Indie Film in Pittsburgh - College of Humanities and Social Sciences ...

And so, after the bright disco lights have faded,
and the endless I.C. Lights have been taken out
with last week’s recycling, I am left with the
understanding that Clippership, like adulthood, is
full of bewildering surprises and unexpected joys.
I may not know who I am or where I’m going, but
at least I know what to look for; the same thing I
think we’re all looking for—that open bar and
plank at the end of the rainbow.
Shannon Gibney
Fiction writer Shannon Gibney of Minneapolis is managing editor of the Minnesota Spokesman-
Recorder newspaper. She is the recipient of the 2002 Hurston/Wright Award and is a recent graduate of
Indiana University’s MFA program. Her work concerns race, identity and power. Her writing addresses
questions such as: Who gets to define “blackness” and who gets to be “raceless,” and in what settings?
How does identity shift from group to group? What is the power of naming and claiming an identity?
Gibney will use her fellowship to complete her novel, Hank Aaron’s Daughter.
The Grape Crusher
By Rachael Brown
I am often told that I take too much
pleasure in my job but I ask you,
what could be more satisfying
than the exhausting labor
and permanent stain
of grape crushing?
If only society could resemble this:
whole families would tremble
and burst beneath the weight
of my impoverished foot
like the ripe white grapes
whose juice is forced
down the barrel's iron throat, to ferment.
I mean, not that I would equate grapesmashing
with genocide. But just think,
I could be the crowned god
of discipline, glittering
sinister with the blood
of those who gave their lives for something
greater, namely a rare and unusual