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Rumpus Articles
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Two Countries, Two Identities Asking “Where Do I Belong:” A Conversation with Sofi Stambo
“When I was growing up, no one had time for anything, so if I didn’t say what I needed to say quickly—in two lines—the person I was talking to would have moved on already. They would be in another room…
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What Is Freedom: Lynne Tillman
Philosopher Isaiah Berlin drew a seminal distinction between negative liberty, freedom from interference, for instance, from the state, and positive liberty, freedom to self-master, or to live as you want. Berlin said both forms, freedom to and freedom from, are…
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Homecoming
The jokes about being found under a bridge now became a haunting possibility. My mother had passed away years ago and I was estranged from my father. I tried to think if Mom ever mentioned the circumstances of my birth.…
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What Is Freedom? Toshi Reagon
I came through into life through the pathways of this incredible planet. Planet Earth the third planet from the sun. The ocean world. The planet of abundance and life. I arrived through the portal of the people of grace. Singing…
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What Is Freedom: Toshi Reagon
I came through into life through the pathways of this incredible planet. Planet Earth the third planet from the sun. The ocean world. The planet of abundance and life. I arrived through the portal of the people of grace. Singing…
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Like White Ghosts Swimming
The film director chose to shoot the interview with Paul in the living room. Behind Paul: three deer mounts, one pheasant with outstretched wings, and a largemouth bass, interspersed with family portraits. They’d lit him well; Paul looked good in…
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Waiting for Alice
He remains mesmerized by Almost Alice, but because she got off at Metropolitan-Lorimer, she is no longer perfect to him. This Williamsburg Bermuda Triangle of bars is a thirsty cesspool of transplants. Alice would never. But he knows what he…
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Four Poems
Self Portrait of Boy as Venus de Milo The way the light bounces offthe skin covers blemish and bruise. In the light, the bodyis a shiny bronze. The shadowbetween the chest gives the contour of small breasts. If notfor the…
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After February 25, 1971
Grandma was murdered at 42 when gun violence was uncommon. Mom had to identify the body. The coroner pulled the sheet down without warning. The corpse stared back at her. Mouth wide open. How could mom even take care of…
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Girl on Girl (Week One): On Seeing Each Other
When I can’t trust my own eyes, I borrow yours for a while.
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What Is Freedom: Elissa Altman
I had her in my life for eighteen years and ten months before I got the call on a snowy April morning in 1982 that she had died the night before, of a massive heart attack. We lived across the…
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Normalcy? In This Economy?
Perverts is full of squirting, fingering, vibrators, life-changing kisses, and of course, meaningful lesbian glances. Yet intimacy, if it ever arrives, does so as a terrifying and delightful surprise.