Epiphany 15: Pent Up Humanity

It all comes down to identity: who we are, where we are, what we are. The authors of Epiphany 15: Pent Up Humanity grapple with all of these questions across every sort of border: geographical, economical, denominational, and cultural. 

EXCERPTS

FICTION: The Green Light of Dawn | Olga Zilberbourg 

THE END OF AUGUST in Crimea was hailed as the height of the “velvet season.” The warm weather held, but most vacationers from the former USSR returned home to work and school, and the accommodations were cheap. Boarding the plane in New York, I made two connections, in Paris and Kyiv, and landed at the international airport in Simferopol, early morning, two days later. From there, I caught a train to the coast of the Black Sea. I didn’t have a firm agenda, except that I eventually had to make it to the top of Mount Ai-Petri... [READ MORE]

NONFICTION: The Negev | Lev Izraelit

THE DESERT SEEMED to stretch on indefinitely, both in space and time. But it did not lead me to despair. Rather, I felt a strange kind of release. I slowed pace and soon I was walking next to a guy and a girl from my class. Yarin, the young man, was everything I had wanted to be. He was tall and wide-shouldered; he was a band leader and played solos on his guitar; he was in my advanced math class and got high grades. Girls had always drifted toward him. Ruti, the girl, took a literature class with me. She was pretty, with a narrow frame and light freckles. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. I had once shared with her a short story I had written—it fit on a single page, and she had folded it in four and put it in her backpack... [READ MORE] 

POETRY: An Invitation to Travel | Trapeta B. Mayson

In North Philly, we were ambushed by a rogue visitor;
one that clutched our throats and threatened to choke us
out of our budding Americana.
That March, someone reported us to immigration.
And after an investigation,
we were sent a decision. 

Arriving in a letter, neat and succinct, was our invitation t