Convergence

Image Credit: Grace Y. Williams,Trump: Metal and Bones, (2017). Bone, currency, synthetic evergreen, paper, metal, wheel, twine, coir. Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

In Praise of Sedition

“The police aren’t there to create disorder, they’re there to preserve disorder.” – Mayor Richard Daley, Chicago, 1968 “Anarchy is order; government is civil war.” – Anselme Bellegarrigue, France, 1850 This past summer, reacting to the mass nationwide uprising that erupted following the police murder of George Floyd (ironically, on […]

Image Credit: Grace Y. Williams, Trump: Metal and Bones, (2017). Bone, metal, rubber, tubing, cd, bullet, leather, paper, enamel. Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

Notes to Self and Other Poems

notes to self rant/ rally/ housework (III and) continuing. . . this is for all the traffic jammers and the head bangers, for fights over parking and jumping to the front of the line in your face, to hell with everybody else, “where’s mine?” “I gotta get mine!” too busy […]

Image Credit: Susan Bee, Anywhere Out of the World, (2019), 24" x 18", 30” x 24”, oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist.
Arts & Culture / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

from Where Here Were We

June 24 Every once in a while well maybe not every when the wind is especially fierce there’s a rawness without sorrow or wound, shouted into storm, the low the high the good the bad. Well maybe not bad but it feels that way, like a slap across the face […]

Image Credit: Chiffon Thomas, A mother who had no mother, (2017). Embroidery floss, acrylic paint, and canvas on window screen, 57" x 44 1/2". © Chiffon Thomas.
Arts & Culture / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

from A History of the Bitch (AHOTB)

Testimonial Testify For a time, in some places, only men could testify. “Testify” rooted with testes testicles. Tongue tied to crotch; talk of truth as— biology.                  Biblical Abraham had his servant swear a solid: “put your hand under my thigh, and I […]

Image Credit: Yashua Klos, Rise, (2015). Paper construction of woodblock prints and graphite on archival paper mounted onto unstretched canvas, 90" x 70". Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

68 Seats and More: Black Women and the Myth of American Democracy

Backs might have been breaking in Louisville, in Portland, and in Kenosha, when the ghosts of Black radicalism were called upon once again to bridge the chasm between the liberal democratic tradition of representative democracy and the radical demand for abolition democracy.1 By late summer 2020, that demand had municipal […]

Image Credit: Yashua Klos, Head Study 6, (2015). Paper construction of woodblock prints on archival paper, 8" x 8". Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

Method and the Horizon: On Christian Parenti’s Dirigiste Radical Hamilton

(for Mike Ladd) Modern politicians tend to fawn over entrepreneurs and disparage state action. But once in power, even the most radical free-market ideologues practice a form of bastardized Hamiltonianism. This reflects an important historical truth: capitalism is produced and reproduced by the state. –Christian Parenti, Radical Hamilton (174)1 Finally, […]

Image Credit: Henry Taylor, Rock It, (2008). 5 cardboard boxes (premium malt boxes), acrylic on foam mannequin head, wood) 36" x 12" x 80 1/2". © Henry Taylor
Arts & Culture / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

The Danger of Cheer’s Resolve

Ruckus squawking overhead, each moment seagulls grousing as if the world were theirs. Somewhat out of sorts, a casual form slogs along the strand gazing at sky’s noise, a forceful finger lifted to the din, his gruff deliberate bark snarling BASTA! Awkward, slightly corpulent, no longer quickly springing up to […]

Image Credit: Charles Frederick, Shawangunk Mushroom, (2013-2020). Courtesy of the artist.
Arts & Culture / Climate / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

Climate Catastrophes

the roses too/ bloomed red that year/ at the wrong time/ (far too early)/ a warning/ (which once again we refused to heed)/ thus against the fields of white frost,/ they were as though stigmata/ (breaking a holy flesh)/ earth signs, bloodletting/ animals at night/ injuring one another/ (my father […]

Image Credit: Nicole Peyrafitte, Karastic Action, France, (2016). Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

High Tide of Activism

Anyone who lives near a large body of water can appreciate the power and majesty of the tide. It ebbs and flows, a preternatural breathing that radically affects everything and everyone around it. We set our clocks to it. We structure our lives around it. Our security as well as […]

Convergence / Vol. 2 No. 3

Convergence 5: Apocalypse Now and Then

The announcement of this issue was circulated some months ago, but these past weeks have reassured the editors of the necessity of an enterprise seeking to draw together the best of contemporary progressive thought in order to provide the intellectual and emotional sustenance we need to survive this enormous contraction, […]

Image Credit: Felandus Thames, A Mother, A Daughter, and Mother-in-law. (2018) 24"x 39" x 1", Hairbeads on coated wire. Courtesy of the artist.
Business / Convergence / Health / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 3

Apocalypse Now and Then

For the many thousands gone and Cheryl Wall in particular When the editors concocted the thematic for this issue, we’d hoped that “Apocalypse Now and Then” would do more than corner an unmistakable allusion to the title of the 1979 film addressed to the ravages of the Vietnam War and […]

Image Credit: Chester Higgins, State of Affairs, 2020. © Chester Higgins Archives. Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Health / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 3

“For all the tea in China, all the oil in Texas”

The American experiment is imperiled again. The danger that has haunted the republic since its founding has been left unattended for too long and is newly, predictably spilling over. The question remains whether or not the co-citizens of this nation are prepared to respond honestly to what they already know […]