Editorial
Julie Amparano and Monica J. Casper
Just last year, it seemed that TRIVIA’s venerable status as a longstanding voice for radical feminist thought and discourse would be ending. Our Spring 2012 issue—the first under our editorship—is testament to the resilient and enduring spirit of feminism, and to the broad recognition that TRIVIA is a living artifact of the Women’s Movement. Like you, we believe this historic publication is just too damn valuable to let die, and we are indebted to outgoing editor Lise Weil for gracefully handing us the reins.
Most recently located in the Northeast at the U.S./Canada border, TRIVIA has a new and fitting home in the Southwest. It is being reborn on desert terrain renowned for its restorative qualities and natural beauty. Out of this often parched and outwardly uninhabitable landscape, majesty and tenacity abound, particularly at this time of the year. Already, the stately saguaro cactus – which flowers every year regardless of rainfall levels – is in full bloom with pristine crowns of white and yellow flowers. Like the desert flora, TRIVIA, too, has blossomed again.
It is fitting that TRIVIA has found a home here at precisely the moment when some say Arizona has become a laboratory for regressive laws and extralegal practices that threaten long-established tenets of equality, civil rights, and social justice. In 2010, the “whole world” watched as the passage of Senate Bill 1070 inspired a wave of protests, national and international economic boycotts, and copycat legislation targeting our nation’s largely powerless immigrant communities. Just as TRIVIA was born during the injustices of the second half of the twentieth century, the journal is again at a historic epicenter, bearing witness and offering creatively inspired testimony.
Our inaugural issue spotlights Southwestern Voices with nearly a dozen pieces by writers from the region, as well as from across the United States, Mexico, and the border. Here, in addition to gorgeous photos of the American Southwest by Heather Nicaise, you’ll read a story-poem from Cuernavaca, prose and verse from Texas, a stunning memoir of Monique Wittig in the desert, a reflection on aging and physical fitness, and the aching words of Barbara Mor writing about murdered women and girls of Ciudad Juarez.
Trivia Voices—our general features category—includes a tribute to poet Adrienne Rich, an interview with feminist and critical race scholar bell hooks, a critical essay on Gertrude Stein, poetry by Ellen M. Taylor, Heather Nicaise, and Harriet Ellenberger, and translations of Israeli poet Shez by Elliott batTzedek. In Trivial Lives, Lise Weil shares her passion and grief for Christa Wolf, who died in 2011.
We’ve also added a blog to the website called TriviaComm (“A shared space for communication, community, commitment, commentary, commingling, communion, and more.”) Not only will the blog allow us to better connect with our readers, but it will also allow readers to speak directly with us. We hope you’ll visit the blog and share your thoughts about our inaugural issue and the many to come.
The original mission of TRIVIA was to create a “place where women's ideas can assume their original power and significance.” That mission lives on in the Sonoran Desert.
Con gratitud y paz,
Julie and Monica
Just last year, it seemed that TRIVIA’s venerable status as a longstanding voice for radical feminist thought and discourse would be ending. Our Spring 2012 issue—the first under our editorship—is testament to the resilient and enduring spirit of feminism, and to the broad recognition that TRIVIA is a living artifact of the Women’s Movement. Like you, we believe this historic publication is just too damn valuable to let die, and we are indebted to outgoing editor Lise Weil for gracefully handing us the reins.
Most recently located in the Northeast at the U.S./Canada border, TRIVIA has a new and fitting home in the Southwest. It is being reborn on desert terrain renowned for its restorative qualities and natural beauty. Out of this often parched and outwardly uninhabitable landscape, majesty and tenacity abound, particularly at this time of the year. Already, the stately saguaro cactus – which flowers every year regardless of rainfall levels – is in full bloom with pristine crowns of white and yellow flowers. Like the desert flora, TRIVIA, too, has blossomed again.
It is fitting that TRIVIA has found a home here at precisely the moment when some say Arizona has become a laboratory for regressive laws and extralegal practices that threaten long-established tenets of equality, civil rights, and social justice. In 2010, the “whole world” watched as the passage of Senate Bill 1070 inspired a wave of protests, national and international economic boycotts, and copycat legislation targeting our nation’s largely powerless immigrant communities. Just as TRIVIA was born during the injustices of the second half of the twentieth century, the journal is again at a historic epicenter, bearing witness and offering creatively inspired testimony.
Our inaugural issue spotlights Southwestern Voices with nearly a dozen pieces by writers from the region, as well as from across the United States, Mexico, and the border. Here, in addition to gorgeous photos of the American Southwest by Heather Nicaise, you’ll read a story-poem from Cuernavaca, prose and verse from Texas, a stunning memoir of Monique Wittig in the desert, a reflection on aging and physical fitness, and the aching words of Barbara Mor writing about murdered women and girls of Ciudad Juarez.
Trivia Voices—our general features category—includes a tribute to poet Adrienne Rich, an interview with feminist and critical race scholar bell hooks, a critical essay on Gertrude Stein, poetry by Ellen M. Taylor, Heather Nicaise, and Harriet Ellenberger, and translations of Israeli poet Shez by Elliott batTzedek. In Trivial Lives, Lise Weil shares her passion and grief for Christa Wolf, who died in 2011.
We’ve also added a blog to the website called TriviaComm (“A shared space for communication, community, commitment, commentary, commingling, communion, and more.”) Not only will the blog allow us to better connect with our readers, but it will also allow readers to speak directly with us. We hope you’ll visit the blog and share your thoughts about our inaugural issue and the many to come.
The original mission of TRIVIA was to create a “place where women's ideas can assume their original power and significance.” That mission lives on in the Sonoran Desert.
Con gratitud y paz,
Julie and Monica
