ARTIST STATEMENT
This piece is part of a poetry series born of grief and anger and frustration — one on the eve of Biden’s inauguration when it was difficult to celebrate his victory knowing we had a long way to go to repair two centuries of damage; one the day after the 2024 election when I was afraid of what was going to come next; and one in response to the increasing fear I feel as a poet that I will one day be silenced for telling the truth. The work is meant as a call to action: to repent, to hope, and to recognize the hypocrisy of a “free” nation that demands we revise history and, as Orwell said, “reject the evidence of (our) eyes and ears.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jacqueline E. Tirey (she/they) is a queer poet and essayist living in Dayton, Ohio. Her poem “otherworldly transmissions from the motherwound” appears in the anthology “Voices of the Moon.”
© Jacqueline E. Tirey