Transition Magazine

Caine Prize Shortlist

Congratulations to Tope Folarin, whose Transition #109 story 'Miracle' has been shortlisted for the 2013 Caine Prize!

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SUBMISSION GUIDELInes

Upcoming deadlines: June 1, Oct 1 2013
Submit to: transition@fas.harvard.edu

Born in Africa and bred in the diaspora, Transition is a unique forum for the freshest, most compelling, most curious ideas about race. Since its founding in 1961, the magazine has kept apace of the rapid transformation of the black world and has remained a leading forum of intellectual debate. Now, in an age that demands ceaseless improvisation, we aim to be both an anchor of deep reflection on black life and a map charting new routes through the globalized world.

Issue 110

We are thrilled to feature a suite of Black poetry in this issue of Transition, along with photographers, artists, architects, and writers who catalogue the textures and colors of Africa and the African American experience. History imprints itself upon the poetry and art featured in Transition 110 and also the prose: Diane McWhorter returns to Birmingham, Alabama and finds that the virulent politics of discrimination continues to flare in the streets of Birmingham—not only in the black community but also among immigrants. Ed Pavlić looks at race and gentrification in San Francisco through two films; and David Adjaye talks about art and architecture, saying “the generative roots of architecture indicate that it is the support, the frame, for bodily rituals. And ritual is how architecture is birthed.” History meets the contemporary in these pages, and the present continues to be seduced by the past: in this issue we witness the contemporary’s
tempestuous love affair with history; what is born is at times
beautiful and at times awful.

Issue 110 Table of Contents

Featured Article

The Open Door of Paradise

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Léonora Miano
translated by Michelle Chilcoat

Dressed in an ample tunic that women from the Mboasu coast traditionally wear, that is, ever since the wife of a British missionary saw fit to cover their nudity, she plunges her hand into the only pocket the garment has. It’s on the right side, of course, and in it are preciously guarded objects that people believe they should always carry with them: talismans, identity papers, permits authorizing market sales,

carefully bundled bank notes secured in a tightly knotted handkerchief, bits of bark to chew on when you get a toothache. Kwin’s wide hand rummages around in the depths of her pocket before the breathless crowd whose eyes are glued on her every move. After taking hold of a number of different things that aren’t what she’s looking for, she finally displays her Bible. I don’t believe, she says, one word of what’s written in there.

Featured Artists