the arrival: an introduction.

There is a metaphor in here somewhere, some kind of poetry to naming an online journal, Union Station. Back in the old days, we dreamt of the internet as more information superhighway than a shopping mall.  Its sprawling collection of wires, fiber optic cables propelling bits, kilobytes, megabytes of sound, word and image to multiple points and platforms mystified the generations that preceded us the way that steam engines on trains once shocked some a century or more ago.

At some point in our ruminations on naming we learned that the train station at Union Square, where the louderARTS Project got its start, was once called Union Station, that there are Union Stations all over this country conceived to draw in multiple lines of transition and transformation as people journeyed in search of themselves.  As city girls we are enamored of train stations, of massive transit and multi-directionality in the mass is one of our fascinations.

We also learned that Union Square was also a Potters’ Field but we decided to leave that alone.

We are a multilingual, multicultural generation.  We contain multitudes.  We, better than any generation, understand that in our art, our politics and our living we can hold the paradox.  So we wanted in this debut issue to present a few voices that we believe express the multitude and the paradox. We are joined by poets Jai Chakrabarti, Jeanann Verlee,  David Ayllon, Mara Jebsen, Austin LaGrone, Taylor Mali, Adam Falkner, and Jared Singer.  We present fiction from Shelly Oria and Stacia Brown and a photo essay from Grace Kim.  In addition, in what will be an ongoing conversation about art, life and process Jon Sands kicks off his interview series with renaissance woman, Mahogany Browne.

Your editors,

Syreeta McFadden & Lynne Procope