What would it mean if tenderness could hold a simultaneous existence of joy and rage? How to call on tenderness as a practice of love, rather than a regurgitation of white supremacy? Author and writer Annika Hansteen-Izora explores answers in Tenderness: An Honoring of My Black Queer Joy and Rage. A meditation, critical inquiry, and invitation to expand our imaginations on meanings of tenderness, this piece calls into question conceptions of tenderness that are rooted in desirability, anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and instead unfolds the potentials of tenderness as a tool, a balm, a healing agent, and a question to lean into. 

Copy edited by Aliyah Blackmore, graphic design and illustrations by MJ Balvanera. Risograph printing by Neko Natalia, spiral bound binding by Southgate Bindery.

–A.R. 11/8/2024