You do not expect
the kindness. It comes
in splashes, like an outpour
after a long drought.
Story
Grace Yu
Mentee
Grace Yu is a first year student at Northwestern University. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing music and making origami. She has been published in Taking Our Place in History: The Girls Write Now 2020 Anthology, as well as her high school’s art and literature magazines. In the Emerging Poets category for the 2022 ruth weiss Foundation Awards, Grace was selected as a finalist for her poem “Love Story," an homage to the stunning diversity of oceanic life.
Artist‘s Statement
Grace Yu is a first-year college student from New York City. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing piano, writing poetry, and origami. She has been recognized and published by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Ned Vizzini Writing Prize, and the City College of New York and is the 2022 recipient of the Sarah S. Weisberg Poetry Prize, presented since 1987 to honor promising young poets.
Story
Leather in Heaven
This piece challenges the gender stereotypes surrounding masculinity through two father-son relationships. The narrator’s father associates masculinity with anger, but the cowboy father teaches his son that true strength comes from being kind to others.
Story
Fourteen Days
This is a collection of haikus written between January 10 and January 23 that captures our combined experiences.
Story
When I play piano, my grandmother wants to cry
This piece captures intergenerational strength and familial unity through a series of moments described through piano music.
Story
sayonara, hello
“sayonara, hello” is a cross-genre piece that explores the discrimination and isolation immigrants face. It is told from the perspective of a young Japanese girl who searches for acceptance from the people around her.
Story
see the sun
“See the Sun” is an original song about friendship, and how the people who love you can lift you up out of the darkness.