"The end of apartheid did not mean the end of the devastation to mind and body brought on by intense poverty and oppression, and the persistence of memory.

Welcome to CRUX: a conversation in words and images. This issue focuses on South Africa and the Global South USA. We hope this little book will be used as a resource to educate those with an interest in the intersections of South African history and politics with their counterparts in the USA. CRUX illuminates roots and trails that connect both places. We talk about getting to the crux of a problem.

We are grateful to have submissions from a multicultural group of people who speak from multiple sides of this conversation. The diverse voices are African, Caucasian, Asian, old, and young; from South Africa and from across the U.S.A.

Within these pages you will find poems and prose, essays, memory, fact and fiction. The writers look at the world through the eyes of those who consider themselves a part of the internally and externally displaced -- the entwined history of apartheid and slavery informs them." -- Alice Lovelace