Prose
Andrea Lara
This short story was written for a Spanish class, in an attempt to emulate the style of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar and his surreal, "bizarre" stories, along with conveying an underlying message about the colorism I often see in Latin American culture. The Spanish used here is very intentionally littered with Argentine slang and the "voseo," which would make it quite difficult to properly translate into English, in my opinion. I would like to translate it to English at some point, but this story holds a special place in my heart in its current state, as the first creative writing piece I've done entirely in Spanish; it really was an interesting experience to bring over the strange and dark aspects usually featured in my English writing into a Spanish-language piece.
Ever since I was a child, I've always loved ghost stories. There's something striking about the protagonist's innate aversion (or fear) of the spectral. Personally, I don't believe in ghosts or hauntings, however. I'm drawn to these stories for that exact reason. My interpretation is that the protagonists aren't fleeing from an actual spiritual entity (regardless if malevolent or not) but from themselves. Humans naturally flee from what they fear, even if that means they're fleeing from something inside them. My interpretation remains faithful in Gương as Mara, my protagonist (or, antagonist?) flees from more than just a spiritual entity.
Angeline Noli Truong
I wrote this piece for my translation class, where we talked about the untranslatability of certain words and phrases. Inspired by a statement on Germans and the word „love“ I found in the „Dictionary of Untranslatables“, I decided to write this essay on the many and often confusing meanings of this often times (at least for me) so confusing word.
Anne Poetzsch
Christyn Refuerzo
"Miki" is a story that is rooted in the truth of my great-grandmother, who served as the matriarch of my father's side of the family. She was called "Mama Ching" by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Though she passed before I was able to meet her, I wanted to write about what she left behind – the nostalgic and warm memories of a loving grandmother. "Miki" is a piece that honors her and my family.
My experience coming from Mexico. I wanted to portray the difficulty and ease I as an American citizen have while crossing the border, but also the struggles of having immigrant family members. My goal is to portray the vulnerability and insecurity of immigrants' children when we are face to face with law enforcement.
Hazel Medina Morin
poetry
It is sealing a person in a frame—to me, the most tricky part is whether or not you have captured the soul of that person within the frame. I'm not sure if I have achieved that in my art pieces, but if I've achieved even just a glimmer of it—that soul—I find a great honor in that.
“Opung”
Ebony Dalimunthe
Julian Preston
In the summer of 2022, I traveled to Dublin to participate in the University of Iowa's Irish Writing Program; I wrote these poems while reflecting on my time in Ireland at the program's end. Their dissimilarity to each other is, in part, an expression of my mixed feelings about the program and travel more generally; one explores the similarities between two cities, one Irish and one American, while the other emphasizes difference and opacity, the refusal of other people and places to be known.
Maeve Carey Kozlark
Ceist na Teangan, directly engages with the decline of the Irish language and its fight for survival, placing it in conversation with the biblical story of the infant prophet Moses and the unnamed pharaoh’s daughter from the Book of Exodus.
Sisi Turner
My poems are honest and brutal. That’s because I’m angry. TURN ME INSIDE OUT is a homage to my absence of identity–especially in America. That feeling of trying to grasp onto an identity that was never yours. The inability to speak my truth in this language. This I think, is something many Black Americans and multi/biracial people of the diaspora like myself feel. I wanted to convey that in this poem of anger.
Surabhee Arjunwadkar is an emerging multidisciplinary performing artist from Pune, India currently studying at Bennington College in the US. Her work is an exploration of the body and the erotic, a celebration of the sensual, an intentional reimagination and deconstruction of traditions, and composition through improvisation and play.
Surabhee Arjunwadkar
Tommy LeBlanc Paquet
Tommy Paquet is a trans-French-Canadian-American poet. His poetry tackles the internal turbulence of family, feelings of split nationalities/cultural confusion, and queerness.
Visual Art
Anahit Arghushyan
New Year is a very special holiday in Armenia. There is always a lot of food, drinks, and happy faces. It is the only time when my whole family gathers together around one big table and celebrates. However, two years ago when I was studying in the Netherlands I could not travel back home because of COVID regulations. I felt very homesick that day, and although was able to celebrate with my friends at UWC Maastricht, I still was very sad to miss the important day back home. My first piece of 2021 “New Year’s Celebration” illustrates my family sitting around a full table, however, there is an empty chair in the middle, which highlights my absence. The piece reflects on my feelings during such an important time for me as well as how left out and nostalgic I was.
Ebony Dalimunthe
It is sealing a person in a frame—to me, the most tricky part is whether or not you have captured the soul of that person within the frame. I'm not sure if I have achieved that in my art pieces, but if I've achieved even just a glimmer of it—that soul—I find a great honour in that.
Tisa Shrestha
During the regime of kings in Nepal, it is said that members of the royal family kidnapped girls from homes to seduce and rape them. As an outcome, every house with a daughter had a typical type of window known as "Ankhi Jhyal" which blocked the view inside the house. In this artwork, I represent the irony in Nepalese culture, in which the kings freely raped women but also worshiped a living Goddess, Kumari. Through this piece, I want to question their hypocrisy and the patriarchal Nepalese society.
“Photography”
Kaito Galperin and Fernando Ledo
My photography is driven by beautiful composed shots with people,buildings, plants, and sunsets. I would always watch sunsets near the river in Williamsburg looking into the city as a kid and thought of how pretty it would be to capture that. As I grew older I would walk into the city and see neon signs having the same beautiful effect of vibrant colors the skies had; the way those tones of the purple skies rested on their faces making them look so graceful. I wanted to capture the moments where people where under different light conditions with some perspective of angles and intense light.
PERFORMANCE
“Break with Love Song by Da-iCE (2021)”
Koh Kozuru
"Break" is about the struggles of finding and accepting your own identity when living in a foreign country. This piece explores questions about the ways we can experience home and community in a foreign place.
“El Rey Quiche and Meadowlands” (Cover)
Julius Boxer-Cooper
“El Rey Quiché” is a Guatemalan folk song written for flute and marimba. The name, literally translating to “King of Quiché” may be in reference to the Kʼicheʼ kingdom, which existed in present-day western Guatemala from about 1225 to 1524. The song is quite well-known and holds an important place in the Guatemalan folk tradition.
“Meadowlands” is a South African jazz standard written by Strike Vilakazi in 1956. It was first recorded by the vocal group Nancy Jacobs and Her Sisters and was later popularized by Miriam Makeba. It is an anti-Apartheid protest song, originally written in reaction to black residents of Sofiatown, a suburb of Johannesburg, being forced to move to Meadowlands, another suburb. The song was written has lyrics in three languages: IsiZulu, SeSotho, and Tsotsitaal (a vernacular creole) It was featured on a 2007 compilation album of “Essential SouthSotuh African Jazz.”