sx salon 34

Since taking over as editor of sx salon a year ago, I have been hoping to write an issue introduction that was not punctuated by expressions of elegy and lament, for the death of one of our luminaries or for our broader collective circumstance in a pandemic. Sadly, this issue demands the same note of distress, in that the global public-health crisis of COVID-19 continues and clear evidence now exists, within the United States (at least), that—because of systemic racism and ubiquitous economic and medical inequities—Black, brown, and immigrant communities are disproportionately affected by the virus and its economic consequences.

But this moment is a little different, since I write also in the context of a massive and (so far) sustained uprising in defense of Black lives and freedom and against racist policing and structural injustice. We find ourselves in times of anxiety and hope, of terror and possibility. As always, our intention at sx salon is to present work that nourishes the mind and the soul, speaking of what is, with our eyes always firmly fixed on what can be. sx salon 34 therefore brings you a discussion of Rita Indiana’s cli-fi novel Tentacle, in a special section edited and introduced by Njelle W. Hamilton; a special book reviews section, edited and introduced by our reviews editor Ronald Cummings, marking the fortieth anniversary of Walter Rodney’s death; and a wonderful selection of new Caribbean creative writing by Margarita Rosa, Mauricio Almonte, and Vanessa Jimenez Gabb, curated as always by creative editor Rosamond S. King. Take heart, stay safe, and imagine the world we might bring into being.

Rachel L. Mordecai

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Table of Contents

Introduction—Rachel L. Mordecai

Reviews—Remembering Walter Rodney

“Remembering Rodney”—Ronald Cummings
Introduction

“Grounding Rodney in Guyana”—Nalini Mohabir and Robert Cuffy
Review of Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers, ed. Asha Rodney and Jesse Benjamin, rev. ed. (London: Verso, 2019)

“The Global Social Divide: Revisiting How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”—Wazir Mohamed
Review of Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, rev. ed. (London: Verso, 2018)

“Critical Praxis: Walter Rodney and the Russian Revolution”—Nigel Westmaas
Review of Walter Rodney, The Russian Revolution: A View from The Third World, ed. Robin D. G. Kelley and Jesse Benjamin (London: Verso, 2018)

Discussion—Rita Indiana’s Tentacle

“Rita Indiana’s Tentacle: An Introduction”—Njelle W. Hamilton

“Into the Anemone: Ocean, Form, and the Anthropocene in Tentacle”—Alison Glassie

“Rita Indiana’s Queer Interspecies Caribbean and the Hispanic Literary Tradition”—Charlotte Rogers

“‘Another Shape to Time’: Tentacle’s Spiral Now”—Njelle W. Hamilton

Poetry and Prose

poems by Margarita Rosa

short fiction by Mauricio Almonte

poem by Vanessa Jimenez Gabb