Turning Our Garden’s Bounty Into Community
In this moving installment of her Catapult column Backyard Politics, Christine H. Lee discovers equilibrium in sharing her farm’s bounty and in the beauty of simple, impromptu barter arrangements.
What Is Common, What Is Rare: Why Extraordinary Events Cannot Eclipse Everyday Racism
In this braided personal essay, Patrice Gropo compellingly draws together narrative threads about the solar eclipse in August, 2017, and how it, in ways eclipsed the white nationalist march on Charlottesville 10 days before; and the way in which a white writer effectively eclipsed her by publishing plagiarized portions of an essay she’d read at aloud at a conference.
My Fathers and Hip-Hop Taught Me About Self-Care as A Black Man
“Embracing mortality, in this sense, is to prepare a way for my future children. If this cancer is hereditary, is it not also my responsibility to do everything within my humanly power to ensure, my children nor I, have to suffer?”
Why We Cross the Border in El Paso
A personal essay in which Mexican-American writer Victoria Blanco reflects on change over the years at the border between El Paso, Texas, and Cuidad, Juárez, as immigration patrolling has become increasingly restrictive, and how the Rio Grande, which lies between the two towns, has begun drying up as a result of climate change.
ハーフ (Hafu): On the Fetishization and Mistranslation of a Biracial Identity
In the last installment of her column, Mistranslate, writer Nina Coomes unpacks the origins and use of the term, ハーフ, or hafu — meaning half, in English — and considers how bicultural identity in Japan is both otherized and fetishized.
“Parrot Isn’t Hungry”: On Family, Food, Fasting, and Ramadan
Living many states away from her parents and much of her extended family during the holy month of Ramadan, writer Gulnaz Saiyed remembers the food and flavors of home.
Missing Hope: A Trio of Miscarriages, and What Happened After
“I have been afraid most days of my life, which is what anxiety is, and the months of this pregnancy have been the most anxious of my life.”
Talent Isn’t Enough When You’re a Fat Ballerina
“What does it mean when your body is your art? Can a thicker brush not make just as beautiful strokes?”
Children of ‘The Cloud’ and Major Tom: Growing Up in the ’80s Under the German Sky
On the 70-year-long presence of American air bases in Germany, and how it has shaped the memory and sense of place of several generations of Germans.
The Space Between Us and the Ground Below Us, or: Why I Traveled to Japan
Gaijin find traveling in Japan both daunting and welcoming. Try traveling there black and gay, and yet, for some people, it’s America that feels more foreign.
