Just after midnight, 2019, a metal object with roughly the size and proportions of a grand piano drifted by two enormous rocks fused together in space. It would take months for the images gathered by the satellite dish of the New Horizons probe to reach earth, four billion miles away...
As the artist-in-residence of Heartshare Human Services of New York, I design many collaborative projects to complete alongside adults with disabilities. This is in addition to creating my own work and overseeing workshop participants’ individual art projects. Sometimes I use my own pieces to inspire the collaborative works. Such was...
Martin Luther King, Jr., Black American, delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed labor discrimination. Malcolm X, Black American, was assassinated on February 21, 1965, receiving a total of 21 gunshot wounds. In 1965, the federal government enacted...
As I’ve written before, Charles Marohn’s Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is a wonderful book. It builds, through its analysis and examples, a strong theoretical argument on behalf of replacing current urban planning practices with more democratic, localist, and fiscally sustainable ones, without ever losing its focus on practical...
“Are you a virgin?” The two boys leer at me. Their silly grins hide something that, to me, is inscrutable. I don’t know if I’m a virgin or not. I’m not sure what I should say. I feel there’s some trick here. If I say yes, I might be caught...
When I was four, my babysitter sexually abused me. It wasn’t violent, but it certainly wasn’t consensual or right. She had all the power, and specifically told me not to share what was going on. A 15- or 16-year old girl, innocently curious or not, isn’t supposed to do what...
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination,” said Oscar Wilde. And while, yes, I have been a fan of Wilde since I played Lady Bracknell in a drama camp production of The Importance of Being Earnest, I must confess that I am the exception to...
Recently I covered what has been by far the most difficult events of my young journalism career: a school board meeting. I’m an education reporter, and school board meetings feature regularly my calendar. Usually the primary challenge is staying awake.On that Monday night, the primary challenge was keeping my faith...
I want to state up front that the basis for this idea is NOT originally mine, so I’ll explain where it came from below. Like a lot of my stories, it’s a bit long. In my teenage years and early adulthood, I lived in Glendale, Arizona. I made my summer money...
While death and taxes may have earned their spot at the top, there may be room for an addition to the dubious list of “things that are certain.” Every campaign season, candidates from both sides of the aisle in red states and blue states agree on one thing: the American...
