The writers featured in Global City Review’s twenty-fourth issue are setting the record straight about the pressing issues of our time. They are setting the record straight about themselves, their past selves, their families, their communities, their world—our world; our global city. With so much disinformation, deception, and blurring of lines in our world today, it is of the highest importance to focus on truth-telling, and to honor truth-telling through story.
The truth, however, can be complicated. For all of us, the question exists of how committed to our beliefs we should be, how much faith we should put into what we believe to be true, or how skeptical we should be of our own beliefs, and what level of flexibility is needed as new truths appear that contradict our current beliefs. For all of us, certainly, there are some beliefs to which we remain firmly and faithfully committed—these are our truths—and nothing happening now or in the future could change that for us. The truth that Black Lives Matter, and matter immensely. The truth that police violence against people of color is atrocious and rampant. This complicated moment requires speaking this truth to power. And it requires action. Lives are at stake. It’s a shame and a disgrace that this record even needs setting.
How do we do what we know is right, and fair, and how do we act on what we know is true, even if it is antithetical to what certain societal norms are telling us? How do we use our truths to challenge the status quo and create change? Ultimately what drives our own actions are our own truths, but can our truths hold the power that propels others into action? Absolutely.
To set the record straight is to confront the truth. And this moment is calling on us to confront our own truths and to confront our doubts, to confront them in all the communities in which we belong–educational, professional, religious, social, geographic, and perhaps the hardest, familial. Our membership in these groups can be highly insular, and can keep us—and our truths—contained. Setting the record straight within these communities can be exceptionally difficult, yet the work is critical.
Since Global City’s inception, our truth has always been to publish and champion the work of diverse writers and artists whose voices are not always heard. During the current political and social climate, this fact rings truer now more than ever. We remain dedicated to the enterprise.
Special thanks to Esther Canata for again providing us with the cover image for our issue. Follow Esther on instagram at @canatacollect. Thanks to the entire Global City collective, for all their hard work and dedication, to our supporters and fans, and many, many thanks to this current group of writers and artists that have contributed to Setting the Record Straight.
David Puretz
David Puretz, Editorial Director
Amy Veach, Art, Design & Production Director
Michelle Valladares, Poetry Editor
Brian Brennan, Editor
Jessica Sticklor, Editor
Linsey Abrams, Consulting Editor & Founder
Elazar Krausz, Intern
