ART INSPIRING CHANGE — MORE JUSTICE — STRONGER ALLIANCES
Published Monthly - March 2023
"White feelings should never be held in higher regard than black lives." - Rachel Cargle
"It is white people's responsibility to be less fragile; people of color don’t need to twist themselves into knots trying to navigate us as painlessly as possible." - Robin DiAngelo
BATTERED & TORN - Photograph by Paul R. Abramson
Yeah, the flag stands for many things. Many good things, in fact. Pride, for example. But let’s not be disingenuous. Even in the purported land of the free and home of the brave, horrors abound. Slavery, the massacre of Native Americans, the damning of ethnic diversity. When, oh when, will these injustices ever end? Though America is often symbolized by the flag, this battered and torn version is perhaps a more appropriate rendition for many Americans. As in, it ain’t always paradise.
Paul R. Abramson is the lyricist and lead singer of the band Crying 4 Kafka. Crying 4 Kafka has been memorialized in Erika Blair’s book The Sanctity of Rhyme: The Metaphysics of Crying 4 Kafka in Prose and Verse (Asylum 4 Renegades Press, 2018). Paul is also an artist of note, and an Editor at Breathe. Otherwise, Paul is a professor of psychology at UCLA.
For ways to get involved and lend your support,
we suggest the following link to the obama.org website.
By Carlos Godinez
I Always Thought He Was A Cop.
A Real Cop.
The Polo Shirt. The Patch.
The Handcuffs.
The Squad Car.
He’d Take Me.
Take Me Often.
Red Lights, He’d Run.
Siren Blaring.
Lights flashing.