Identity

A pair of orange hands doodles blue flowers on a notebook with the word Iris in the corner

5 Quick Questions With Daphenie Joseph

Despite how crucial the art is to the storytelling that we do here at Iris, we rarely get to hear directly from our artists.

two cupcakes with white frosting and green wrappers on a blue and pink checkered background

Simone Minor Doesn’t Care If Her Name is Remembered

Simone Minor is always on the move.

gray collage background with a postage stamp, moth, and branch with rounded leaves, the name Jordan written on tape atop it

Jordan Coleman Doesn't Care What You Think of Her.

Like...Really.

girl crying and looking at her reflection

Ghazal for Silent Girls

What do you call it when you learn silence before you learn yourself?

a white figure against a starry blue background with white clouds and floating leaves and hearts

The Material Collage of My Life

Each item has a backstory whether it was a hand selected gift from a friend, a one of a kind thrift find, or an item that’s been in my family for decades.

zoom in on wide, scared eyes

My Fears (Ranked)

Before writing this list, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to come up with 10, let alone 13, fears. Boy, was I wrong!

Smirking lips with vampire fangs with a background of dripping blood

Dating the Lesbian Vampire

She’s mysterious, gothic, and has a taste for human blood. Oh, and she’ll probably steal your girl, unless Netflix kills her first.

two figures running through a field

In Defense of Black Rural America

There are no street lights. No crosswalks nor stoplights to mark your location. 

Blonde woman in graduation cap looking forward towards a door in the landscape

Top Five Questions/Concerns/Insatiable Fears I Have About Leaving College

1. What am I going to do after I graduate? 

a person meeting in the middle of multiple colored circles

7 Ways of Looking at a Black Woman

I’m standing at the intersection of identity / Each piece of me yielding for another / But sometimes there’s a collision