I know I’m crazy. I try to align events with my body’s tension but can’t remember properly, my racing heart or late-night brain awake with calculations for escape. What if I just walked out, took my body with me? I could wait until my mother and sister are asleep and...
“I ran from the country of my birth because I did not want to die. I am a child of state erasure.” I was born on a war-torn block. Bombs shook the ground and lit up the sky. Fire hung in flaming threads from blown-out windows in abandoned buildings. Foot...
I’ve been invited several times in the last two years to write about how writing transforms the story I tell about myself, how it saves my life. I desire to write about this absolute truth. I set the intention and make the time. I’ve been given deadlines by...
“No one is coming to save us, so we create, we connect, and we save ourselves.” In a writing workshop, a line appears from my subconscious as if by magic, repeated again and again down the page of my notebook – no one is coming to save us. I close my eyes...
Editor’s Introductionby Ben Weakley | February 29th, 2024 It is with great joy that I introduce Art Saves Lives, an essay series by Mission Belonging. In this series, we offer you the words of people who spend their lives and talents bearing witness, going...
