The Self

to mama

Matrilineal bonds and girlhood is on my mind, always. This poem came to be after reflecting on my relationship with my mother and the gaps in our lineage that I may never come to understand. Growing up, my mother would consistently recall her childhood home and a number of fruit trees her mother pruned, one being a cherry tree. In this poem, I allow myself to reflect on my grandmother’s backyard—a woman I never got to meet in a setting I will never see. Though in reality I play the role of estranged queer child, in this piece I allow myself to reimagine a relationship with both my mother and grandmother, one that is still touched by the rotting of time, but also softened by motherly love.

By Atarah Israel

The Village

Meet Pucker Up! The punk band for bad bitches

When Pucker Up! was still in the works, Shug and Demi—the band’s lead singer and bassist respectively—sipped on drinks at The Bog, a beloved local bar in their hometown,  Scranton, Pennsylvania. A man approached them soon after sitting down.

By Ava Pauline Emilione