Dear friends, feminists, allies, and accomplices, It is with immense pride that I present our inaugural issue of the Wild Tongue Journal with you. Variability is an intersectional feminist exploration of now–within, we feature works that respond to or reflect on the current moment: the COVID-19 pandemic, the movements for Black lives, the U.S. presidential […]
Volume 2
Letter from the Interns
Needless to say, the Fall 2020 semester was not what any of us were expecting. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our day-to-day lives, and the risk posed to public health and safety has undoubtedly sparked major anxiety and unrest. While the pandemic has disrupted our lives in many ways, it has also brought self-reflection. Having […]
3 Poems
Instructions for Helping It Feel Better (or at least different) 1.Rest, don’t just lay there with your eyes closed. 2.Don’t self-advertise, leave some things to be enjoyed by you and you alone. Take the stickers off of that water bottle. Rethink your next tattoo. 3.Try to come to terms with the realization that nothing lasts […]
A Letter to My 25-Year-Old Self
You can’t go back— no matter how long you sit on that swing, knees folded against your chest. Pump your legs, if you want, pretend this is recess—bury your nose in your scarf and swing until you surpass the top rail and the chains frost-nip your palms— but you’ll still be you, after. Just colder. […]
My Pocket Full of Moonshine
Before I even saw my vagina, the doctors saw it. They labeled me “female” based on what was between my legs, which later on would coincide with my gender as girl, now woman, cisgender. Vagina. My friends and I laughed when saying the word. I was scared to look at it, but I knew it […]
The Cries of a Puerto Rican Nationalist
It is free the people under colonial rule My family is not your commodity The air we breathe is capitalist greed The residential lines that are zoned for people like my family, will never set us free We are complex, diverse, and multicultural in the most nonconsensual way We are products of white greed and […]
2 Poems
Visiting the Witch Trials Memorial We still have our Salems. – Elie Wiesel Beneath the locust tree I ponder, pressing my back against its trunk. Another stone pulls my focus. No one wishes my ancestors were witches more than me, but, My God, the hangings and hysteria of it all. Will the final stone ever […]
Tug of War
Artist Statement: This piece examines the complicated relationship between capitalism and the patriarchy. I was inspired to create the collage after reading “Always Be Optimizing”, one of the essays in Jia Tolentino’s New York Times Bestseller, Trick Mirror. She writes, “women are genuinely trapped at the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy – two systems that, […]
3 Pieces
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Artist Statement: I tell stories through illustrations that capture moments from my life. When I reach out to you, I want it to mean something. Growing up every word would stay caught in my throat, so I pretended I didn’t hate the silence. I sat where I was expected to; it was much safer […]
2 Poems and Collage
Ashes It is eerie It is ominous It is aesthetically in line With the sunset Flashes of orange Frame the spraying of hoses Like misty clouds on the horizon It mixes in with the ash As I drive past It is the burning of the system A cultural collapse Destroying the Brick and mortar Of […]