Anthology 6 Preview: Rejoice

Zadie Smith tells us joy “doesn’t fit with the everyday.” It is somehow tinged with all of life.

It holds more than happiness.

For these seniors—Devin, Tymir, Niyai, John, and Atticus—we rejoice. And this celebration encompasses all we’ve known with them and all we want for them. We thank them for making our time together, lit by everything they have yet to do and be, so much bigger than it was...

Tymir Gullette

HOW DO YOU SEE ME Devin Welsh

I love my mom. She gave me everything she could.

She loves me and makes sure that I know that. But when I showed her this photo, she said something that struck me. Not as odd, or unfamiliar. Just struck me. When I showed her this photo of myself, her knee-jerk reaction was to say, “Oh I don’t like that.”

What do I see in this image?

I see the freckles that I inherited from my mom, who got them from her mom and so on; they rest on a skin tone that looks as though my parents’ complexions were mixed on a palette: my mom’s milky, ivory white is mixed with my dad’s warm cappuccino color to make my cafe au lait tone. Skin tone somewhere between White and Latinx, skin that has people scratch their heads wondering “what are you?” Skin that makes me not so readily identifiable by those who like neat categories.

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Tymir Gullette

AT THE ICA Tymir Gullette

My life is kind of distant. You’re probably wondering what I mean by that? Well, when I was younger I lost hearing in my right ear so things have been really difficult for me to hear unless I’m up close to the noise. As I was taking pictures today at the ICA, I was trying to stay focused on the topic. There was a sculpture of a brick wall with clothes hung on them and it was the only thing in the room. All I could think about was how much space there was in the room. From a distance if you look at the sculpture it looks like it was against a wall but actually it was in the middle of the room when getting closer. The assignment was the farthest thing from it. Everything was so spread out in the exhibit. The wall was so far from the sneaker truck & the carousel so far from the obelisk yet all so close. The space isn’t huge but the height and length of everything else made it seem so much bigger than it was.

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Devin Welsh

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Rejoice

Natasha Hajo

THE DISTANCE FROM SIXTEEN Niyai Walker-Cruz

When I was sixteen, well, when I was a fresh sixteen-year-old, I was broken. Both physically and mentally I was “broken.” My arm was broken, so was my mind, everything was happening around me. I’d been dealing with depression and anxiety for two years prior. It was painful and hurtful and draining, everyone was watching me closely. I had already tried to hurt myself further, my mental state had been affected detrimentally. I woke up one morning in so much pain, told my grandma, and as normal, was a hypochondriac. She dissed it because she didn’t believe a sixteen-year-old could be in so much pain.

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Rejoice

AT THE ICA John McDonald

Well, there’s multiple ways I can explain the distance I felt to the images I took today. First there’s a physical way and for that I felt really small next to the giant wall of clothes and obelisk. But also the distance between all of the different works of art.

For example the car sheet full of old shoes was close but far from all of the other pieces. Then you have the so out of place carousel that just distances itself from everything. Like it wants to be in its own void. But also it wants to be a part of everything by drawing attention to itself by slowly spinning. And the lights with the space it takes. Even though it seemed a lot the carousel was almost totally empty with only four bars where different majestic animals would be also with an old looking lonely chair sitting in the middle.

Finally there was a car, but it really wasn’t an actual car. It really was a car sheet full of shoes. But that’s not the weird part. The weird part is just the shoes were all different sizes. There were baby shoes, size 13 shoes, and there were even heels.

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Merle Curran-Ackert

Kim Sterin

BRAIDED Atticus Berry

A collection of minds and perspectives and word combinations I would have never imagined putting together My own thoughts collide here and there never quite making it aloud This is a tight-knit community Bonded too strong to penetrate I am anxious I am intimidated by the brilliance in the room My heart can live untouched on a sleeve the real danger is spilling my brain onto the page What is different about this place?

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Rejoice