The Kudzu Review

While looking through past issues of The Kudzu Review, I found the 2008 Spring edition, which is the oldest version available online. I wasn’t expecting to see some barely legible ancient text, but I also was not expecting what I did find. That is something very similar to the issues produced today. Formatting and minor details have indeed advanced and changed, but what is interesting is students were touching on the same issues we speak about today.

The section on poetry speaks of love and the appreciation of life. Brandon Basino’s poem “Ode to Your Prairie” compares the female body to prairie lands and childhood memories: “The small of the back is overrated. Pop songs romanticize it, but it’s no more than a dry-creek-bed-meets-ribbed-metal-drainpipe clogged by tumbleweed and tires…”. In doing so, it references the discrepancies between his interpretation of the small of the back and the portrayal of it in pop music. This immediately made me think of current pop music and its unchanging references to the female body. An example is the Brittney Spears song “Touch of My Hand,” which goes, “From the small of my back and the arch of my feet/Lately I’ve been noticin’ the beautiful me.” I discovered that this piece could exist in the 2024 Fall edition, just as it does in the 2008 Spring edition, and it would evoke the same emotions. It amazes me to think of these similarities and the fact that in 2008, a girl like me was sitting in her room, reading the current edition of the Kudzu review, and profoundly relating to the text, just as I am. 

The more I evaluated different pieces in the edition, the more my belief that while culture is fluid, central ideas of what challenges us and lives in our minds stay the same. This can be seen again in David Dorsey’s untitled artwork and the accompanying description. The artwork itself can be found on page 29 of the 2008 Spring edition of The Kudzu Review. It is awe-inspiring, and I highly suggest you go look at it. However, what moved me was the accompanying description: “This piece was meant to illustrate self-alienation; the three figures are the same, while simultaneously incomplete and different…” If you were to listen in on any conversation with me and a friend, or my mom, or my boyfriend, you would hear the same sentiments. It remains normal to feel alone in your own body. 

I won’t go into the other 27 pieces in the 2008 spring edition and detail how they can seamlessly exist in today’s world. However, I will point out that people are far more similar than you could even begin to imagine. It is easy to exist in your own world and amplify your problems to a point where you feel that you are the only one struggling through your thoughts and feelings. But the reality is that people have struggled with love, self-alienation, loss, and whatever other issues may plague you since Adam and Eve. I am willing to bet that everyone you brush shoulders with has at least one idea they are struggling with that you can relate to. This may only be my belief, but this entire idea is essential to understand. We must treat others with the courtesy and knowledge that they are struggling through the same issues we harbor inside ourselves, regardless of age or social standing. Because Brandon Basino and David Dorsey are out in the world today, and despite their growth and development, it is documented that at one moment in time, they struggled through the same issues as you and me.