VENESSA’S VENESSA’S NOTE NOTE
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SELF SELF PORTRAIT PORTRAIT OF OF AMERICA AMERICA AS AS A A REVIVAL REVIVAL
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BROKEN BROKEN BLESSINGS BLESSINGS
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FREEWRITES FREEWRITES
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INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH WITH SERGIO SERGIO JIMENEZ JIMENEZ
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KIARA KIARA MOLINA’S MOLINA’S WRITING WRITING
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WHAT WHAT WOULD WOULD II LIKE LIKE TO TO HAVE HAVE REMEMBERED? REMEMBERED? 17 17 PREY PREY PRAY PRAY
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SINEW SINEW
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR/ LETTER FROM THE EDITOR/ WRITER IN RESIDENCE WRITER IN RESIDENCE
I am overjoyed to share with you this year’s summer edition of The Raven. This year has been full of achievements and celebrations and also an immeasurable amount of pain and loss. All of your submissions have been a small gift. A reason to restore hope. Through all the ups and downs you have faced each challenge with your head held high, and we at Bronx Academy of Letters are extremely proud
of each and every one of you. This was my first year at BAL and I’m happy to be a part of the family. It has been a pleasure to learn from you and to witness how resilient you all are in the midst of such uncertainties. The poems, essays, articles, free writes, anonymous anecdotes you have all shared have been nothing short of inspirational. Often, we approach writing as an overwhelming task, even those of us who write as a daily practice. It requires a level of vulnerability we don’t necessarily want to lend ourselves to, but you still have granted me access to your world. I am grateful for the invitation. This issue is meant to showcase your strength, activism, and the ways in which you have all surrendered to your creativity when no one was looking. I know we weren’t expecting our school year to go this way. I know we complained about having to go to school, and now all we want is to be able to return safely. I know we are scared of the ways in which our world has changed and the decisions we are now up against, but one thing we can seek solace in knowing is that we are a part of a community that believes in our success. Bronx Academy of Letters has shown me the true beauty in community and I hope you are uplifted by this notion and this issue. I hope this issue is a reminder of your second home, of the ways in which BAL has always, and will always support and love you. I cannot wait for next year! I cannot wait to be a part of your creative minds once again. Until then,
I hope you give your words room to grow. I hope you give your voice a chance to change the world. I hope you seek refuge in the page.
WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO WITH LOVE, VENESSA M. MARCO
ELISABET VELASQUEZ ELISABET VELASQUEZ ELISABET VELASQUEZ
Elisabet Velasquez is a Boricua Writer from Bushwick, Brooklyn. Her work has been featured in Muzzle Magazine, Winter Tangerine, Centro Voces, Latina Magazine, We Are Mitú, Tidal and more. She is the 2017 Button Poetry Video contest winner. She has received fellowships from Poets House, The Frost Place and The New Jersey Arts Council. Her poems are featured in Martín Espadas Anthology What Saves Us: Poems Of Empathy and Outrage In The Age Of Trump and The BreakBeats Poets Volume 4: LatiNEXT. She is currently working on her first novel to be published by Penguin Random House 2022.
SELF PORTRAIT OF AMERICA AS A REVIVAL SELF OF AMERICA REVIVAL SELF PORTRAIT PORTRAIT OF AMERICA AS AS A A REVIVAL Mami never misses a revival. It is a chance to pray to dead things
Tomorrow the news is our bible. Tomorrow another god is dead.
like her marriage.
Tomorrow a street corner lights a
Her body,
a thing she carries like a cross.
dozen candles.
In America
of a face.
the police kill
Tomorrow a wall takes the shape Tomorrow a tee shirt is turned
men sometimes.
memorial.
They do not
bring them back to life.
This is how we resurrect the
They still want to be called God.
dead.
I am a poet
Next week a mother joins a
obsessed with learning a holy language.
A language that is not
white. I only speak in color. In Brooklyn.
In resurrection. I am a girl who cannot drown.
This makes them call me witch. I make them call me baptized. I come from hell
before the flame was gentrified.
I still remember when the block was hot.
march to save her children. She marches like a mandment.
She dares you to break her.
Her children will know no other god before her.
Her face heavy and wooden. An arc amidst a flood of
even if I must die to see it.
Which is to say - I own a piece of heaven on layaway. In Brooklyn a revival is held
in the deadliest part of town. Tonight heaven is a bank.
Tonight someone will cash out.
Tonight we only praise the living.
bodies.
At revivals, we praise the living.
At revivals, we dare you to find a tomb
The Bible teaches me to brag of riches even if I am broke.
com-
to house
our gods
BROKEN BLESSINGS BROKEN BLESSINGS BLESSINGS BROKEN By Lourdes Lluisupa
I didn’t ask for much Just consistency and honesty Love I give back At one point I wonder am I the one That caused your lack of effort? Is it my fault you showed me No love? What did I do wrong If only you could tell me But you wouldn’t even say a word to me. Perhaps, you didn’t want To talk to me but you should Have told me Instead of causing me pain Instead of bringing me sadness I started to lose hope That maybe this wasn’t meant To happen What ever happened to the Promise Let’s be happier What ever happened to loving each other despite what life throws at us? What happened to us? What made you lose trust in me? Why couldn’t you give me that happiness I wanted?
FREEWRITES I really wish people knew that I’m not a quiet person. Everyone who doesn’t really know me thinks that I’m quiet because I don’t talk to them when we are around each other. I am a talkative person to people I
really know and people I am with all of the time in school. I wish that they knew thisbecause I don’t want everyone to think that I’m stuck-up because I don’t talk to them. I also like to keep my circle small because nowadays you can’t really trust anybody.
I really wish others knew nothing about me because I like a private life. I’ve realized that many people don’t really know much about me which I like, not a lot goes on in my life, but there are some things about me that will shock a lot of people which like I said I like to keep my life private so those things will not be said. Maybe I would want people to know things I hate, like loud people or annoying people or people who joke about anything, or that argue about everything, just obnoxious people. I feel like “I really wish others knew this about me” would be a good topic for poetry it sounds poetic.
I really wish others knew that I am a really good person. Everyone’s first reaction about me is that I’m tiny, rude & annoying. I’m literally not that at all. I’m a chill and really a laid back person. If people don’t like that then I don’t know. I have a good personality that people mostly love. However, if I feel like people don’t deserve my good personality, I distance myself from them because they are bad vibes to me. Those types of vibes cause stress and I don’t really need that type of stress at the moment.
FREEWRITES One thing I really wish others knew about me is that I’m very blunt. You’re probably like “it’s not that bad,” but it is, people often see me as rude or disrespectful for it, but I like my opinion to be known. Plus my mom taught me to speak my mind no matter who it is or how I feel. This makes my life kinda hard because I just get in trouble if we’re in a school setting. To them, they think I’m a problem starter or something along those lines, but that doesn’t phase me not one bit cause I’m entitled to my own opinion. If they can’t handle that then that’s on them. If they get offended by what a teenager has to say then that’s on them. It’s not my fault they can’t handle the truth. Being blunt you deal with lots of outbreaks. For example, if my sister gets me mad, best believe she is going to know what’s going on in my head because I’ll just lose it. Sorry in advance if you ever have to deal with it, well depends on what you did to mess up my peace.
I really wish others knew this about me, I wish they knew that I’m not always sad, and I’m not always shy. Starting off many people may see me as shy. To be honest I’m not shy around the people I’m comfortable with. If I knew someone I would not be shy with them. In some ways I definitely consider myself an introvert. I just don’t like meeting new people. Another thing I wish people knew about me is that I didn’t have good grades from the start. Last year in middle school my grades were really bad. I almost failed and went to summer school. So when I went to highschool I decided that I was going to work hard and get better grades. So I did, last marking period I had the highest GPA in my grade. But let me tell you sometimes it gets hard. I get distracted very easily so it’s hard to keep up with work sometimes. I keep pushing myself and hopefully I’ll makes something of myself and something of the Bronx.
SERGIO JIMENEZ SERGIO JIMENEZ SERGIO JIMENEZ INTERVIEW WITH
1. How long have you been writing? I’ve been writing since 6th grade, but didn’t start taking it seriously until 10th grade 2. Are you a Full-Time artist? Yes, I am! At first I needed a part time job with fast food or retail stores to help with bills, but with enough hard work and patience, I’ve been a Full-Time artist for 2 years now. 3. What is the scariest thing that you have written about? Writing isn’t the scary part, but it’s deciding what you want to share that gets scary. I once wrote about being sexually assaulted in college and it felt safe to write about it, but it took me two years to finally feel comfortable enough to share my poems about that experience. 4. What do you believe the possibility of poetry is? Poetry gives us the ability to archive. We are capable of writing about our society today, and in 50 or 100 years people will read our poetry and learn about our civilization! So it’s a huge responsibility to be a poet! That’s why we can read poems from the 1950’s and get an idea of how society was back then. 5. If you weren’t a writer, what would you be? I went to college to study so many things, from film making, architecture, and Kinesiology (to be a fitness trainer). But none of those seemed to resonate with me. I’m glad I chose poetry, we have so much pressure to find out who we want to become that we forget to take a step back and ask ourselves what we want to spend the rest of our life doing.
SERGIO JIMENEZ SERGIO SERGIO JIMENEZ JIMENEZ INTERVIEW WITH
6. What does your writing process look like? With a busy schedule, it’s not always easy finding writing time. But whenever I have a line, an idea, a thought for my writing, I quickly write it down in my phone. Then when it’s time to write, I make sure I’m alone, no distractions, smooth music playing, and some snacks for me to pick on while I write.
7. What places has poetry taken you? I started in my own classroom. Thanks to a teacher to enjoyed my poetry, I went on to compete in teen poetry slams. That led me to perform at The Apollo Theater, then Chicago. Through the years, I’ve been able to tour colleges and events across the country, from Boston, Virginia, Texas and Florida. 8. Who is your favorite writer? That’s a tough question! I have so many writers that inspire my work. A few that come to mind now are Anthony McPherson, Amir Sulaiman, and Staceyann Chin. 9. What is your favorite book? I love poetry novels, where poets create an entire story with each page being a poem. A few examples I’ve read are “Stop Pretending” by Sonya Sones and “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds. It’s also really amazing when poets play around with how their words look on page! Check out “Five Oceans in A Teaspoon” by Dennis Bernstein. 10. How much time do you dedicate to writing? Poetry is no longer a hobby for me. It’s business. Which means I have to continue manufacturing my merchandise and making sure it’s the best quality it can be. My merchandise is my poetry, so I try dedicating at least 2 hours a week to either writing or editing my poet
KIARA MOLINA KIARA KIARA MOLINA MOLINA
I wish I could protest. I wish I could protest and not worry my mother about me being maced or tear gassed. It is sad that we cannot protest peacefully without the cops applying force. I’ve seen so much. I’ve seen too much. It
Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Stephon Clark, Tamir Rice, Sheku Bayoh, Antwon Rose Jr., Sandra Bland, Ramarley Graham, George Floyd. SAY THEIR NAMES! The list goes on is all sad and outrageous.
and on. There shouldn’t even be a list. Lots of the names that I’ve stated have barely been recognized. There’s been little to no recognition of their deaths. They deserve justice! We can no longer be silent or peaceful. It’s clearly not working. To all the people saying that rioting wont work, you’re wrong. The Boston Tea party, The American Revolution, the riots to fight for gay rights in the 1960s, etc; they all received justice because of rioting! Looting and rioting are not the same. I don’t support the looting because now people are stealing for their own personal gain, but the riots are different. 9 times out of 10 when the riots start, it’s not because of the protesters. The cops start them but we just don’t see that. We don’t see it because that’s not what the media wants us to see. What they show is minorities rioting after the cops started them.
If you support ‘All Lives Matter’ you are a part of the problem.
Yes, all lives matter but are all lives being oppressed? NO. Saying all lives matter takes away from the Black Lives Matter protests, period. End of story. Now let’s talk about rubber bullets. If you haven’t heard, rubber bullets are being shot at us during these protests. I understand that some protesters may become violent and they may have to take an extra step by shooting someone but most of these cops shoot for no reason. I’ve seen a video of three protesters, two white and one black. They were all peaceful and just standing there holding their signs. Guess who the cops shot? The black woman. Of course they did. They don’t want to harm the whites. If you don’t believe white privilege and white supremacy exist, then you are also a part of the problem. Open your eyes and wake up! If you are white and you attend the black lives matter protests, thank you. Thank you for using your privilege for a good cause. If you’re white or even a person of color and you’re silent, we see you and we hear you loud and clear.
WHAT WOULD II LIKE TO HAVE REMEMBERED? WHAT WOULD LIKE TO HAVE WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO HAVE REMEMBERED? REMEMBERED? JACQUELINE ROSAS AQUINO
Many people don’t think about what things or memories they want to remember when their life is over, I mean, who does? What I would like to have permanently engraved in my memory is when I got my first tattoo, which is a moon. I want to permanently have this memory because it has an important meaning to me. A moon symbolizes power, change and time. It reminds me of my grandfather and my best friend and how they would always be with me even though they are not next to me anymore but you have to keep going and be strong to be something you want to be in your life and to achieve the goal you want. These stories are always revered but are sometimes hard to tell because it brings back so many memories but it’s beautiful to remember because those memories had a huge impact on your life. I would like to memorize all those talks and advice that I had with my grandmother because I feel those moments were the most genuine and happiest moments that I lived with her. There are a lot of things that I would like to have memorized, like all those fun moments with my family and friends and when I was a child and how many things have changed in my life to make me the person who I am now and so those accoplishments that I have gotten to and the ones I would get to further in life. What I would like to have memorized is my friends phone number or the last 5 people I’ve talked to that were close to me. And those walks that I went on when I needed to think about things or just the free time that I had spent. I would like to remember those important memories with my loved ones, like my parents and my friends and my boyfriend.
KARLA ROBINSON KARLA ROBINSON KARLA ROBINSON
Karla Robinson, BAL Poet-in-Residence, is a Black woman of the African Diaspora by way of The Bronx. She relies on being able to see beauty beneath the surface and believes deeply in the arts’ ability to transform culture and community. A poet, cultural organizer and community-based artist, she loves laughing, language, and a heartfelt hug.
prey pray prey pray prey pray Karla Robinson In honor of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Erica Garner-Snipes and countless others who know intimately the terror of white supremacy
if i could i would wrap my arms around you help regulate your breath remind us of easier times before we realized we’re the hunted the rules are different for us the house always wins if I could i would stretch the walls of our classroom surround you wherever you go develop a telepathy to know when you’re in danger a trap door to engulf any power hungry monsters that cross your path but until then i pray you remember you can choose to carry us with you so wherever you go there’s a loving bright an eternal light
Sinew Sinew Sinew
Karla Robinson
back of the bus front lines battling bandaging brandishing tools from weapons designed to destroy in all ways, the best of American life is a monument to Black Vision
FOR 17 YEARS, BRONX ACADEMY OF LETTERS HAS HOSTED A VIBRANT WRITER IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM. UNDERSCORING THE IMPORTANCE OF LITERACY AND WRITING, THE WRITER IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM LEVERAGES THE EXPERTISE OF WORKING AUTHORS TO BRING AN AUTHENTIC CONTEMPORARY WRITING EXPERIENCE TO ALL STUDENTS. THROUGH ELECTIVE CLASSES, STUDENTS SPARKED BY WRITING DIVE DEEP IN THE ART FORMS OF POETRY AND NONFICTION, CREATING THE RAVEN AND ONE PEN, OUR NEW/ MAGAZINE AND LITERARY JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS. ALL STUDENTS ARESERVED BY OUR WRITERS FORUM, WHICH BRINGS PROFESSIONAL AUTHORS FIVE TIMES PER YEAR FOR RICH ASSEMBLY EXPERIENCES. STUDENTS ARE OFFERED OPPORTUNITIES TO CONNECT TO THE WRITING WORLD BEYOND SCHOOL, MEETING WITH SPECIAL GUESTS, ATTENDING FIELD FIELD TRIPS SUCH AS THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS, AND SUBMITTING TO CONTESTS.
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