[Dey] is a term used to communicate where (how) we exist spatially, as well as to communicate one’s well being. “Where allyuh dey?” “We dey home.” “Allyuh irie?” “We dey.” Dey is a platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized folx who would otherwise go unheard. Through creation, community, and the facilitation of conversations, we stand as a platform on which we can communicate that we dey, we are here, and we are not going anywhere.
“but no one looked/ at me/ I had to resuscitate myself”
‘Poet Nia Mora captures the essence of Dey in the last three lines of her poem titled Salvage. She writes of “drowning” and choking on her own tears, which clutter her throat and submerge her breath, as she flails her “brown arms”. Mora describes her arms as “the branches of the tree/ that scratches your window/pane”, as though spine-chilling, as though “they” are frightened by the sticky stench of blood on their hands. I was swallowed whole by Mora’s poem, and cradled myself in its crevices, where its teeth met its gums…’
– Camille Ollivierre, Founder on Issue I