Eclipsed Ecologies
This year’s edition of SAGE revels in darkness — depths where life exists without light or creates light of its own. Dark ecologies exist all around us. Some we can’t see without disrupting their darkness, such as fine networks of tree roots and the mycorrhizal fungi. Some create their own glow, like the glittering chemistry of bioluminescence in algae and fireflies. And some exist in partial gloom — the moth, who emerges at night to follow the moon.
Standing in the Northeast forests, I feel a world unfolding beneath my feet. Roots take hold beneath our visible world in the lightless matrix of soil. These biological fibers weave themselves into the earth, making a foundation for what will grow above. A tree’s roots, it’s estimated, extend two to four times
wider than its canopy. Damage beneath translates to damage above — if roots die off, part of the crown must die too. So too with growth.
Humans hold our own realms of darkness and the nocturnal, through dreamscapes and interior truths that traverse the subconscious. This internal darkness is something amorphous, shifting, and spiritual, eluding our physical senses. And then there is this historical moment, where a social and political darkness seeks to obscure and smother the beauty of the identities we hold and connections we share. Existing in this time requires creating our own light.
This year’s SAGE magazine is a collection of such light, and explorations of
the eclipsed. It includes visions from past selves, ecologies of queer connection, the near-delusional vibrancy of plants, musings on how our homeplaces shape our subconscious, and an invitation to others to join us in our homeplaces. There are homages to the moon and affections for night jungle critters.
Thank you to the editors, graphic designers, and artists that brought this magazine into being, and to the previous editors that have created SAGE’s legacy. And thank you for holding this work in
your hands.
Hadley Tallackson
SAGE Editor in Chief
April 2025
Editor in Chief: Hadley Tallackson
Managing Editors: Kei Kohmoto, McKenzie Blaine, & Kajol Gupta
Graphic Designers: Youngjin Park & Saskia Globig
Printer: GHP Media
Set in Larish Neue and Agipo
Cover by Designers