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# OF NOTE Magazine

where art meets activism

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## Posts

- [Colombia | Caught in the Drug Wars, a Photo Essay by Photographer Zoraida Lopez](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/colombia-caught-in-the-drug-wars-by-photographer-zoraida-lopez/) - To understand the depth and impact of a problem as large as the cocaine industry, photographer Zoraida Lopez documents the girls caught in Columbia's drug wars. She believes that we must see the women and families who have lost their land to these wars and to the children who have lost their parents.
- [Gavin 'DubbleX' Alleyne: Decoding Mental Illness and Homelessness](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/gavin-dubblex-alleyne-decoding-mental-illness-homelessness/) - The Republic © Gavin 'DubbleX' Alleyne, 2016. Courtesy of the artist. I had an idea for a poem and I didn't have any paper so I started writing on the wall. I filled the entire apartment. Every wall had writing on it. I was impulsive, and I felt like I couldn't wait to get
- [South Asia | Fashion with a Conscience: Marrying Design with Human Rights](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/01/04/fashion-with-a-conscience-marrying-design-with-human-rights/) - On December 8, 2009, Engendered’s Fashion Conscience 09 unveiled collections merging design with human rights from three of South Asia’s most progressive and cause-driven designers: Manish Arora, named one of the top 10 designers at Paris Fashion Week 2009, Zolaykha Sherzad, called a “cultural ambassador to Afghanistan” by Time Magazine, and Asher Jay, a Parsons
- [Nadine Maleh: Designing New Options for Urban Housing](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/nadine-maleh-designing-new-options-urban-housing/) - A newly renovated bedroom in the Andrews Lodging House on the Bowery. © Nadine Maleh, circa 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Breaking Ground. I feel very strongly…that we need to figure out a way to get our future residents, who ever they will be, to the table, so that we can understand what
- [Good Water. Pure Water. Fresh Water.](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/sant-khalsa/) - Did you know that 89% of us don’t drink enough to maintain healthy hydration levels?1 What do my kidneys do? They filter your blood to remove waste products and excess fluid, as well as regulate the levels of salt, potassium and acid in your body. These are just some of the best healthy benefits that
- [Sugar Effects and Weight Loss For Poker Players](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/08/18/sugar/) - Don’t bust out the champagne just yet. I’m still a little flabby. My arms are more Gumby-like than toned. My girlfriend, the kickboxer in our relationship, can still kill me at the gym with some remedial drills. Visit signalscv.com. That said, I’m feeling much better than I used to, and I’m feeling way better about
- [Ethiopia | Merkato in the Making](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/07/01/1421/) - e·merg·ing: an OF NOTE series following groundbreakers in the making Sosena Solomon is a young filmmaker who originally hails from Ethiopia. Her latest project, "MERKATO," explores the fate of one of the largest open air markets in Africa. Sosena is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia documenting major destruction of the market already at work. of note's
- [Helmut Smits: Water is the 'Realest Thing'](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/helmut-smits/) - Drinking water has its own benefits, whether your stomach is full or empty. Water is the best drink you can have to quench thirst and get rid of several diseases. But, did you know that drinking water on an empty stomach is beneficial? Drinking water on an empty stomach is a tradition followed by the
- [Mary Jordan: Water Above All](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/mary-jordan/) - Did you know that 89% of us don’t drink enough to maintain healthy hydration levels?1 What do my kidneys do? They filter your blood to remove waste products and excess fluid, as well as regulate the levels of salt, potassium and acid in your body. Your kidneys also produce hormones that regulate your blood pressure
- [Montana Ray: The Concrete Poems of (<i>guns & butter<i>)](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2018/08/24/montana-ray-the-concrete-poems-of-guns-butter/) - Cover of (guns & butter), 2015. Artwork by Dawn Whitmore. Courtesy of the artist. I’ve never owned a gun and never will. They scare me. I’ve had friends who, since the election, say we should arm ourselves. But it’s like that Chekhov cliché—you bring a gun on stage, it must go off. — Montana
- [Fuel Costs](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/03/03/artefacting-mumbai/) - By Grace Aneiza Ali Alex White Mazzarella and Casey Nolan are digging their way through Dharavi, Mumbai—literally. Notoriously known as one of Asia’s “largest slum" and dubbed "Mumbai's Shadow City," Dharavi is home to over one million residents with a front row seat to the city’s encroaching real estate boom. Mazzarella and Nolan, US-based urban planners, are in India for three months to implement Artefacting Mumbai, a bold project that sets out to prove that one city’s trash is Dharavi’s art. They talk with Of Note about how they are using art to reinvent the way we define wealth.
- [Ming Smith: We Are the Work](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2019/05/06/ming-smith-we-are-the-work/) - As businesses head into the New Year they begin to evaluate the last year and see what worked and what did not work for their business! They evaluate their stats, revenue and growth to make changes for the New Year that is approaching. However many businesses do not evaluate the work environment they are
- [Guyana | The House on Hadfield Street](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/11/06/returning-to-the-house-on-hadfield-street/) - The author returns to her childhood home on Hadfield Street, Georgetown, Guyana. 2011. By Ingrid Griffith The place I once escaped, the one I had sworn off for good, became the place I most needed to feel whole again. My family hadn’t been back to Guyana in a long time, some of us for 30
- [Mae Ryan: Pregnancy and Motherhood Behind Bars](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/mae-ryans-pregnant-in-prison/) - Mae Ryan's series, “Pregnant in Prison,” portrays the heartbreak and hope of several women dealing with pregnancy and early motherhood behind bars. Ryan’s photographs are as sensitive as they are stark and unsentimental.
- [US | Jonsar Studios: Framing the Immigrant](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/us-jonsar-studios-framing-the-immigrant/) - American citizens and photographers Katherine Johnson and Robert Sarkissian have a visceral understanding of the undocumented immigrant experience. They spent 15 years in Italy as undocumented immigrants—years that exposed them to the challenges, fears and anxieties of immigrant life. Their images and stories featuring teachers, engineers and entrepreneurs from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America reflect both the ambition and diversity of New York City’s residents and immigrants. Stripping away the layers of punditry, talking points and policy, Jonsar’s stark black and white images do away with distractions, center on a common humanity, and convey that in America we are all immigrants.
- [Kathy Shorr: SHOT: Survivors of Gun Violence in America](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/kathy-shorr/) - During the Fort Hood shootings Dayna was wounded by a crazed psychiatrist who killed 14 people and injured 32 in the massacre. An Army sergeant and Purple Heart recipient, she was shot three times when the gunman found her crouched behind a table. Fort Hood, Texas, 2009. © Kathy Shorr. Courtesy of the artist. I want people
- [India | The 'Dream' of School for Impoverished Girls, by Photojournalist Nikki Kahn](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/guyana-pulitzer-photojournalist-nikki-kahn-captures-the-known-and-not-so-known-places/) - On the desolate salt pans of western India, as in much of the developing world, poverty and long-standing social customs bar many girls from attending school. The image is from The Washington Post photojournalism series, “For Impoverished Girls, School Is Just a Dream,” by Nikki Kahn, a photojournalist who followed the Patadia family on the salt pans of Little Rann of Kutch in India.
- [Film Activist Thomas Allen Harris Documents Role of Photography in Shaping African-American Identities](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/07/23/film-activist-thomas-allen-harris-documents-role-of-photography-in-shaping-african-american-identities/) - Photo Credit: USA Projects, Through A Lens Darkly Fundraising Campaign By Grace Aneiza Ali Thomas Allen Harris is a film activist, leveraging the platform of documentary filmmaking as a tool to empower, educate, and shed light on many under-the-radar stories within our combined histories. I first collaborated with Harris on the Digital Harris is now
- [Allah at the Apollo: Islamic Cultural Renaissance Finds Roots at Harlem’s Apollo Theater](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/01/26/allah-at-the-apollo-islamic-cultural-renaissance-finds-roots-at-harlem’s-apollo-theater/) - Originally published on January 26, 2010 for The Defenders Online, a publication of the NAACP LDF By Grace Aneiza Ali On Saturday, January 23, an amazingly talented line-up of Muslim artists performed for a sold-out crowd at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem. Hosted by the Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN), the event,
- [Guyana | Grace Ali Keeps Her Photos Safe](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/03/15/guyana-grace-ali-keeps-her-photos-safe/) - Grace Ali's feature in the Digital Diaspora documentary film. By The Digital Diaspora Family Reunion “This is my only connection to that place,” confides journalist Grace Aneiza Ali, founder of the Of Note magazine, as she holds images from her family photo album which was first created in her homeland of Guyana. “I’ve become the
- [Christopher Saucedo: The Traumatizing and Transformative Power of Water](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/christopher-saucedo-from-flood-to-foundation/) - Surviving both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, Christopher Saucedo is intimately aware of water’s power as both a destructive and restorative force. His paintings and sculptures utilize gallon jugs, cups, Red Cross blankets, and more as a way of comforting those who have experienced water’s inhumane side.
- [US | Jose Parla's 'Walls, Diaries and Paintings'](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/03/13/us-jose-parlas-wall-diaries-and-paintings/) - By LeRonn Phillip Brooks José Parlá’s paintings are an empire of broken languages governing the landscape of old cities and the decaying spaces therein. Through his work, the artist proclaims a global aesthetic, stretching from Cuba to Beijing, Harlem to Sao Paulo, that exposes the perishable nature of often neglected communities laying at the center and periphery of hard-hearted metropolis.’
- [Shaka Senghor: The Intentional Storyteller](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/shaka-senghor-intentional-storyteller/) - Senghor after an arrest in 1991. © Shaka Senghor. Courtesy of the artist. I believe that humans, by nature, are redeemable. I believe that we live in a society where we throw away people without giving consideration to their humanity, to their lived experiences, which allowed them to fall from grace...I want my words
- [Shamsia Hassani: Beauty](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2018/08/24/shamsia-hassani-beauty-and-the-burqa/) - Let’s face it, your hair has a mind of its own and does pretty much whatever it wants on a daily basis. There may be days when you feel like it’s completely out of control. But there is one way that you can show your hair who’s the boss and gain back control – and
- [Miora Rajaonary: The Dignified Gaze of Malagasy Women](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2019/05/06/miora-rajaonary-the-dignified-gaze-of-malagasy-women/) - Hanta, from the series Lamba, 2018. Archival c-print. © Miora Rajaonary. Courtesy of the artist. Miora Rajaonary arrays the style, substance, power, and beauty in her portraits of women from Madagascar. In doing so, she imagines and accumulates a new set of narratives, first for herself as a Malagasy woman, and secondly for a larger
- [Andrea Star Reese: Life in New York City’s Underground](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2018/11/21/andrea-star-reese-life-in-new-york-citys-underground/) - Chuck reads while waiting on the tracks of The Freedom Tunnel. From The Urban Cave series, 2007-2014. © Andrea Star Reese. Courtesy of the artist. They kept each other safe. They backed each other up. When one would cry, another would comfort. — Andrea Star Reese BY ALICIA HARTZ | STUDENT CONTRIBUTOR| THE UNSHELTERED ISSUE |
- [Sierra Leone/Jamaica | A Mythology of Memory — Photo Essay by Berette Macaulay](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/neue-rootz-a-mythology-of-memory-photo-essay/) - The portraits featured here in 'A Mythology of Memory' are from a genealogical study rooted in my own multicultural/immigrant experience. My interest in investigating family roots developed when my father died in 2006. I began to confront the Myth of the Man, the stories around how my family ended up in Jamaica, how my parents fled Sierra Leone for their lives, our hero worship of my father, and thus the Myth of Myself.
- [Suchitra Mattai: Delicate Unravelings](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2019/05/06/suchitra-mattai-delicate-unravelings/) - Installation shot of Mala, 2018. Found fiber, crocheted fiber, video. © Suchitra Mattai. Courtesy of the artist and K Contemporary. Photo: Parker Daley. The artist uses woven textiles, mass-produced objects, and video as materials to create invented landscapes—often inhabited with women protagonists (or traces of them)—that are reflective of diasporic histories and inter-generational memories. BY
- [Hangama Amiri: Secrets and Desires](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/hangama-amiri/) - By Suzanne Russell Hangama Amiri uses the burqa as a symbol of invisibility in her paintings and video installations. Her mission is to tell the stories of the women of Afghanistan — starting with her mother. The women in her family inform her art practice, so too does her own relationship with the burqa and her childhood memories from Afghanistan.
- [South Africa | Janet Goldner and The Global Africa Project](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/02/04/1817/) - The Global Africa Project featuring Janet Goldner's work to the right at the Museum of Arts and Design. (Photo: Janet Goldner) Although sculptor Janet Goldner has spent most of her 35 year long engagement with Africa producing sculptures inspired by Mali, it was her stunning gold necklace exploring the working conditions of gold miners in
- [World | 'Larry and Friends'—A Celebration of Immigration and Diversity](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/world/) - By Rajul Punjabi Carla Torres, who hails from Ecuador, and Nathalie Jaspar, who is of Belgian and Venezuelan heritage, rely on their current city, New York, for inspiration. While much of art, literature, and media often focus on larger struggles of immigrant life, "Larry and Friends" brings awareness to the mini triumphs that resonate in our day-to-day. It is a product of the illustrator's and author’s experiences of living in New York, where they both admit to feeling more like themselves than anywhere else.
- [Dawn Whitmore: Guns of Desire](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/dawn-whitmore-guns-desire/) - Dollar Billz, from the series Gun Love. © Dawn Whitmore, 2014. Courtesy of the artist. I’m fascinated with how things are marketed toward women to have this feminine shtick . . . They’re always talking about the gun’s sexy lines, the pink color, the slim fit that would fit in your tight jeans. — Dawn
- [Russell Frederick: Once Upon A Time We Were Kings](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/once-upon-a-time-we-were-kings-by-photographer-russell-frederick/) - “George.” Age: 31. Rikers Island Jail, New York, 2001. © Russell Frederick Editor's Note: Russell Frederick has amassed an incredible portfolio since he began documenting the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1999. He has a commitment to men whose lives have become entangled in the criminal justice system. It is a commitment that goes beyond the camera. In his
- [Gina Lewis' Infinite Definitions of Blue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/07/13/gina-lewis-infinite-definitions-of-blue/) - Terrascape 13, Summer 2011, Monoprint Collage © Gina Lewis I first met Gina Lewis (ginamarielewiscreates.com) in 2002. She was a student at Howard University working on her MFA. She climbed three flights of stairs in Founders Library to reach my office on the Howard campus. It's impossible not to immediately love this woman. She's funny, curious and
- [US | Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/09/05/us-visual-culture-and-the-struggle-for-civil-rights/) - By Mohamed Keita Lest we forget, it was the gruesome images of police brutality in places like Montgomery or Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 that brought a human rights crisis into worldview. President John F. Kennedy would disclose to aides that he had been make sick by a New York Times front page photograph showing a police
- [Afghanistan | Mass Media versus Islamic Tradition](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/09/01/afghan-star-mass-media-versus-islamic-tradition-2/) - By Troy Jeffrey Allen Early in Afghan Star, a young Pashtun boy briskly observes (despite missing an eye) that “If there were no songs…the world would be silent.” It is moments like these, little snippets of what happens when art influences life, that allow you to appreciate Afghan Star, despite its’ lack of delivery. The documentary takes place in present day Afghanistan and while civil
- [Andrea Star Reese: Life in New York City’s Underground](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/andrea-star-reese-life-new-york-citys-underground/) - Chuck reads while waiting on the tracks of The Freedom Tunnel. From The Urban Cave series, 2007-2014. © Andrea Star Reese. Courtesy of the artist. They kept each other safe. They backed each other up. When one would cry, another would comfort. — Andrea Star Reese BY ALICIA HARTZ | STUDENT CONTRIBUTOR| THE UNSHELTERED ISSUE |
- [Jessica Fenlon: Deconstructing Gun Speech, Silence & Beliefs](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/jessica-fenlon-deconstructing-gun-speech-silence-beliefs/) - Still from ungun. © Jessica Fenlon, 2013. All images courtesy of the artist. I think there’s a double silence around guns for [women]. It’s as though they not only have their voices silenced in those moments of abuse—they also feel they lose the right to say anything about it later. — Jessica Fenlon
- [US | The 5th Inning by E. Ethelbert Miller](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/10/610/) - The 5th Inning By Ethelbert Miller By E. Ethelbert Miller In March, poet and literary activist, E. Ethelbert Miller will release his second memoir, The 5th Inning. In an exclusive essay for of note, Miller reflects on the family photo that inspired the cover art for the book. "Years before Michelle and Barack, we were
- [María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Entangled Genealogies of Women’s Work](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2019/05/06/maria-magdalena-campos-pons-entangled-genealogies-of-womens-work/) - Installation shot of Angel's Trumpets, Devil's Bells, 2019. Mixed media on Arches archival paper, 9 panels, video. © María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Parker Daley. While it would be predictable to misinterpret the floral mapping on a woman’s body as essentializing femininity, for Campos-Pons, the campana refers to entangled female genealogies and
- [Sama Alshaibi: Strength as a Constant](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2019/05/06/sama-alshaibi-strength-as-a-constant/) - Marjana, from the series, Carry Over, 2018. Gumoil on cotton rag. © Sama Alshaibi. Courtesy of the artist. Carry Over was supported in part by a grant from The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and the Arizona Commission on the Arts which receives support from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the
- [Ethiopia | Teza: Making Peace with the War Within](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/15/teza-making-peace-with-the-war-within/) - By Hassim Keita "Teza" is the latest release of renowned Ethiopian-born filmmaker Haile Gerima—best known for his acclaimed 1993 epic of African resistance to slavery, "Sankofa." The film is a bold statement of defiance to a Hollywood establishment with limited appetite for meaningful films told from unique and diverse perspectives.
- [Claudia Alvarez: Gun Violence as Child's Play](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/05/30/claudia-alvarez-gun-violence-as-childs-play/) - El Chupon ©Claudia Alvarez, 2007. Courtesy of the artist. Guns are ridiculous. We live in a country where we should be past using a gun to solve an argument. — Claudia Alvarez BY CELESTE HAMILTON DENNIS | THE GUN ISSUE | SPRING|SUMMER 2017 Claudia Alvarez has no problem telling you what she really thinks about
- [test](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2018/12/04/test/)
- [Breaking the Silence: An Interview with Artist Soraya Nulliah](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2018/10/24/canada-south-africa-breaking-the-silence-an-interview-with-artist-soraya-nulliah/) - Soraya Nulliah. "Child Bride." 2007. Mixed Media. Artist Soraya Nulliah is Indian, South African, Canadian, and American—all at once. She is of Indian origin, was born in and grew up in apartheid South Africa, immigrated to Alberta, Canada at twelve years old, and now lives in Colorado, USA with her husband and daughter. Her body
- [A View from Both Sides: Stories of Migration by Photographer Encarni Pindado](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2018/08/24/mexico-a-view-from-both-sides-stories-of-migration-by-photographer-encarni-pindado/) - A young man hitches a ride on top of a cargo train from Arriaga, Chiapas to Ixtepec, Oaxaca in southern Mexico. In addition to the risk of falling off the train (amputations and death are common), gangs frequently extort migrants and charge them $100 to ride. They face threats of being thrown off the train, kidnapped,
- [South Africa | Kimberly Burge on Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/south-africa-kimberly-burge-on-writing-with-the-girls-of-gugulethu/) - On Saturday afternoons for a year, anywhere from 4 to 22 girls, ages 13 through 20, gathered in Gugulethu for a weekly creative writing club. Ten miles from the city center, Gugulethu is one of Cape Town’s oldest townships, and South Africa’s racially segregated areas. At our first meeting, they brainstormed together for a name. They settled on Amazw’Entombi, “Voices of the Girls.”
- [Rosemary Meza-DesPlas: The Dangerous Seduction of Women with Guns](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/10937/) - I Look Like A Woman, I Cut Like A Buffalo © Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, 2013. Courtesy of the artist. I was never sold on the idea that I needed a gun. And I never saw an example of anyone using a gun in self-defense. — Rosemary Meza-DesPlas BY BERETTE MACAULAY| THE GUN
- [Alex Fradkin and Taz Tagore: Shattering Stereotypes of LGBT Homeless Youth](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/alex-fradkin-taz-tagore-shattering-stereotypes-lgbt-homeless-youth/) - Derrick. © Alex Fradkin, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and The Reciprocity Foundation. Transcending homelessness is about more than helping a young person find housing and employment. Transcending homelessness is about allowing yourself to be seen at your most vulnerable. — Taz Tagore BY BRITTANY WEBB | STUDENT CONTRIBUTOR| THE UNSHELTERED ISSUE | WINTER
- [Heart Gallery NYC: The City of Unsheltered Eyes](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/heart-gallery-nyc-city-unsheltered-eyes/) - © Jonathan, 2015. Courtesy of Heart Gallery NYC and NYC Department of Homeless Services. [The artists] are on the street. They see everything: good and bad. The fact that they mostly decided to capture beauty is interesting.— Heidi Gutman, Through the Eyes of the Homeless mentor BY DANA ABU ALI | STUDENT CONTRIBUTOR| THE UNSHELTERED
- [More Art: “Refugee. Immigrant. Displaced. Alien.”](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/art-refugee-immigrant-displaced-alien/) - Hand-drawn frames of Friederich W. Murnau’s seminal 1922 film Nosferatu, on exhibition at Home(ward). Over 35,000 film frames will be hand reanimated for Mastrovito’s NYsferatu, premiering this fall at public parks and plazas around NYC. © Andrea Mastrovito. Courtesy of the artist and More Art. As vampires drain blood from their victims, living in New
- [Chinatown Art Brigade: Projecting Resistance Through Community Art](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/chinatown-art-brigade-projecting-resistance-community-art/) - Projection from Here to Stay community art project located at 1 Allen St. in New York City. © Chinatown Arts Brigade, 2016. Courtesy of the artists. Housing is a health issue and health is a housing issue. We can see walking down the street that there’s a connection. — Tomie Arai, Chinatown Art Brigade
- [Rachel Falcone and Michael Premo: Housing is a Human Right](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/rachel-falcone-michael-premo-housing-human-right/) - A Brooklyn resident at a rally for tenant and housing rights. © Michael Premo, 2010. Courtesy of the artist. Everyone can relate to the need for a home, and so it’s a starting place in which to then have a conversation about what we want our communities to look like—where we actually see each other
- [Kilusan Bautista: Rendering Homelessness Visible Through Theater](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/12/28/kilusan-bautista-rendering-homelessness-visible-theater/) - Kilusan Bautista performing at Wellesley College in Boston, Massachusetts. © Lia McPherson, 2016. Courtesy of the artist. The face of homelessness in New York City is a baby and I say that because with a child, with a baby, you have no judgment...this human being needs care, needs resources, needs attention. When an individual is
- [French Guiana | Yannick Lebrun Finds “Home” In Alvin Ailey Dance](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/11/07/french-guiana-yannick-lebrun/) - By Grace Aneiza Ali Yannick Lebrun's story, of a twenty-four year old native of French Guiana turned world-traveling Alvin Ailey dancer, is rooted in humble beginnings. His leap from studying dance at the Adaclam School in Cayenne (capital city of French Guiana) to carving out a place for himself in the award-winning Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is not a path frequently travelled. "For those from French Guiana...the possibilities for dance are few and far between," he says.
- [Jessica Pleyel: Standing To(get)her Against Guns](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/jessica-pleyel-standing-together-guns/) - Still from To(get)her: Encircle. © Jessica Pleyel, 2017. Courtesy of the artist. I do not think that this project or any one thing can necessarily heal someone, but I do believe this project gives a space and a step towards healing. To be healed isn’t the goal—but rather, to be able to live
- [Vanessa German: "Power Figures" Armed with a Mantra for Justice](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/vanessa-german-countering-gun-violence-and-celebrating-the-power-of-black-women-and-girls/) - Inspired by an Africana aesthetic, multidisciplinary artist Vanessa German celebrates the strength, lives, and overall essence of Black women and girls through her powerful visuals, sculptures, and artistry.
- [Linda Lighton: "Taking Aim" on Gun Culture](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/linda-lighton-taking-aim-on-gun-culture/) - I don't want a bullet to kiss your heart © Linda Lighton, 2012. Courtesy of EG Schempf. When I was doing this research, I searched online and asked friends, 'Do you know anybody that’s ever been saved with a gun?' I couldn’t get an answer. — Linda Lighton BY MACKENZIE LEIGHTON | THE
- [Montana Ray: The Concrete Poems of (<i>guns & butter<i>)](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/montana-ray-gun-promises-and-the-concrete-poems-of-guns-butter/) - Cover of (guns & butter), 2015. Artwork by Dawn Whitmore. Courtesy of the artist. I’ve never owned a gun and never will. They scare me. I’ve had friends who, since the election, say we should arm ourselves. But it’s like that Chekhov cliché—you bring a gun on stage, it must go off. — Montana
- [Kadie Salfi: Guns of Mass Destruction](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/kadie-salfi-guns-mass-destruction/) - New work from Kadie Salfi's series, Every 16 Hours, a title that calls attention to the fact that every 16 hours a woman is shot and killed by a current or former partner. Each work is painted with make-up on plywood. © Kadie Salfi, 2017. Courtesy of the artist. I am trying to stimulate conversations about hard
- [Caridad Svich: Gun Violence Takes Center Stage](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2017/06/19/caridad-svich-gun-violence-takes-center-stage/) - “Irony of the Second Degree” by Kyle Bostian. Read by Alison Meredith and Craig Walker at Darlinghurst Theatre in Sydney, Australia. © Stephen Carnell, 2013. [The idea that a woman with a gun is a woman with power]. . . is a trope which privileges a masculine ideal. — Caridad Svich BY BUREEN RUFFIN|
- [Guyana/India | Gaiutra Bahadur Charts the 'Coolie' Woman's Odyssey](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/guyanaindia/) - By Grace Aneiza Ali Gaiutra Bahadur’s "Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture" is pregnant with questions, profound and equally haunting. And fittingly so. The saga of what a quarter of a million ‘coolie’ women endured as they left India for the Caribbean under the British system of 20th century indentureship requires interrogation and accountability. To excavate the stories of these women, Bahadur bravely turns inward to her own family. She charts the journey of her great-grandmother Sujara who embarked on her own ‘middle passage,’ alone and three months pregnant, for some dream of a better life.
- [Serge Belo: Why 66,000 Cups of Repurposed Rainwater Matters](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/serge-belo/) - 66,000 – A Water Mosaic With A Cause. © Serge Belo, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Robert Wagenhoffer. Every 20 seconds, a child dies somewhere on the planet because of lack of access to safe water and sanitation. BY KATIE BEETON| THE WATER ISSUE |SUMMER 2016 It took 66,000 biodegradable cups, 15,000 liters of water, 3,600
- [Peggy Choy: Water, Dance, and 'Afro-Asian Futurism'](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/peggy-choy/) - "RIVER - MOUTH - OCEAN: Explorations in Afro-Asian Futurism" is a series of dance pieces created by Peggy Choy and fellow choreographer and performing artist Onye Ozuzu. It explores, with complexity and depth, how water relates to human potential and waste.
- [Mariam Magsi: Imagining the Possibilities of a Hot Red Burqa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/mariam-magsi/) - By Erin Haney With Mariam Magsi’s imagery, burqas reveal shades of the subversive bodies underneath. Her subjects are quietly outrageous, vivid and embracing, their genders and sexual identities undetermined. Her portraits, hiding so much desire, confound us. They might elicit sympathy, consternation, anger—they are meant to provoke.
- [Mahnaz Rezaie: Artistic Rage and Wishful Responses to the Burqa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/mahnaz-rezaie/) - Deep Blue. © Mahnaz Rezaie, 2015. Courtesy of the artist. BY MAHNAZ REZAIE, GUEST DIGITAL CURATOR | THE BURQA ISSUE | WINTER 2015|2016 In 1981, during Russia’s occupation of Afghanistan, my father fled from a second draft and left for Iran. Shortly after, my mother and two older siblings joined him. I was born and grew up in
- [Shamsia Hassani: Beauty and the Burqa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/shamsia-hassani/) - By Rajul Punjabi Shamsia Hassani’s message is provocative — she paints images of women in burqas in large public spaces when the burqa is known for preserving a woman’s privacy. There is an undeniable sense of boldness and exposure in the work. Her large scale paintings, rife with vibrant color and textures, reinforce the idea that a woman can maintain her privacy without being invisible. While her body is covered, it can still exist in a powerful way.
- [Brittany Greeson: Framing Resilience in the Water Crisis of Flint, Michigan](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/brittany-greeson-framing-recovery-and-resilience-in-flint-michigan/) - As part of his morning routine before the school day, Jeremiah Loren, 12, uses bottled water to rinse while brushing his teeth at his home in Flint, Michigan on January 20, 2016. © Brittany Greeson/The New York Times, 2016. Courtesy of the artist. I want to keep the attention on Flint. People are still living
- [Shalini Kantayya: Who Controls Water Controls Life](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/shalini-k/) - Screenshot from the short sci-fi film A Drop of Life (2012), directed by Shalini Kantayaa. If you’re talking about gender equality, you’re talking about water. If you’re talking about the rights of women and girls in the developing world, you’re talking about water. — Shalini Kantayya BY VASILIKI EUGENIS| THE WATER ISSUE |SUMMER 2016 Editor’s Note Shalini Kantayya is
- [Yoav Shavit: 'Women of Refaiya' and the Politics of Water in Palestine](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/yoav-shavit/) - Still from the documentary short film Women of Refaiya. Directed by Yoav Shavit. © Water Project - Yoav Shavit, 2012. Courtesy of the artist. This story, of not only the El-Amur girls’ relationship with water, but countless other Palestinian families, goes widely unheard or is eclipsed by the larger looming Israeli-Palestinian conflict. BY YAEL HEIBLUM| THE WATER
- [New York | Talking Back To Street Harassers: An Interview with Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/05/03/talking-back-to-street-harassers-an-interview-with-artist-tatyana-fazlalizadeh/) - Image courtesy of Stop Telling Women to Smile. BY JAIMEE A. SWIFT | THE GIRLS ISSUE | SPRING, 2013 Hey, baby! You’re looking real good in that dress!” “Why aren’t you talking to me — I said, hello!” “Smile, woman! You’d look prettier if you did.” Irrespective of geographic location, race, age, language, sexual orientation and culture,
- [The Water Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/the-water-issue/) - Featured in "The Water Issue" is the work of ten global contemporary artists and activists who share a commitment to spotlighting the lack of access to clean water via artistic practices rooted in photography, painting, sculpture, science and design, film and dance. These artists see their roles as ones that go beyond raising awareness of the crisis to creating work that informs solutions, seeks out narratives of resiliency and innovation, and challenges us to interrogate how as a modern society we’ve transformed water from sacred to commodity.
- [John Sabraw: Extracting Beauty from Toxic Water](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2016/06/05/john-sabraw/) - To paint pieces like Bijagos above, artist John Sabraw uses pigments derived from toxic runoff from abandoned coal mines. Oil on Canvas 72 x 96 inches, 2013. © John Sabraw. Courtesy of the artist. Sabraw creates beautiful works of art from toxic river sludge, but that
- [Rada Akbar: Making the Invisible Visible](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/rada-akbar-making-the-invisible-visible/) - By Stephanie Seguino Afghani artist Rada Akbar’s images of women in burqas are at once powerful and disquieting. In her 2013 photographic series, "Invisible Captivity," depicting women in burqas, Akbar draws attention to the religious and cultural forces that shape women’s lives. The images consist primarily of black and white portraits or sculptures of women whose bodies are inscribed with passages from the Quran. They are bold, and deeply evocative.
- [Afghan Women's Writing Project: Voicing Narratives of Change](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/afghan-womens-writing-project-voicing-new-narratives-of-change/) - © Nahid W., 2015. Courtesy of AWWP. Under Burqa is a Girl By NAHID W. I burned under the burqa. No one could see my tears, Hear my voice, Feel my pain. No one could grant me my rights, Give me respect, Lead me to knowledge. What was my sin? Being a girl?
- [Rayhana Maarouf: When A Father Goes to Prison](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/rayhana-maarouf/) - By Rayhana Maarouf | GIRLS WRITE NOW My dad came back a year later when I was in the ninth grade. It was hard at first. My dad wasn’t used to a lot of noise, and we had gotten used to him not being there. It felt like he was a piece of china, so fragile you had to handle it carefully so it wouldn’t break.
- [Behnaz Babazadeh: The Bitter Sweetness of Reinventing Burqas](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/behnaz-babazadeh-sweet-memories-of-the-burqa/) - By Gia Harewood Behnaz Babazadeh began taking pictures of herself in all kinds of burqas. Experimenting with everything from sugar cubes to cotton candy to Fruit Loops, she would literally change the image of the burqa by changing its substance. She found the most success with gummy bears and Fruit Roll-Ups. These remixed garments would eventually form her multi-media series, Burkaphilia. It is the very unique materials the artist employs that softens the viewer’s gaze and connects burqas to sensory associations of joy, sweetness, and innocence.
- [Brishkay Ahmed: Unveiling the History of the Burqa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/brishkay-ahmed/) - By Bureen Ruffin In her documentary film 'Story of Burqa: Case of a Confused Afghan,' Brishkay Ahmed, an Afghan-Canadian filmmaker, takes on the enormous task of uncovering the story of how the burqa came to be associated with Afghanistan and its role in the lives of Afghan women and girls. She and her camera crew take the viewer on a journey through the alleyways and past the stalls of the Kabul markets, where burqas are made, sold, and worn.
- [Ahaad Al Amoudi: The Burqa as a Well-Worn Modern Mask](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/ahaad-al-amoudi-the-burqa-a-well-worn-modern-mask/) - By Zaynab Odunsi Ahaad Al Amoudi believes the Internet and the burqa share a critical connection. In her view, the Internet mirrors the same function of the burqa — one of anonymity, freedom, and the masking of the self. However, she says, “The anonymity that the Internet grants women is not subjected to the same prejudices for women who wear the burqa.”
- [Editor's Note: The Art of the Burqa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/12/05/editors-note-art-burqa/) - . editor's note: The Art of the Burqa The burqa—an aesthetically stunning style of the veil, usually blue or black, with a mesh over the eyes—has evolved into the controversial and the divisive. No longer is it seen as a garment worn by some Muslim women to cover their bodies in public, a marker of religious identity,
- [Lori Waselchuk: "Grace Before Dying" For An Aging Prison Population](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/grace-before-dying-by-photographer-lori-waselchuk/) - By Berette Macaulay "Grace Before Dying" is a title most apt for Lori Waselchuk’s project that documents the volunteer prisoner-run hospice program in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) at Angola. That someone be there to comfort the imprisoned through the emotional, psychological, and moral vicissitudes of their last days would be a consolation most profound—especially when it comes from someone who knows precisely the demons they tackle.
- [Cuba/New York | Muralist Katie Yamasaki On Giving Girls A Voice Through Art](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/cuba-new-york-muralist-katie-yamasaki-on-giving-girls-a-voice-through-art/) - Katie Yamasaki is at the helm of a number of community-based, large-scale murals with teenage girls, which creates a place for them to come together, choose an issue affecting their community, and express their ideas through public art. Her work, she says, is about providing “a visual platform where different communities can have a public voice.”
- [Patagonia | Mustafa Abdulaziz: Cowboy Stories](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/02/13/mustafa-abdulaziz-cowboy-stories-from-the-bottom-of-the-world/) - Mustafa Abdulaziz, Cowboy in Mountains, Patagonia Cowboy series. 2008 (Courtesy of the Artist) “The power of the photograph can shine a light of knowledge and inspiration into places where there was once only darkness,” says photographer Mustafa Abdulaziz. Coming from a Dutch/Afro-Caribbean heritage, Abdulaziz’s work centers on “people and cultures whose lives may not contain the
- [England | Poet Sabrina Mahfouz Confronts Portrayal of Girls in Media](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/england-poet-sabrina-mahfouz-confronts-media-portrayal-of-girls/) - When the London-based poet and playwright Sabrina Mahfouz came across an online campaign to put an end to a topless model feature in one of England's biggest selling newspapers, she was reminded of a ghost that troubled her throughout her own girlhood. "It's difficult as a young girl not to see yourself represented in the magazines," she says. "It definitely limits what you think you can do." Inspired by the campaign, Mahfouz penned a poem about the impact these pervasive images have on young girls.
- [Trinidad/Canada | Our Holy Waters and Mine:  The Art of Andil Gosine](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/5582/) - By Nalini Mohabir From George Village in the south of Trinidad, Andil Gosine migrated to Canada with his parents as a child, and now resides between the pull of Toronto and New York. Like his life, his work is in motion, between spaces of desire, given meaning through the histories in which he walks his way in the world—as an Indo-Caribbean diasporic man. Although crossing the kala pani has been interpreted as a traumatic rupture, in Gosine’s art, we see the subtleties that extends the personal, interwoven with a transoceanic past.
- [Congo | Ruined](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/08/17/ruined/) - 2009 Pulitzer Prize-Winner for Drama From the Obie Award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage comes a haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war. Set in a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ruined follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman who runs a brothel in a land torn
- [Fela! Jolts Broadway](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/12/02/fela-jolts-broadway/) - By Heather Bent Tamir Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a mold breaker, a musical innovator, and political firebrand. He didn’t just march to his own beat; he invented it. That beat was Afrobeat, a beguiling blend of jazz, funk, pop, and African rhythms that is now jolting Broadway like a thunderclap. Big, bold, and African but
- [Guyana | Three Image-Makers Envision Home](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/04/01/guyana-envisioning-home/) - By Nalini Mohabir Roshini Kempadoo, Keisha Scarville, and Sandra Brewster are women with roots in Guyana who currently reside outside of the country’s geographical borders, though not its imagined ones. Taken together, the work of these artists reflects the ghostly presences that linger over the concept of “home” for the Guyanese diaspora. And for all (formerly) colonized and racialized diasporas, home remains a very complicated project.
- [A Return to Roots for Photographers Elizabeth Moreno, Cecil McDonald, Jr., and Kevin J. Miyazaki](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/05/11/a-return-to-roots-for-photographers-elizabeth-moreno-cecil-mcdonald-jr-and-kevin-j-miyazaki/) - The latest volume of En Foco's (the non-profit dedicated to cultural diversity in photography) Nueva Luz Journal features a commentary by OF NOTE's Grace Aneiza Ali on the work of photographers Kevin Miyazaki, Cecil McDonald, Jr., and Elizabeth Moreno. See an excerpt below and download the complimentary digital issue HERE. A Return to Roots by Grace Aneiza Ali
- [Mexico | A View from Both Sides: Stories of Migration by Photographer Encarni Pindado](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/stories-of-migration-by-photographer-encarni-pindado/) - Photographer Encarni Pindado believes that migration "has been reported in the media from many different angles, but rarely told by the migrants themselves."
- [Somi: of note Artist of the Year 2009](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/12/01/somi-of-note-artist-of-the-year-2009/) - Photo by Terrence Jennings, 2009 By Rich Blint of note’s Artist of the Year is a visionary, innovative, and boundary pushing artist who reflects a commitment to global citizenship and social change. In tandem with of note’s mission, the Artist of the Year uses his or her work as a means to challenge, celebrate, and
- [Jay Lee on the Grammy Foundation’s Music Education Program](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/09/06/jay-lee-talks-about-the-grammy-foundation’s-music-education-program/) - Amina Zamani interviews the documentary’s director Jay Lee Sometimes to be the best guitarist you don't have to play, Just sometimes means you have to be able to work well with other people On July 11, 2009, 83 extraordinarily talented teenagers from across the country arrived on the hallowed grounds of the USC campus.One very intense
- [Slumdog Millionaire](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2008/12/12/463/) - Image courtesy of Warner Brothers' 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire By Troy Jeffrey Allen It doesn’t happen often, but once in awhile you hit paydirt at the movies. You realize you’ve been a cynic and someone was going to pull your card. That person is director, Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Trainspotting, Sunshine). That movie is Slumdog
- [How the Movies Made a President](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/01/18/how-the-movies-made-a-president/) - In today's New York Times, film critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott argued that "Evolving cinematic roles have prepared America to have a black man in charge." In light of the many films–annoyingly too many–that confine black men to stereotypical, demeaning, and one-dimensional roles (the "yes massuh" slave, glorified gangsters, absent fathers, rappers
- [US | The Black List Returns with Stories of the Past in Volume Three](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/02/09/the-black-list-returns-with-stories-of-the-past-in-volume-three/) - Originally published on February 9, 2010 for The Defenders Online, a publication of the NAACP LDF By Grace Aneiza Ali “Stories matter. Many stories matter,” said Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie in her speech on “The Danger of the Single Story” at the TEDGlobal 2009 forum last year. She warned against one-dimensional views and singular stories
- [Roots & Rebellions: Chris Rock’s ‘Good Hair’](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/12/01/roots-rebellions-chris-rock’s-‘good-hair’/) - Image courtesy of Chris Rock's 2009 documentary Good Hair By Troy Jeffrey Allen Is it just me or has there been an increased interest in the inner-workings of the African-American community…say since January 21st of 2009? Well, black IS the new black and Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair is at the root of the
- [Zimbabwe | Your Name Is My Name](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/02/05/your-name-is-my-name/) - Panashe and friends. By Grace Aneiza Ali Panashe (pictured above) was puzzled about why Osato Dixon kept coming to the orphanage in Harare, Zimbabwe where he lived, to talk to him. But after a few of their weekly Tuesday meetings had gone by, Panashe was feeling less shy and more at ease with the 28
- [US/Mexico | CatherineMarie Davalos: Dancing Across Borders](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/usmexico-catherinemarie-davalos/) - By Clarence A. Haynes The act of crossing borders, both literally and figuratively, is something that artist CatherineMarie Davalos deeply understands. As an acclaimed dancer, choreographer and director of Davalos Dance Company, she has crafted works that honor her Mexican/multicultural heritage and the experiences of her community while traversing other barriers around identity.
- [US | National Black Writer’s Conference: A Literary Feast](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/03/31/national-black-writer’s-conference-a-literary-feast/) - Cornel West, Toni Morrison, and Sonia Sanchez at National Black Writer's Conference. Photo by Brook Stephenson By Grace Aneiza Ali Originally published on March 31, 2010 for The Defenders Online, a publication of the NAACP LDF Perhaps it was the sight of Sonia Sanchez, Toni Morrison, Cornel West, Kamau Brathwaite, and Amiri Baraka huddled together
- [US | First Person Plural: An Interview with R. Dwayne Betts](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/23/first-person-plural-an-interview-with-r-dwayne-betts/) - A Question of Freedom By Dwayne Betts From the Fall 2010 issue of The Workshop & Events Guide of The Writers CenterReginald Dwayne Betts is a Cave Canem fellow and recipient of the Holden Fellowship from M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College. His memoir A Question of Freedom was published by Avery/Penguin. His debut poetry collection,
- [US | Deborah Willis on ’Posing Beauty'](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/12/31/deborah-willis-on-’posing-beauty/) - Posing Beauty By Deborah Willis Beauty is, among many things, deeply personal. Deborah Willis’ new collection, “Posing Beauty” is a compelling presentation of how African Americans have used this amorphous concept of beauty—whether, real, staged or invented—as a tool of self-empowerment. Over 200 photographs weave individual expressions of beauty to a subtle yet powerful
- [Guyana | The Girl with the Notebook](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/ethiopia-guyana-the-girl-with-the-notebook/) - Far too often the narratives about women and girls in rural communities whether they be in Asia, or Africa, or South America, are centered on an urgent call for them to look past the proverbial courtyard, to aim for a life beyond the confines of the village, to shed the veil. And we tell them that not doing so would render them invisible, marginalized, or trapped. We're wrong.
- [India on my mind](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/01/02/india-on-my-mind/) - The White Tiger By Aravind Adiga While "Slumdog Millionaire" continues to captivate the global cinematic spotlight for its poignant commentary on the class system in Mumbai, Aravind Adiga, the 33 year old Indian author has nabbed the Man Booker Prize for his first novel "The White Tiger." In an interview with the BBC, Adiga described "The
- [Bookmark: 'Whatever it Takes' to teach Harlem's Youth](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2008/09/18/bookmark-whatever-it-takes-to-teach-harlems-youth/) - Whatever it Takes By Paul Tough New York Times journalist Paul Tough profiles educational visionary Geoffrey Canada, whose Harlem Children’s Zone—currently serving more than 7,000 children and encompassing 97 city blocks—represents an audacious effort to end poverty within underserved communities. Canada’s radical experiment is predicated upon changing everything in these communities—creating an interlocking web of services targeted at the
- [Dwayne Betts: Coming of Age in Prison](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/7116/) - R. Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison. Editor's Note: In 1997, R. Dwayne Betts was sentenced to nine years in prison for carjacking a man at gunpoint, use of a firearm during a felony and attempted robbery. He was sixteen years old when he
- [US | The Art Of "The Politics of Fear"](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2008/07/21/37/) - The New Yorker July 2001, 2006 By Shahnaz Habib Last week, the New Yorker cover proved that to reveal how ludicrous right wing propaganda is, you don’t have to do anything except pile it on top of itself. But the satire did not stop there. In the tradition of the cleverest satire, the
- [Saudi Arabia | Tagreed Albagshi: Inside Borders](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/09/tagreed-albagshi-inside-borders/) - “Untitled,” Tagreed Albagshi, 2010. Much has been reported about the status of women in Saudi Arabia. While a lot of what has been said has come from those on the outside looking in, we turned to award-winning Saudi Arabian artist Tagreed Albagshi for insight into public and private lives of the women in her homeland. She
- [US | A Weusi Reunion at Harlem’s Dwyer Cultural Center](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/02/19/a-weusi-reunion-at-harlem’s-dwyer-cultural-center/) - Weusi Artist Gaylord Hassan stands in front of his artwork at the Dwyer Cultural Center By Grace Aneiza Ali Originally published on February 19, 2010 for The Defenders Online, a publication of the NAACP LDF “The last time we all got together like this was in 1975,” says Taiwo Duvall as he stands in one
- [Harlem, NY | Adarsh Alphons Projects](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/03/06/harlem-ny-adarsh-alphons-projects/) - A student from the Adarsh Alphons Project stands in front of her artwork. (Photo: Adarsh Alphons) "Get carried away!" This is the motto of the Adarsh Alphons Project, a Harlem-based visual arts program for New York City's youth. The Project provides budding young artists and lovers of art with full-scholarship art classes, professional teachers from
- [Ethiopia | Kebedech Tekleab: Creating an Ethiopian Narrative in America](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/08/23/748/) - Serenity, 1993 © Kebedech Tekleab By E. Ethelbert Miller Kebedech Tekleab is one of the foremost Ethiopian artists today. While her “interest on human conditions globally” has inspired much of her work, her own personal narratives and her love of literature, music, drama etc. are equally great sources of inspiration. Tekleab's pieces have been acquired
- [Nigeria | Yinka Shonibare: The Art of Victorian Dress](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/09/01/yinka-shonibare-the-art-of-victorian-dress/) - How to Blow Up Two Heads at Once (Ladies), Yinka Shonibare By Patricia Spears Jones In this mid-career retrospective, Shonibare, the London-based Nigerian artist, examines Victorian dress forms and culture as a way to explore imperialism, globalization, and African identity. In the magnificent Scramble for Africa (2003), he recreates a meeting at the Berlin Conference
- [US | Gerard Caliste: Waterlines](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/17/gerard-caliste-waterlines/) - “She Bears Her Soul,” Gerard Caliste Art, 2008. Unimaginable tragedy often inspires artistic masterpieces. New Orleans painter Gerald Caliste created his Waterlines series to come to grips with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina, Caliste, who was living in New Orleans at the time, looked to painting as his personal narrative to document what the
- [Guyana | Ruminations by Carl Hazlewood a 'Foreign Guyanese' Artist](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/04/02/guyana-ruminations-by-a-foreign-guyanese/) - By Carl E. Hazlewood There have been several occasions in recent years where I’ve been accused of being a ‘foreign Guyanese,’ that term being used deliberately to suggest, I felt, that I had no right to be involved with things I’d assumed was within my cultural sphere of interest as a ‘born’ Guyanese. As one might imagine, such encounters induced moments of extreme psychic dissonance for me. What was I? Who am I? Why do I feel such a responsibility to folks who seem so disinterested in whatever I had to offer? And what is the responsibility of that place and those people to me?
- [Guyana | Claude Stevens' Art for the People](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/04/01/4929/) - Guyanese Artist Claude Stevens
- [Artist Julie Mehretu on 'Culture/Context' with LeRonn Brooks](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/01/17/juliemehretuonculturecontext/) - Artist Julie Mehretu interview on Liminal Squared.
- [World | Portrait Artist Stephen Bennett Counters Invisibility of Indigenous Girls](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/global-muralist-stephen-bennett/) - Stephen Bennett's portraits of indigenous girls draw attention to a sobering duality: their natural beauty and simultaneous invisibility. As indigenous peoples they are among the most impoverished of our world's citizens; they are also among the world's most invisible. What seems as a simple act by Bennett—to use the art of portraiture to reflect the faces of these girls—becomes a powerful gesture of activism to counter invisibility.
- [Canada/South Africa | Breaking the Silence: An Interview with Artist Soraya Nulliah](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/canadasouth-africa-breaking-the-silence-an-interview-with-artist-soraya-nulliah/) - Artist Soraya Nulliah's body of work is centered on portraits of women and girls of color and reflects a life spent existing in-between cultures and criss-crossing geographic boundaries. In both subtle and overt ways, her work is also a response to the culture of silence that often plagues women and girls who are victimized by domestic violence.
- [India | Swati Khurana on Rituals, Resistance, and Assimilation](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2014/04/30/india-swati-khurana/) - Swati Khurana explores gender, ethnicity, rituals and behaviors that are very specific to Indian immigrant culture.
- [Mary DeWitt: Portraits of Women Serving Life](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/artist-mary-dewitt-brings-humanity-to-women-lifers/) - Mary DeWitt. "Portrait of Avis Lee." 2014. Oil and graphite on mylar. BY MISHA McGLOWN | THE IMPRISONED ISSUE | WINTER, 2014/2015 An 18-year-old Avis Lee was asked to be a lookout for her older brother and his friends while they committed an armed robbery. “What do I have to do?” she asked. She was told that her job was to
- [Paul Rucker: A 'PROLIFERATION' Of Imprisoned Lives](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/paul-ruckers-proliferation/) - By Mohamed Keita Paul Rucker's "PROLIFERATION" is an attempt at deconstructing the abstraction of US prison figures into a meaningful and emotional experience. In his immersive sound and video installation, individual frames could pass for a satellite image of lights across the United States at night. But this video animation represents a somber spectacle: the sprawling formation of the carceral topography of the continental US.
- [Truthworker Theatre Company: Youth Voices Against the School to Prison Pipeline](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/truthworker/) - By Rajul Punjabi Founded in 2013 by Samara Gaev, the Truthworker Theatre Company brings together young people between the ages of 15 to 22 to create, write, and perform in productions that reflect stories from their own lives as well as those entangled in the prison industrial complex—stories that are often discounted and disregarded.
- [Morley: A Song for Women in Prison, Shackled in Childbirth](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/unshackled-by-morley-kamen/) - By Grace Aneiza Ali In response to learning about the ongoing practice of shackling women in labor, singer/songwriter Morley penned the song “Unshackled.” In her lyrics, she conjures up an image of a woman living in slavery or in a war zone. Unfortunately, the “chains” Morley references are no metaphor.
- [Mexico | Artist Andrea Arroyo Honors the Lost Girls of Ciudad Juárez](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/mexico-artist-andrea-arroyo-honors-a-citys-lost-girls/) - Andrea Arroyo's Flor de Tierra, Homage to the Women of Juárez draws attention to the nearly 400 women and girls of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, who have been murdered since the early '90s and whose murders remain unsolved.
- [Ethiopia | One Girl's Fight to Learn: An Interview with Writer Maaza Mengiste](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2013/04/01/ethiopia-writer-maaza-mengiste/) - Along with eight other global writers, Maaza Mengiste has contributed a segment to the documentary, Girl Rising. The film is part of a larger "global action campaign" called 10x10, which seeks "to deliver a simple, critical truth: Educate Girls and you will Change the World." For the film, Maaza traveled to Ethiopia to tell the story of Azmera, a teenage girl who refused an arranged marriage to an older man.
- [Randall Horton: From Prison, to Poet, to Professor](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2015/01/21/randall-horton/) - The poet and professor, Randall Horton. © Paula Martali A Reoccurring Nightmare In Maximum Security BY RANDALL HORTON it begins where moonlight ends slipping through the horizontal window, wraps each iron bar of the prison you have become a longer extension of the cell in which all humans are born, come into screaming. scream & the
- [Guyana | Filmmaker Mason Richards Brings Guyana's Stories to Global Audience](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/03/03/2490/) - By Havelock Nelson Mason Richards' The Seawall is the story of a young boy wrestling with leaving Guyana and his grandmother trying to convince him (and herself) that going to America will be to his benefit. Richards' command of his craft combined with his talent as a storyteller is fully responsible for resurrecting a place I admittedly truly miss. The film reminds us that being uprooted from traditions means becoming changed in the transplantation.
- [US | Francesca Harper in "The Calling"](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/14/1448/) - Francesa Harper in "The Calling." Photo by Bill Hebert. By Grace Aneiza Ali She emerged on stage rooted at the center of an ocean of white waves. Draped in an endless white gown, Francesa Harper's solo performance in "The Calling" is immediately haunting and the most compelling piece in the Francesca Harper Project's fifth anniversary presentation
- [Grace Aneiza Ali Speaks at Launch of Busboys and Poets Press in Washington, DC](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/03/16/grace-aneiza-ali-speaks-at-launch-of-busboys-and-poets-press-in-washington-dc/) - Grace Aneiza Ali introduced Busboys and Poets Press’ author E. Ethelbert Miller, noting: “We are in a time where we need to guard our private lives fiercely and aggressively; a time when the lines between our public and private selves become increasingly blurred. Yet, Ethelbert Miller’s work boldly crisscrosses that line.” March 16, 2009: Of
- ['Into A Light Both Brilliant And Unseen'  ](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/02/09/into-a-light-both-brilliant-and-unseen/) - By E. Ethelbert Miller Today there are major developments taking place in the field of African American poetry. Unfortunately there has been a tendency to simply produce and promote and not take time to make serious “probes” into what is going on. Several years ago, while teaching at George Mason University, I directed my
- [Women, Art and Islam](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/07/03/women-art-and-islam/) - By Mohamed Keita Perspectives: Women, Art and Islam at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) lives up to its title, aptly providing deep insight into five disparate lives shaped by Islam, the West, and everything in between. With roots in Bangladesh, Algeria, Pakistan, Morocco, and New York City, the artists utilize family photographs,
- [Iran | Inside Out ](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/08/17/iran-inside-out/) - By Sandrine Colard In an era of Cold War hysteria, Sting once sang, “Russians love their children too.” Twenty-five years and some axes of evil later, the artists of the Chelsea Art Museum’s exhibition Iran Inside Out , remind us, if needed, that the Iranians too love, laugh, imagine, create, and rise up just as the
- [speaking out: Suheir Hammad on Feminism](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2008/10/16/speaking-out-suheir-hammad-on-feminism/) - Sarah Palin's emergence on the scene has Americans regressing to that silly and inherently sexist question, "Can women do it all — have both career and family?" So naturally, we're also back to (de)constructing and (re)defining "feminism." Suheir Hammad, Palestinian-American poet, author, and political activist was recently featured with feminist icon Gloria Steinem in New York
- [They Won’t Budge: Africans in Europe](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/08/17/1666/) - By Tanya Watts “They Won’t Budge: Africans in Europe,” Courtesy of the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, New York University They Won’t Budge: Africans in Europe, currently on view at the Harlem-based Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, is a welcomed wake up call to the myopia of a very American view of
- [Nikki Kahn featured in Newseum's "The Eyes of History 2012: White House News Photographers Association"](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/09/23/nikki-kahn-featured-in-newseums-the-eyes-of-history-2012-white-house-news-photographers-association/) - Nikki Kahn, the Guyanese-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who Of Note profiled in its recent Guyana issue, is featured in the new exhibit, "The Eyes of History 2012: White House News Photographers Association," opening Sept. 28-March 29, 2013, at the Newseum in Washington, DC.
- [Spirituality at the Core of Innovation](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/09/26/spirituality-at-the-core-of-innovation/) - I started the week off at the Social Good Summit & the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting here in New York. I am overwhelmed--in good ways and bad. While it's impressive and inspiring to witness the innovative ways folks are tackling the world's most pressing needs, it's equally daunting to see the volume of work
- ["You can't be a Global Citizen, if you don't know your local roots." -Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/09/21/you-cant-be-a-global-citizen-if-you-dont-know-your-local-roots-klaus-schwab-world-economic-forum/) - I attended breakfast this morning with Dr. Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, along with several of my colleagues from the Word Economic Forum Global Shapers. While Dr. Schwab chatted about the blueprint for change, activism, and innovation, he reminded us that as we go forth into the world,
- [A New Queer Agenda - Magazine Launch](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2012/09/18/a-new-queer-agenda-magazine-launch/) - Join contributors to the recently launched issue of The Scholar & Feminist Online, “A New Queer Agenda,” for an evening of politics, discussion, and celebration.
- [Cambodia | FOCUS on Eric de Vries  ](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2011/02/04/focus-eric-de-vries/) - Ratanakkiri Province, Cambodia FOCUS: the story behind the image Dutch photographer Eric de Vries is living in Cambodia, the country he's been travelling in since 2000. He takes of note behind the lens to reveal the story of this image capturing two young children from the hill tribes of the Ratanakiri Province in Cambodia. of
- [Cuba | Terrence Jennings: Invincible](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/05/22/terrence-jennings-invincible-cuba/) - Havanna, Cuba. 2000. of note interviews photographer Terrence Jennings, as part of its FOCUS series. of note: Take us through this image. What's the story behind capturing it? Terrence Jennings: The young boy in this photograph is Bernardo, Jr. He’s standing in front of a house that was being rebuilt. Stacked around its frame were
- [Ghana | Chester Higgins: Girl From Tamale](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/10/chester-higgins-girl-from-tamale/) - Tamale, Ghana. 1973 of note continues its FOCUS series with photographer Chester Higgins, Jr. of note: Can you take us through this image? What was the story behind capturing it? Chester Higgins: It was early one morning in the northern town of Tamale in Ghana. I took a walk to the local bus station. I
- [Lebanon | Rania Matar: The Forgotten  ](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2010/08/12/rania-matar-the-forgotten-people/) - “Girl in the Light,” Rania Matar, 2005 By Grace Aneiza Ali “This is not a political project,” says Beirut-born photographer Rania Matar (www.raniamatar.com) about her work to document the aftermath of Lebanon’s civil war and the conditions in the country’s Palestinian refugee camps. “It does not try to promote any solution to a complicated and sensitive
- [](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/07/02/“the-arts-define-who-we-are-as-a-people-”-–michelle-obama/) - “The arts define who we are as a people.” –Michelle Obama At the recent reopening of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, First Lady Michelle Obama urged us to direct our resources more critically to the arts, especially in these challenging economic times. “The Arts,” she said, “define who we are as
- [](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/09/02/1320/) - "Compassion is my Art." – Grace Aneiza Ali Where is the language of compassion? Amidst the talk about wars, injustice, discrimination, exploitation, or homelessness where does compassion function in our political consciousness? Where is it in our art? Where is it in our daily lives? Each time I give money to someone who is homeless,
- [editor's note](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/12/31/editors-note/) - “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” –Zora Neale Hurston Langston Hughes is always on my mind. His historic Harlem home serendipitously happens to be on my block. Each time I walk past his house, I’m reminded of the link from the past to the future. I’m convinced that of note is no
- [The Laundromat Project](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2009/12/31/the-laundromat-project/) - Art + Laundry. The idea to transform neighborhood laundromats into enriching community spaces is the brainchild of Rise Wilson and the Brooklyn-based arts non-profit The Laundromat Project. The concept is simple: bring art programs to where the neighbors already are: the local laundromat. For its commitment to New York City neighborhoods in Harlem, Jackson Heights,
- [bookmark: The Slaves War](https://ofnotemagazine.org/2008/07/19/bookmark-the-slaves-war/) - In his review of The Slaves War, book forum's Lawrence Hill questions: "Is it a problem that many of the most famous and enduring fictional accounts of African Americans have been penned by whites?...[T]he average elementary or high school student in the United States or Canada who wants—or is told—to learn something about black culture and

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- [Masthead](https://ofnotemagazine.org/masthead/) - Founder | Editorial Director Grace Aneiza Ali | grace.ali@ofnotemagazine.org Editor Celeste Hamilton Dennis | celeste.dennis@ofnotemagazine.org Curatorial Associate Patrick Bova | patrickbova@nyu.edu Special Projects Designer Karran Sahadeo | karran@karran.tv Advisory Council Kathy Engel | Chair, Art & Public Policy, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Sally Ann Hard | Principal, The SAH Consultancy Allen McFarlane | Assistant
- [THE WATER ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-water-issue/) -  Support OF NOTE's work by ordering a Special Print Copy of The Water Issue. editorial director's note Many of us have seen or heard these staggering headlines before: • 663 million people — 1 in 10 — lack access to safe water. • Women and children spend 125 million hours a day collecting water. •
- [THE IMMIGRANT ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue-the-immigrant-issue/) - . editor's note .“. . . All immigrants are artists because they create a life, a future, from nothing but a dream. The immigrant’s life is art in its purest form.” —Patricia Engel, It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris I'm an immigrant. I know the blessing and the agony of leaving one's homeland to carve out
- [THE BURQA ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-burqa-issue/) - Support OF NOTE's work by ordering a Special Print Copy of The Burqa Issue. editor's note: The Art of the Burqa The burqa—an aesthetically stunning style of the veil, usually blue or black, with a mesh over the eyes—has evolved into the controversial and the divisive. No longer is it seen as a garment worn by
- [](https://ofnotemagazine.org/current-issue/) - . editorial director's noteBy Grace Aneiza Ali Women’s Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century on view at Pen and Brush in New York City takes as a point of anti-departure, Oxford Dictionary’s definition of women’s work as: “Work traditionally and historically undertaken by women, especially tasks of a domestic nature such as cooking, needlework, and
- [Celeste Hamilton Dennis](https://ofnotemagazine.org/aboutus/celeste-hamilton-dennis/) - Celeste Hamilton Dennis is the Editor at OF NOTE magazine. Prior to joining the team, she was an editor and storyteller at Idealist.org, a global nonprofit that connects people with opportunities for action. While at Idealist, Celeste covered stories of people and communities around the world creating change — from a radio station that broadcasts out of a
- [Events OF NOTE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/events-of-note/) - Upcoming Events Guest Lecture | The Sea is History: Discourses on the Poetics of Relation May 23, 2019 | 2:00 pm | University of Oslo, Museum of Cultural History — Oslo, Norway The Sea is History: Discourses on the Poetics of Relation explores themes related to postcolonial discourse. Participants have been invited to reflect on
- [Women's Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century](https://ofnotemagazine.org/womens-work-art-activism-in-the-21st-century/) - The Women's Work Issue will be forthcoming in Spring/Summer 2019. This issue coincides with the Women's Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century exhibition at Pen and Brush in New York City featuring the works of Sama Alshaibi, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Suchitra Mattai, Miora Rajaonary, and Ming Smith. On view April 10 - August
- [Patrick Bova](https://ofnotemagazine.org/aboutus/patrick-bova/) - Patrick Bova is the Curatorial Associate for OF NOTE Magazine. He is a recent graduate from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he developed a concentration centering on contemporary art, visual culture, museum studies, and anthropology. His studies considered the production of value, knowledge, and social change in contemporary art and museum practices, and
- [Past Issues](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issues-of-note/past-issues/) - 2017 The Gun Issue The Unsheltered Issue 2016 The Water Issue The Burqa Issue 2015 The Imprisoned Issue . The Immigrant Issue 2014 The Girls Issue The Guyana Issue
- [The Gun Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-gun-issue/) - Support OF NOTE's work by ordering a Special Print Copy of The Gun Issue. editorial director's note By Grace Aneiza Ali Gun Violence is a Women's Issue. Yet, to read the statistics about gun violence in America is to read about a gun culture dominated by men. For women, however, the stakes are just as
- [Bookshelf](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf/) - On our Bookshelf, you will find the publications referenced in our Issues on Art & Activism; monographs by the featured Artists; and books written by our global community of Contributors. As OF NOTE is an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Your purchase from Amazon via the links on our Bookshelf helps us continue to feature innovative and emerging global artists using
- [Gallery](https://ofnotemagazine.org/events-of-note/gallery/) - No Passport Required: Queens, NY Aired July 31, 2018 Chef Marcus Samuelsson heads to Queens, NY, on the fourth episode of No Passport Required. Inside New York’s largest and most diverse borough, Samuelsson spends time talking with cooks, restaurateurs, and others from the Indo-Guyanese community, learning how they identify with all of the different parts
- [Karran Sahadeo](https://ofnotemagazine.org/aboutus/karran-sahadeo/) - Karran Sahadeo spent 2014-2016 photographing Guyana after returning from living abroad for twenty-four years. Moments of people’s daily lives; how they work and worship in this polarizing landscape make up the artist’s portfolio. While in Guyana, Sahadeo developed the photography curriculum for the E.R. Burrowes School of Art in Georgetown, coordinated The Photography Sessions and
- [https://ofnotemagazine.org/events-of-note/gallery/](https://ofnotemagazine.org/http-ofnotemagazine-org-events-of-note-gallery/)
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- [News & Updates](https://ofnotemagazine.org/press/) - Eater, "Watch: Marcus Samuelsson Takes a Closer Look at Indo-Guyanese Food Culture in Queens" by Sonia Chopra July 31, 2018 | Chef Marcus Samuelsson heads to Queens, NY, on the fourth episode of No Passport Required. Inside New York’s largest and most diverse borough, Samuelsson spends time talking with cooks, restaurateurs, and others from the Indo-Guyanese
- [THE UNSHELTERED ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-unsheltered-issue/) - editorial director's note In Spring 2017, OF NOTE magazine again embarked on a collaboration with a group of thoughtful and socially-engaged undergraduate and graduate students via the department of Art & Public Policy, in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Students in the "Arts, Social Change and the Role of
- [THE IMPRISONED ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-imprisoned-issue/) - editor's note Most of us know the statistics: 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, the highest prison population in the world. In many ways, the larger this number grows, we run the risk of becoming desensitized to it. When we decided to curate an issue on the experiences of the men, women, and young people imprisoned within
- [THE GIRLS ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-girls-issue/) - . editor's note The Girls Issue features a collection of artists using their work to bring awareness to the complex experiences girls face around the world. Although the challenges our girls confront daily often seem insurmountable and heartbreaking, the artists and writers in this issue remind us that if there is one continuous thread that
- [THE GUYANA ISSUE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/the-guyana-issue/) - . editor's note The Guyana Issue confronts the global invisibility of Guyanese artists. According to the nation’s latest census, Guyana has a population of over 750,000 and an estimated 2,000,000 citizens living outside its borders. This reveals that almost three times as many Guyanese live overseas than within the nation itself. And yet what the global
- [Mission](https://ofnotemagazine.org/aboutus/) - The Magazine OF NOTE is an award-winning online magazine that features global artists using the arts as tools for social change. The magazine is a digital space where art meets activism. Mission 1) OF NOTE brings awareness to the innovative ways people use the arts to impact policy, promote global citizenship, inspire social consciousness,
- [Support](https://ofnotemagazine.org/support/) - OF NOTE Magazine is free to readers, free of advertising, and free of subscriptions—all made possible by generous supporters like you. Your tax-deductible gift will help us continue to feature innovative and emerging global artists using the arts as tools for social change. OF NOTE Magazine is a fiscally sponsored organization of the New York
- [Grace Aneiza Ali](https://ofnotemagazine.org/aboutus/grace-aneiza-ali/) - Grace Aneiza Ali is the founder and editorial director of OF NOTE, the online magazine focused on global artists using the arts as catalysts for activism and social change. She has served as Editor and Digital Curator for several of the magazine’s art and social justice issues, including: The Gun Issue, The Water Issue, The Imprisoned, and The Immigrant.
- [Artists OF NOTE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/artists-of-note/) - The evolving collection of global artists selected to be profiled in OF NOTE magazine are invested in using the arts as catalysts for social change to impact their communities. Their work thrives at the intersection of art and activism.
- [Issues OF NOTE](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issues-of-note/) - The Water Issue How much is water worth to us? And, to what lengths will we go to get it? These became guiding questions for our special contributors for The Water Issue. This Spring, OF NOTE magazine embarked on a collaboration with a group of thoughtful and socially-engaged undergraduate and graduate students via Art &
- [bios - private](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bios-private/) - Masthead Founder and Editorial Director: Grace Aneiza Ali | grace.ali@ofnotemagazine.org Grace Ali’s mission as a social entrepreneur is to improve access to the arts for low-income families and under-served communities. Her background is one of global citizenship and activism. She was born and raised in Guyana; worked in civil rights advocacy in Washington, DC; traveled throughout the

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- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-49/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-41/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-45/)
- [](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/12308/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-44/)
- [](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/12304/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-43/)
- [](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/12062/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-6/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-4/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-5/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-46/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-2/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-3/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-29/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-38/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-36/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-34/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-32/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-40/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-28/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-27/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-17/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-16/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-37/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft-42/)
- [Auto Draft](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1/auto-draft/)

## Issue

- [The Gun Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/iotquestion/the-gun-issue/)
- [The Burqa Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/iotquestion/the-burqa-issue/)
- [The Water Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/iotquestion/the-water-issue/)

## Categories

- [Posts](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/posts/)
- [art](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/art/)
- [Literature](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/books/)
- [dance](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/dance/)
- [Design](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/design/)
- [Fashion](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/fashion/)
- [film](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/film/)
- [literary arts](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/literary-arts/)
- [music](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/music/)
- [notable](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/notable/)
- [of note artist of the year](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/of-note-artist-of-the-year/)
- [photography](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/photography/)
- [speaking Out](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/speaking-out/)
- [theater](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/theater/)
- [editor's note](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/editors-note/)
- [FOCUS](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/photography/focus/)
- [emerging](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/emerging/)
- [Blog](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/blog/)
- [graffiti](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/graffiti/)
- [scultpure](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/scultpure/)
- [installation](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/installation/)
- [painting](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/painting/)
- [architecture](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/architecture/)
- [illustration](https://ofnotemagazine.org/category/illustration/)

## Tags

- [Afghanistan](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/afghanistan/)
- [Africa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/africa/)
- [India](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/india/)
- [Lebanon](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/lebanon/)
- [Nigeria](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/nigeria/)
- [Rwanda](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/rwanda/)
- [South Asia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/south-asia/)
- [Uganda](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/uganda/)
- [US](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/us/)
- [Saudi Arabia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/saudi-arabia/)
- [Britain](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/britain/)
- [Patagonia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/patagonia/)
- [South America](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/south-america/)
- [South Africa](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/south-africa/)
- [Harlem](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/harlem/)
- [Ethiopia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/ethiopia/)
- [Cambodia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/cambodia/)
- [Ghana](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/ghana/)
- [Cuba](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/cuba/)
- [Congo](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/congo/)
- [Iran](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/iran/)
- [Bangladesh](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/bangladesh/)
- [Pakistan](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/pakistan/)
- [Morocco](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/morocco/)
- [Dominican Republic](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/dominican-republic/)
- [Zimbabwe](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/zimbabwe/)
- [Guyana](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/guyana/)
- [French Guiana](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/french-guiana/)
- [Haiti](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/haiti/)
- [Japan](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/japan/)
- [Mexico](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/mexico/)
- [Latin America](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/latin-america/)
- [Colombia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/colombia/)
- [New York City](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/new-york-city/)
- [Brooklyn](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/brooklyn/)
- [Malaysia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/malaysia/)
- [Seychelles](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/seychelles/)
- [Polynesia](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/polynesia/)
- [New Guinea](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/new-guinea/)
- [England](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/england/)
- [Canada](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/canada/)
- [USA](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/usa/)
- [Guatemala](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/guatemala/)
- [Trinidad](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/trinidad/)
- [Sierra Leone](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/sierra-leone/)
- [Jamaica](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/jamaica/)
- [Czech Republic](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/czech-republic/)
- [Global](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/global/)
- [Lori Waselchuk](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/lori-waselchuk/)
- [Prison Photography](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/prison-photography/)
- [United Kingdom](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/united-kingdom/)
- [U.S.](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/u-s/)
- [The Water Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/the-water-issue/)
- [Issue: The Water Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/issue-the-water-issue/)
- [The Gun Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/the-gun-issue/)
- [The Unsheltered Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/the-unsheltered-issue/)
- [Women's Work](https://ofnotemagazine.org/tag/womens-work/)

## Category

- [The Gun Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-gun-issue/)
- [The Burqa Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-burqa-issue/)
- [The Water Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-water-issue/)
- [The Imprisoned Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-imprisoned-issue/)
- [The Imprisoned Issue #2](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/imprisoned-issue-2/)
- [The Immigrant Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/immigrant-issue/)
- [The Immigrant Issue #2](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-immigrant-issue-2/)
- [The Immigrant Issue #3](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-immigrant-issue-3/)
- [The Gun Issue #2](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-gun-issue-2/)
- [The Gun Issue #3](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-gun-issue-3/)
- [The Gun Issue #4](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-gun-issue-4/)
- [The Gun Issue #5](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-gun-issue-5/)
- [The Burqa Issue #1](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-burqa-issue-1/)
- [The Imprisoned Issue #3](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-imprisoned-issue-3/)
- [The Unsheltered Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-unsheltered-issue/)
- [The Unsheltered Issue #2](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-unsheltered-issue-2/)
- [The Girls Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-girls-issue/)
- [The Guyana Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/bookshelf_v1_tax/the-guyana-issue/)

## Issue

- [the girls](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-girls/)
- [the guyana issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-guyana-issue/)
- [The Immigrant Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-immigrant-issue/)
- [The Imprisoned Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-imprisoned-issue/)
- [The Burqa Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-burqa-issue/)
- [The Water Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-water-issue/)
- [The Girls Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-girls-issue/)
- [The Gun Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-gun-issue/)
- [The Unsheltered Issue](https://ofnotemagazine.org/issue/the-unsheltered-issue/)