The phrase “Please scream inside your heart” originates from a 2020 campaign at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park near Tokyo, Japan. Posters around the park requested visitors to scream internally instead of out loud in an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

As jarring as this might seem, all of us know what it’s like to suppress our emotions or conceal our vulnerabilities, whether that’s due to internal or external forces.

For our second issue, we asked for writing and art that captures the essence of the phrase, “Please scream inside your heart.” We asked our growing audience of contributing writers and artists, when have you felt the urge to scream, but forced yourself to keep quiet? When has your heart felt like it would burst from lack of expression? How have you felt limited in what you can reveal of yourself? What vulnerabilities do you refuse to expose? What does it feel like when you finally do? 

The poetry, prose, and visual artwork we received explores these questions and more with introspection, authenticity, and sensitivity. We are excited to release our second issue, which offers an inside look into our artists’ hearts — raw and bruised, filled with emotion that must be let out. We see this collection of work as an expression of catharsis, as well as a practice in collective empathy, one that occurs when our most-inner selves are coaxed out and exposed.