Black Feather Magazine has been 13 years in the making. Imagined as an artist’s paradise, these pages serve as a space where ideas, stories, and images can find a home and can fuel further art. This magazine is, above all, an ode to the silent artist. It is an ode to the people who can fill empty spaces with stories and find inspiration in the most unassuming, or challenging, of circumstances.  

This issue of Black Feather Magazine is an ode to empty spaces and challenges. The past few months have created emptiness out of spaces that have usually been bursting with life. I’ve walked past empty restaurants where I can almost hear the lingering chatter that used to live there. I’ve skated through streets where I once sat in traffic. Everything has shifted and a lot of people are just now getting to know themselves. This emptiness has forced this upon us. I wanted to explore this. I asked some of my friends and family if they would like to contribute to this opening issue of Black Feather Magazine. I was surprised at the number of enthusiastic replies. I was even more surprised at the unveiled stories, thoughts, and experiences that they wrote about. I was surprised that many contributors didn’t know how heavy the burden of isolation and quarantine was until they wrote about it. 

And so, dear Reader, I invite you to download the magazine below and read these stories and really feel these images. I invite you to get to know yourself through the lives of others and the emptiness that has suddenly come to define our lives. I welcome you to the world of Black Feather Magazine and would like to remind you that “even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.”