The first time I saw the video of a US police officer pinning George Floyd down on a Minneapolis street, kneeling on his neck until he suffocated, I was overcome with anger and grief. When AVAAZ sent me an email that included his last words, I immediately signed the petition that demanded change with specific proposed actions.

I decided to read those words at our online virtual poetry reading, not as a poem, but as powerful words that needed to be heard and fully absorbed. The emotional impact on people on the online reading was once again powerful and elicited additional poems from two other participants.

Before I could sleep that night, I was moved to heed Keith Ellison’s words that “we need arts and entertainment to help inspire us toward justice” and set to work on creating an online artistic presence to help in that effort. As a Covid-19 high risk person, joining the street demonstrations is not a risk I choose to make. However, as an artist, there is work to be done.

I remembered what Koon Woon said immediately after I finished reading George Floyd’s last words, that “we can try to make it so everyone can breathe.” Later I realized that the name of the magazine should be BREATHE. It needs to be a magazine online. So anyone can access it. In short an Ezine.

The next morning, I contacted Koon and we both agreed to work together to create and edit a space for artists who use poetry, prose, visual arts and musical compositions to share their art to inspire the change we need.

We fully expect it to evolve over time. Your participation will provide that evolutionary energy.

Leopoldo