Wovokia – fiction by Joe Emersberger

Jack Wilson, a reporter for the Scottish edition of the Daily Telegraph, uncovered opinion polls that found 60% of US citizens (40% of Canadians) did not know that Wovokia was an independent country or that the US and Canada had made traveling to Wovokia illegal. (Wovokia had previously been known as the Canadian province of British Columbia, and the US states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona.) These polls were done fifteen years after Wovokia declared its independence. The polls also showed that most people who did know about Wovokia’s independence did not consider it a matter of great concern.

Jack was surprised that most US officials would say nothing to him about Wovokia – even off the record. However, one official dared to claim that Wovokia’s independence had been granted because a massive influx of ethnic minorities made the region ungovernable. The US, like a major corporation, had simply decided to downsize – to stop the drain on its resources. Jack was no economist but knew the natural and industrial wealth of Wovokia made this claim more laughable than any wild conspiracy theory.

The more Jack researched, the more he gasped at how successfully the government and media had buried the loss of huge swaths of territory, but Wovokians had also contributed to this success by keeping a low profile internationally. That had changed very recently. Wovokia was now clashing with the USA frequently at the UN. Hence the Daily Telegraph’s sudden interest. Read the rest of this entry »

The Play – prose poem by Alaa Kadhim al-Jabiri

“I beg your pardon my dear readers I did not mention the name of the play which is ‘The Mass Graves’.”

 

 …The play has started…

Turn out the lights…

Ladies and Gentlemen hold your breaths, stop speaking because you are sleeping victims.

The curtains are opened.

The first and the last scene.

From the podium of Death, the little girl Victim appears on the stage searching for her mother Oppressed as she stares at the pale faces and calls upon her mother: Mama. Mama. Where are you Mama Oppressed?…

A voice then cries from far…

My little girl, my dear, I am here.

The mother runs to her little girl, takes her into her arms, asking her, where were you my little girl…

The little girl replies with tears falling on her cheeks.

Mama, they took me to the second car, told me that my Mama was in the second car and that I would be with her in one place soon.

Oppressed wipes off her little girl’s tears and holds her in her arms again as she mulls over the sand hills of the desert of the south and the little girl sleeps on a merciful chest and paints kisses on her mother’s cheeks and the farewell smiles, then the sand curtains fall. The end.

The victims started talking about their secrets which are soaked with blood and the sound of the last bullets.

I beg your pardon my dear readers I did not mention the name of the play which is “The Mass Graves.”     

Baghdad, Iraq

Emergency Clinic – poetry by Adrienne Rich

The Briefing – fiction by Arundhati Roy

“…when the trees migrate…”

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Herb and Leo Are at It Again – fiction by Shelley Ettinger

Unions, organizing, immigration, and friendship then and now.

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Liberatory Cartoons – by Marina Weidemanne

Which Side Are You On? – lyrics by Florence Reese

A Cycle – poetry by Mickey Z.

An irony of culture. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Forgotten Inmate – fiction by Adetokunbo Abiola

 

They said she was dead, Katherine Adamu thought, sitting on the edge of the bunk and staring into the gloom of the Benin City cell. Dead because they wanted her dead. Dead because they wanted the malaria in her body and the hunger in her stomach to continue until she was dead. Read the rest of this entry »

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Segundo’s Revenge – fiction by Joe Emersberger

Rodrigo Cornejo sat alone in a waiting room wondering if the psychiatrist was making any progress with his son.  He had given up trying to hear what his boy was saying to the doctor on the other side of the door. Even with his hearing aid turned up all the way, it was futile.

Brendan was Rodrigo’s only child – his miracle child because of how late in life his deceased wife had given birth to him. Rodrigo was old enough to be Brendan’s grandfather, and had brought him up in a very indulgent, grandfatherly way. Brendan had never been discouraged from following his heart. While his friends entered university making “practical” decisions about what to study, Brendan unflinchingly pursued his passion – history. But Brendan’s passion for history and for Ecuador (where he had done research for a doctorate) seemed to have somehow displaced his sanity. Read the rest of this entry »

Poems – Buff Whitman-Bradley

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Satires – Buff Whitman-Bradley

Dozers – poetry by Andrew Rihn

What I Tell the Young When They Ask – poetry by Margaret Randall

The art of resist. 

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Oñate’s Right Foot – essay by Margaret Randall

History – reality and symbol – in New Mexico. 

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Drowning in Bones and Flames – collage by Theodore A. Harris

“Fuses” – silkscreen by Mark Vallen

Revolutionary silkscreen

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“Apostles of Ugliness”: 100 Years Later – essay by Mark Vallen

Much of Liberation Lit’s first issue cover art is in the style overviewed below, including work by John Sloan.

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Iraq on My Mind: Thousands of Stories to Tell – And No One to Listen – essay by Dahr Jamail

Views of Iraq and the USA from an independent reporter and others.

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Love’s Indomitable Spirit Still Alive in Kenya – by Rasna Warah

Focus: Kenya view. 

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2 Poems – by Betty Muragori

Focus: Kenya poems.

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Recipes for Disaster in Iraq – by Tom Engelhardt and Frida Berrigan

Cooking up geopolitical crime in Washington D. C. 

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Lake of Heaven excerpt – by Ishimure Michiko

 Community destroyed by dam building in Japan.

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Prison Poetry

Multiple poems and a story, by state of Illinois prisoners.

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Prestamped – by Cari Carpenter

What may not be mailed to prison.

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6 Poems – by Stephen Derwent Partington

Focus: Kenya poems.

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A Moment – by Yvonne A. Owuor

Focus: Kenya view. 

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When the Nakumatts Close – by Wambui Mwangi

Focus: Kenya view.

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Cartoons – by Stephanie McMillan

Against corporate state conquest in Iraq and elsewhere.

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Unsettled – by Kalundi Serumaga

Focus: Kenya view.

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Let Kenyans Take the Lead – by Shalini Gidoomal

Focus: Kenya view.

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No Laughing Matter – by Judy Kibinge

Focus: Kenya view. 

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Unsung Heroes of Kenya – by Mike Eldon

Focus: Kenya view.

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We the Kikuyu – by Potash

Focus: Kenya view.

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Translated from Kibakizungu – by Wambui Mwangi

Focus: Kenya view.

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The Brinkipice of Genocide – by Tony Mochama

Focus: Kenya fiction, and view (nonfiction). 

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The Obituary of Simiyu Barasa, Written by Himself – by Simiyu Barasa

Focus: Kenya view. 

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Echoes – by Yvonne A. Owuor

Focus: Kenya view. 

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I Blame Kibaki – by Potash

Focus: Kenya view. 

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The Fire This Time – by Martin Kimani

Focus: Kenya view.

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