Lovely readers,
Welcome to the Subversion issue of the graduate student journal Caustic Frolic, housed in NYU’s Draper MA program in the Humanities and Social Thought. Subversion is the first Caustic Frolic issue in history, we previously published as Anamesa Journal. Thank you for being part of the journey.
Subversion is our reaction to the current political situation. It is a way of being graduate students in the humanities when racism, misogyny, transphobia, and so many other thoughts and feelings of destruction rule. The current US administration threatens all of us. It puts our lives, liberty, and happiness at risk, using health care, national safety, and economic policy for personal gain. It puts women and people of color at risk in ways that are worthy of sci-fi dystopias, not current politics. Its members would rather keep trans children out of bathrooms at school than admit to their own lack of knowledge and empathy. We turn to Art, Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction to shine a light in this darkness. I hope you enjoy the pieces we have selected, and find them useful for your own intellectual empowerment.
Many thanks are due: to the talented, skillful contributors, to the tirelessly working editors of Caustic Frolic who I asked to go above and beyond this semester, to Kimon Keramidas, our faculty advisor at Draper, who provided enthusiastic support and pushed us into innovation, to the always helpful, always kind, Joanna Epstein and Nicole Pandolfo at the Draper office, who made the logistics flow, and to everyone who reads this issue and engages with the ideas and brilliance put forth in it. Thank you all for your interest and care.
At the bottom of this page, meet social justice warrior Assata Shakur, a fighter for social justice, and many more little introductions to subversive people and facts for your inspiration.
Enjoy!
With Love,
Angelina Eimannsberger
Editor in Chief