Issue 5: (Black) Boy Wonder, Powdered Sugar, The Bylaws of Male and Female Friendships, and the next Khôra team
"Resisting plot is a political act"
Welcome to Khôra, a dynamic online arts space produced in collaboration with Lidia Yuknavitch’s Corporeal Writing. Visit our Archive to read previous issues. Subscribe for full access to Khôra’s monthly newsletter and publication highlights.
“There’s a risk in what these objects represent. There are people who would love to see this project disappear; people who want this to go away. I’m not paranoid, I’m just realistic that these objects need to be safeguarded. I hate to point that out, but it’s become a reality. If I hadn’t collected these items, no one would believe me.”
This is what artist Tom Kiefer told me about his body of work, “El Sueño Americano / The American Dream,” a photographic documentation of the personal belongings carried by migrants and asylum-seekers that were seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In 2019, I visited Tom Kiefer’s studio in Ajo, Arizona, and as we sat among the thousands of objects he has been documenting, I was reminded of something Lidia said during a workshop in Portland back in 2018: “Resisting plot is a political act.” Read about Tom’s work in Cynthia’s CD Collection.
In Issue 5, you’ll meet Jamar Nicholas, author of Leon, Protector of the Playground. Jamar is a cartoonist and graphic novelist who created Leon “for a new generation of kids who weren't seeing themselves in the fiction they consumed.” As he wrote in (Black) Boy Wonder:
“as a child, I enjoyed Spider-Man, but I didn't want to be a white guy sticking to the side of a building, I just wanted the sticky building.”
Congratulations to Jamar, who just signed a three-book deal with Scholastic to bring Leon the Extraordinary to the page.
I’m also thrilled to introduce the new team of four writers and four artists who are collaborating with us to create the next four issues of Khôra. If you love what you’re seeing, please share, repost, tweet, and retweet, and we’ll be back next month.
Hot tip: How do you make the ô in Khôra? Press and hold the option key and the letter i, release and click o.
Oceans of lôve,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal Writing Squad
Issue 5 Highlights
(Black) Boy Wonder by Featured Writer/Artist Jamar Nicholas / artwork by Jamar Nicholas
“Some would find it odd that American popular culture is geek culture. The time when only weirdo shut-ins cared about comic books, superheroes, giant dragons and sorcerer spells is over. One thing that has always stood out is the archetype of the Hero, which is bigger than all of that nerd stuff, right? Everyone knows who Superman and Batman are. You didn't need to hang around in a dimly-lit comic book store to know the cultural importance of someone who does the right thing, when it mattered most…”
Read (Black) Boy Wonder.
Powdered Sugar by Roe McDermott / artwork by Christina McPhee
“I didn’t want another long-distance relationship.
Years of moving between Ireland and America meant that I had too many under my belt already, and the last one had destroyed me. I spent all my money flying back and forth from Dublin to San Francisco for a man who said he loved me. He was married and I didn’t know. He had another girlfriend and I didn’t know. He started abusing me and no one knew. I wasn’t in one place long enough to see him clearly, or for anyone else to see me clearly, to see how I was slowly disintegrating…”
Read Powdered Sugar.
The Bylaws of Male and Female Friendships by Kat Lewis / artwork by Lynne Harlow
“BYLAWS OF
MALE AND FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS
ARTICLE I — NAME AND PURPOSE
Section 1 — Name: The name of this male/female friendship shall be Jin/Imani (Jinni).
It shall be a platonic relationship incorporated under the laws of the State of Maryland.
Section 2 — Purpose: Jinni is organized exclusively for platonic, schadenfreudic, and non-romantic purposes.”
Read The Bylaws of Male and Female Friendships.
To All the Rock Boys I’ve Loved by Eva Recinos / artwork by Saskia Jordá
“Chris
During a high school summer job at my mom’s office, I made friends with one of my mom’s co-workers, and we talked music. I mentioned my interest in Audioslave, how I couldn’t wait to listen to their 2002 self-titled album.
He said he would burn me a copy, but then rescinded on his promise. ‘I talked to your mom, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for your age. It’s got some adult themes.’”
Read To All the Rock Boys I’ve Loved.
Cynthia’s CD Collection by Featured Artist Tom Kiefer
“From 2003-2014, I worked part-time as a janitor at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in the Sonoran Desert. I mopped the floors, took out the trash, changed light bulbs, did some light groundskeeping, and emptied out the holding cells. My job was to throw out what had been confiscated from people who were detained—toothbrushes, soap, water bottles, rosaries, shoes, blankets, jackets, birth control pills, children’s clothing, even yellow rubber duckies—items the Border Patrol agents deemed ‘non-essential’ or ‘potentially lethal.’ I was directed to throw everything into the dumpsters…”
Fawn Industrial Complex by Nay Saysourinho / artwork by Samira Abbassy
“i don’t know how to not be prey
waiting in the tall grass or
in the shadow
i’ve learned not to breathe
when i hear their voices..”
Khôra will be back next month.
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