Issue No. 8 - 2020

Offering a long look back at a year more trying and unique than any other year in New York's history, we've featured the work of seventeen contributors, who offer –––– each in their own way ––– their take on what exactly happened in New York last year. Excerpts from each piece, below. Also, having found an attorney to partner with in Brian Lehman, in 2020, The Curlew Law Firm became a thing.  
 
Kindwhile, Issue No. 8 - 2020 can be pre-ordered here, and will be out next week. 
 
Glad to be back! And glad to be in touch; we give thanks. 
 
All of our best,
Curlew New York 
 

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Kate Alsbury
Willa in Washington Square
 
“One of the most prominent women writers of Greenwich Village, Willa Cather spent decades of her life in New York City. Known for her romantic style focusing on the hardships of the American West, she isn’t typically thought of as a New Yorker. Born in countrified Virginia in 1873, she found a refreshing change in some of the city’s most coveted real estate: Washington Square.”

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Jade Brown
Her Cherry Colored Lips
 
"'Can you stand?' Her crow’s feet expanded. The bath water had cooled down enough to stutter her into remembrance. Her breath was keeping tabs on the time that laid idle around her. Perhaps she was floating." 

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Kellie Coppi
The People's Court 
 
"Thank You, Judge Milian.
 
I’m a girl with long hair. Long, straight hair. Arms heavy to try and braid it, hair. Hour and a half to curl it, hair. But I like my hair. And I like convenience, so what the heck, I figure I’ll get a permanent. Don’t do it, it’ll ruin your hair. I can hear my mother’s voice in my ear. Don’t do it. 
 
But I did it."

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Mira Fisher
Hoyt Street / Carroll
 
"It’s 4AM, mid-August. I dream-wake to the sound of rapid conversation. From my open window I see two figures standing with e-bikes on the street below. I don't speak Spanish but can just gather that corasons are involved (or was it calzones? They are delivery guys."

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Kate Ginna
Lemon 
 
“I’m walking to the Center for Fiction,” he texted. “I’m going to write something. Gimme a prompt.” 
 
I was flattered he trusted me to provide the cue that would inspire his writing. It felt intimate. Then I was anxious about providing a good one. I recycled a prompt I had been given in a high school English class because it was the only salient thing to me in the moment. 
 
“Lemon.” Then I panicked and added, “Or laundry.” “I’m gonna write about last night.” 

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Julia Hanson
Friday Afternoon in Early January at Wythe and North Third
 
"Next to you at the gnarled slab of wood is a woman photographing her matcha. It’s raining. Every street corner is strewn with wet, drooping Christmas trees. Nothing about this table is communal, you think."

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Elizabeth Lerman
Florabama
 
"We are somewhere in Alabama when I realize that I am never happier than in these in-between moments. In the car driving past Lillian, through the fields and farms, we swerve off the main road, lured in by the siren of an antique shop." 

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Rahil Najafabadi
Spinning Alive
 
"I’m standing on the grass at Central Park, but I’ll soon be gone. It is a temporary step. One I will forget about in a short while. I don’t know what I’m looking for; early morning, bare headed and before all the people have come and crowded the bit of Earth that feels like home."

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Rebecca Nison
The Parable of the Giant-Impact Crater Hypothesis of the Moon
 
 
“This story begins when Earth was less than one eon old. 
 
Going about her business of becoming, Earth was busy spinning herself a body. Working elements into matter, dancing with gravity’s tremendous pull, gathering mass. In the middle of all this, another young planet, since named Theia, came hurtling across space out of nowhere and – kablam – slammed right into young Earth.” 

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Samuel O'Brient
Slán a Fhágáil Dublin or A Dublin Farewell 
 
“'This is not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection.' 
 
As I boarded my plane at Dublin airport on March 15th, already delayed almost two hours, the words of my country’s former Commander in Chief continued to echo through my mind. I had heard the quote long before I arrived in Dublin, famously uttered by former United States President John F. Kennedy. They were directed at the Irish Parliament during his iconic 1963 trip that would change the course of U.S. Ireland relations. Kennedy had professed to have had the best four days of his life in Ireland, the same place where I had just had the best eight months of mine. In the face of a global health pandemic, though, it was hard to feel anything except sadness and fear."

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Alexandra Pauley
Alone
 
"I’m alone, in a sea of people. Okay, I’m not literally alone, because with each passing second, I’m being touched by an uncomfortable number of commuter strangers; some only fractionally less unpleasant than others. It’s almost a Penn Station tradition. Like a school of fish, we, me and the people around me, change course with those headed in our direction; onto the subway, or out to the ruckus 8th street exit."

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Robin Romeo
Old Haunts & Anvil  
 
Anvil
 
"An open mike is our beacon of compulsion. 
It’s early days ––– us reading
 
poems from a stage, to get the real
critique live from peers and those at it for decades.
 
There are lines that don’t clear the lips, and lines 
someone recites to you later in the evening."

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Arthur Russell
Ode to the Place at the Northern End of Manhattan
Where High Bridge, the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and 
the Washington Bridge All Cross the Harlem River

& 

The Picture on the Cover 
of My First Book of Poems
 
Ode to the Place at the Northern End of Manhattan
Where High Bridge, the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and 
the Washington Bridge All Cross the Harlem River
 
"1. 
 
I saw you first from the Major Deegan,
those early Friday mornings when I drove 
down from college to Brooklyn, where I worked 
for my father on Alan’s one day off.  
 
This was long before I knew your bridge names 
or your past, where your roads began or led, 
before I knew the names of neighborhoods
like Washington and Morris Heights and Highbridge"

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Sarah Simon
i can't answer that
 
"there is a certain transcendental 
grace 
in saying 
“i can’t answer that.” 
it is out of my scope i will 
humble myself down i am 
not fit to respond 
responsibly. 
precedents, 
hypotheticals? 
no concrete 
details /?/" 

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Jamie Soltis
The Morning Routine
 
"After the first couple of weeks of quarantine, I took it upon myself to improve my tolerance for alcohol. Although I practiced as much as I could over the years, I certainly wasn’t winning any “Most Dedicated” awards like I was in my 20s. But that’s human, isn’t it? Life just gets in the way sometimes. However, since I was now working from home, it was clear that I had gained a few extra hours in the day. My commute disappeared, and showers slash clothing were now optional. So what to do with all of this extra time?" 

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Karlton Miko Tyack
Bill and the Pandemic Sports Drought
 
"George Bernard Shaw referred to Great Britain and the US as two countries separated by common language. This is also true of rugby and American football. In football and rugby, scoring touchdowns and tries are more important than kicking goals. And in football and rugby, downs and tackles are limited. Yet this similar exchange only makes spectator fans of one sport more confused about the other."

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Nawi Ukabiala
Using United Nations Mechanisms to Promote Racial Justice in the United States
 
 
"International human rights norms have an important role to play in addressing the United States’ racial justice problem. International human rights treaties also offer the international community valuable mechanisms for promoting accountability for police brutality against Blacks in the United States and seeking reform. An important part of domestic civil society strategy should be appealing to the international community to invoke those mechanisms."

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