For the cover of our first digital issue, we called upon a poet and an artist to speak to and about this historic moment. We commissioned this country’s youngest-ever poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, to write an original poem and invited our Young Artists List alum Miles Greenberg to illustrate her text with a work of his own. Amanda provided the words we couldn’t find while Miles engaged his own body to explore the complicated relationship between monument-making and performance. Our summer dispatch focuses on interdependency—personal and interpersonal narratives that embody bravery, vulnerability and transparency. We are so grateful to this powerful pair for harnessing their unique creative languages to translate what this time means to them.

“I think we have talked more about what to put on the cover since March than we have the entire last year. During this historic time of crisis we have felt an enormous pressure to speak to our audience in a meaningful way and who better to turn to than a poet and an artist. I have always been impressed by the powerful work of Amanda Gorman so she was the first person I emailed with this idea and she wrote back in minutes. Miles, who was on our 2019 Young Artist list, is such a deep thinker and I knew he would respond to her words in a thoughtful way. His image conveys the emotion of the moment perfectly.” —Sarah Harrelson, Founder / Editor-in-Chief