ISSUE #2

Theme: Place

COMES OUT JULY 2026

Second Thoughts Blog
Subversive Surrealism: From Breton to Teletubbies
Features
Sophie Aanerud
Subversive Surrealism: From Breton to Teletubbies
Features
Sophie Aanerud

It makes sense that work geared toward the very young would be more surreal, as children (especially preverbal children) engage with the world in a pretty surreal way. To the very young, concepts we take for granted, like cause and effect and object permanence, are unfounded. The makers of Teletubbies worked hard to craft a show that approached scenarios in a way that felt natural to toddlers. What the show lacked in rationality, it made up for in aural and visual play. Like the whimsically amorphous figures painted by surrealist Joan Miro, the teletubbies and crew drift stochastically through their liminal environment, abiding by a logic typically restricted to our dreams.

Features
Sophie Aanerud
You’ll Be Back
Opinion
Leonie Appiah
You’ll Be Back
Opinion
Leonie Appiah

Upon Trump’s re-election, Hamilton’s “You’ll Be Back” has resurfaced in online political discourse, often repurposed, with many reminiscent parallels to an America defined by its instability and cultural divisions. In some cases, particularly in British commentary, the song is used to frame the United States as returning to a kind of historical pattern – echoing the language of colonial dependence and political disorder that once defined the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.

Opinion
Leonie Appiah
13 Going on 30? More Like 30 Going on 13
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
13 Going on 30? More Like 30 Going on 13
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker

The recent talk of a reboot has brought the premise back into conversation, and with it, the cultural promise the film once rested on — that adulthood meant stepping into a world of possibility. Back then, the plotline read as charmingly impatient rather than anomalous, because adulthood was still imagined as a phase of life when things settled into place: independence, confidence, an apartment with matching furniture, a career that paid the bills, and a love that had finally sorted itself out. But now, that assumption feels a bit out of touch.

Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
Second Thoughts Blog
Subversive Surrealism: From Breton to Teletubbies
Features
Sophie Aanerud
Subversive Surrealism: From Breton to Teletubbies
Features
Sophie Aanerud

It makes sense that work geared toward the very young would be more surreal, as children (especially preverbal children) engage with the world in a pretty surreal way. To the very young, concepts we take for granted, like cause and effect and object permanence, are unfounded. The makers of Teletubbies worked hard to craft a show that approached scenarios in a way that felt natural to toddlers. What the show lacked in rationality, it made up for in aural and visual play. Like the whimsically amorphous figures painted by surrealist Joan Miro, the teletubbies and crew drift stochastically through their liminal environment, abiding by a logic typically restricted to our dreams.

Features
Sophie Aanerud
You’ll Be Back
Opinion
Leonie Appiah
You’ll Be Back
Opinion
Leonie Appiah

Upon Trump’s re-election, Hamilton’s “You’ll Be Back” has resurfaced in online political discourse, often repurposed, with many reminiscent parallels to an America defined by its instability and cultural divisions. In some cases, particularly in British commentary, the song is used to frame the United States as returning to a kind of historical pattern – echoing the language of colonial dependence and political disorder that once defined the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.

Opinion
Leonie Appiah
13 Going on 30? More Like 30 Going on 13
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
13 Going on 30? More Like 30 Going on 13
Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker

The recent talk of a reboot has brought the premise back into conversation, and with it, the cultural promise the film once rested on — that adulthood meant stepping into a world of possibility. Back then, the plotline read as charmingly impatient rather than anomalous, because adulthood was still imagined as a phase of life when things settled into place: independence, confidence, an apartment with matching furniture, a career that paid the bills, and a love that had finally sorted itself out. But now, that assumption feels a bit out of touch.

Culture
Re'Dreyona Walker
Second Thoughts Blog
Bruce Springsteen’s Americana
Features
Sophia Guelke
Bruce Springsteen’s Americana
Features
Sophia Guelke

There is something that I hold so dearly about the version of America that I can find in Springsteen's music. A world of working class struggle, an acknowledgment of the pain and suffering inflicted on the men and women of this country, but a celebration of it nonetheless. A real, true love for America and the people who put the hard work into making it run. It’s something I feel the need to protect and to guard from those who want to destroy the very thing his music holds dear. 

Features
Sophia Guelke
A (Very Polluted) River Runs Through It
Features
Sophie Aanerud
A (Very Polluted) River Runs Through It
Features
Sophie Aanerud

While the list of dangerously polluted waterways in the U.S. is extensive, few have captured the American imagination quite like Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Sometimes frothy, sometimes covered in a nacreous scrim that one imagines peeling off like skin over scalded milk, the 1.8 mile canal’s infamous water is a wellspring of dark humor and incredulous facts.

Features
Sophie Aanerud
Lessons Learned from Edward Crankshaw’s ‘Gestapo’
Reviews
Ken Damon
Lessons Learned from Edward Crankshaw’s ‘Gestapo’
Reviews
Ken Damon

There’s a particular history lesson from school that has stuck in my mind. Imagine a 1930s Germany, still reeling from its losses during the first World War. Then imagine a political party, led by a radical politician that finally breaks through the family radio. He promises redemption for your failing country, massive economic and political gains. Finally, someone to enact real change, someone “finally able to finally do something active and bold to rehabilitate [your] shabby life.” All he needs is your vote. 

Reviews
Ken Damon
This Week's Weekly Verses
Alexandra Terlesky
Visual Art
Self-Portrait, after Artemisia Gentileschi
Alexandra Terlesky
Visual Art

Alexandra Terlesky is a fine artist from the Los Angeles area. She is currently a student at the Kline Academy in Culver City, where she is learning the classical drawing and painting techniques. Classical painting is done in a multitude of layers: first, a carefully composed drawing or sketch of the painting, then either a monochromatic or very muted second layer of oil paint that is then covered with what are called “glazes,” and, finally, finishing the painting with a varnish to make the colors truly sing. Her copy of Artemisia Gentileschi’s, “Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting” is her rendition, and homage, to one of the only female Caravaggisti (followers of Caravaggio).

Alexandra Terlesky
Visual Art
Lena J
Poetry
Altitude
Lena J
Poetry

Lena J. (LJ) is a poet and spoken word artist originally from New York, now based in Richmond, Virginia. Her work centers on honesty, vulnerability, and growth, with a focus on mental health, healing, self reflection, and the moments we do not always have the words for.

She is currently working on her debut haiku collection, Anatomy of a Burn, which explores love and its transformation through infatuation, toxicity, awareness, and learning to choose yourself.

This would be her first publication and marks an early step in her creative journey as she works toward her goal: to reach at least one person and remind them they are not alone.

Lena J
Poetry
Tomris Small
Fiction
Alternative Medicine
Tomris Small
Fiction

Tomris Small is an upcoming writer from Turkey. She took up writing in addition to her genetics studies in university. Her writing explores themes of identity, control, and the human body, often blending visceral imagery with emotional introspection. One of her main goals in writing is to create unsettling yet intimate narratives. The story "Alternative Medicine" is among her first publications.

Tomris Small
Fiction
This Week's Weekly Verses
Alexandra Terlesky
Visual Art
Self-Portrait, after Artemisia Gentileschi
Alexandra Terlesky
Visual Art

Alexandra Terlesky is a fine artist from the Los Angeles area. She is currently a student at the Kline Academy in Culver City, where she is learning the classical drawing and painting techniques. Classical painting is done in a multitude of layers: first, a carefully composed drawing or sketch of the painting, then either a monochromatic or very muted second layer of oil paint that is then covered with what are called “glazes,” and, finally, finishing the painting with a varnish to make the colors truly sing. Her copy of Artemisia Gentileschi’s, “Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting” is her rendition, and homage, to one of the only female Caravaggisti (followers of Caravaggio).

Alexandra Terlesky
Visual Art
Lena J
Poetry
Altitude
Lena J
Poetry

Lena J. (LJ) is a poet and spoken word artist originally from New York, now based in Richmond, Virginia. Her work centers on honesty, vulnerability, and growth, with a focus on mental health, healing, self reflection, and the moments we do not always have the words for.

She is currently working on her debut haiku collection, Anatomy of a Burn, which explores love and its transformation through infatuation, toxicity, awareness, and learning to choose yourself.

This would be her first publication and marks an early step in her creative journey as she works toward her goal: to reach at least one person and remind them they are not alone.

Lena J
Poetry
Tomris Small
Fiction
Alternative Medicine
Tomris Small
Fiction

Tomris Small is an upcoming writer from Turkey. She took up writing in addition to her genetics studies in university. Her writing explores themes of identity, control, and the human body, often blending visceral imagery with emotional introspection. One of her main goals in writing is to create unsettling yet intimate narratives. The story "Alternative Medicine" is among her first publications.

Tomris Small
Fiction

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