Photograph of lightbulb hanging against a black background, by Tom Mrazek
Lightning bolt graphic

Power And

Power is a prism through which we can view an array of social issues, be it power and politics, power and gender, power and youth, power and privacy, power and abuse, or power and privilege.

When we examine power — internal or interpersonal — we must first look at the conditions that allowed it to exist in the first place, so that we may better understand the narrative arc that brought it to rest on that particular person, nation, company, or concept. Whether it’s our constant struggle to reassert agency over our digital lives or youth around the globe taking action when adults have not, power is an ever-shifting, always pulsating life force that informs how we exist in the world. Power shifts. It is imbalance; the imagination of fear stacked against a perception of hope. Power is a prism through which we can view an array of social issues, be it power and politics, power and gender, power and youth, power and privacy, power and abuse, or power and privilege.

For this issue, we’re interested in the application of power. The kind of power that dominates conversation even when it is not named outright. Political, electric, or interpersonal, we invite you to dissect the vortex of power, and the conditions we create as well as criticize. Who holds power in our spheres of influence and why? Can we control power, both in others and within ourselves? What are the implications of a shift in the power structures we have grown accustomed to? How do we learn from the abuse of power? When we lose power, can we regain it? And is there a power that is ever responsible?

The featured image is “Current” by Tom Mrazek.

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  • 8: Power And
Three Poems

Matthew Kosinski

Behind some airport some quiet organ -ization ignites a portable flare stack. Cindy, whose depression is tropical, is not yet…

Two Poems

Nicole Santalucia

So #MeToo cuts her ponytail off, walks into a bar and takes a seat next to #MeToo and the bartender…

Two Poems

Kae Bucher

Give me that handkerchief someone dropped on the corner next to the stand / where those suits are trying to…

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