We are at Boots, Etc., exit 149 when driving South in Georgia towards New Orleans. We watch as a man hammers hand-wrought silver tips onto Henry’s new red leather boots. The man uses shining little nails, he squints, he moves his hands as delicately as a pianist, as a mother braiding hair. As he works behind
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How To Actively Be Anti-Racist: A Resource List
The summer of 2020 was marked by the resurgence of a social and political activist movement, known as Black Lives Matter. The protests, which spanned across the globe, were sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Black as a result of police brutality. With COVID-19 affecting social interaction and
On Belonging, Writing, and Migrating with Dr. Fatin Abbas
Bard College Berlin offers a myriad of classes dealing with questions of race, migration, and culture. This semester, I am grateful to be part of one such course, African Narratives of Migration and Globalisation with Dr. Fatin Abbas. Fatin is a writer and professor whose work lies at the intersection of African and Middle Eastern
On Mourning and Criticising Ruth Bader Ginsburg
To celebrate my eleventh birthday (which at the time I thought was an exceptionally important age), I convinced my parents to take me to the beautiful city of Jaipur in India. It was my first time visiting the Pink City and I was taken aback by its sheer grandeur. The city is full of architectural
The Ideology of Irma
Various Caribbean island states and the southern coast of the United States were devastated this summer by a sequence of catastrophic hurricanes. Killing roughly 241 people, hurricanes Irma, Maria, Harvey, and Jose wreaked havoc on the lives of thousands, literally sweeping away livelihoods and costing 100s of billions of US dollars in damages. Mainstream media
Manifest Destiny, or Simply, Cause and Effect, Cause and Effect, Cause and…
I think I must have been holding some brightly colored toy. I remember the flash of color falling from my hands to the ground as my mother’s bloodcurdling scream reached my ears. I ran into the house to see what had happened. My aunt, uncles, grandmother and mother stood crowding around the TV screen. They
Can We Debunk the Myth of Material Prosperity? Round Table on Higher Education at Bard College Berlin
The Round Table on Higher Education was inaugurated in 2010 by representatives of German and U.S. educational institutions in order to define and advance the role of liberal arts in the higher educational practices of Europe. Both countries have a unique approach to higher education, whereby American universities cultivate exposure to an assortment of disciplines
My First Political Autumn
I have never been interested in politics. Writing about cinema, animals, food and city traffic, I always considered politics as a predictably double-dealing (although well-paid) field, which never appealed to me. However, my 2012 autumn happened to be extremely politicized. This past October, there were parliamentary elections back in Ukraine, where I come from. I