Mixedness
What a privilege it must be for people to be able to identify you, to place you correctly in the American mosaic with just...
Born Here, Freed Here
"I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia . . . My life had its beginning in the midst of...
Making Peace with Pepperoni: A Muslim-American Perspective
As Muslim-Americans, we need to play a more active role in defining our faith, or will continue to have others define it for us
The...
Going Back to Denmark: Landscape and Memory
1.
Denmark has a sense of smallness, of boundedness. That was my initial impression as an American returning to a childhood home after forty...
Meeting President Obama: A Farewell to Representation
This article is being published in collaboration with the Kennedy School Review.
One day last fall, at a small campus in the heart of New...
Dismantling Communication—Literally
A friend was telling me about a particularly awkward experience recently—which I will not share here, except to remind you that coffee is indeed...
Love in a Cup
“I’ll have a chai,” I say.
“You mean a chai tea latte?” my barista asks.
There is a long, uncomfortable pause that she doesn’t seem to...
Speak Up, I’m Eavesdropping
I put it off as long as I could. Covered up, as people do; smiled and nodded. Finally I gave in and went to...
The Fatwa on Chess
Saudi Arabia's leading religious authority, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, last week put a fatwa on chess in advance of a tournament scheduled to be...
Aphorisms for a Lonely Planet
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Oliver Sacks: A Hero’s Journey
ZEITGEIST
On a sunny day in an outdoor cafe in mid-August, I found myself thoroughly absorbed in Oliver Sacks's memoir, On the Move: A Life,...