What do alumni Aya Ibrahim and Tuvshinzaya Gantulga have in common with students Wafa Mustafa (BA3), Mais Hriesh (who has since graduated from Bard NY) and the once-neighboring “Family Without Borders” who now resides in Budapest? Aside from the fact that they all appear in this email, at some point in the past three years
Don’t Bother with SparkNotes (the Book is Better)
Tomorrow the reading is due. Flipping through the required pages reveals it as lengthy, dense, and probably confusing. Upcoming essays, presentations, and group projects have buried you up to your neck and, of course, to stay afloat a shortcut seems necessary. It’s a waste of time to read when a summary can be found with
Mediocre Artists
We were in a supermarket comparing prices of pizza sauce when the idea struck me. I suddenly stopped in the middle of the alley and told Eugenio that we should quit our jobs, our flats and our studies and start travelling to the north. He laughed. But soon his laugh turned nervous when he realized
You are your grades – the quantified self
The Chinese government intends to create a social credit system by the year 2020. Data about the behavior of each individual from all social spheres of life shall be collected, evaluated and transformed into a personal score. Consumption, traffic offenses, activities on the internet, employment contracts, ratings at school and work, conflicts with the landlord
Living Berlin – In a Pankow Night
Late at night when the lights of the city reflect orange off the clouds, the wet pavement glistens like fire. The rain has washed away the impurities of city life and it is as though my passing there is the first passing on the virgin pavement. The silence on these nights is deafening. The clouds
“The city will always pursue you”
“The city will always pursue you” The wooden porch, the bird feeder in the crabapple tree, the screen door with holes in it, a warped tupperware container filled with cough syrup and cayenne pepper that I, age seven, stir carefully with a wooden spoon. “Are you making potions?” my dad asks as I spritz the
Rescue the Rescuers: from #Unteilbar to the upcoming #FreeHumanitarians Demos
240 000 people, myself included, took part in the #Unteilbar demonstration against racism and the far right in Berlin on Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of people participated, calling for an open and free society in historic numbers. #Unteilbar translates to “indivisible”. Indeed, Berlin proved that so many of its residents refuse to be divided by
#EleNão #ErNicht #NotHim: A Brazilian Woman’s Rage Against the “Brazilian Hitler”
49,275,358 votes. That’s 46,03% of the population who voted on October 7th in favor of racism, misogyny and homophobia. 49,275,358 people who declared they support a candidate that idolizes the Nazi regime, who explicitly says he wishes to bring back the military dictatorship, that he would never employ men and women with the same salary