This issue of Pointed Circle is, as they all are, significant—historically and otherwise. We are celebrating the longevity of 40 years in print. This fortieth edition is a creation born from an intimate team and compact time frame. When our editorial crew came together to discuss what we wanted this historical issue to be—what we wanted to capture—we were all over the board, quite literally: our ideas were scrawled and splattered across the length of a 30-foot white board, spelling out every chaotic thought buzzing through our brains:

Transition, Rebirth, Spring, Burning flowers,

Dumpster fire, Riot cops, Fentanyl, Revolution

We thought about our city, in flux between public perception from afar (it’s burning! it’s anarchy! it’s all over for us!) and the reality on the ground (these apartments are unaffordable! this brunch is unaffordable! these cherry blossoms still bloom, despite clouds of toxic gasses!). This city, and us as editors, all exist in the contrast between these dueling realities. We tried to capture this juxtaposition in the journal, both in the visual art and in the written work we gathered from a collection of truly talented people. To quote the brilliant sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, “If you work hard enough at something that doesn’t matter, you can forget for a while about the things that do” (“The Evening and the Morning and the Night”). Luckily for us at Pointed Circle, this ‘thing’ we have been working at so hard for the last two months matters to us a lot. In a world where awful things exist, we have used hopelessness and fear to drive us instead toward community, learning, vulnerability, listening, and growing. This is not to say we aren’t hindered by cynicism at times; it’s just that we don’t let it defeat us. We choose art and storytelling, and at the sake of sounding ridiculously corny—we choose love. We hope to inspire others to choose the same.

With care,
The 2024 Pointed Circle Team

Editors:

Anna Janelle
Aurora Duval
Chloe Empoliti
Ella Lamas
Gigi Giangiobbe
Haley Barnes