How weird it feels to be the ‘unstable’ one for once.
Breaking the boundaries of our composed masculine nature, we scream. We scream with the rage we’ve grown to be comforted by.
But, involuntarily, we also cry. We cry even though logic tells me not to. In spite of every other piece of our bodies rejecting this illegally vulnerable action. We cry.
Doesn’t it feel good? Maybe a little better than I expected.
We’ve quickly learned that it’s best to lean into your tears. Once the flood gates open, it’s best not to fight it.
In that moment, we embrace our pain, loss, anger, personified.
Claim them. They’re yours and yours alone.
The clash of sounds are reminiscent of the somber sorrow every teenage boy shares.
These shouts and tears you’ve become accustomed to denying the existence of.
Enoch Naklen is an arts and culture writer for Our Time Press and Bed-Stuy Villager, and a full-time student studying journalism and marketing at CUNY Baruch College. He is also an independent digital marketer, producing comprehensive visual storytelling reels for nonprofit organizations and artists rooted in the collective Black experience. A journalist with over six years of professional experience, Naklen has published work in The Nation, New York Amsterdam News, Chalkbeat New York, and Our Time Press. His reporting and cultural coverage include major events such as CultureCon, the Gracie Mansion mayoral parade, and the 2024–25 Black Boy Art Show. He has collaborated with longtime youth advocate Shawn Dove and the educational nonprofit Education Through Music, and is currently a film fellow in the Young Griots Storytelling Film Fellowship.
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Enoch Naklen Chronicles 