Red Door Magazine 21
Issue #21, TRANSITIONS www.reddoormagazine.com
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R E D<br />
D O O R<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> WINTER 2019
R E D R E D D O O D R<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> WINTER 2019<br />
This 10th anniversary issue has been compiled in our current physical location in Copenhagen,<br />
Denmark. With collaborations from Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Haiti, Cuba, Ecuador, and other<br />
areas of the Americas, as well as various locations in Europe. Thank you for having us.<br />
www.reddoormagazine.com<br />
<strong>21</strong><br />
Since its creation in New York in 2009, <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Door</strong> aims to serve as an<br />
alternative platform for voices, stories and projects to be heard<br />
without censorship. An independent door to connect our communities,<br />
participating actively in the process of self-actualization, construction and<br />
connection, as a space for free expression and active communication.<br />
W O R L D T H R E A D I N G<br />
Our goal is t o provide the tools for you to be the storytellers and create<br />
opportunities right here and now, between each city and space we inhabit.<br />
Starting the conversations that need to happen.<br />
We aim to be the open door that welcomes the future we need to create<br />
together. The time is now. We exist. Is 2020 ready for us?<br />
All content published with authorization of the authors or their representatives,<br />
remains the property of the respective names listed along each article.<br />
All rights of this publication reserved by<br />
RED DOOR <strong>Magazine</strong> & Gallery,<br />
the artists, the writers, and the photographers.<br />
The reproduction of this magazine in whole or in part is not authorized<br />
without previous written consent from the corresponding parties.<br />
© RED DOOR<br />
Copenhagen, Denmark, 2019
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong>: TRANSITIONS<br />
Editor in Chief,<br />
Design & Art Director:<br />
Elizabeth Torres, Denmark<br />
Correspondents:<br />
IN this issue:<br />
The Neon Rebel,<br />
The Neon Rebellion,<br />
by Melaine Knight, Australia<br />
The House that Jan Built,<br />
Brandon Davis, x-USA / Europe<br />
INTERVIEW with<br />
Daniel Malpica<br />
poet, worldthreader,<br />
HELSINKI 2019<br />
The House that Jan Built<br />
Fundacion Flacquer<br />
by Brandon Davis<br />
LITERATURE:<br />
Give it to the GRAND CANYON<br />
by Noah Cicero - review<br />
POETRY:<br />
Janice D. Soderling<br />
Peter Boyle<br />
Mercedes Roffe<br />
Samuel Gregoire<br />
Julie O’Yang<br />
(Photography by Filip Naudts)<br />
Aleisa Ribalta<br />
Tex Kerschen<br />
VISUAL ART:<br />
Misia Martus aka Mymajo<br />
ECUADOR’S UNREST<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY BY:<br />
David Diaz.<br />
Additional content: An instruction manual to<br />
keep you safe when the time comes to march.<br />
Cover art and featured art by @MYMAJO<br />
<strong>Magazine</strong> designed on InDesign and<br />
Illustrated digitally by Eli<br />
www.madamneverstop.com<br />
Fonts: Aileron for text,<br />
Aktiv Grotesk for subtitles and titles<br />
HEX code: 008080 teal<br />
Tiffany light teal: 81D8d0<br />
RED DOOR<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
Since 2009<br />
10...9....8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1
MAY THE FUTURE FIND US<br />
the TRANSITIONS issue, and how we approach 2020<br />
Everywhere I go, whatever I do, from a podcast interview to the recruiting of content for<br />
another issue of the magazine or simply hanging out with friends, there are subjects<br />
resounding in everybody’s mouths.<br />
They’re words we didn’t often pronounce growing up, but I wonder what would have happened,<br />
had we grown up in a world where we did.<br />
Justice. Equality. Sustainability.<br />
Balance. Accountability. Freedom.<br />
From the current situation going on in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, to the 16 year old<br />
Swedish woman standing up in a desperate attempt to salvage our future from ourselves.<br />
In the US there’s an IMPEACHMENT trial going on slowly but surely that has many of you<br />
pasted to your TV screens, while in the meantime Gaza trembles, still, and we stand here,<br />
watching it all with sinking feelings in suspense.<br />
When I ask you about transitions, and what they mean to you, poetry flows in various<br />
languages and stories of grief, reconstruction and unrest arrive to the inbox. But that is<br />
precisely what I mean. In order for us to flourish into a more accepting, acceptable society,<br />
a lot is going to have to burn, a lot is going to have to crash, a lot is going to have to be<br />
ripped apart like dead bark, and if it wants to stick around like a rotten virus, then it is up to<br />
us to recognize this and stand up, put on our masks and be the ones who remove it.<br />
Look at Hong Kong. Look at Brazil. Look at Egypt.<br />
the answer is one and it is coming from every angle of our<br />
planet, because we’re hungry, cold, tired, sick of the lies<br />
and sick of the pretentions, and probably exhausted like our<br />
planet is exhausted of the control mechanisms that have<br />
placed us in a wheel of agony and blindness for generations.<br />
Not anymore. Read between the lines. See past the headlines<br />
and hashtags of the constant overfeed of content and realize<br />
that it is up to you now to take action.<br />
Fear not. It is up to each one of us. We are in this together.<br />
May 2020 bring us the resolve and rage necessary for us to<br />
overcome the last of these chains and find the freedom we<br />
and our children deserve.<br />
May the future find us fighting for what is ours.<br />
WE EXIST.<br />
4 www.reddoormagazine.com<br />
-Madam Neverstop.
y Mercedes Roffé<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 5
MERCEDES ROFFÉ<br />
Wandering Canto - Translated from Spanish by Margaret Carson<br />
I don’t know how many dreams ago<br />
this journey began<br />
at the shore of the sun at the shore of death<br />
Like a veil sinking into memory<br />
apprentice to banishment<br />
O mirror, moon of dark omens<br />
From what heights will I ask the waters for the path<br />
at the shore of the sun at the shore of death<br />
Time is suspended<br />
and yet<br />
verbs still happen<br />
yesterday an elm tomorrow perhaps a willow<br />
I cross the milk-white thickness of the day<br />
A blind man<br />
a monk<br />
a puppet stretch out their arms from the shore<br />
I HAD PROPHESIZED THE LOSS OF THE KINGDOM<br />
I had seen the boats of madness go by<br />
I had seen the lofty gestures of the idle priests<br />
O innards of vultures, you<br />
had revealed to me the destruction of the temple<br />
But<br />
who heard<br />
Toledo and Alexandria had no room for<br />
the black tongue of the seer<br />
I HAD PROPHESIZED THE DEATH OF THE GODS<br />
But<br />
who heard<br />
* * *<br />
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Tears of blood<br />
toothless laughter<br />
on a river of fire the ship sails<br />
The altars were sacked<br />
and the leaves stirred up by the wind<br />
and the sibylline dogs tempted by the profane<br />
beast<br />
and by food<br />
and the nuptial bed<br />
and silence<br />
Someone hurled the Word from the top of<br />
the tower<br />
The tower is burning<br />
Someone dug up the corpses of my voice<br />
the bodies<br />
the names<br />
The earth is burning<br />
Someone hurled the light the canto<br />
The ocean is burning<br />
Father<br />
Father<br />
A demented child has come out of my body<br />
and has given me<br />
a zither as my fate<br />
and as scepter<br />
shards of a mirror<br />
on the wet spine of a serpent<br />
(oh moon of dark omens)<br />
* * *
You know<br />
You won’t know<br />
You’ve made a crown of perverse fruits<br />
and placed it on my head<br />
Prince<br />
Loss<br />
has chosen your age as a<br />
safe haven<br />
and the hour of your thirst as a sanctuary<br />
You’ve stolen the painted mantle of the<br />
bride<br />
and draped me in golds and purples<br />
(deceptive jewel<br />
the word)<br />
You know<br />
You won’t know<br />
And you’ve threaded diamonds for my<br />
bare feet<br />
and you’ve aged honey for my body<br />
Instead of the battle a monotonous song<br />
Instead of a song a sharp stubborn iron.<br />
. .<br />
Useless to crouch down in the ancient<br />
valley<br />
Useless to tempt the hot coals<br />
Lamb<br />
The golden domes of the Abyss will not<br />
shine for you<br />
There is no shelter no flock<br />
You won’t know<br />
And you’ve cried out<br />
and you’ve performed the rite<br />
and you’ve given it up for dead<br />
(Night<br />
nothing can hide from you<br />
you deny nothing<br />
Old wish-giver)<br />
And you’ve been pretending<br />
But<br />
You won’t know<br />
The path has been forgotten<br />
if there was any<br />
Little Feet . . .<br />
MERCEDES ROFFÉ is one of Argentina’s leading poets.<br />
Widely published in the Spanish-speaking world,<br />
her books have been published in translation in Italy,<br />
France, Quebec, Romania, Brazil, England, and the<br />
United States. Her books in English translation include<br />
Floating Lanterns, transl. by Anna Deeny (UK, Shearman<br />
Books, 2015) and Ghost Opera, transl. by Judith<br />
Filc (US, co-im-press, 2017). She is the editorial director<br />
of Ediciones Pen Press (www.edicionespenpress.<br />
com), specialized in contemporary poetry from around<br />
the world. Among other distinctions, she was awarded<br />
fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim (2001)<br />
and the Civitella Ranieri foundations (2012).<br />
Books of her photographs inlcude, The Blue Line /<br />
La línea azul (Madrid, 2012) and Otras lenguas (Santa<br />
Fe, 2019). She lives in New York.<br />
MARGARET CARSON’s translations include Remedios<br />
Varo’s Letters, Dreams & Other Writings (Wakefield<br />
Press) and Sergio Chejfec’s Baroni, A Journey (Almost<br />
Island) and My Two Worlds (Open Letter).<br />
Other translations have appeared in The Paris Review,<br />
Aufgabe, BOMB, EOAGH, Asymptote, Seedings,<br />
[SLUG], and Words Without Borders. She is Assistant<br />
Professor in the Modern Languages Department at<br />
Borough of Manhattan Community College, The City<br />
University of New York.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 7
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JULIE O’YANG is a Europe-based poet, writer,<br />
artist. Born and raised in China, Julie left for<br />
London in the 1990s and has lived in free exile<br />
since. Her work covers a wide spectrum.<br />
She draws inspiration from her multicultural<br />
background and creates an imaginative world.<br />
She is known for her bold, edgy and stunning<br />
approach toward her subjects. Julie currently<br />
works from The Netherlands and Denmark.<br />
www.julieoyang.com<br />
FILIP NAUDTS is a Flemish press photographer<br />
and photography artist. His photography has<br />
been applauded by the media as well as the<br />
general audience. Today Filip Naudts is a household<br />
name with a strong artist’s signature. In his<br />
creative process, he is fascinated by beauty as<br />
well as its relativity. His art reflects an aesthet-<br />
IMAGE BY FILIP NAUDTS<br />
POETRY BY JULIE O’YANG<br />
Blue Tulip<br />
Have you ever forgotten a tulip<br />
and left her in the snow<br />
and as her petals would curl<br />
you grow feverish on her missing scent<br />
her hand turned up and be utterly empty<br />
you are puzzled how free she is, so free it hurts<br />
you<br />
the sticky toffee fingers from a dream<br />
floating over the white ice, quivers<br />
with excitement, longing for spring<br />
let the world be crazy<br />
who cares if we don’t see the sunshine ever?<br />
she wants to be herself<br />
to make a fine show<br />
and be good for nothing.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 9
ALEISA RIBALTA<br />
THE TRUTH<br />
OF A LOTUS FLOWER<br />
Translation by Elizabeth Torres<br />
A lotus flower can sleep<br />
but it will open its petals<br />
sooner or later<br />
from and within the water.<br />
Every lotus flower will be cultivated<br />
in still, lukewarm water<br />
the currents may dry out the roots<br />
if they’re too far-reaching<br />
it must always be ensured<br />
that they do not touch the ice<br />
nor are embraced by its intensity.<br />
After being harvested the flower<br />
will be sold<br />
preferably to the highest bidder<br />
who in turn will commercialize it<br />
in large scale.<br />
Anything can be made<br />
from the lotus flower.<br />
The lotus hearts can be boiled<br />
their sour taste goes well<br />
with tea, soup and rice<br />
stabilizing and calming<br />
the most unstable intestines.<br />
Lotus petals are great for use<br />
as cosmetics<br />
for skin, hair, teeth<br />
everything can be improved<br />
From the flower essence oil and<br />
creams can be made<br />
desired by women<br />
for making their lovers more virile.<br />
Lotus roots cut like cartwheels<br />
have the same form as a lemon slice<br />
dry and without seeds<br />
delicious when fried<br />
served in most distant<br />
and respectable<br />
Asian dining tables.<br />
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Aleisa Ribalta (Havana, 1971). Born in Cuba, lives inSweden since 1998.<br />
She is a poet, translator and cultural coordinator. As a professional engineer,<br />
works as a teacher of several technical subjects and not directly related to<br />
literature such as: Graphic Interface Design, Web Design and Application Programming.<br />
Has published Talud (Ekelecuá Ediciones, 2018), a first book that<br />
has been translated into Catalan and published as a bilingual edition Talús<br />
/ Talud (bokeh, 2018) and Tablero (Verbo (des)Nudo, Chile, 2019). Has in<br />
preparation the books Cuaderna, bao y regala and Intersexuals Poems.<br />
Collaborated in magazines such as Animal Suspicious (Spain), Conexos<br />
(USA) and Verb (des) Nudo (Chile) with articles and translations. Her poems<br />
have also been published in Humo <strong>Magazine</strong> (Mexico), Le foil (Argentina),<br />
Mimeógrafo (Mexico), Kokoro (Spain) and Nagari (United States). Aleisa<br />
participated in the poetry anthology written by women (Verb (des)<br />
knot, 2018) and All women (Foundations, 2018).<br />
She also directs the online magazine: www.lalibelulavaga.com<br />
The seeds of the lotus flower<br />
Have the same duty o frestarting<br />
this arduous process<br />
Unless they’re taken from the heart<br />
of the flower<br />
in secrecy as smuggled goods<br />
to be used for obscure and varied<br />
medical purposes<br />
Whereas they end up in delicate<br />
beauty pots<br />
In tea mixtures that (according to<br />
the Chinese)<br />
can help ’clear up the heat’<br />
in rough times for certain women<br />
the same who no longer ask<br />
for ointments for the member of<br />
their loved one<br />
nor for bowel-calming medications<br />
nor for smooth complexions,<br />
nor for hair-straightening tricks<br />
but just a bit of steadiness<br />
so that the currents<br />
don’t reach the roots<br />
and suddenlt dry up<br />
the already sour heart<br />
because from the lotus flower<br />
they have learned<br />
to bloom<br />
when noone is waiting,<br />
warm, still<br />
and even two times<br />
per year.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 11
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MYMAJO says that art is the easiest way for her to talk<br />
to people during episodes of social anxiety. She struggles<br />
with words, but loves colors, especially if they POP.<br />
Her artistic vocabulary always circulates around illustrations<br />
as a direct way of processing information<br />
of what is around her, and expressing<br />
from the simplest to the most complex emotions.<br />
Hint: Look left.<br />
“I like ice cream, spaceships, occult themes, slavic<br />
fairytales, fast food, mental disorders, techno music,<br />
oversized clothes, glitter, drugs, italo disco, funny<br />
accents, organizing parties, candy, horror movies,<br />
pink stuff and chilling. If you can relate to some of<br />
it, you might like my shit. SHIT THAT YOU NEED.”<br />
She is a very peculiar artist, developing her own world.<br />
Combining the traditional art education and her native<br />
language, Polish, with the hallucinations and<br />
thoughts of an alien residing in this current future, MY-<br />
MAJO is equally outspoken, energetic and refreshing<br />
in real life, with art bursting out from her every pore.<br />
To learn more about this colorful human,<br />
visit the following online locations:<br />
h t t p s : / / o h m y m a j o . t u m b l r . c o m /<br />
https://www.facebook.com/tomymajo/<br />
Instagram:<br />
@mymajo<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 13
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 15
SAMUEL<br />
GREGOIRE<br />
TRANSLATION BY<br />
ELIZABETH TORRES<br />
ADELAIDA<br />
In the water,<br />
in the moist air<br />
silence is dead.<br />
Silence is the abandoned death<br />
in the dream of the abyss.<br />
(The abyss dreams of a heard of abysses,<br />
with bodies without pleasures<br />
dressed up of an asexual cold).<br />
Adelaida,<br />
the mounted one,<br />
the possessed one<br />
of the voices of fire,<br />
of iron, of blood,<br />
of soil, of emerald leaves,<br />
of sun…<br />
A sun god,<br />
a god sun,<br />
who only now begins to see<br />
the nest of light in your eyes.<br />
Adelaida,<br />
flower of bloomed drum<br />
over the shore of iridescent molluscs,<br />
of iridescent and moist flower.<br />
The heels suspended over your head<br />
of drunkened sky,<br />
of colors of Aida Wedo,<br />
letting you fall as a braceled of arid vapor<br />
in the wave of your cradle of water.<br />
Now you brush the lukewarm wave<br />
with your fingers of liana<br />
over the head of Simbi Andezo<br />
in love with the mist.<br />
Drum flower,<br />
flower of iridescent mollusc,<br />
moist flower,<br />
the mist falls over your petals<br />
with drops of voices<br />
that exude a symphony to water<br />
the dreams of your lips.<br />
Adelaida dances with flesh inks<br />
archangel and manly pleasures,<br />
greed, an old absurd sin.<br />
A red sun (the sleeping sun)<br />
infiltrates itself in your blood branch<br />
as the chromatic light<br />
abuses the sex of the moon.<br />
(The dead silence drinks from its sobs).<br />
The wings of the wind of the night<br />
your concave curly fire<br />
the ghost of my fantasies<br />
its pirouettes on your crimson libido,<br />
the gelatinous screams<br />
of your colitogenic hibiscus<br />
crackling spheres of orgasms.<br />
You are carnal,<br />
carnal, invented sin.<br />
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Adelaida,<br />
night undresses your legs.<br />
The night arrives with slow wings<br />
to a poem country which excavates the mystery.<br />
Night,<br />
flight of the Zobop,<br />
death of dead silence.<br />
Cric crac, the stories.<br />
tell me the history<br />
of that golden and sun wind<br />
dead without being able to offer you<br />
the aroma of the Mirabilis jalapa flowers.<br />
Samuel Gregoire, Born 1983, Haiti. Resides in Dominican Republic.<br />
Studied Engineering an business administration. Samuel has a background in French,<br />
experimental poetry, and human rights in Journalist practices. With additional experience<br />
in radio, teaching, and creative coordination.Samuel has been included in several<br />
publications including the international anthology of Poetry by Mateo Morrison and<br />
his most recent book Simulacros de Paraisos y otros renacidos, 2018.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 17
A time of endings<br />
(after Ezio Bosso Rain, in your black eyes<br />
with images by Joris Ivens.).<br />
drop by drop<br />
a man knows the earth is changing<br />
and hurries on<br />
the streets do not wait for him<br />
despite their eternity<br />
and trapped in patience<br />
the past walks still across the water<br />
or huddles head-down<br />
like a gathering of umbrellas<br />
in a field at the mercy of transfigured clouds<br />
from inside the darkness a shimmer trembles<br />
it paints light in corners of waiting<br />
Peter Boyle is a Sydney-based poet<br />
and translator of poetry from Spanish<br />
and French. In 2017 he won the New<br />
South Wales Premier’s Prize for poetry<br />
with his book Ghostspeaking.<br />
His latest collection is Enfolded in the<br />
Wings of a Great Darkness (Vagabond<br />
Press, 2019).<br />
it pools in your eyes<br />
flutters underneath the wheels<br />
of some ancient grinding machine<br />
for used lives<br />
drifts in the upside down world<br />
where horses harvest the drizzle steaming off pavements<br />
where a faint hesitation in the wind that starts to turn<br />
carries the explosion of an Empire ending<br />
a pond under rain becomes a ribcage<br />
girls scurry,<br />
shielding the white of exposed legs under a blanket<br />
everyone goes by holding their breath upward<br />
the earth cracks like overladen glass<br />
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P E T E R B O Y L E<br />
The plea<br />
after Margaret Olley, Portrait in the Mirror.<br />
So wide and open<br />
there above the flowers the fruit<br />
the tacked-up photographs the saints<br />
a haloed woman her stretched body<br />
almost swimming woman<br />
at spindle or waterwheel<br />
counting out the measures of her life<br />
While the mask (turned side on)<br />
male or female? pouts its lips<br />
in some forever repressed<br />
cry of self or of the world<br />
The twined small buds of flowers reach towards you<br />
towards us conch shells or funnels turn<br />
announcing only their silence<br />
In the mirror<br />
the world before you is all blue<br />
soothing its distances<br />
Will I meet you again?<br />
Swept elsewhere<br />
holding elsewhere<br />
your eyes that plead:<br />
Travellers among tarnished fruit<br />
and fallen saints<br />
all this and I am gone<br />
remember me<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 19
Heart’s Migration<br />
Move deeper into the poem.<br />
Find<br />
the secret not yet whispered<br />
lover to lover,<br />
epidermis to epidermis,<br />
galaxy to galaxy. Find<br />
the gaudy colors, the tired itinerant, the broken accordion,<br />
the torn shawl, the child beggar, the layers of betrayal.<br />
Deeper.<br />
Find the street vendor and the swollen rain cloud,<br />
the wind that moves her loosened hair across her face.<br />
Find<br />
the day before the storm broke,<br />
his clenched hand resting on the table.<br />
Deeper.<br />
Find the eye of the storm,<br />
the hoarse cry of the poem.<br />
Janice D. Soderling is an award-winning writer and translator whose<br />
credits include Acumen, the Beloit Poetry Journal, Event, Fiddlehead,<br />
Glimmer Train, Malahat Review, Other Poetry and Tipton Poetry Journal.<br />
Her work is represented in anthologies and can be read online at<br />
42opus, Our Stories, Babel Fruit, The Chimaera, Innisfree Poetry Journal,<br />
Lucid Rhythms, Loch Raven Review, Right Hand Pointing and Umbrella.<br />
Forthcoming work at Anon, Blue Unicorn, Centrifugal Eye, Literary<br />
Mama, and Mezzo Cammin. Janice was born in the United States,<br />
but lives in Sweden.<br />
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JANICE D. SODERLING<br />
Husband, I Said<br />
Husband, I said, you cannot make amends.<br />
The worm gnaws the apple. The fallen apples rot.<br />
(No answer came.) The worms gnaw the apples.<br />
It may rain today or not.<br />
The worms attend. The fallen apples rot.<br />
Husband, I said, the worm is in the apple and that lie was one too many.<br />
The pretty worms stopped nibbling. They listened. (No answer came.)<br />
It may not rain today.<br />
The red distends with rot. You cannot make amends.<br />
All the little mouths returned to nibbling. (No answer came.)<br />
Husband, I said, that girl was one too many. Worms gnaw our apples.<br />
It may rain today or not.<br />
The little mouths drill deep into my flesh. (No answer came.)<br />
The apples fall, the apples rot. And what about the rain?<br />
That pretty friend was one too many, Husband. A marriage is an orchard<br />
and you cannot make amends. Every little mouth lies with its hunger.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS <strong>21</strong>
WITNESS<br />
ECUADOR’S<br />
UNREST<br />
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ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 23<br />
Photo by David Diaz<br />
for: Bloomberg
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ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS Photo by David 25 Diaz
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ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS Photo by David 27 Diaz
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ABOUT DAVID DIAZ. Communicator, documentary Storyteller. Member of Fluxus Photo.<br />
Diaz has worked in several State programs and various NGOs giving workshops and being<br />
producer of photographic and audiovisual content focused on Edu-Communication, Gender,<br />
Human Rights and Territory.<br />
Diaz has also been part of several TV Programs and is Collaborator for Bloomberg Cannabis<br />
<strong>Magazine</strong>, Spain. Bistandsaktuelt, Norway. and My News Desk, Denmark.<br />
He has published his work in the Washington Post, BBC News, DulceEquisNegra <strong>Magazine</strong>,<br />
Argentina. G1 Global News, Brazil. Le Monde, Commerce Peru. Digital media such as:<br />
Midia Ninja, Brazil. El Salto, Mex. Interference, Chile GK, Latin Faction, Pressenza, Bex Latin<br />
American Photography. among other assignments for UNHCR / UN.<br />
IG: @diaz.arcos<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 29
Photo by David Diaz<br />
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ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 31
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R<br />
E<br />
D<br />
Speaking of unrest...<br />
D<br />
Surely you’ve seen/heard/experienced the current turmoil<br />
running through the veins of Latin America and the world.<br />
There’s casualties all over the place and it is logical to feel<br />
fear, because we’ve been trained to be afraid of our governments,<br />
but fear is not an excuse to stand still in the face of<br />
human right violations and uncertainty.<br />
O<br />
If for some reason you find yourself in a location or situation<br />
where you find injustice and corruption taking over, (and it is<br />
most likely that you are already in it), stand up, speak up, and<br />
join those who like you, have chosen change.<br />
Remember that art, too, can be a form of activism.<br />
Rembember that activism, too, can be a form of art.<br />
O<br />
Here’s a compilation of very basic instructions for our current<br />
days and times, for you to protect your beautiful eyes and<br />
identities while you go fight the patriarchy.<br />
R<br />
It’s handwritten because so is the revolution.<br />
Take notes and pass it around.<br />
Love and poetry always,<br />
Madam N E V E R S T O P<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 33
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ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 39
THE HOUSE THAT JAN BUILT<br />
BY BRANDON DAVIS<br />
Jan Vandendorpe is a Belgian born artist/architect living in Catalonia on an eco-estate that he designed<br />
and built himself. At age 64, Jan continues to sculpt, paint and draw while tirelessly maintaining<br />
the estate and planning for the future. He recently created a not-for-profit foundation as a way to<br />
open up the time and space to artists, thinkers, makers and doers in an effort to create a sustainable<br />
future.<br />
I first met Jan a few years ago when I was visiting my mother-in-law in the South of France. She took<br />
us just over the border to meet her friends and that’s when it happened. I saw the place, I met the man<br />
and I changed my mind.<br />
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Other than his fantastic hair and burning eyes, one of the first things you will notice about Jan Vandendorpe<br />
is his intense energy. He is a charming and friendly man with a generous spirit. He’s also a<br />
complete weirdo. You’d have to be in order to lead the life that he has lead up to this point.<br />
In the 90s Jan had a successful architecture firm in Ghent when he and his wife bought and fixed<br />
up an old farmhouse in an isolated region of the Pyrenes in Southern France. After her unexpected<br />
passing, Jan spent the next 6 years in total isolation living and healing and subconsciously documenting<br />
the process in an endless series of sketchbooks, paintings and sculptures. The resulting<br />
work creates a Jungian autobiography; the life of a true spirit.<br />
And almost nobody has seen it. That’s where I come in.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 41
The house that Jan built is made from the ruins of an old farmhouse on 12<br />
hectares of olive trees. It is surrounded by mountains and about a 5 kilometers<br />
from the nearest village with a population of 300 people. The original<br />
idea was to create a retreat center for a certain group of people. Those people<br />
made a series of bad moves and were no longer a part of the picture. Jan<br />
being Jan, he finished the project and built out the spaces with immaculate<br />
attention to detail creating a self-sustainable masterpiece of architecture.<br />
Above the garage is Jan’s studio where he works constantly. Current works<br />
include a 2 meter sculpture of a figure hanging by two fingers and a series<br />
of paintings on wood panels that appear to represent the moment where<br />
totality and nothingness intersect.<br />
Over 40 years of work is stored throughout the compound. There was a<br />
good deal of it burned a long time ago in an event that can only be called<br />
a really good bad idea, but there is plenty more where that came from. In<br />
these works you will see landscapes that have an erotic nature, heavenly<br />
grotesque figures and portals of all dimensions. The narrative revealed is a<br />
trip through the amazon, a couple of comas and the never ending attempt<br />
to illuminate the substance of life.<br />
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But the buildings and the art works are only a part of the big picture. What<br />
Jan has created is a way to experience life. Everyone who comes here tells me<br />
about their different perception of time and space and energy when they are<br />
here. There is a tree out front that is approximately 800 years old. There is a<br />
rock formation out back the is 5,000 years old. There are five wild horses and<br />
wilder winds. And there is the earth, the sky and the universe right in front of<br />
your face.<br />
My wife and I moved out here a year ago to find a way to make this thing<br />
“work.” Our first thought was to host an artists residency out here, and we’re<br />
doing that. But the realization of what is possible has lead us to reach further.<br />
We have created Fundación Flaquer, named after the original name of the<br />
farmhouse, in order to facilitate the development of sustainable practices in<br />
the fields of art, architecture, design, economics and any other means necessary<br />
to live for tomorrow, today!<br />
Our Foundation work is just beginning to take shape. There is plenty of work<br />
to be done and maybe YOU can get involved. Visit us on the web or in the<br />
real world to find out how. You can start by going to our website: www.fundacionflaquer.com<br />
and the next step is up to you.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 43
GIVE IT TO THE GRAND CANYON<br />
BY NOAH CICERO<br />
A REVIEW BY ELIZABETH TORRES<br />
I first heard of Noah after my crash arrival to Denmark and sudden breakup which led to<br />
my very improvised decision of sticking around and rebuilding my life in this city, because<br />
every other city I had inhabited felt broken and full of ghosts to me. So I found myself in Copenhagen,<br />
volunteering at a bookshop, drinking a bit too much, but filling myself with all the books<br />
in the world since I knew the opportunity to read so often can be temporary. i read the Human<br />
War, and decided that Noah and I had similar thought-processes and could one day go for a nice<br />
walk together and hopefully develop a nice friendship. Since Noah doesn’t often go for walks in<br />
Denmark, the closest thing was becoming friends on social media, and we’ve exchanged a few<br />
conversations throughout the years, which is how I ended up volunteering to write about his new<br />
book for this issue of <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Door</strong>.<br />
The book arrived right before I headed to the airport on my way to Greenland, almost as if the stars<br />
conspired to ensure that I had the chance to get the task of reading done in a good setting.<br />
To cover the basics, this book is titled GIVE IT TO THE GRAND CANYON. It’s 155 pages long,<br />
released in 2019 by Philosophical Idiot in Phillipsburg, NJ, with a beautiful cover image titled “Kop<br />
can een koningsgier of condor (Gypagus Papa)” by M.E van den Brink Bequest, Velp + a cover by<br />
Olivia M. Croom, and clearly designated to the area of fiction in the bookshelves, as stated in the<br />
copyright segment, repeatedly. It is light enough to be carried on a hike, and its pages smell nice.<br />
The back has two nice quotes by other authors about Noah. Blake Middleton (author of College<br />
Novel) says “Like Peyote, Give it to the Grand Canyon will give you what you need, whatever that<br />
might be”, and Brian Alan Ellis (author of Sad Laughter) adds that “Noah Cicero is a poet, a prince<br />
and a prophet and his latest book Give it to the Grand Canyon is a gift you did not think you needed<br />
(..)”.<br />
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Noah cicero is an American author who grew up in a small town<br />
near Youngstown, Ohio. He has lived in Eugene, Oregon, the Grand Canyon, Arizona, and<br />
Seoul, South Korea. Cicero currently resides in Las vegas, Nevada. He has a movie made<br />
of his first book called The Human War, which won the 2014 Beloit Film Festival Award<br />
for Best Screenplay. He has books translated into Turkish, Kurdish and Spanish. His first<br />
book of poetry, Bipolar Cowboy, was voted one of the best books in Goodreads 2015.<br />
Learn more about Noah Cicero at neutralspaces.co/noahcicero<br />
There is something very reassuring in Noah’s writing. I’m not just saying that he really<br />
knows what he is doing, I am underscoring the fact that when you read his books you don’t just<br />
get but relate to what he is talking about. I do not know that he’s prophet nor prince (aren’t we<br />
all?) but I can confirm that he’s a poet, and I committed the sacrilege of bending the pages of<br />
the book for the phrases that I liked until the top of the book became twice as fat because of so<br />
many folded pages. Just so you know that I am not simply praising, I for some random reason<br />
also folded the bottom side of the pages whenever I found a spelling mistake, and there was a<br />
few of those, too. But that’s irrelevant. Let me show you. I will do this oracle style, opening any of<br />
the folded pages. Listen to this:<br />
“It might be possible that there is only one good planet in the whole system, I had been to the<br />
top of Colorado Rockies, I saw that no food grew there. With a deviation of 12,000 feet nothing<br />
grows. We had so much luck, the planet is magnetic and reflects solar flares, we have water and<br />
land, the planet isn’t covered with ice, all of it isn’t desert. But we are the planet, humans aren’t<br />
separate from the planet, they are the planet, just like the water that floods and destroys the land,<br />
humans are the same as drought that kills animals, humans are the same as lightning that burns<br />
down a forest, humans are the same as a shark eating a school of fish, we aren’t any different.<br />
Is that an excuse?”.<br />
The talks about nature and planet and humankind, breakup and reconstruction, melancholy,<br />
self destruction and landscapes hit harder because each day I would get off the ship into a different<br />
area in Greenland, each night I would read more of the book, and off I would go again to<br />
explore this great island, and hear about how Americans left mines in isolated areas used for<br />
army exercises that local communities can’t touch, and how the permafrost is sinking and animals<br />
and vegetation are struggling, and as the main character broke down and had an anxiety<br />
attack much similar to the ones I’ve come accostumed too, I too began to weep in front of the<br />
great Raindeer Glacier in Kangerlussuaq. It was a combination of where i was, and where Billy<br />
was, in the Grand Canyon, half lost, half approaching enlightenment, even if only temporarily.<br />
I still believe that Noah and I could probably enjoy a lot of good conversations due to similar<br />
interests and “common places” of things I have found in his writing. I do not know when this<br />
will happen but in the meantime I am content traveling with his characters. If I add anything else<br />
to this review I might spoil the book for you, so please just get your hands on a copy and let me<br />
know what moved you. And if you get a chance visit the places that bring you back alive. Be it<br />
Greenland or the Grand Canyon or other locations that don’t start with a G, do it now, while we’re<br />
still here, they’re still there, and feeling things is still allowed.<br />
(and please leave the places as undisturbed as when you found them).<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 45
TIDAL<br />
ECONOMICS<br />
---<br />
SELECTED POEMS<br />
Please click on the images<br />
to see the visual poetry in the voice of the author.<br />
46 www.reddoormagazine.com
TEX KERSCHEN<br />
ART<br />
Had you been surrounded<br />
by white stones<br />
and long trees<br />
with thin fingers<br />
and new leaves;<br />
you may have known<br />
who you were<br />
when you began.<br />
You may have known it then.<br />
Tex Kerschen is a poet, musician<br />
and visual artist originating from<br />
Houston. A gifted showman, a skilled<br />
writer and a worldthreader, too.<br />
http://texkerschen.com/<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 47
D A N I E L M A L P I C A<br />
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Identities mix and interlace in the big cities of the future. Languages become<br />
fluid and humanity begins to develop new techniques of communication and<br />
information to adapt to the speed an rythm of the ever-changing algorithms of<br />
life all around us.<br />
In the heart of Helsinki, a poet stands strong through adversity and the challenges<br />
of a still-broken immigration system that jeopardizes the life and projects he’s<br />
been building not just in Finland, but throughout the Nordic countries in collaborations<br />
and partnerships with many key players in Scandinavian cities, artists and<br />
creators... and among them, the <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Door</strong> network.<br />
Although this is the first time Daniel’s work is included in this magazine, Daniel<br />
has been an active partner and collaborator of <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Door</strong> through the creation<br />
and development of ideas, projects and events that involve a multimedia aspect<br />
and the transnationality concept that echoes in our veins. But today, let us be<br />
direct and speak of him and his work.<br />
Daniel is originally from Mexico and introduces himself as a graphic designer,<br />
multimedia artist and poet, but he is also a board memer of the Finnish PEN,<br />
which fights for writers’ freedom of expression, and also collaborates with other<br />
local organizations, such as Globe Art Point.<br />
His performances often involve multimedia aspects and other sound elements,<br />
and can include masks, typewriters, other artists from various nationalities performing<br />
alongside, projections, mapping and of course... poetry.<br />
In episode #6 of the <strong>Red</strong> Transmissions podcast he shares with us his creative<br />
process, the thought of the X as a sygil that reflects identity, the crossing of paths<br />
and literary forms, and much more.<br />
visit theredtransmissions.com or follow <strong>Red</strong> Transmissions on a podcast provider<br />
near you.<br />
www.danielmalpica.com<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 49
X-WRITTEN<br />
We feel a more powerful presence / like a fish bowl for our poems that are fish / How many times did<br />
we want to grab the stars in the simplest of ways / without any thunder at all to string the poem between<br />
the two stars / as if it was just about “indicating” with words / but these days only love defeats<br />
us and numerical poems shatter one by one / Not for that / have I stopped writing / not for that / have I<br />
stopped taking your lips / in the gesture the reader makes while silently mouthing / Maybe I am reading<br />
you in this line / for it is said something happens after crossing this point. / It would be terrible never<br />
to think of me as an “a” answer / and dare to chew on a speech for myself only / mine / too much<br />
mine / but a leaf has both faces / in the folds new concepts are formed and the rhetoric of things will<br />
not suffice as the wall on which it is disposed / You’ve known about this for so long Girondo / realities<br />
superposed on realities / Per aspera ad astra / folding in the most rigorous way / origami of the word<br />
/ brotherhood and mimesis among cultures for in the universe one single mother / Something must<br />
be different / we grow up among the foundational and immediate classics of the individual / not<br />
from those antiquated monuments / indivisible / from the historic self I mean / but from the sensorial<br />
elements of the present / of life now / One afternoon / among the streets of that completely dead city<br />
I made a paper amphibian with the text of a speech on protocol / Darío, upon seeing me, observed,<br />
“You know, / getting to this place / and now watching you shaping the piece of paper with such simplicity<br />
/ something told me we had been together in another time... / and / before I wandered these<br />
streets / before coming across this promenade of ghosts / in my own house / I had a dream in which<br />
someone was practicing origami / then I found out I had already dreamt you” / I don’t know Darío /<br />
there are people that we do not know until we make them up / After this moment narrative was no<br />
longer possible and we went on with the poem. / Cosmos for death / Chaos for renovation / So how<br />
is it that an element of two dimensions acquires that third plane? Even so, it is possible to deduce<br />
reality from something we do not see / Each dimension perceives the world in relation to its consequent<br />
dimension: / the line perceives the dot / base and height perceive the line / the third dimension<br />
observes its surroundings in two dimensions and only understands itself, I repeat, by deduction; /<br />
like that time we moved across our flat earth and eventually got to the same place / a line became<br />
circle / a circle became sphere / and this poem needs you to acquire its depth / the reader poet and<br />
the writer poet, together we become spatial origami / traveling in the interior of language / through<br />
worm-holes that twist in pupils like an interrogation / origami over word ships / in the fusion and deconstruction<br />
of symbols / Everything nurtures and interrelates with itself / every thing is like a “like” /<br />
and the basic engineering of this poem comes from sci-fi: / X-Wing / But more fun than categorization<br />
/ is accepting the existing elements as pieces of potential new ensembles / technological marvels /<br />
literary marvels that go spiraling & spiraling / secular / cyclical without repeating themselves in the<br />
same spot / In a way / at this stage of the universe / all form tends towards the destruction of form /<br />
towards disintegration in the search for constant balance / so this texts deconstructs, reunites, appropriates<br />
and fragments itself / Spatial origami I said / like in those songs where the voices overlap until<br />
they are a thick paste / strictly speaking irrational / but loaded, concurrently, with information / I come<br />
back to you Darío / I come back to you as a resource / Between dreams and reality there is an infinity<br />
of folds / from the word / that names / and transforms itself: 折 り 紙 / papiroflexia / cocotology / That’s<br />
it / I come back to you to get to others / to name them / because poetry ought to be counted among<br />
the sciences [...] because science and poetry are nothing other, if we examine it, than a precise naming...<br />
/ Yes, taking up again that biblical idea of creation through the word / but ultimately / this is not<br />
a piece of paper / it is another thing / and those other things will always be at your discretion, and the<br />
discretion of the dissolution of the edges / of the piece of paper if you wish it.<br />
Translation by Aurelio Meza<br />
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BY DANIEL MALPICA<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 51
t h e<br />
N E O N<br />
R E B E L L I O N<br />
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Im wondering …<br />
Why is it the litter I see on the street is always McDonalds bags +<br />
cups with single use plastic lids + straws that have been thrown<br />
out a car window 10 mins after leaving the drive through …?<br />
Why are people flooding Leonardo Di Caprio’s comments on a<br />
post of him + Greta Thunberg with insults about a 16 year old<br />
girl who he has openly stated admiration for because of her dedication<br />
to climate awareness action, which he shares?<br />
Why is a national tv host calling activists who chose to take<br />
peaceful yet disruptive social action by lying on the road to stop<br />
traffic, “speed humps that should be run over” ..?<br />
Why are so many people, namely The President Of The United<br />
States calling climate change “fake news” when there is an overwhelming<br />
amount of scientific evidence to support it?<br />
Is it just me or are people fucking stupid?<br />
I mean really fucking stupid.<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 53
There is no reason for any of these things to be happening except utter stupidity + a determination to<br />
hang onto a system that supports capitalism + all its ideas that dont support anything living.<br />
In response to this, my activism takes its form in art + an impending performance art piece being created.<br />
I made these videos which could be like prequels.<br />
I am aligned with the global protest movement Extinction Rebellion through non-violent direct action<br />
seeking to raise the alarm on ecological crises + the impending extinction of our planet, due to<br />
climate change.<br />
We must make transitions to a sustainable world for our very survival.<br />
We cannot control nature with technology, despite all the arrogance + ignorance that thinks we can.<br />
We will not be silenced.<br />
-The Neon Rebel.<br />
(click on the images on pg. 38 to see the videos).<br />
Footnote: 15/11/2019.<br />
Fire is still blazing across the east coast of Australia, it’s been over a week breathing smoke filled<br />
air as nearby old growth rainforest continues to burn ... These are the worst bushfires ever seen +<br />
as predicted globally they will continue as the planet heats up from destroying forests + continued<br />
excessive use of fossil fuels ...<br />
.<br />
There is not enough rain fall in these areas + yet there is flooding on other parts of the planet.<br />
.<br />
The Balance is out.<br />
.<br />
As the Australian Govt. slides further to the dirty right + it maintains its position as one of the worst<br />
on climate agenda seeking to dodge + undermine agreements + clean energy development that<br />
address global warming on carbon emissions in favour of investment in continued unsound energy<br />
production.<br />
.<br />
Meanwhile the people suffer from harsher crippling taxes that dont serve them (like carbon tax<br />
which is a failed scheme + could be put towards clean energy solutions which would significantly<br />
turn things around) + regulations are brought in to disperse public protests or gatherings controlling<br />
our civil rights + freedom of speech.<br />
.<br />
Countries like Sweden dedicated to climate action are distancing themselves + removing investments<br />
from Australia because of these policies + old draconian views.<br />
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ISSUE # BY <strong>21</strong> - MELAINE TRANSITIONS KNIGHT 55
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 57
R<br />
E<br />
The <strong>Red</strong> Transmissions podcast aims to document the work,<br />
behind-the-scenes moments and creative process of the<br />
D<br />
incredibly interesting characters in our network, be it in<br />
Copenhagen, New York, or around the world where our correspondents<br />
find themselves or our poetic adventures take us.<br />
D<br />
Find out why artists, activists and worldthreaders do what they<br />
do, how they do it, and hear about the inner workings of their<br />
projects. Contemporary happenings and conversations on<br />
O<br />
culture, music, art, film, poetry, environment and independent<br />
projects around the planet. WE EXIST!<br />
Want to share your story with us?<br />
O<br />
Write to: theredtransmissions@gmail.com<br />
R<br />
58 www.reddoormagazine.com
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 59
In this issue, participating from various countries<br />
and continents, our gratitude goes to the following people:<br />
Mercedes Roffé pg 6-7<br />
Filip Naudts & Julie O’Yan pg 8-9<br />
Aieisa Riballa pg 10-11<br />
Misia Martus<br />
pg 12-15 (and featured cover art)<br />
Samuel Gregoire pg 16-17<br />
Peter Boyle pg 18-19<br />
Janice D. Soderling pg 20-<strong>21</strong><br />
David Diaz pg 22-31<br />
Brandon Davis pg 40-43<br />
Noah Cicero pg 44-45<br />
Tex Kerschen pg 46-47<br />
Daniel Malpica pg 48 - 51<br />
Melaine Knight pg 52-57<br />
Illustrations by Madam Neverstop.<br />
Find us on instagram as @reddoorkdk<br />
Podcast: @red_transmissions<br />
Everything else at: @madamneverstop<br />
60 www.reddoormagazine.com
<strong>21</strong><br />
D<br />
R<br />
E<br />
<strong>Red</strong> <strong>Door</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> releases digital<br />
issues quarterly with an emphasis on<br />
visual art.<br />
As you can see on this issue, we also<br />
welcome art and poetry, LGBTQ & other<br />
activism content, thoughtful<br />
D<br />
essays,<br />
photography, adventure stories &<br />
media articles, + occasional interviews<br />
by established and emerging artists.<br />
We’re here to give you a handful of<br />
essential pieces you can digest in one<br />
sitting.<br />
The magazine also includes a calendar<br />
for events happening in our gallery, but<br />
will sometimes mention collaborations<br />
with other projects, or events<br />
happening elsewhere worth noting.<br />
O<br />
We’re currently seeking visual art,<br />
music, film, travel and<br />
O<br />
media articles,<br />
poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.<br />
Simultaneous submissions are always<br />
ok, and if you have a piece accepted<br />
elsewhere, please let us know by<br />
adding a note to your submission.<br />
Please send your content to<br />
submit@reddoorkbh.dk<br />
R<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong> - TRANSITIONS 61
R<br />
E<br />
D<br />
D<br />
O<br />
ISSUE # <strong>21</strong><br />
O<br />
T R A N S I T I O N S<br />
R<br />
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