The I-90 Manifesto began in the lungs of guest editor Sean Thomas Dougherty back in October 2010. Since then, it grew into a solid movement as evidenced by the poems in this issue and by the number of times the manifesto was viewed – over 4,500 times on the Redactions: Poetry & Poetics website (redactions.com/I-90_Manifesto.pdf) and at the editor’s (Tom Holmes’) poetry and wine blog: thelinebreak.wordpress.com. You can also read the entire manifesto in this issue.

To help build on the revolutionary spirit of this literary movement and to show tribute to the past, I drew on one of the 20th century’s most significant movements in the arts — The Vorticists. As a result, the typeface used for the front cover and the section breaks is Grotesque No. 9, which is a very reasonable facsimile to the typeface used in the Vorticists’ “great MAGENTA cover’d opusculus” — BLAST. The typeface was then altered into the Tominator style to recall another revolution started by John Connor in the Terminator movies. The Tominator style was created by Kenny Lindsay. (Thank you, Kenny.) For more information about Grotesque No. 9 see the colophon.

In the end, we have what we hope will be a new thrust in poetry — a poetry of humanity, of humanity’s rhythms and heartbeats, a poetry for humanity’s belly, heart, and mind, and a poetry to connect humanity just as I-90 connects the coasts of the United States.

As for our next issue, look for a big change. There’s a small hint hiding somewhere in this issue as to what that big change will be. See you then.