If Issue 001 felt like a birth, then Issue 002 has felt like a journey. Not the glossy, cinematic kind, but the slow, tiring kind that tests your resolve and asks you, more than once, why you started walking in the first place.

This issue comes together in the shadow of loss. We lost Danielle Legros Georges, a guiding force behind the TONIC, a co-founder in spirit and in action, and a writer, teacher, and mentor whose influence shaped generations, including my own. Issue 001 was dedicated to her while she was still here to witness its arrival. Carrying her presence into Issue 002 has been both grounding and painful, a reminder of how much was made possible by her belief and how deeply she is missed.

We also faced other losses. Promised funding that never arrived. Institutional support that quietly disappeared. What remained was unpaid labor, late nights, and a small group of people choosing, again and again, to keep going. Issue 002 exists because of that choice. Because we believed that offering something thoughtful, beautiful, and rigorous to the world still mattered, especially now.

This journey has been arduous and at times overwhelming, and it has brought us to a crossroads. Do we end here, grateful for what we made, or do we pivot, take a detour, and imagine a different route forward for the TONIC. The answer is not yet clear. What is clear is that journals like this do not survive on belief alone.

If the TONIC has meant something to you, if these pages have offered you sustenance, inspiration, or pause, I invite you to support this work. Donations help determine whether this journey continues and what shape it might take next.

For now, I hope you sit with this issue. Read closely. Engage deeply. Let the work meet you where you are. We will see where the road leads us next.

Until then,

Ọna Anosike