Brown Flesh

by Chisom Okorafor

Brown is the color of flesh, I say,
And everyone nods.
That makes sense,
After all, your flesh is brown.
And other have different colors.
But that's not what I meant.
I know flesh exists in other colors.
Yet brown is the color of flesh.

Flesh is meaty and fatty and sweaty,
And everything everyone hates
Brown is flesh and flesh is unholy
Primitive, dirty, loud, and
It Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God.

They have tried to sever the connection
Between body and mind,
Earth and Heaven,
Flesh and spirit.
But there can be no such distinction.

Flesh is the hand brushing the bark of a tree,
The fat under an arm swinging as we dance,
A baby's hand first grasping their father's
Nose,
Flesh is my eyes and ears and tongue
The fruits of the flesh are transcendent.
And if there is a heaven it will be covered
In green, and pink,
And most certainly in
Fleshy, muddy, dirty, woody brown.

Camouflaged Loyalty

by Prosper Aluu

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Chisom “Somaya” Okorafor is a Politics major at the University of San Francisco. This collection of poems details her frustrations surrounding Environmental Justice, and cross-cultural intersectionality.

Born and raised in Nigeria, West Africa, Prosper Aluu makes figurative and expressive paintings. Prosper grew up drawing comics and characters which enabled him understand the human figure and expressions properly, after which he became a full time studio artist in 2017. Prosper studied at the Federal University of Technology Owerri, where he learnt Building technology with an architectural background on designing. He also acquired expertise in graphic design, illustration, 3D modelling, video editing and animation. In 2018, he had his first official art exhibition where he won the Peace Poster award for his painting on Peace at the ANBUKRAFT. He has participated in several exhibitions and competitions since then and has won some of them. In 2020, he was signed as a brand ambassador to TECNO mobile Nigeria on a one year deal. His works has appeared in countries like, South Africa, United kingdom, United States, Canada, Japan e.t.cNigeria, b. 1999.