Her mother rarely smiled in public. Maybe the Women suspected it was on account of her missing teeth, or maybe they suspected it symptomatic of her mother’s apparent and seemingly persistent aloneness. No loud relatives spilled from their SUVs in the parking lot to greet her, no smiling daughter and no strapping son-in-law plucked a fat cheeked baby from a stroller to deposit into her shriveled lap. 

James Everett Stanley (b. 1975, Waltham, MA) lives and works in Wellfleet, MA — he received a MFA from Columbia University and is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is an Assistant Professor of Painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His work is part of the permanent collection of The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Other than the competition thing, B-B kids are like kids everywhere. We find our crew and stick with them. No matter what. Just like in Lord of the Flies. Which, for the record, I’m pretty sure was based on a true story.

Esteban del Valle is a Brooklyn, NY based interdisciplinary artist originally from Chicago, IL. He received his M.F.A. from RISD and has exhibited his work and produced murals internationally.

Sydney, sensing that Kendra’s small, fractured family was a sensitive subject, would sneak into Kendra’s room to look at the raggedy, over-stuffed photograph albums that her grandmother stowed away under her bed.