Dear Readers,
Let me introduce myself, I am the Founding Editor of Evocations, a literary and art review dedicated to creating a more equal world through the power of literature and art. I hold a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, and advanced certificates in Women's & Gender Studies; Creative Writing; and Art & Philosophy.
I started Evocations because I love literary magazines. My first introduction to their appeal was as a teenager with Cicada, a literary magazine for teens. Each month, when I spotted the unique cover art of the issue in the mail, I'd snatch it away and pore through it with focused wonder. I was infatuated with all the different tones, styles, narratives, characters, drama, traumas, and resolutions within one slender book. I was drawn to how this democratizing depiction of literature could present the complexity of internal experience without hierarchy. That kind of kaleidoscope of creativity is recreated today - digitally and with an intersectional and environmental bent - in Evocations.
The past few years have sometimes felt like a downward spiral of misogynistic politics, emboldened racists and sexists, and ever-increasing climate threats that can make reality feel all too much like a narrowing tunnel - no matter how many episodes on Netflix you binge watch. Evocations was created as a space to foster a community of hope, resistance, and joy in direct retaliation against a too-often patriarchal and racist government and society, environmental destruction, and the negative void felt in the face of these psychological and physical threats. I believe that giving more of a voice to marginalized, threatened communities is something many of us crave. The power of art and the imagination is that new perspectives and interpretations can be conjured; historically activists, artists, and writers have driven home this fact. Evocations is a space to give voice to injustice and to evoke justice.
In this issue you will read an imagined scenario between a woman and the Greek goddess Medusa, see a visual rendition of ancient Egyptian art through the lens of cancer treatment, discover how an analogy for AIDS in the Kronotic Effect reveals the epidemic in new ways, and how a material change in the Greenland ice sheet expresses the urgency of its fragility. This issue includes poems about the inexplicable distances - and intimacies - between lovers, poems about being an immigrant in the US, a unique tarot card deck designed to address climate change, and photographs of the natural world that inspire an appreciation of wonder in simplicity. Consistent among all these works is the depth of voice and vision to relay a specific point of view and experience. As with Cicada, when those heterogeneous points of views interact with one another they reveal depths and intricacies of reality that can uniquely give expression to what we feel, and help us to make sense of, and enjoy, our world.
This issue, Vol.1 No.1., presents queer-feminist, LGBTQ, anti-patriarchal, anti-racist, environmental voices as a complex kaleidoscope that are welcomed and celebrated. Thank you for being a part of this community and for reading.
Sincerely Yours,
Kim Coates
February 2020
