The Way of Nature
Photo by Charlie Davies By Charlie Davies I wrote this text as a celebration of change. In nature, I see so many examples of change. Birds molt, caterpillars metamorphose, water shifts its state, even some rocks transform into others. Some natural phenomena seem almost artificial, like bioluminescence in fireflies or comb jellies. I have always…
where dandelions grow
Photo by Lianelys Cabrera By Angie Shenouda i roll out of bed before 1pm and water my plants for the first time in months i throw away a dozen empty water bottles and free the floor of dirty laundry i roll open the bathroom drawer and throw away six flattened crest tubes i told myself…
‘Tis the Damn Season
Photo by Tracy Fuentes By Katie Richards “We could call it evenEven though I’m leavin’And I’ll be yours for the weekend” – Taylor Swift, ’tis the damn season If it’s okay with you, it’s okay with me. That sentence played over and over in my head as if it were a catchy pop song. Normally, driving through…
Stripping iii/Hold Me Tender
Photo by Riley Lauren Lynch By Riley Lauren Lynch The work I create is, at large, about intimate happenings of the human experience; I aim to continually explore themes of control, trauma, healing, sexuality and objectification. The materiality of my fiber-based pieces is indicative of my mode of creation. I tend to gravitate towards tedious,…
22/21
Photo by Tracy Fuentes By Ahri Vi I never could get into RENT. It’s not bad, and it definitely was groundbreaking for its time. It just wasn’t a musical that I wanted to hear during the time I started getting more into musical theater. No, teenage me was obsessed with Wicked, The Phantom of the…
The Revival of Shoegaze
Photo by Vlada Stark and julie By Vlada Stark Shoegaze is a palpable experience. Surging distorted riffs melt with obscured lucid vocals. The ripple of pure sound swells into an echoing downpour. Every element of you, both physical and metaphysical, reverberates as the intensifying wave of warped sound crashes into you. When the music finally…
Emily Dickinson: Through a Queer Lens
Photo by Sydney Shaffer By Sydney Shaffer Taylor Swift’s version of the Emily and Sue love story As a lesbian poet, I have always looked up to and loved Emily Dickinson. In my high school English class we read “Because I could not stop for Death” by Dickinson. I remember that moment as feeling my…
Disability and Representation in “Hawkeye”
Photo by Tracy Fuentes By Brigita Przybylski Disney+’s Hawkeye, a six-episode Marvel TV series released on November 24th, focuses on Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). Although recent Marvel content like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals have brought much-needed representation to Marvel, Hawkeye expands on…
And I’m Not Going to Die Alone
Photo by Aiden Nelson By Aiden Nelson and I’m going to eat bananas for breakfast and I’m going to make lavender syrup for my iced coffees and I’m going to smile and have it be real and I’m going to dance at 2am outside the empty cinema and I’m going to cry so hard I…
Kindergarten Turns One!
Nearly 200 posts, 12 issues, and one year later, here we are at the first anniversary of Kindergarten Mag! In order to commemorate this moment, editors Tracy and Kleigh asked contributors questions about their time at Kindergarten and their experiences in the past year. Celebrate with us as we reminisce about Kindergarten’s growth and look…
Sex, Appetite, & Intimacy
Photo by Hannah Loessberg By Hannah Loessberg it happens so quick the flash of the eye over my bare left shoulder and a stroke of lipstick and I can have anyone I want, enchanted this power is at my disposal and it’s oh so secretive you will never know unless I want you to know…
Girls Like Me
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Kleigh Balugo In May, I wrote an essay called “Girls Like Me: Finding a Cure for Yellow Fever.” Writing it helped me cope with a past relationship where I was fetishized for being Asian. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about my place in the world and how my…
Confetti Cage
Photo by Ashley Gilland By Ashley Gilland I designed this embroidery with some beloved friends in mind that have felt trapped “in the closet”, but could see the remnants of celebration and pride waiting outside excitedly. The confetti or debris is open to multiple interpretations, but I like to think it is indicative of a…
Bloodline/Just So Pretty
Photo by Sydney Shaffer By Sydney Shaffer bloodline Ⅰ. Cold skin, too stubborn to wear our jackets outside even on Christmas Day. My mustard sweater keeps me warm as different types of smoke dances around us. Ⅱ. Fingers stinky from the beer spills. She responsibly orders us iced water. Dancing to music that dates both…
Same Air
Photo by Greta Unetich By Greta Unetich 10/31/2021 It feels like we are lovers. You come over and we just hold each other while we look out the window, down at the cold outside, down at the groups of people walking by below us, down at the light of the streetlights hitting the pavement. We…
Kleigh’s Year in Review
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Kleigh Balugo Dear Kindergarten Mag readers, In the words of the great Frank Ocean… That’s a pretty fucking fast year flew by. It’s been a year since we started Kindergarten Mag! I’m so proud of how much we’ve done already, even though I know it’s only the beginning. It’s surreal…
Tracy’s Year in Review
Photo by Kleigh Balugo By Tracy Fuentes Dear Kindergarten Mag readers, I have never been very comfortable sharing my writing with anyone other than my professors. In fact, I even hate reading over my own work. I’d crank out a five-page paper in a single night after weeks of procrastination, skim the doc to make…
Kindergarten 