Celebrating Callaloo 43.3, Oya, Wind is Our Teacher
Celebrating Callaloo 43.3, Oya, Wind is Our Teacher
Dear Callaloo Supporters,
We originally planned for Volume 43.3 of Callaloo to drop in August in time to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s tragic arrival on the Gulf Coast. Alas, time and nature are not interested in our plans. “Oya: Wind is our teacher” arrived last week, just as Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest hurricanes on record, smashed into Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica, leaving immense destruction in her wake.
This issue of Callaloo was lovingly curated by guest editors Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Courtney Desiree Morris as a tribute to Audre Lorde, and to her spiritual mother, Oya, the Yoruba Orisha of winds, storms, and radical change. In its pages are the voices of hurricane survivors who offer reflections—in poems, in stories, in music and painting— on the pain of loss and the generative power of community.
At the center of this issue is Lorde's essay, On Generators and Survival, a meditation on the intimate logistics of weathering Hurricane Hugo in her chosen home of St. Croix. This epistolary essay, which appeared in Callaloo in 1991, posits that survival is a creative and communal act, and that our preparation—if preparation is even possible—for survival is both a physical and spiritual practice.
Now, as disaster recovery begins in Jamaica, we can lean into Lorde’s call for the generosity that collective care demands. Her words, and those of the contributors to this issue, remind us that we have the power to care for the earth with reverence and respect, and to use her bounty responsibly. Our communities survive when we use this power. When we do not, the resulting punishment and suffering is most often visited upon those who do, who live closest to the land, and are most dependent on it for their survival.
In that spirit, we offer you a look inside this timely new issue of Callaloo. For the month of November, a number of pieces from Vol 43.3 will be available for you to explore, free of charge.
We hope that you will be moved by the work, and be inspired to join us as a subscriber. A generous donor has agreed to donate $10 to disaster relief in Jamaica for every Callaloosubscription purchased ($15 for a two-year subscription,) and $5 for every copy of Oya sold.
We are grateful for your partnership, and proud to have you as a member of the Callaloo community,
Kyla Kupferstein Torres
Executive Editor, Callaloo Literary Journal
Explore Callaloo 43.3
For the month of November, selected works from Callaloo 43.3, Oya: Wind is Our Teacher will be available to read for free! Look for the (FREE) sign to access selected pieces.
CALLALOO
Volume 43, No. 3 Summer, 2025
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Oya, Wind Is Our Teacher
A Special Issue
KYLA KUPFERSTEIN TORRES / Editor's Note............................................................... 1 (FREE)
COURTNEY DESIREE MORRIS / Guest Editors’ Note.................................................... 2 (FREE)
Poetry
DELICIA DANIELS / To God’s Ears.................................................................................. 63
TAMIKA MIDDLETON / At the Edge of a Nation: A Sorrow Song............................. 68
INES P. RIVERA PROSDOCIMI / Repatriation ............................................................... 75 (FREE)
/ El bizcocho de mi hermano Nicolas...................... 77
A.V. BENFORD / Home, Again and for Forever ........................................................... 129
LENELLE MOÏSE / push................................................................................................... 189
Fiction
DESIREE S. EVANS / Storm Riders ................................................................................. 155 (FREE)
ADDIE E. CITCHENS / Manifesto: and the Weak Are Doomed to Pay ................... 183
Articles
LERHONDA S. MANIGAULT-BRYANT / Weathering the Storm.............................. 159
Personal Essay
AUDRE LORDE / Of Generators And Survival — Hugo Letter.................................. 27 (FREE)
TAMI NAVARRO / On Hurricanes and Other Disasters .............................................. 52
VANELIS RIVERA / Measuring Milestones by Storms................................................. 64
MICHELLE LANIER / A Notion of AfroCarolina as a Concept?................................. 73
COURTNEY DESIREE MORRIS / Orisha Wedding ..................................................... 79 (FREE)
MERLE COLLINS / In This Great Future: Floods, Hurricanes, and Natural
Disasters in Grenada..................................................................... 135
SANGODARE AKINWALE / Oya: Before the Fire........................................................ 97
TAMIKA GALANIS / Our Edens are Broken ............................................................... 146
Interviews
KYLA KUPFERSTEIN TORRES / Oya, Wind Is Our Teacher: A Conversation
with the Guest Editors .............................................. 4 (FREE)
CHARLES HENRY ROWELL / Above the Wind: A Conversation with Audre
Lorde .............................................................................. 15 (FREE)
ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS / “You Hear the Wind”: An Interview with
Omisade Burney-Scott.................................................. 172 (FREE)
Reviews
SAVANNAH BALMIR / Tao Leigh Goffe’s Dark Laboratory: On Columbus,
the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis............... 191
BRITTANY L. MARSHALL / Nadia Alexis’ Beyond the Watershed: Poems ................. 192
ALISSA RAE FUNDERBURK / Lindsey Stewart’x The Conjuring of America:
Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of
Black Women’s Magic ................................................... 195
Art
KAI BARROW / Oya: Wind Is our Teacher, a Visual Opera for Nine Voices +
Chorus ...................................................................................................... 37
SHANA M. GRIFFIN / Black Rivers ...............................................................................119
Contributors............................................................................................................................... 198
Purchase Your Copy of Oya
We hope you enjoyed these selections from Callaloo 43.3, Oya, Wind Is Our Teacher. To read the full issue order your copy of Callaloo today.
Become a Callaloo Supporter
Founded in 1976, Callaloo has arguably been the most important and prestigious Black literary journal for the last 50 years. So many of the greatest literary voices of the late 20th and early 21st century have made their debuts or built their careers in the pages of Callaloo: Rita Dove, John Edgar Wideman, Natasha Tretheway, Percival Everett, Tracy K. Smith, Kevin Young, Carl Phillips, Yusef Komunyakaa, and the list goes on.
We're so grateful for your support as we move into our 50th anniversary year. Thank you for supporting literary and visual art from across the African diaspora. Your gift helps ensure that the journal will be strong for another 50 years!
