As/Us

With this issue we bring you a theme that was initially inspired by Junot's Diaz's 2012 talk on decolonial love. In the pages to follow you will find art that speaks to self-love, intimate love, community love, social love, and universal love.Since the beginning of As/Us we have been interested in collaboration. In this issue you will find writing exploring the theme of decolonial love. Some contributions were selected from our open call for submission while others have been selected...
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With this issue we bring you a theme that was initially inspired by Junot's Diaz's 2012 talk on decolonial love. In the pages to follow you will find art that speaks to self-love, intimate love, community love, social love, and universal love.Since the beginning of As/Us we have been interested in collaboration. In this issue you will find writing exploring the theme of decolonial love. Some contributions were selected from our open call for submission while others have been selected by the co-creators of Just Write and Tria Andrews, who encouraged writers from Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison to submit their work.Just Write is an organization focused on working with underserved communities in the education sector and those who are incarcerated. Their aim is to collectively create community, trust and voice in our journey toward healing, enlightenment and self-discovery through creative expression. Tria Andrews, another co-editor of this issue, also values serving those who may have limited opportunities to share their stories, because they are incarcerated. She writes, "Given the frequent typecasting of people who are incarcerated, my primary goal in publishing this work is for these writers-whom I view as my colleagues-to represent themselves to audiences outside of the prison setting. This is perhaps especially meaningful for those writers who are serving life sentences or who have expressed concern that they will die in prison before they are eligible for parole. Some of these writers grapple with the question: what is the meaning of education for a person who is incarcerated for life?"As writers and artists we all work to answer similar questions - where does our greatest growth occur? How and where does learning take place? And where can we share those lessons learned? As a literary journal that started with a mission to create more spaces in the world for voices to be shared we ask ourselves: how can we create community that translates off the page? The decolonial love issue is about promoting human awareness beyond bars. When it comes to our stories and all of the unique voices out there in the world, there is no need to segregate the work - the power of art should speak for itself. In this decolonial love issue, we share moments of discovery and life learning by incorporating different mediums such as poems, stories, interviews, videos of performances, and performance essays. This issue is perhaps the one most capable of generating discussion of what to expect from a lover, a friend, a community, a country, and ourselves.Our voices and strength are so much bigger than we initially realize. How do our own stories help guide others through their humanity and into decolonial love? Although each of us has something important to say, we are all in essence writers, writing in search of ourselves, finding pieces of ourselves through reflection, human connection, self-love and purpose. There is power in the journey, in simply being. In times of strife and struggle how do we continue to battle colonialism to fall into decolonial love with our communities, each other, and ourselves? The answer: Love. "Love is our greatest resistance"