Oftentimes we are aware of the unethical nature of something… yet to make the conscious choice to pry our eyes away can seem impossible. In fact, that is pretty much the whole premise of David Farrier’s show Dark Tourist. Farrier goes to different countries and regions in the world to explore the concept of darkContinue reading “Netflix’s Dark Tourist and the Myth of Ethical Tourism”
Category Archives: Geography and History
Storytelling, Fred Hampton, and the OG SDS
I just finished reading a fairly long book called The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffrey Haas. I received this book as a present and remembered hearing a good review on how this book illuminates the historical context behind the FBI’s role in theContinue reading “Storytelling, Fred Hampton, and the OG SDS”
Documenting History: We Held a Murderer Accountable, Today.
Today the courts and a judge and a jury and the people who protested and got maced and beaten by the police, today was some sort of validation for that I guess. In no way is this a victory or justice. This is just an ending that won’t cause nightmares and PTSD. It won’t teachContinue reading “Documenting History: We Held a Murderer Accountable, Today.”
Map of the Day: Cusco/Cuzco Peru
Today my “Form of the City” class was picking and looking at maps. I picked a map of Cusco that (1572, Braun and Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, map I-58) that seemed relevant to a lot of what I am interested in. I’ve been to Cuzco and was fascinated with the juxtaposition between Incan/Andean architecture and SpanishContinue reading “Map of the Day: Cusco/Cuzco Peru”
A Brief Story Review: “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
This summer I read Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin. Baldwin’s style of writing immediately stood out to me as extremely personable and relevant to this current day. His relationship with words and stories and sentences really put me in awe as a reader. I found myself re reading pages as IContinue reading “A Brief Story Review: “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin”
The Little Girl and the Ever-Changing City
I wrote this for my Growth & Structure of Cities class called “Form of the City”. It resonated with a lot of my family members and I figured some of my readers here would appreciate it too. In a small city, smack dab in the middle of the Garden State, lies a community of manyContinue reading “The Little Girl and the Ever-Changing City”
A Great Revolutionary was Murdered: My Time Learning about the Great Malcolm X
Reading Malcolm X’s autobiography was one of the most life changing texts I’ve ever been able to experience. Malcolm X to me became more than just a historical figure, more than a man you read about in the classroom (if you’re lucky). I spent a good amount of time savoring his narrative, I brought itContinue reading “A Great Revolutionary was Murdered: My Time Learning about the Great Malcolm X”
The Communist Manifesto and Me
So yeah, I read it. After two failed orders my copy finally came. Was it interesting? Definitely. Do I have more insight on class struggle, historical relevance in the proletariat fight, and vocabulary to express my own thoughts on systemic and oppressive structures? One hundred percent. For me Marx and his manifesto is a dictionary,Continue reading “The Communist Manifesto and Me”
He Was A Journalist: Alfred Hopkins’ Story as Told by His Brother
This isn’t my story to tell. As much as I love to say that my great uncle was at Che Guevara’s trial, my favorite niche fact that I tell all of my historically-inclined friends, this story is for someone else to disclose. Thomas Sawyer Hopkins, otherwise known as “Hop”, “Hoppy”, “Grandpoppy”, or just “Poppy”, deservesContinue reading “He Was A Journalist: Alfred Hopkins’ Story as Told by His Brother”
The Myth of the American President
Yesterday on a day as monotonous and gray as we’ve seen over the past year, I finished reading the book Beloved by Toni Morrison. When the sun rose this morning and the gray clouds returned to their day-shift, I, like many other Americans, tuned into the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States,Continue reading “The Myth of the American President”
