Perigee

Old Folks Bernard Grant At Wal-Mart, while I wait for Mamma to put my new video games on layaway, an old lady with tennis balls on her walker sits next to me. She smells like cleaning soap. Hair sprouts from a mole on her cheek. And there’s more hair on her lip, and on her chin. That hair’s black like her, like us, but the hair on her head is white and short and stands up like a cartoon character that’s stuck a fork in the toaster. She’s fat, so every time she moves, her arm, stretched and wrinkled, touches mine. I move a seat over. I miss Granny. Kids at school say they have pretty grannies, but my granny was pretty for real, with big cheeks and big eyes that got bigger when she saw you. And she didn’t smell like anything but the grape candy in her purse. She liked purple. Purple dresses, purple makeup over her eyes, and she never scared me, never made me think about death. Not until she got sick—a stroke—and died. I know old people are supposed to die. Just not her. — BERNARD GRANT is an MFA candidate at...

Ladan Osman reads poetry (Apogee Issue 04)

Apogee Journal

04 Dec 2014

Ladan Osman reads “That Which Scatters and Breaks Apart” and “Trouble” Ladan Osman is the winner of the African Poetry Book Fund’s 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her manuscript, The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (University of Nebraska Press). She has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem Foundation, and the Michener Center for Writers. A 2012 Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Life in Poetry, Broadsided, Narrative Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and Vinyl Poetry. She lives in Chicago.

Fiction Nonfiction Poetry Visual Art

Issue 04 Is Here!

Apogee Journal

03 Dec 2014

We are beyond thrilled to finally share Issue 04 of Apogee with the world! Apogee 04 is a fully interactive, free, online issue hosted on its own microsite. Issue 04 features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art by a diverse roster of writers and artists of color, international writers, LGBTQ writers, and a vibrant cross-section of voices intent on challenging the status quo. In the following weeks, we’ll also be sharing interviews and multimedia performances from Issue 04 contributors on Perigee, our blog. Follow our FaceBook Page, Twitter and Instagram feeds to stay up to date on these extras, and for all the latest news and events from us. Read, enjoy & share! ~AJ

Shal Nirvanus, "i 3 poems" (with video)

Apogee Journal

02 Dec 2014

From “i 3 poems” by Shal Nirvanus i. being in this world is… if you ever feel like the extra person in the room and try joining the conversation it will be similar to saying “pound it” without presenting your fist to anyone at all they will be afraid to ask what you meant were you responding to some shit somebody just said? because you seemed pretty excited. maybe they won’t know you said anything at all. ii. “car wash car wash i gcar wash i car wash” is what my little cousin was telling me with a big emphasis on spinning “i have a car wash in my pocket” he said and spun around until he fell over. he is really in love with his cat named Becks and i am really in love with my cat named Jeans and right now i want to quote Spectrum so here i go, “my life spins round your every smile” Becks, Jeans, Little Cousin, spinning cousin Shal Nirvanus reads from “i 3 poems” Shal Nirvanus studied Art History at New York University. He is also a musician and video artist. Shal currently lives and works in Los Angeles. This...

Uncategorized

Renegade Writers: A Dialog with Hisham Bustani, Naomi Shihab Nye, Thoraya El-Rayyes

Apogee Journal

01 Dec 2014

The following is a “round-email” discussion between Issue 4 contributors– Author Hisham Bustani and Arabic to English translator Thoraya El-Rayyes– with Poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Their communication investigates experimental form, the commodification of art, and questions what literature can, and should, give to the world. A special thanks to Apogee Staffer F. T. Kola who made this possible. Featured Above: Trailer for “Another Nightmare Explodes” A collaboration between Hisham Bustani and different musicians, sound and visual artists. Cecca: Dear Naomi, Thoraya, and Hisham, It is my pleasure to put the three of you in touch. This is all a bit of an experiment. Thanks for being willing to give this a go. I have a couple questions I’ll throw out to set this dialog in motion: I was really taken by Hisham’s form. “The City is in My Chest” begins as a nonfiction narrative that slowly transforms into a work of fiction. It strikes me that in the US there is a lack of experimentation with form in prose. I am interested to know more about the author’s stylistic choices. And, as you are all aware, in the US there is a near blackout of non-anglophonic literature. In your...

Fiction Nonfiction Poetry

Announcing Apogee Issue 04!

Apogee Journal

17 Nov 2014

Apogee’s fourth issue–our first online interactive issue–is almost here! We’re excited to announce our list of contributors of poetry, prose and visual art: niv Acosta Kenzie Allen José Felipe Alvergue Cristiana Baik Koa Beck Hisham Bustani Gyasi Byng Jess X. Chen Terese Coe Alex Cuff Ann DeWitt Thoraya El-Rayyes Mya Green Julia Guez Aimee Herman Soleil Ho Tsitsi Jaji Devin Kenny Alison Kuo Astrid Larson Rebecca Liu Paco Marquez Caitlin MacBride Victoria Matsui Victoria McArtor Mollie McKinley Roberto Montes Vishal Nirvanus Ladan Osman Migueltzinta Cah Mai Solís Pino Khadijah Queen Patrick Rosal JD Scott Bayeté Ross Smith Eliza Swann Wendy Videlock Grant Worth

Uncategorized

Launch Party This Thursday!

Apogee Journal

11 Nov 2014

Flier image: Bayeté Ross Smith, #Apogee04 Featured artist

Poetry Stand with Ferguson

a work in progress

Apogee Journal

27 Oct 2014

a work in progress Mahogany L. Browne The name of this poem is: How to write a poem about ferguson Or The name of this poem is: How a black man dies and no one makes a sound Or The name of this poem is: Everywhere is Ferguson Or The name of this poem is: When the moonrise sounds like gunshots Or The name of this poem is: How to teach your babies to walk and not run, ever. Or How to teach your babies to carry a wallet the size of your smile Or The name of this poem is: How not to smile & make yourself a target Or The name of this poem is: How to write a poem the same size of Emmett Till’s lungs after they pulled him from the Tallahatchie River Or How to write a poem about America’s thirst Or The name of this poem is: Black blood’ll keep you thirsty Or The name of this poem is: I’m still thirsty, An American Horror Story Or How to write an escape route from a tornado Or How to write an escape route when the tornado’s name is Stop & Frisk Or How...

Nonfiction

The Use of Force Continuum: Police, Power, and Prejudice

Apogee Journal

20 Oct 2014

by Joe Ponce In Beavercreek, Ohio, under the glaringly white fluorescent lights of a Walmart superstore, John Crawford III walked around idly holding a BB gun he’d picked up from a shelf. He holds the gun limply (sometimes using it to scratch his back, his neck) as he speaks on the phone and wanders around the near-empty aisles. Somewhere else, perhaps in someone’s imagination, John Crawford III is stalking the aisles waving the gun around and pointing it at children. In reality, the police are called. When they arrive, they see the second, imagined John Crawford III instead of the bored shopper, the man on the phone: he is shot in the back from fifteen feet away, no doubt confused, as were we all, why the police opened fire on a man for walking around a store. He was killed on the spot. Often the police officers in this situation seemingly disappear from press and media coverage, whisked away under paid leave. News outlets defend these absent cops, explaining the split second decision making that is required,(1) the pressures of the job and deadly nature of police work. Often in response, police Public Information Officers (“PIOs”) are told to give...

Poetry Stand with Ferguson