Foreword : Rise of the Fresh Coast / Jamala Rogers ; This place we know : an introduction / Terrion L. Williamson ; Ode to the midwest / Kevin Young ; I. Home : Rust: a black woman's story of growing up in Northeast Ohio / Tara L. Conley ; There are birds here / Jamaal May ; Hood orchids / Devon Ginn ; Gentrification and the South Side of Ypsilanti, Michigan / Aaron K. Foley ; Traveling while black / Tanisha C. Ford ; Market on Maryland Avenue / Terrence Shambley, Jr. ; Cleveland and Chicago: a tale of four cities / Mark V. Reynolds ; Peoria, Pryor, and me / Terrion L. Williamson ; Detroit: love of my life / Courtney Rise Randolph ; On spades, queerness, and the things we learn from our grandmothers / Kidiocus King-Carrol ; Tracing water, memory, and change / Njaimeh Njie -- II. Past : Slavery, freedom, and African American voices in the midwest / Melissa N. Stuckey ; Ella Mae: the personal and the political / Jeffrey C. Wray ; "Orphan district": segregation in rural Ohio / Joe Boyle ; 2672 South Deacon Street, Detroit / Yvonne ; "Tell 'em what we did!": choosing and building black space in the midwest / Michelle S. Johnson ; Great migration of African-American southerners to Cleveland / Edward M. Miggins, ed. ; Negro in minneapolies (for prince & philando castile) / brian g. gilmore ; Realizing freedom / Phyllis May-Machunda -- III. Love : No one loves me, like I love me / Katherine Simóne Reynolds ; Stay debaucherous / David Weathersby ; Aug 14th, 2017 -- "Baptism" / Zuggie Tate ; Burn / Janice N. Harrington ; Paintings / Leslie Barlow ; Joe's Ode / DeMar Walker ; ...for, about, and with Laurie / Beverly Cottman ; from "Call & response: experiments in joy" / Gabrielle Civil -- IV. Now : Photographs / Rachel Elise Thomas ; A minute, a pond, a north-facing window / dr Kim-Marie Walker ; I am a landlocked body / Alexandra Nicome ; Columbus: different latitude, same platitudes / Deva Rashed-Boone ; Reality of being black in Iowa / Zenzele Isoke ; Trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents in black Milwaukee / Gladys Mitchell-Walthour ; It's just ok / Nia Easley ; Ghetto bird ward / Curtis L. Crisler ; On Audre Lorde and Minnesota nice Vanessa Taylor ; Hair / Lyndsey Ellis -- V. Onward : Stop pretending black midwesterners don't exist / Tamara Winfrey- Harris ; A reflection on the changing route work of Sumpter's south end / Ezekiel Joubert III ; 4 Malcolm X greenhouse / Jordan Weber ; Only moving thing / Kisha Nicole Foster ; Toward a black Chicago revival / Mary Pattillo ; Infinite Essence: James, 2018 / Mikael Chukwuma Owunna ; Coda: a final note on black life and loss / Terrion L. Williamson.