by Idris Goodwin

Almost every weekend I pack a suitcase with my books, CDs and flyers, drive a few hours to a community college or bookstore, set up my little table and commence to running my mouth. I am the hip hop version of Willy Loman. People want to know: What you do, would you call it rap? Are they monologues? Is it slam? What is it?

Calling it “a hybrid of spoken word, hip hop poetics, and creative memoir” doesn’t make it much easier. To be honest, there isn’t a short but all encompassing answer, so I invented one. The following essay, “Break Beat Poetry,” from my debut collection These Are The Breaks (Write Bloody Publishing) prose and essays on hip hop culture and race in America, explains just what the heck I do.

an excerpt from These Are The Breaks

When Bronx DJs performed for neighborhood block parties in the early 70s, they discovered how to extend the instrumental “breakdown” section of a record. When looped, these free-flowing breakdowns – dubbed break beats – served as the audio stage on which dancers and MCs “got loose” or “styled.”10

Birthed from the intersection of Afro Latin, Latin jazz, be bop jazz, hard bop, hard rock, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, blue-eyed soul and German computer music, break beats are true poly-cultural relics. All electronic music, from rap to house to techno, drum and bass, utilize the cyclical flow of a break beat.

by Katy Jensen

Years from now, we will probably remember February 2011 for the monstrous winter storm that turned Houston into a skating rink and gave Chicago schoolchildren their first “snow day” in 12 years. From New Mexico to Maine, millions of people struggled to maintain their daily schedules, only to realize the situation was beyond their control. Eventually, millions of people decided to put down the snow shovel and curl up on the couch with a blanket and a good book.

by Anika Fajardo

Memoir revolves around ourselves and our families. But writing about these subjects can be a difficult undertaking, both emotionally and technically. The things we enjoy about reading personal stories—the gritty, unvarnished truth of someone’s life—are also the things that can hold us back as writers of creative nonfiction. Our personal bias, self-censorship, and fear often interfere with telling the truth in our stories.

by Jim Heynen

My favorite definition of the word “loft” is  “a room or space over a stable or barn, used especially for storing hay or straw.” I do much of my work in a writing studio at the Loft. Maybe the space aligns with my farm boy roots because the unadorned room reminds me of the quiet privacy of a haymow. It’s a physical space that puts me in a good headspace to write. I also like knowing that people in adjacent studios are quietly at work too. I don’t feel that I’m competing with them; it’s more like parallel play, parallel ruminating.