“All cities are like you anyway. Everything is cells and bodies.” So begins Maya McOmie’s poem “Leaving Town,” and the inspiration for the title of Ohio Migration Anthology, Volume Two.
Following the smash debut of “Far From Their Eyes: Ohio Migration Anthology, Volume One,” the Ohio Immigrant Alliance is back with a new compilation of visual art, literary art, and interviews—including audio recordings—from people with connections to Ohio and to migration.
“(Everything Is) Cells and Bodies: Ohio Migration Anthology Volume Two,” is available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com, as well as Mac’s Back’s Books on Coventry in Cleveland Heights.
Buy Volume 2 in print ($24.99) and ebook ($16.99, on sale for $12.99). FREE for media and professional book reviewers (admin AT ohioimmigrant.org).
Did You Miss Volume 1? Pick up a copy here. The anthologies make terrific gifts.
All profits are equally divided among contributors. To donate to the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, visit: https://bit.ly/NoTaxOHIA.
NEW IN VOLUME TWO
Our first trilingual story, Shirley Betzaida Lopez Sanchez’ “Mi Triste Infancia / My Sad Childhood / A nchwinqlale ky’ixk’oj” — written in Spanish, English, and Mam.
Our first play, Neema Bal and Katie Beck’s “Three Countries, One Mother.”
Our first textile art, Gloria Kellon’s story quilts depicting Black history and triumphs in the United States.
More accessible formats. Both the ebook and print edition have QR codes linking to video and audio content, including behind the scenes interviews and a stop-animation video accompanying Enock Sadiki’s “The Most Essential Part of My Life.”
Sadiki’s work is one of three contributions from the Illustrated Memoirs Project, an initiative in the Cincinnati public schools that empowers teenagers born in other countries to express themselves and the experiences that brought them to Ohio. His story is also available as a stop-animation video.
Foreword by Marina Manoukian, whose hit review of Volume One can be found in Arts Fuse.
REPRISING VOLUME ONE
Updates on Mory Keita and Saidu Sow. After building their lives and starting families in Ohio, Mory and Saidu were cruelly deported. They talked about their efforts to prevent deportation in Volume One; in Volume Two, they update the readers on their lives now — recordings of their interviews are also available.
That same breadth of diversity you knew and loved from Volume One. Quilts, digital art, drawings, essays, poems, stories, interviews, and a play, from people of all ages, races, and religions who speak various languages and have connections to countries including Canada; Côte d’Ivoire; Guinea-Conakry; Guatemala; Greece; Hungary; India; Indonesia; Japan; Mauritania; Mexico; Serbia; Singapore; Slovakia; Turkey; Uganda; and Yugoslavia.
But they are also connected to Ohio—Akron; Toledo, Columbus; Cincinnati; the city of Cleveland; Cleveland Heights; Shaker Heights and Parma—as well as the Great Migration of African Americans north.
“What comes out of reading about these experiences? What comes out of knowing about the different things people endure on their way from being in one place to another? To read about the movement of others isn’t about preparing for the inevitable — it’s about finding the intersections that inevitably remake us all.” — Marina Manoukian, “Ohio Bound — ‘Far From Their Eyes,’” Arts Fuse
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance thanks the Ohio Arts Council, Cuyahoga County Arts and Culture, and individuals like you for the generous financial support that made (Everything Is) Cells and Bodies possible. All proceeds from sales are evenly divided among the contributors.
