A Note from the Editor

Abstract

A Note from the Editor John Fletcher The past few years have taught me a humbling lesson: hold plans loosely. This issue began life as a special topics volume around the theme of "Attendance." The present collection of articles is not that special issue. We received several lovely submissions to our call, some of which appear here, but nothing like the flood of submissions we have gotten for past special issues. At the same time, several other essays reached the end of their long trip through the normal editing-revision pipeline. Rather than push these off until the next issue and produce an anemic special topics volume, we have chosen to make this a regular edition of the journal. Happily, though, we have a great issue here, with five stimulating articles to inspire productive discomfort, innovative reforms, and even delight. We could use a little delight right now. As I write this (March 2022), two news items dominate the headlines. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine looms over everything, producing daily stories of violence, loss, and resilience. The ramifications of Russia's aggression (and NATO's possible responses) weight this already awful situation with apocalyptic baggage. Pessimistic as I am, I did not expect "World War III" and "nuclear devastation" to rejoin my active list of things to worry about. Whatever the outcome of this conflict, the larger international realignments at work promise a long, grim season of tension and anxiety. The second set of headlines sound a blaring alarm about global warming, with temperatures in the Antarctic shooting up to a shocking 70 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) above normal. We are hitting worst-case scenario benchmarks for catastrophic climate change even as the most powerful nations seem less likely than ever to work together for solutions. Of course, the other emergencies of the 2020s remain with us. COVID-19 continues to toss out new variants, seeding further spikes in a world increasingly resigned to semi-permanent pandemic. Authoritarian and anti-democratic tendencies continue to rise, lining up behind Putin's imperial aspirations. Racism, sexism, and transphobia continue to infect cultural and political systems. And while not everyone faces the same level of material threat, just about everyone seems bone-weary and spent. We begin this issue, then, with a dash of joy. Beth Osnes and Sarah Fahmy offer an ongoing consciousness-raising performance in "Keeping the Fun in Staying with the Trouble: Green Suits and Environmental Activist Pleasure." As the cover photo illustrates, Green Suits consists of someone donning an all-green bodysuit decked with a leafy sash. They do something—an action, a dance, a pose—in public, provoking questions and conversations in passersby and in those who see photos of the performance afterwards. The authors caution that Green Suits operates as micro-activism; it complements but cannot replace large-scale, systemic interventions to mitigate or reverse climate change. Yet such big shifts (governments incentivizing clean energy, for example, or corporations divesting from fossil fuels and plastics) often seem too large or too remote for individuals to connect to, just as global warming itself can seem like too hopeless a problem to address. Against such doom-and-gloom paralysis, Green Suits offers a set of accessible handholds to help people get a grasp on fighting climate change. I especially admire how Osnes and Fahmy recognize and grapple with the potential critiques of their work: Aren't the suits made from fossil fuels? What real difference are these performances making? Whose pleasure gets recognized here? Rejecting both the temptation to ignore such criticisms and the allure of stalling out because everything is so problematic, the authors "stay with the trouble" (Donna Haraway's phrase) to frame moments of joy as defiant and meaningful. [End Page vii] Although written before the Ukrainian refugee crisis emerged, Chen Alon and Sonja Kuftinec's "Dramatizing Displacement in Israel" provides a timely reminder of how people fleeing political violence often find themselves at the mercy of cultural and political narratives. Are they refugees or infiltrators? Should nations welcome them or turn them away? While the world rightfully attends to the plight of Ukrainians struggling to escape their besieged country, activists elsewhere note that...