In its most elemental definition, the word “matter” denotes an object that occupies space. When we are young, we are told that to exist, we must be a weighted thing.…

In its most elemental definition, the word “matter” denotes an object that occupies space. When we are young, we are told that to exist, we must be a weighted thing. In this way, to be Black is to be something at odds with itself, to both carry so much weight yet also to be denied space. The inaugural issue of Citizen intends to ask in many ways and, answer in some, what it means to matter, to take up space, to be of meaning, to be of value and, also what matters to us all as we all stand on the rim of a new world, what we all intend to take down with us into our new lives and our new ways of being.