Call for Stories 2023

Show Some Skin: Push.Back

We are facing a pushback. 

Last year, we emerged, slowly but surely, from a pandemic that changed the way we engage with one another at work, at home, and in our communities. We emerged grateful for having made it through a difficult time, and hopeful for the new normal that awaited us. We embraced the opportunities now afforded to us – traveling, spending time with grandparents, going out to dinner or to a movie theatre  – that had not existed for so long. 

As we’ve settled into a new normal, the world nevertheless continues to shift around us. The new world, for which we expressed so much hope, is twisting, distorting around us. Hard-won rights that we once thought were guaranteed are becoming undone. Bodily autonomy has become a regional privilege. Love may soon again be confined to the chains of tradition. Our freedom to go to the supermarket or movie theater or school is corrupted with the threat of violence. Social media has blended with reality so that echo chambers have replaced conversation. Our physical world, too, seems out of control, wracked by climate change. 

Last year, we emerged hopeful for a new normal, but has progress been made? Have we grown complacent in our gratitude at simply being here? For many, the distorted world – the physical and psychic upheavals and violence – has always been normal.

Last year, we asked you what it means to emerge. This year, we ask: In your own life, what are you pushing back against? What is pushing back against you?  What do we, as a community, need to push back against to achieve equilibrium, to make the world – our new normal – more loving, more safe?