Well, given that citizens usually celebrate the birth of this country and its independence and freedoms, and right now it is building concentration camps- can’t say ‘Happy Fourth of July’ today.

But, making a big shout out to new, local, literary zine “The Oregon Hill Review”.

Many missed the it’s release party/reading last month, but relatively new, news source The Richmonder covered it and interviewed its creators.

https://www.richmonder.org/new-zine-a-tribute-to-the-small-things-people-love-about-richmond/

“Like most things in my life,” poet Mathias Svalina said of The Oregon Hill Review, “it started as a joke.”
Contrary to the “ironic gravitas” of its title, he envisioned The Oregon Hill Review as a DIY literary zine focused on small, forgettable, beloved things.
And then “the joke turned into, ‘Oh, yeah, I should just do that,’” Svalina said. He describes the first volume as “a collection of little love letters to Richmond.”

It is worth mentioning that the name of this neighborhood, Oregon Hill, is a bit of a joke. Richmond, the city, was founded to the east of downtown in Church Hill, and the story goes that this neighborhood, when it first began, seemed as far west as Oregon, thus the name.

But it is also meaningful and touching that this zine does celebrate the small things people love about Richmond. Hopefully, this small neighborhood is among those things, and Richmond, despite attacks by Richmond300 and City planners, will continue to hold it as dear as it’s visitors and own residents do.

(It’s also pretty great that donations for the zines are being directed to the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project (RRFP).