Julia Colavita, Gravity Falling, 2018. Acrylic and latex on canvas. 170 x 145 cm. Image courtesy of the artist, Julia Colavita.
[Smog] Check
by Isabel Hughes
sticking to the horizon more than usual today is a layer of [__] / a crisis takes place just beyond
border field park / my little brother sees the writing on the wall and asks if the asylum seekers
will be okay / instead of asylum seekers he says illegal immigrants / [_-] has drifted
into the living room / Mama corrects him quickly what they’re doing is legal amorcito,
no human is illegal / she tells him he has to play outside because it’s not good for him
to play fortnite all day / he gets wrapped up in his own little crisis / he goes outside to breathe
more [--] / I say goodbye to them / I go to get my car [--] checked / I’m thinking maybe
my lungs need checking because the [--] is so heavy today / I sit in the waiting room
of the auto shop / I read and scroll and read and skim and scroll through the sticky headlines
with my screen savvy fingers / I inhale: “Trump points to new caravan coming from Honduras
as impasse over wall funding continues” (Washington Post) / “Meet the egg that broke
Kylie Jenner’s Instagram Record” (CNN) / “Barely Treading Water: Why the Government Shutdown
Disproportionately Affects Black Americans” (NPR) / “Several racially tinged incidents
make news” (Fox News) / I try to see through the [--] / like what the fuck does racially tinged
mean? / I wait for the mechanic to tell me that my car is better at processing [--] than me /
guerita, your car is ready
After Beverly Tatum’s “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”
Published August 16th, 2020
Isabel Hughes is a poet from Chula Vista, CA. In 2019, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with an emphasis in poetry from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. She currently works in public relations.
Julia Colavita is a multi-media artist born in Philadelphia and currently based in Berlin. In 2005, after receiving her BA in Studio Art from Hartwick College, Colavita studied with art activist Checo Valdez on community mural projects in Mexico City and Chiapas. A year later, she was awarded the Maggie and Bob Allesee Fellowship with Artrain USA, a non-profit art organization that funds “museum-on-a-train” outreach programs. Colavita then received an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2010, and has since exhibited widely in New York City and Berlin. Shown by Powerhouse Arena, BAM, Whitespace Gallery, Rockelmann & Partner, Duve Gallery, Funkhaus, and Schillerpalais, among others, Colavita has also exhibited in Miami, São Paulo, Paris, Beijing, and Sydney. In March, Colavita had a solo show, It's All Chemical, at Assembly Room in NYC.