Dear readers,
Across this issue’s three features, a life unfolds. We begin with childhood in Chloe Nguyen’s investigation of New Haven’s fragmented early education system and the persistent search for a safe, sustainable place of learning. Then, in our cover story, Miranda Jeyaretnam explores the weight of decades spent serving lengthy prison sentences while investigating Connecticut’s commutations process. We reach the end of a life with Anouk Yeh’s heartbreaking conversations with the people organizing around medical aid in dying—those who have lost the lives of loved ones, or fear the rights to their own.
We look, too, at the in-betweens. The things that make our lives feel especially funny, embarrassing, too-much-too-quick, distinctly ours. Kinnia Cheuk visits a local thrift store, tracing past lives of witchiness and finding new queer magic. Abigail Sylvor Greenberg shares the life of a “Kitty Waxer” and all the ways she makes you feel vibrant and alive. And Arden Yum takes us from Manhattan to Oceanside, following the pace of other lives and finding hers, too.
Thank you to our lifeblood—the writers, editors, designers, website directors, and photographers of our magazine. The New Journal is a labor of love, and we hope to share that with you in these pages. We are grateful for the opportunity to explore these lives with you.
TNJ Love,
The Managing Board