POET + WRITER + EDITOR
LANGUAGE & LITERACY ACTIVIST
ARTIST & STORYTELLER
“History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”
James Joyce, Ulysses
MEET ORI
AN EXAMINED LIFE
Ori is what my friends and family call me, but Van is what strangers and acquaintances know me as in both my writing and my art. I keep my brand slightly compartmentalized from the personal — it is essential to my disabled health and well-being — mental, physical, and spiritual.
ESSAYS + POETRY
A Walking Miracle On dying and the return.
On May 26th, 2022, my brain exploded two days after my heart stopped for three minutes, and I survived what is known as a “near-death experience.” Except it wasn’t near death; it was very much actual death.
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Let’s Talk About Death And the life you lead up to it.
I died.
For 3 minutes, my heart stopped. I knew I was dying; I felt my heart blip out as I screamed, “I’m dying!” in the recovery room. Pretty sure everyone in the building heard me.
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Confronting the Dead 3rd grade is not too young to see a corpse.
“3rd grade is too young to see a corpse.”
hear my auntie whisper to mama.
Knew what mama would say before the words came rolling out
between two puffs of a cigar.
“He’s going.”
Mama had the final word.
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