Sultanate and Imamate in Oman
“Allahu akbar wa lillahi al hamd!” cried the imam, sweeping his hands up to signal our response. “Allahu akbar wa lillahi al hamd!” we bellowed. The men around me were pointing their camera phones at the imam to capture what was happening, and many were hugging one another in frenzied celebration. I was in the
The Brewing Storm: Coffee Steeped in Climate Change
I walk into the cabin and have to suppress a gasp. My friend Jon sits on the bed, his entire body covered in lumpy, bright red hives. “My lips feel weird. They’re all swollen.” “I gave him the allergy pill already,” Shannon, his partner, is unnecessarily tidying, something I have noticed she does when she
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
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
2016 Excellence-in-Features Award — Jonathan Guyer
The Society for Features Journalism has recognized ICWA Fellow Jonathan Guyer as the third-place winner for General Feature in its 2016 Excellence-in-Features Awards contest. Guyer’s winning article, The Offending Art: Political Cartooning after the Charlie Hebdo Attacks, was published by Harvard’s Neiman Reports. In the piece, he explores the complexities of political cartooning after the Charlie Hebdo attacks
Report from Qatar: What is Art without Free Speech?
Modern Painters / BlouinArtInfo.com June/July 2016 – In a report for the global art magazine Modern Painters, Fellow Jonathan Guyer writes about why art’s biggest stars are flocking to the collecting mecca of Qatar. Guyer attended the New York Times‘ Art for Tomorrow conference in the conservative, constitutional monarchy’s capital. He interviewed Jeff Koons and Marina
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
Update from Puerto Chiapas
We just crossed the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec: the southernmost gulf in Pacific Mexico, where winds funnel out of the Caribbean, howling down across land to gobble up sailboats in the Pacific with 20-30′ waves. We grabbed our weather window and raced Prism on a double overnight to Puerto Chiapas. A great adventure and test