. “Chile!  Argentina!” they would call out, trying to match my fair skin to a country they knew.  Those were the days when few tourists visited Cuba and even fewer from the U.S.  Now, in 2012, no one gives me more than a curious glance. I am red-faced and sweaty by the time I get to Mari’s building. A group of girls is lounging in front of the beautiful old Art-Deco cigar factory across the street, recently transformed into a high school, their mustard yellow...
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Worse than White

  Worse than White by Ginger Skinner   Abigail was born too light. Too light for her momma and aunties. All of them varying shades of deep brown and proud of it. “I don’t know how that child ended up so light. Everybody say her momma laid down with one of them Proctors over in Birchwood,” said Aunt Millie. “Just as pale as a ghost. Like a lil white girl,” added Aunt Colleen. Shavonne from sixth grade was inky dark just like Aunt Colleen and described Abigail the very same way.  It tended to ooze out of her mouth each time her fist met Abigail’s face. “Dumb ass white girl!” The last time it happened, Shavonne hooked Abigail’s leg with her foot just as she stepped off the school bus. Abigail landed hard, face first on the sidewalk, and all the fifth and sixth-graders watched as Shavonne hovered over her and spat out, “You think you better! Don’t you? Well, you ain’t.” Shavonne’s words bruised Abigail. Abigail had long blamed her father for her peachy-beige complexion and smattering of freckles. She’d suspected he was the culprit because she heard her momma once call him a “redbone devil.” And one time...
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Writing in the Margins: Questioning

  Throughout this week, Perigee will be featuring writing from participants of  Apogee Journal and NY Writers Coalition’s first ever Writing in the Margins Workshop. On the first night of our eight week course we asked participants to write down questions: Questions about writing, writing and justice, writing and identity.  The goal was not to answer these questions, but rather to collectively identify what we need and want to question. To begin this series, we’d like to share these questions with you.     Social Justice Do you have to be angry to create good social justice writing? What is the goal (‘point’ seems too blunt) of writing with an awareness of social justice? Is it focused on the present, the near future, or the way future future? How do I write with urgency without being pedantic? (I.e. I want to help push a socialist revolution without anyone realizing it.) How do I use my writing as a tool for social change? Should writing be prioritized over organizing? Ah!! How can we imagine what collective liberation will look like? What gets in our human way of figuring out how to redistribute wealth? What do you read to start a revolution?...
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The Star Side of Bird Hill: An Interview with Naomi Jackson

  Apogee Issue 5 contributor Naomi Jackson launches her first novel Tuesday, June 30. The Star Side of Bird Hill is the story of a family, three generations of women living in Barbados and Brooklyn. The weight of diaspora and separation, the weight of motherhood and childhood, of sexuality and desire swings pendulously through the pages of this remarkable story. Cecca Ochoa (CO): First of all, congratulations on writing a gorgeous and skillful debut novel! I couldn’t put it down.  On the eve of the release, how are you feeling? Naomi Jackson (NJ): Thanks so much for this interview invitation, and for your wonderful questions, Cecca. I’m so glad to be speaking to Apogee. I have a literary crush on you all. A couple days out from book launch, I’m feeling good. About a month ago, I turned the corner from super angsty to just a little bit angsty. I have been fortunate to be surrounded by writers, friends, and family who encourage me to slow down and enjoy the process of publishing my debut novel. Tiphanie Yanique and Tayari Jones are two guiding lights. I was so pleased to meet Edwidge Danticat when she read at Hunter College in...
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Faith at the Border: Caitlin Blanchfield

  Our online symposium, Faith at the Border, is nearing its end. What follows is a compelling and thoughtful email exchange between Apogee’s Poetry Editor and Issue 05 contributor Caitlin Blanchfield in which they discuss fear, dread, Rudolf Otto, and sociopolitical structures. These contributions for Faith at the Border are from our Issue 05 writers. Read their work in Apogee Issue 05, available for purchase now.    Jupiter, 2011 Nica Ross   Apr. 16 Joey: Greetings Poetry Contributors, As part of our promotion strategy for the upcoming issue, the editors have discussed using our web presence to host an online symposium of think-pieces and/or essays by contributors of issue 5 on the subject of translation and faith. Translation and Faith: What role does faith play in crossing borders? Borders can be seen as representing a physical object or event–a borderline, state border, text or body (human, water)–or an intangible such as language, words, hybridity, and identity. The other side cannot be known until it is experienced and is, perhaps, unknowable even then. In the act of crossing between, in what do you place your faith? And how? If you feel a response to any element of this question, I encourage you to participate. I...
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Faith at the Border: Mike Crossley

  Our fourth day discussing Faith at the Border with our issue 05 writers. Today we’re featuring Mike Crossley, who addresses belief, connectivity, and the pressing, human reason to “trade subatomic matter.”  These contributions for Faith at the Border are from our Issue 05 writers. Read their work in Apogee Issue 05, available for purchase now.      Jupiter, 2011 Nica Ross Untitled, by Mike Crossley   There is faith in the words we say and write. Faith that the synaptic traffic merging into molecular-chemical activity, into something resembling a thought, successfully completes its route and not only retains meaning, but transmits an understanding. There is faith in the fact that this all starts as quantum intent. More or less, Einstein calculated energy turns into matter, matter into energy, neither destroyed only redistributed. We shake hands and trade subatomic matter. We stare at one another and project electrons back and forth, translating particles. This connectivity. The fundamental quality across all humanity is the need to understand. Learning a new language to translate the intent of material. Think about this. One’s intent, which began as a quantum swirl, has been arranged through a series of symbols. Then interpreted. It’s contagious. So much of...
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Faith at the Border: Kudam Taraf, Mina Zohal

  On the third day of our online symposium, Faith at the Border, Mina Zohal grapples with borders, crossings, ghosts, and language. We asked our issue five writers: in what do you place your faith during the act of crossing between places, nations, people, bodies, things, and feelings? And how? We asked that writers be free in their (re)definitions of borders and faith. The work Mina Zohal has shared is as thoughtful as it is breathtaking. These contributions for Faith at the Border are from our Issue 05 writers. Read their work in Apogee Issue 05, available for purchase now.    Jupiter, 2011 Nica Ross Kudam Taraf, by Mina Zohal Sometimes, I sit across the table from you feeling helpless in the face of the disintegration of our materials. I think: I’m reaching for a suitable praxis, but discordant sounds are taking shape between languages. Our land. Our land. Our family our land. Environs muttered through bad teeth. Rocks fall from my mouth as I try to articulate possible futures. Mother-tongue Mother-land Mother-mother. Mother me. Fals-e marg came early this year. Hawa e besyar garm ast. Da e roz haa, besyar khasta hastam, but sleep breaks like light or water in little eruptions just at the edge of: I...
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Faith at the Border: LiraeL O

  Today marks the second day of our online symposium, Faith at the Border. We asked our issue five writers: in what do you place your faith during the act of crossing between places, nations, people, bodies, things, and feelings? And how? We asked that writers be free in their (re)definitions of borders and faith. LiraeL O shares with us her indispensable meditation on the body, borders, and faith. These contributions for Faith at the Border are from our Issue 05 writers. Read their work in Apogee Issue 05, available for purchase now.    Jupiter, 2011 Nica Ross On Faith and Borders, by LiraeL O It’s all circumstantial The big reveal What are you waiting to show the world? What will life be like after they know all? The things we ask women to do to their armpits What’s your stink? The amount of nervous laughter we engender in women Faith and borders, faith and transitioning across space, bodies, emotional states etc… Faith in medical unknowns Faith in the community that holds me Faith in the self that holds me Faith in my carry Faith in my ability to pay it when I need to Faith in my sisters Faith in the unfolding Each slab of tissue reveals...
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