Pressure of Thought
BY CAROLINE ROUSE Precise yellow lettering. Vibrant red ironwork. Scrawled black spray paint. Rusted industrial ridges. Intricate golden cameo. I am fascinated by the doors of Mexico City, the elaborate and the humble. My work in Mexico City focuses on a different kind of door. As part of the team at Laboratorio para la Ciudad,...
A very, very brief introduction to the Machan Homo Economicus
BY SAKSHI KUMAR For a meeting starting at 11:30 AM (that was, might I add, supposed to begin at 10:15), the room was surprisingly dark – in the space of three days I had somehow grown accustomed to the tremendous glare of the Zambian sun; the lack of light in the meeting room was almost disorienting. I was...
Arriving on Reforma
BY CAROLINE ROUSE In the dark, on the curb outside Puerta Tres, one pair of headlights after another looped by to pick up passengers. It was 5:45 in the morning. I cast my eyes toward the concrete and leaned on a metal luggage cart. The sun would not rise over Benito Juárez International Airport for...
The Language of Protection
BY DANIELLE BELLA ELLISON “What does ‘protection’ mean?” “No fear. No fear of harm.” “No hardships of war.” “Prevention from unhumanitarian treatment. Maybe from religion, or race, or political opinion.” These were the answers of a group of thirteen Sudanese and Eritrean migrants, sitting in their nicest jeans and t-shirts in a classroom Tuesday night...
Wandering the Old City
BY JERELYN LUTHER There is something magical about the Old City of Jerusalem in twilight—the sun slowly slipping lower in the sky, men smoking in the doorways of their shops, women in colorful headscarves walking home, the smell of spices in the air, the glistening of the cobblestones in dimming light. At that moment it...
Coming Back to Bologna
BY ANGELICA CALABRESE Bologna is just as I remember it: the city’s warm red and orange façades cutting across blue skies (and often across heavy clouds), bikes rattling down cobbled streets, market vendors selling sweet and fragrant fruits and veggies, hand-drawn or computer-typed manifestos of revolt and protest, the unmistakable smell of pee in the...
One Home to Another
BY DANIELLE BELLA ELLISON: Looking out the window at the rain pitter-pattering down on the streets of New York, I imagine the contrast of the sunny beaches, deserts, hills, and city streets of Israel that will soon surround me. A Yale friend of mine who is arriving in Israel a few days ahead of me...
So Long, Photograph Well
by Semhal Tsegaye The familiar chatter greets us as we enter the classroom for one of the last times. It’s hard to believe that the Snappers (the students of the SNAP Photography Workshop) met only three weeks ago and are already fast friends, bonded by this unique experience. They greet us with the usual smiles...
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