When I first heard the news, I couldn’t fully internalize what had happened. Shabbat had just ended. The warm scent of cloves and sickly sweet grape juice still lingered over the table. I checked my phone–for the first time in 24 hours–and I remember barely glancing at the notifications at the top of my […]
I packed next to my cardigans and tampons, my three Tyler Perry DVDs, counted among the essentials for my impending freshman year of college. They fit neatly at the bottom of my suitcase, flush against the bottom, the hard plastic a contrast to the soft fabric cushioned against it. I’d found them in a 5$ […]
I used to hate my little brother. The day I came into the hospital to see him after my mom gave birth felt more like mourning than celebration—I had years of being the only one, the sole source of attention in my tiny family, the epicenter of love, the “baby,” only for it to be […]
August 5th, 2019: “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence.”—Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States. One day before, on August […]
When you look at the image to the right, what comes to mind? Because for me, the first thought that pops into my head is: “They didn’t feel like paying for WiFi.” Every few years, a phrase that says something along these lines gets popular and it’s always a divisive topic, as is pretty […]
Prisons and jails have notorious reputations for the illicit relationships that they foster. Relationships between officers and inmates are often publicized to look like stories of lustful scandal. Other times, the criticism is directed at inmates who are in relationships with other inmates, or officers, while having a spouse, or partner outside of the […]
The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the harvest moon, which may include paying fealty to the moon goddess, a pale-faced abstraction with winglike sleeves. Even before my first Mid-Autumn Festival, I remember the worship of its deity. This did not yet involve the ritual devouring of mooncakes— the amazingly caloric, and gelatinous staple food of the […]
How often do you reach in your pocket, certain your phone is vibrating, only to realize you fell victim to a “phantom buzz?” What about the inner pull to look at your phone, leading to hours caught up in a social media scroll, left with no recollection of why you picked up your phone […]
Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for James Gray’s Ad Astra. The spaceman always finds his way to the moon. He makes it despite his spacecraft stalling in elevation, or sparking flames on its way down. Over and over again, we return to the same suspense, and the same malfunctions, all for a liftoff. The flame […]
