About us

Marcescence Magazine is an experimental publication that empowers voices of those impacted by family separation. We aim to trace the movement of power in the adoption, foster care, and child welfare industries.

There are many people who have created and built incredible spaces for fosterees/adoptees of color or spaces to advocate for family preservation for many years. This project is building on the work of those before us (check out our Resources page for more).

If you’d like to get to know more about us, please contact us and we would be happy to connect! 

We also want to thank the folks who have generously given their time to provide feedback and supported this project so far <3
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*For SEO purposes: Common misspellings of our name include marcescense, marsescence, marsesense, and marcsesence.

  • /ˌmärˈses(ə)nt/
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    :: To wither without falling off (for plants) [“Marcescent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster. Accessed 12 Mar. 2022.]

    The notion that we are carrying something that has experienced a death of some kind is rather profound. For adoptees and fosterees that can mean the social death that is required to prime us for adoption, the legal severing of parental ties, the limbo of foster care, or the psychological deaths/walling off of who we were before we were placed in foster care or adopted. But we don’t lose those parts of ourselves, and uncovering those previously withered and faded parts of ourselves later in life can be an act of deep healing and life-saving.

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