By Raul Garcia

Thank you for this wonderful and safe space. My comic, as you will discover, is titled Oxnard USA: The Ordinary Life of a Latinx. Here, on this cover, I try to give a preview of the environment, a strawberry field in Oxnard CA that surrounds Jose Luis. He is my main character. Oxnard is known for a narrow form of labor that undocumented families participate in. 

In 2006, Jose Luis is an ordinary Latinx who was brought illegally into this country at the age of three and this is my interpretation of how it looks. 

His parents make it across the border and begin a new life in Oxnard where they work the fields. They enjoy their new life despite the enormous workload, and the presence of overt violence. The strawberry is meant to reflect that possibility. 

By Melody Wilson

I realize I’m breathing,

that it’s possible I haven’t been.

I listen as the medic labors over words,

definitions. The Chyron scrolls

“resuccitate”

By Steve Slavin

On the off chance that you’re not acquainted with this term, a red diaper baby is someone born to highly idealist parents who strongly advocated social and economic justice, and were highly committed political lefties. In fact, they might have even been communists or “fellow-travelers” back in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s. But almost no one born after the early 1960s even has a clue as to what a red diaper baby is, let alone knows one.

Emma Lazarus Goldman would have been the perfect name for a red diaper baby. But having been born decades later, only ELG, her parents, several older family members, and her closest friends are aware of her red diaper pedigree.

By Paul Abramson

When we think of Vermont, fall colors, maple syrup and Bernie Sanders come to mind, perhaps some other notable achievements like Ben and Jerry’s ice cream do as well. Here’s something else to add to that list. Put it close to the top. A historic site of the Underground Railroad.

In 1792, the Quaker Thomas Robinson, a rather scary looking guy, certainly as he got older, with sunken cheeks but very prominent cheekbones, a thin scowling mouth and intense beady eyes that looked simultaneously frightened yet skeptical, gathered up his wife and children to collectively say good riddance to Rhode Island, and then hightailed it out to the greener pastures of Vermont, the town of Ferrisburgh, to be exact.

By Marjorie Maddox

From down here, 

            up there is 

nowhere close to 

            click click there’s no place like

City Hall to haul your 

            cracked compass spinning, 

spinning its shiny tin arrow, True North

            a myth lost in the reshuffling

of district lines and Which way do the monkeys fly?

            voting booths Pay no attention to yourself 

Cheryl Caesar: The Voting Rights issue made me reflect on our constant need for vigilance. I did a charcoal sketch which, for me, illustrates that need and put it through a Lunapic filter.

From childhood, I have been fascinated by turtles and tortoises, whose bodies make for them a refuge. Recently I had a dream that left me thinking, “I am a tortoise with eyes in my shell.” I interpreted this to mean that even though Trump is out of office, I need to stay vigilant against assaults on democracy, like the current Republican attack on voting rights.