Mar 13, 2022Local Arts in #ProspectHeights Brooklyn: PhantasmLocal Arts in #ProspectHeights Brooklyn: Phantasm A group exhibition @ Art Cafe + Bar, via Emergence Arts With contributions from: Dianne Miller, Michael Cuomo, and Jim Richards 2–18–22 What is truth? What is fantasy? How does the line between them blur in visions, revelations, and flights of fancy? Such eruptive…Art3 min readArt3 min read
Mar 13, 2022Local Arts in #ProspectHeights Brooklyn: Imaginary CartographyLocal Arts in #ProspectHeights Brooklyn: Imaginary Cartography A solo show from Emily Garfield @ Endless Life Brewing, via Emergence Arts 3–6–22 Standing between the conceptual and whimsical, Emily Garfield’s mixed media-maps place us within our own bewonderment before contemporary space. Here we are not lost, but neither do we quite…Art1 min readArt1 min read
Sep 30, 2020In the Footsteps of The Black Jews of HarlemThis series was previously published in WAX Digital Magazine, 2017–2018 On the corner of West 123rd Street, across from Marcus Garvey Park, sits an elegant, brown-brick townhouse. Grecian columns flank its doorway, supporting an ornate arch that circumscribes a fresco. According to a report from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the…Harlem33 min readHarlem33 min read
Sep 30, 2020Tales of a Yemenite MillennialAt seventeen years old, Ebrahim Anaam is as much of a millennial as it is possible to be. When I met him in August, he was working a summer job at a local deli, raising money for his freshman year of college, which was starting in September. Anaam likes the…New York City5 min readNew York City5 min read
Sep 30, 2020Too Much Headache: Harlem’s Corner Stores at a CrossroadsRunning a deli in Harlem is difficult work. I know because Rami, the day time manager of Deli Grill and Market, told me. “You’ve got to put at least ten, twelve hours into a business,” he said, in a lull between customers. Rami is friendly and approachable, but catch him…Harlem5 min readHarlem5 min read
Sep 30, 2020Grandma’s House: The Vanishing Family BrownstoneThe man who owns 11 West 122nd street was friendly enough. “I’m sorry, I’ve got a meeting,” he said with an ingratiating smile, hovering on the landing of his brownstone’s stairs. “But I’m relatively new here; I’ve only been here for around twenty years.” I thanked him and moved on…Harlem6 min readHarlem6 min read
Sep 30, 2020Welcome to Paradise. Please Don’t Step on the Cat.It’s not unusual to pass by street vendors selling selections of assorted Africana. But if you want the full kaleidoscope of African culture, you need to step into African Paradise, a small store front on Malcolm X between 126th and 127th Street. …Harlem4 min readHarlem4 min read
May 19, 2020Reading “Oedipus” in the Time of Corona: Lessons in the PatriarchyAll page numbers correspond to the 1974 Penguin Classics print, translation E.F. Watling. Introduction “[W]here is daddy when you need him?” — Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, reminiscing about her father, a watchmaker, during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with Dr. Rick Bright, May 14, 2020. I’m sure I am…Patriarchy17 min readPatriarchy17 min read
Apr 30, 2020Mediating Labor in the Time of Corona'It Was Just Too Much': How Remote Learning Is Breaking Parents For the adults in the house, trying to do their own jobs while helping children with class work has become one of the…www.nytimes.com The picture is adorable: a harassed-looking mother, her hair disheveled, bends over to scan a laptop screen as her daughter hangs gleefully from her back, like a baby koala. …Coronavirus9 min readCoronavirus9 min read
Dec 18, 2019The Poetics of Exile in Darwish and KafkaReading Darwish, we are struck by a vision of poetry that stands between reality and myth. “Language will take the place of reality,” he tells us, “and the poem will look for its myth in the entirety of human experience.” And yet, in his poem to Said, we find Darwish…Poetry16 min readPoetry16 min read
