global experiences

Earthquakes and the Individual

A Comparison between Osaka and New York

By: Juliet Linderman

One of the most prominent memories of growing up in Japan was the constant threat of earthquakes, which has trained me to perceive my city as an ephemeral, collapsible city. Even after one of the most disastrous earthquakes in Japan’s history in 2011, Japan remained as calm as ever on the outside; while individual citizens settled into their states of panic, the media put up an uncollapsible facade of calmness. All entertainment shows were canceled on TV, and programs for the next 2 months consisted of uplifting commercials facilitated by the government, calling for us all to remain polite during the crisis…

The Art of Wandering: Becoming a Flâneur in Paris

By: Victoria Velazco y Trianosky Awai

Charles Baudelaire wrote,“The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds and water of fishes. His passion and his profession are to become one flesh with the crowd. For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house…

Broken Open

Bienvenidos

By: Macy Young

Eyes that dissect. They follow me “home”–if home can be a state of becoming–and into my shower where I scrub my skin until it flakes from my bones. The drain chokes on their pupils as I peel them from under my arms and behind my knees. I want to tell them that I didn’t come here to feel their ojos burn holes in my sacred cuerpo. I didn’t come here to be your hola, guapa or the victim of your wandering hands in the Metro car. I didn’t come here for you to force a glass to my mouth, to steal my story from between my lips– for what? The chance to touch my unconscious body? No, I didn’t come here for you. “Watch out for the Spanish boys,” they said with a wink…

Lacuna of Language

By: Kelly Zhang