Editorial Statement by Poetry Editor Sierra Baer

This generation of young adults are living in a society focused on political correctness and stifled creativity. There’s a sense of urgency to grow up faster and figure out exactly what we want our future endeavors to be. Our society is dismissing the arts because they challenge the norms and create tension between diverse groups of people. However, current young adults are un-phased by censorship. Their freedoms now lie in creative literature, such as Shanille Allo’s “Beautiful Bastard.” Allo plays on emotion by describing the physical and mental anguish a young girl was put through. “So ever since I turned 3/ Daddy would come over / And I’d get beaten, molested, and raped.” Sensitive subjects aren’t off limits to this new wave of young, creative genius. In a society supposedly better than before, students are still jumping hurdles to be heard. Picking up a pen no longer means write what’s on your mind, so why pick up the pen at all? In “Writing Takes Courage,” Jason Moffitt expresses the feeling of putting down the pen and surrendering. “I have stopped writing/And I am doing more dying than living.” Creative literature will always be criticized, but students will continue to fill pages and write with no restriction because now, words are the way of the world.