Why WALLS?
"I would like to break the walls of ignorance between East and West." Walls and barriers are what we erect when we have no words.
TMR 9 • WALLS
The Murals of “Education is Not a Crime”
Saleem Vaillancourt describes the worldwide mural campaign spearheaded by Maziar Bahari on behalf the Baha'i community to speak out about Iran's persecution of its largest religious minority.
Walls, Graffiti and Youth Culture in Egypt, Libya & Tunisia
Former Egypt and Turkey-based photographer Claudia Wiens documents street art of the Arab Spring.
The Murals of Yemen’s Haifa Subay
Yemen street artist, activist and mother Haifa Subay speaks to Farah Abdessamad about the state of the country and her work.
The Wall We Can’t Tell You About
There are some walls we can't discuss freely and openly without inviting censure. This is one of them.
The Bathing Partition
In this creative exploration of identity and homelessness, Sheana Ochoa faces her own inner walls and travels to Auschwitz.
We Are All at the Border Now
Roving reporter Todd Miller, who has published four books exploring the world and its borders, questions the philosophy of walls.
The World Grows Blackthorn Walls
A new poem by Sholeh Wolpé from the forthcoming collection, Abacus of Loss, University of Arkansas Press 2022.
A Home Across the Azure Sea
We accompany a family fleeing civil war for safe harbor, in a short story by Aida Y. Haddad.
Maqloubeh Behind the Wall in Bethlehem
Chef Fadi Kattan, fed up with walls, Covid and strife with Israel, shares a classic Palestinian recipe.
Reviving Hammam Al Jadeed
Artist Tom Young who divides his time between Beirut and London, paints in Hammam Al Jadid during its revival after 70 years.
From Damascus to Birmingham, a Selected Glossary
Frances Zaid describes in epistolary fashion the language barriers in her blooming relationship (leading to marriage and kids) with a three-time refugee from the Yarmouk Camp.
The Labyrinth of Memory
Critic Ziad Suidan meditates on the meaning of the labyrinth and the walls that can separate us but also remind us of our shared history inside the hammam.
Panopticon of Kashmir
Ifat Gazia remembers her native Kashmir and wonders why her family, like countless others, was uprooted, displaced and forced to live like homeless people in their own land.
Is Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek, Too, Occupied Territory?
Taylor Miller explores the aesthetics of gentrification and the "settler colonial hydra that continually displaces, erases, and reinscribes Palestinian space."