Injustice to One is Injustice to All
December 2023 Issue
We recognize the intersectionality of all injustices
and hold the audacious belief that art helps create a more just world
UNTITLED, 2011, by Paulo Nazareth
From the For Sale series, Photo print on cotton paper, Collection Galeria Mendes Wood DM, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Worth a thousand words, don’t cha think? An’ every picture tells a story. Ain’t much more to say. ‘Cept perhaps it hits you over the head with a hammer. Slavery and the commoditization of black flesh. Meat, as it were. Despicable. In one fell swoop. With an unforgettable image. Unforgettable.
Words: Paul R. Abramson, Photo: Tania L. Abramson
Tania Love Abramson, MFA, is a visual/conceptual artist, performer, videographer and writer/poet, as well as a Lecturer in the Honors Collegium at UCLA. She is the author of three art books, Shame and the Eternal Abyss, Concern, and Truth Lies, as well as the co-creator and co-instructor of the UCLA Art & Trauma class. More of her work can be found at tanialoveabramson.com.
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.
By Cruz Villarreal
Frosted windows, Christmas carols, and children all nestled snug in their beds, while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads—but me, I never celebrated Christmas as a child. I’m not sure I really celebrate it now. I have no colorful tree or neatly wrapped gifts nestled beneath green boughs. However, I am keenly aware of its significance, cordial on the subject, and enamored with a season that centers on giving. Yet, confused over the controversy it seems to generate between those that lay sole claim to its meaning, and those like me who meld it into something of their own choosing, but there was a time, when it didn’t matter at all.
Then migrant life brought me to Michigan, and I entered school. Besides learning my ABCs and tying my tattered shoes, I was introduced to Christmas and the gift giving Santa. The introduction was more of an immersion into a world of school holidays, but the holiday that stood out the most was Christmas.