Issue 3 Asks:
What Does
the Future Hold?

There is no bird’s-eye. No score or succinct way to capture just how heavily this year has pressed against us. A year marked by a global pandemic, and a summer of grieving, anger, uprising. The extraordinary work of the Movement for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter emptied us from our homes in isolation and into the streets, to fight against white supremacy, anti-Black racism, anti-trans violence, and police brutality. True allyship requires a spectrum of work, of meeting this moment at every level: from local to global, from individual to structural.

For our third issue of the magazine, we decided to focus on just that, starting with our cover star: the playwright and polymath, Jeremy O. Harris, whose productions of Slave Play and “Daddy” have left his audiences and critics not merely enraptured, but hooked on how he makes it hard to watch—how he challenges whiteness, straightness, privilege, and the so-called immunity of good will. As Doreen St. Félix writes, “Harris has become, and maybe defined, for this new century, a category of cultural celebrity.” Harris has held his curtain for Rihanna, brokered deals with A24 and HBO, become a muse for Gucci and Bode, establishing himself as a star rising between the establishment and the vanguards. It’s for all these reasons (and more), that SSENSE has partnered with Harris on a special project championing his design concept and vision, set to launch in December.

Each page of this issue was created from the ground up, designed to be a document that is incomplete yet expectant in its purpose. The stories provide a view for looking backwards and forwards. And isn’t that the point? To pay attention, listen, and record as a means for future retrieval.