ABOUT THE CURRENT ISSUE
The Killens Review of Arts & Letters is a peer-reviewed journal that welcomes Black writers and artists whose work speaks to the general public and to an intergenerational range of readers represented throughout the African diaspora.

The theme of this issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters is Black Youth. A photograph of Dr. Myrah Brown Green’s quilt, “The Administrator: You Belong at the Table,” serves as the issue’s cover image. “The Administrator” is a part of Green’s Guardian series, a collection of quilts that depict a diverse group of defenders and nurturers of Black personhood. This issue, with a particular focus on the singularity of Black youth, illustrates the importance of protecting all that is precious within Black life.

As an editorial team, we are grateful to have been able to include the creative expression and brilliance of Black youth writers and artists in this issue. A finger-painting toddler from New Orleans, a fourteen-year-old poet repping Brooklyn, and a courageous undergraduate student attending Lehman College are among the voices reminding us that the “[Y]outh got somethin’ to say!”

As we know, wherever there is Black life, there are systemic and systematic attempts to suppress it. Our contributors explore how mass incarceration, reproductive injustice, enduring racialized and gendered stereotypes, heteropatriarchy, among other violences, impact the lives of Black youth. Our world leaders, across the political spectrum, have a hand in engineering and sustaining this violence, a reality that might drive us to despair. Thus, a focus on Black youth might steady our will to forge ahead.

General questions about the Killens Review are directed to info@centerforblackliterature.org.

PLEASE NOTE: Material in this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.