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Editor's Note

Another semester comes and goes as we put together our second issue of One Twenty One, Virginia State University's online journal of...

Just a Woman

By Nailah Starks, Dillard University A woman, I have become a child with no morals. How can you spell beauty without the ‘but’? I have...

Dear Mom

By Yani McNeil, Virginia State University First Place Winner, Creative Nonfiction, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest Dear Mom,...

Mirrors on the Wall

By Samaria Rountree, Virginia State University First Place Winner, Fiction, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest Everyone was busy...

Requiem for Terra

By Matthew Prosise, Virginia State University First Place Winner, Poetry, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest Cry for lost and...

AWAY

By Kadyn Washington, Virginia State University Second-Place Winner, Poetry, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest The sounds of...

Aida and the Crystal Palace

By Hamilton Winstead, Virginia State University Her only wish was that her body could be the same as those around her. When she was a...

My Blackness

By Kadyn Washington, Virginia State University My blackness is not subjected to just my melanin but what lies within The innocence...

The Great Outdoors

By Malia Saygo, Virginia State University My peace is not confined to a certain place or person. My peace shapeshifts into whatever color...

Amplifying Women's Voices Through Fictional Writing

By Besmah Al-Ashari, Virginia State University Dating back as far as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in 1852 to confront the...

Lost Love from a Hopeless Romantic

By Aerin Cuff, Virginia State University Second Place Winner, Creative Nonfiction, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest Once, I...

Haikus for the Black Man

By Nailah Starks, Dillard University Beware, he’s coming Have you ever heard him speak? Roses kiss his tongue. Momma who is that? He’s a...

What Now?

By Nailah Starks, Dillard University I am no longer listening to or taking advice from people whose best lines are “It’s gonna be okay”...

Hear the Loud Gospel

By Nailah Starks, Dillard University Her surround sound system was loud enough to confuse its purpose for her to ignore the devil she’d...

In Too Deep

By Nailah Starks, Dillard University Raptured You’ve got me Captured in this prison you call passion. You starve me then tell me you love...

Rest in Power

By Nailah Starks, Dillard University To you, my black girl…my black woman I want you to know that I hear you…that I acknowledge all you...

Boy

By France Archange, Oakwood University A response to Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” Tuck your shirt in your pants when going to school; always...

Troubled Man

By France Archange, Oakwood University Every morning was the same; he woke up and sat on his bed for an hour and a half; he didn’t care...

Such a Lady

By Samaria Rountree, Virginia State University He says, you’re so pretty and delicate, like a daisy or a tulip. He says, you shouldn’t...

Farewell

By Aerin Cuff, Virginia State University Second Place Winner, Fiction, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest Knock. Knock. Knock....