This cover includes symbols - land, paper, and migration - which represent the papers in this issue. A bison, a time-spanning symbol of Native American identity, stands atop mountains made of paper. The land represents the theme of land conflicts included in many of this edition’s works. One “mountain” consists of Cherokee land allotments and shows that, despite centuries of ancestral ties to land, federal recognition of legality rested on mere pieces of paper. Another mountain is a report of shell shock victims during WW1. The remaining paper mountains are pieces of sheet music, referring to Stalin’s failed attempts at propaganda through music. Vertical black lines stand above the paper mountains. One set of these lines is sound waves, representing the value of oral traditions and storytelling amidst paper records and documents. The other set is a fence, symbolic of the LA riots, which in large part originated from inequitable differences between wealthy suburbs and lower-income areas. The lines further constrain the bison, now trapped by both paper land allotments and in a gated enclosure. When looking further up, there are “clouds” of signatures in the sky. Signatures hold significant power over land and their people. Here, this is shown by the ominous blending of the various signatures that dictated various legal and land policies present in this edition’s papers. The red pin, whose vibrant color and different visual style make it stick out from the rest of the land, embodies the expansionist presence in war, colonization, and racial gentrification. The bottommost mountain, as well as the thin streak of fire stemming from the pin, shows the act of burning paper.

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Livia Liu, Cover Design