Nneka M. Okona: The Imposition of Black Grief
For Black people in the United States, grief and loss are intertwined with our very being. Our ancestors knew the trauma of loss intimately…
Wayne Karlin: The Lotus Eaters
And so he returned to Ithaca:
walked naked from the sea
and saw his shadow
fall on the white marble
Jennifer Brookland: Holding On When Leaving Feels Like Letting Go
I spent four years in the military and remember it in fuzzy flashes. The little I do recall leaves me with a vague sense of awkward incompetence, confusion, and shame.
Maya Rossin-Slater, et al: The lasting consequences of school shootings on the students who survive them
Our research shows that despite often escaping without physical harm, the hundreds of thousands of children and educators who survive these tragedies carry scars that affect their lives for many years to come.
Video: Souvenir Souvenir
Souvenir Souvenir tracks the efforts of the French filmmaker Bastien Dubois to learn more about his grandfather’s time as a French soldier in the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62). Sixty years later, that conflict is little-discussed by many of those who fought it, leaving members of younger generations, like Dubois, to speculate about their family’s role in the notoriously brutal war.
Christine Skarbek: Jocelyn
It soon became obvious she could not speak. Finally, after many attempts, I got her name out of her, Jocelyn and finally, she looked at me straight on and said in a whisper, “You know, I used to be pretty. I used to be smart.”
Richard Levine: Disturbing the Peace
“Do you want to know what war is about?”
Jake asked the talkative one.
“Don’t say it, Jake,” I said.
Michael Simms: American Ash (text and video)
Old warriors rarely
say anything about
people they killed or
horrors they saw
Barrett Swanson: The Soldier and the Soil
Their prose often stood head and shoulders above the standard freshman drivel, exhibiting a certain rigor of thought and depth of feeling that perhaps comes from having witnessed whole anthologies of trauma—entire villages razed by fire, wide-eyed children draped in gore, wives screaming beside mutilated husbands.
Michelle Tarbox, M.D: I do not want to be a hero
I have fought for my patients,
but my patience wears thin.
Goran Simić: A Scene After the War
I’d never been aware how beautiful my house is
until I saw it burning
John Samuel Tieman: Alert
a night in a bunker when we were
kids in fatigues getting high
listening to Hendrix and the cassette stops
Video: Medieval Martha Stewart
. A documentary by Taylor Hawkins. Damaged by childhood abuse, PTSD, and chronic loneliness, Iraq war veteran Josh Brock has turned his anger and sorrow into a personal ethos of … Continue reading
Michaela Haas: 7 Strategies to Turn Trauma Into Strength
Survivors discover surprising benefits in the process of healing from a traumatic event. When Army surgeon Rhonda Cornum regained consciousness after her helicopter crashed, she looked up to see five … Continue reading
Vox Populi 