An imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art and narrative prose

Blending stark realism with the surreal and fantastic, Eve L. Ewing’s narrative takes us from the streets of Chicago to an unspecified future, deftly navigating the boundaries of space, time, and reality. Ewing imagines familiar figures in magical circumstances, and identifies everyday objects - hair moisturizer, a spiral notebook - as precious icons.

Her visual art is spare, playful and poignant- a cereal-box decoder ring that allows the wearer to understand what Black girls are saying; a teacher’s angry, subversive message scrawled on the chalkboard. Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity and the joy and pain of growing up.