A Pioneering Palestinian Film Offers a Quantum of Solace

For those who question the capacity of rap to deliver powerful positive messages of social change, Slingshot Hip Hop supplies an answer

Slingshot Hip Hop ends with a pan-Palestinian concert in the West Bank—minus the one rap group Israeli officers wouldn’t let exit Gaza. Even in their absence, the other groups maintain optimism: a belief that things can change, including people's minds. ...

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A Pioneering Palestinian Film Offers a Quantum of Solace

Sleepwalkers

We are once again proving ourselves to be the dupes of violence

My deepest fear—and not only for Israel and Palestine, but for many other parts of the world where political responsibility is being undermined by the narcotics of outrage and resentment—is that our political life is currently locked in a downward spiral thanks to which options appear to be more and ...
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Sleepwalkers

Reflections on the War between Israel and Hamas 

Voices of sanity are in danger of being drowned out by the rhetoricians of all-out war

For a long time many civilians, Israeli and Palestinian, have suffered, as their leaders have failed to bring about a civil, peaceful, and at least modestly just end to a long and violent conflict. I feel for them all, and particularly for the children who have grown up knowing nothing ...
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Reflections on the War between Israel and Hamas 

How Mary Mattingly’s Floating Barge Tackled Food Deserts in New York City

What foraging can teach Americans about solving national food insecurity

Mattingly’s Swale came before the foraging boom, but it suggests that foraging may hold a permanent place in New York. Foraging is not just another fashionable affectation, but a path to addressing the deep-rooted issues embedded in our current food systems. Swale represents how our understanding of food access is ...
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How Mary Mattingly’s Floating Barge Tackled Food Deserts in New York City