Killens Review of Arts & Letters (Fall / Winter 2021)
Edited by Clarence V. Reynolds

Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Fall/Winter 2021
The Beautiful Struggle

The tumultuous events that have occurred over the past eighteen months are inconceivable. With the global health pandemic, national and international issues of racial and social unrest making headlines, life as we knew it has been drastically altered. The Fall/Winter 2021 issue of the Killens Review of Arts & Letters explores the ways in which writers, poets, and artists of various genres found inspiration over the past year and a half when matters of personal safety and self-preservation, affected by nationwide and world affairs, became a primary concern.

This inspiring issue includes an essay from Dr. Richard Gillum that offers a perspective on structural racism and the legacy of slavery in health care; filmmaker, author and poet S. Pearl Sharp shares her account of an experience she had while engaging with a “house-less” woman in Los Angeles; and Nathaniel G. Nesmith shares his interview with legendary visual artist Otto Neals during the lockdown. The issue also includes an excerpt from The Minister Primarily, a previously unpublished novel that was written in the 1960s by the late masterful storyteller John Oliver Killens. Among the visual work in the issue, are works from artists include Stacey Billups, who said, “During that time of uncertainty, creating artwork helped to ease my anxieties about the events that were occurring both globally and locally. I was motivated to create works that evoke those emotions that center us through our struggles, love, joy, togetherness, and serenity.”