With the beginning of another semester comes another Short Vine issue; this semester, submissions opened on Friday, January 31st and will be open through March 31st. Of course, another issue also means another theme has been chosen by our team. This spring, key ideas such as “Colossus,” “Unsilenced,” and “Regrowth” led us to explore what endurance means to us and how that informs our theme, Perseverance & Permanence: What Endures in the Face of Change? What exactly does this mean, and what has inspired the team to choose it?

Perseverance and permanence is staying the same even when things are changing around it. But in the context of the US’s current political climate—imagine a group of undergraduate students sitting in a classroom discussing what matters to them at this moment. The inauguration was January 20th, eight days after the spring semester had begun, with thirty-six executive orders following the President’s first week in office—some of which attacked DEI programs, withdrew the US from WHO, and froze USRAP.

In light of this, Short Vine’s editorial team decided that the time for reclamation and resistance had come—that what mattered to them was the political climate that undermined education, diversity, and equity—and even in the gutting of health, environmental, and inclusion programs, that hope still prevails. Vogue writer Marisa Renee Lee, wrote On MLK and Inauguration Day, a Reflection on Hope which had another part in the board’s decision of the theme. Lee writes that the hope she is “obsessed with is rooted in grief, loss, uncertainty, and the pain of racism.” There is hope in everything we do, and when hope is overshadowed by grief, loss, uncertainty, and pain, it does not disappear—people do not become hopeless—but rather, hope becomes a “violent and powerful thing.” It becomes how we enact change; it becomes how we fight for change. 

Toni Morrison describes that “this is precisely the time when artists go to work;” we don’t have time to despair or silence, we do not have time to be fearful. We pick up our pens, open our laptops, and “we speak, we write, we do language.” This is how we heal; this is how our voices are heard. 

We want to hear your voice; what have you been determined to do? What have you endured, either successfully or not? In helping spark inspiration, the Short Vine team has provided various pieces of writing, music, films, and other media that they think of when considering Perseverance & Permanence. 

Writing

A ton of poetry came to mind to the team when talking about pieces that inspired them. Audrey listed “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. Sydney talked about “Forest of Noise” by Mosab Abu Toha; and Ceili mentioned “Cryogenics” by Joy Rose Smith and “Don’t Bother the Earth Spirit” by Joy Harjo. Alyx provided the only fiction piece, under the name of “An Autumn Night” by Maxim Gorky. 

Music 

Alex includes songs such as “Parking Lot Problems” by Evening Elephants, “My Skin” by Hazlett, “God’s Whisper” by Raury, “A Rush of Blood to the Head” by Coldplay, alongside others. She explains that these songs involve themes about persevering, taking a stand, speaking up and/or fighting for what they believe in. 

Anthony adds notable songs “Rhythm Nation” by Janet Jackson (although the entire album is a great listen for our theme), “Love” by Musiq SoulChild, “And Contentment” by WILLOW, “Team” by Lorde, and more. 

Building upon those songs, I’d like to add “Get There” by bôa and “A Head Full of Dreams” by Coldplay. “Get There” has a special place in my heart, the course of the song talks about staying focused to get to where they want to be and trying not to stray. It reminds me a lot of enduring when times get difficult. “A Head Full of Dreams” is one of those songs that is so empowering–at least to me. If I’m down this is absolutely a song I’m putting on to help me feel like I can conquer the world.

Films

We had one film come to mind, and that was Grave of the Fireflies, courtesy of Sydney. It is an anti-war film that is not for the faint of heart. Sydney specifically mentions the persistence of Seita and Setsuko, the siblings in the film, and the overall permanence of love.

Notable Blurbs

Charlotte writes, “Such an important aspect of permanence to me is when it fails. When something is in fact not permanent it makes the message, the idea of it, so much more painful and important. When something is permanent, it can feel inconsequential, so when it gets taken away the impact is so much greater.”

Anthony highlights that the theme represents “the constantly evolving aspects of our experiences as humans,” and hopes “to see what authors can do through reflections and challenges, and how authors persist through the constant[ly] changing world around them.”

I’d personally like to end with Audrey’s comment, “The sun that always rises, the small choices that always affect our life, the tattoo that will always be there, the memories that always stick with us, the space and time that will always exist; the always that is always always.”