Special Coup Issue: Turkish Cartoonists in Crisis
July 2016 Istanbul: Outside of the office of Evrensel, the socialist newspaper, in the historic neighborhood of Fatih, a group of young journalists, some in Star Wars T-shirts and all wearing sneakers, take a cigarette break. Near them, dozens of elderly men drink tea and smoke on low stools, their street café facing walls plastered with
A New Generation of Arab Comics
Jonathan offers an crash course on Arab comic art in his review of the book Muqtatafat: A Comics Anthology Featuring Artists from the Middle East Region, by A. David Lewis, Anna Mudd, and Paul Beran. In his essay, Jonathan discusses a new generation of comic artists in the Arab world and their innovative works, which appear online and in print. In explaining
Wings to Nowhere — Birds, Land Use, and Climate
Luis whips his head around so quickly that a droplet of water flies out of his nose. He’s mid-sentence, walking through the heavy sand and talking about community-based management for his town, when he stops abruptly. His eyes grow wide behind his square-ish glasses, and the skin on his thin face pushes back into an
A Fire in Cairo
25 June 2016 Attaba is Cairo’s most popular bazaar. Just east of downtown, the sprawling network of alleys and squares offers thousands of stores and street sellers. It takes skill to navigate the crowds; everyone has a shopping bag—or two or three—in their hands, or on their heads, trying to edge their way through the
Fast Times at Art Dubai
May 2, 2016 I am in a Masarati speeding toward the dinner party of an Iranian collector. A publicist invited me an hour ago. The motor hums, gently massaging my back, as the car cruises past strip malls and warehouses that could be on the outskirts of LA. At the destination, strings of white light
What Can a National Park Do?
“Mexico has many good laws.” Professor Martín Soto leans back from behind a clump of papers on his desk and sighs. “It’s the enforcement that lacks.” I’m sitting in Martin’s office on the second story of the Marine Science and Limnology Institute in Mazatlán, Mexico. The building hangs on the edge of a cliff above
Chi-Chi Zhang Newsletters
Fellowship Years: 2013-2015 Topic: China’s next generation and its role in the country’s political, economic and social development Fellowship Area: China
Finding Altata: the Slow Change for the Fishers
“Whatever you do, don’t go to Altata.” These were the last words we heard as we cast off our dock lines in Guaymas. We were about to sail 300 miles with limited charts but plentiful warnings—with the goal of getting to this near-mythical town protected by a bar that might as well have been filled
The Paper, the Pen, and the President
7 March 2016 One Sunday in January, Islam Gawish was running late. The 26-year-old cartoonist, famous for sardonic stick figures published on his viral Facebook page “El-Warka” or “The Paper,” was due at the Cairo International Book Fair for a friend’s book launch. But at midday, a group of police investigators burst into the Egypt
A Season in Hell
21 January, 2016 Ahmed Naji is a 30-year-old journalist and novelist. When we meet for dinner in mid-December, he faces a lawsuit for “infringing on public decency” that might land him in prison for two years. State prosecutors are throwing the book at him for a sexually charged chapter of his Cairo novel Using Life, which was republished