Dear Readers,

It has been a privilege to work alongside this team of editors and contributors to build this volume. As my first complete volume with Defunkt, I am so pleased with this truly bright, inquisitive, heartfelt compilation of works we have curated together. Each contributor brought a unique flavor to the table and they all work beautifully together, as well as stand strong individually. 

 

When this issue was first coming together, submissions slowly selected, I don’t know that we knew yet the pressures art and artists would be under in this country and around the world. Surely, we had fears, but to see those fears realized over the course of Volume 14’s assembly added a weight and a gravity to the spaces we were carving out for each contributor’s voice. This work—to create in the face of survival, to make art in a society that does not see its value or the value of the unique lives that craft it—is precious, is a human right, and is necessary. We at Defunkt are so honored and humbled to occupy the small corner of this ecosystem that we do and hope to, in the future, continue contributing and carving out essential spaces for equally essential voices. 

 

Thank you for submitting, for reading, for sharing, for championing in all of the wonderful ways that you do, art. 

 

Warmly and with so much gratitude, 

Bleah 

EIC Defunkt Magazine