vela magazine
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Flannel-Soaked Nostalgia
Is there any fabric more well-loved than flannel? At Vela Magazine, Sonya Huber discusses the significance wearing flannel had to her teenage self in the 1980s Midwest: Flannel hid the shape of a woman, yet it revealed as we pushed…
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Art Monster Moms
Rufi Thorpe writes for Vela on the responsibilities of writing and motherhood, and the transformation of a woman writer into an “art monster”: But any soldier will tell you that much of the Army is similarly boring and routine. Yet…
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Striking a Nerve
At Vela Magazine, Amy Bess Cook discusses living with epilepsy, and the problem with considering epilepsy as neurodiversity: While one of these—grand mal seizures—overlaps with Sylvie’s, our conditions differ. Seizure causes, auras (the body’s precursory warning state), and severity leave room…
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The Cultural Significance of Whitney Houston
At Vela Magazine, Danielle Jackson discusses Whitney Houston as an embodiment of black excellence, and the continued erasure of black artists’ contributions to commercial music: Houston and the entire lineage of black women performers that preceded her invented techniques and sounds…
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The Complicated “Riches” Of America
In a nuanced essay at Vela Magazine, Anne P. Beatty discusses what her experiences teaching for the Peace Corps in Nepal and teaching at an impoverished school in LA taught her about privilege and about America: Nepal seemed full of…
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Instagramming Motherhood
Vela Magazine’s always-funny Sarah Menkedick discusses her newfound relationship with Instagram as a mother, and posits photo-sharing as a powerful validation of domesticity: It creates scenes, story. More importantly, it asks for recognition and imbues meaning. It ushers the domestic out…
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The Residue of Memory
At Vela Magazine, Leslie Kendall Dye discusses living with her mother who has dementia, and the connection between her mother and her own daughter: After dinner, I watch my mother and child play in my daughter’s shoe-box room. My daughter is…
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A Writer’s Love-Hate Relationship with the Internet
Over at Vela Magazine, Sarah Menkedick discusses her complicated relationship with the endless distraction and instant gratification of the Internet as a writer: My default instinct is to skew towards the more challenging option, which demands greater discipline and less…
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Extensions of the Self
Over at Vela Magazine, Rachel Wilkinson explores the cultural significance of women’s hair: Feminists have often identified hair grooming as the first lesson in gender socialization. Dolls are perfectly designed to aid girls in learning submission, letting them play-act the…
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Write Like A Mother
In a poignant and funny essay, Vela Magazine’s Sarah Menkedick discusses being a writer while being a mother: The house looks as though someone has flipped it upside down and shaken it, we’re surviving off cans of refried beans, the poor…
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Growing Up With Signs
At Vela Magazine, Katie Booth writes on the historical repression of sign language in favor of oralism, and her experience growing up hearing with a deaf grandmother: Everywhere she went, she brought Sign. In my mind, it was an act of…
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Support Vela’s Kickstarter to Pay Writers
Vela Magazine is hoping to raise $25,000 to pay its women writers and editors. With less than a week left, they have $7,059 to pry from your gender-netural credit cards.