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Art Exhibit and Panel Exploring James Foley’s Legacy and War Journalism

The entrance to the gallery space at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, where Bradley McCallum’s “Inescapable Truths” is currently on display. (Belle Lu)

On Tuesday, February 25, attendees and panelists gathered at the gallery space of New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service to participate in a discussion and observe the art made possible by the life and death of American journalist James Foley. 

The event included an exhibition featuring “Inescapable Truths”, a series of artwork by artist Bradley McCallum. Through the use of Foley’s unpublished source materials, McCallum created the series with the mission of countering the social amnesia that can follow traumatic news and evoking Foley’s legacy through art.

Intended to start a public conversation, the art was accompanied by the panel discussion “Inescapable Truths: The James Foley Legacy & the Challenges of War Zone Reporting in the Middle East.” The discussion addressed journalistic issues such as war journalism and the protection of war-zone journalists, as well as Foley’s life and work in activist journalism.

 

Foley’s Legacy

Often thought of in the light of his tragic symbolism, the event was dedicated to remembering Foley’s legacy as well as Foley in his full and individual complexity.

A portrait of James Foley by the entrance to the gallery. (Belle Lu)

For Amanda Rogers, a panelist and professor at Colgate University, Foley death — the news event with the second highest recognition among Americans — has long-lasting effects.

“[Foley’s execution] has had such a profound impact on international relations, on the way communities see each other,” said Rogers. “I don’t think that we can overstate it.”

However, Rogers also reinforced the importance of contextualizing Foley’s death and focusing not only on the death of Foley, one white American, but also the deaths of many Syrians as a result of the Syrian civil war.

“We fall into traps when our unrecognized bigotry is weaponized against us,” said Rogers, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, who joined the panel via video conference due to concerns for her safety as a result of her research and advocacy.

 

Rogers joins the panel via video conference. (Belle Lu)

An audience member reads the biographies of the panelists. (Gabi Gutierrez)

This larger focus, for McCallum, is what Foley strived for in his career as a journalist.

“One of the things I learned about James is that he had this incredible empathetic way of looking at and engaging and wanting to tell people’s stories,” said McCallum, about the process of going through Foley’s hard drive. “There is a lot of work and attention to the individuals that are impacted by war…there’s a sense of quiet collaboration with Jim to really focus on the lives of others.”

For McCallum, “Inescapable Truths” isn’t about Foley’s death. “It is about acknowledging his life, his work,” said McCallum.

An audience member takes notes during the panel. (Belle Lu)

Other panelists, such as journalist and James W. Foley Legacy Foundation Board of Directors member Jere Van Dyk, acknowledged McCallum’s role in memorializing Foley’s legacy and life as a storyteller.

“What Bradley has done is taken one person,” said Van Dyk. “And through that one person, we can understand so much better.”

Van Dyk posited that there are two types of artists: commercial artists and human rights artists. For Van Dyk, McCallum is a human rights artist.

The audience listens to panel speaker Jere Van Dyk. (Belle Lu)

The Art

Valentina Di Liscia, a journalist for an online arts magazine, is one audience member who was more familiar with Foley’s legacy than with McCallum’s artwork prior to the event. Upon viewing the exhibit, Di Liscia felt intrigued by McCallum’s use of artistic mediums that she was previously unfamiliar with.

“[The way McCallum] hand-painted the canvas and then he silkscreened an image on top — I thought that was interesting,” said Di Liscia, a student of art history. “It’s an interesting way to deal with complex and violent images, to have that multi-dimensionality to them.”

 

Valentina Di Liscia discussing one of McCallum’s works with another audience member. (Belle Lu)

For audience member Fabio Periera Anes, McCallum’s art raises larger questions about the nature of war.

“[The work] reminds us of the toll of war and refracts it through a light and frame,” said Pereira Anes, an international relations student at Columbia University. “And that makes you question whether or not [war] is an endeavor worth doing.”

Fabio Pereira Anes taking notes during the panel discussion. (Belle Lu)

An audience member contemplates McCallum’s works. (Belle Lu)

McCallum believes that the panel is important for audiences to be able to better contextualize the art.

“[It was] a way of trying to begin experimenting with how we can use this body of artwork to engage civic discourse and to connect with students,” McCallum said. For McCallum, the panel also adheres to the key components of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation of education and outreach, especially regarding journalism.

“The primary goal is to reshape the way we think and remember Jim,” said McCallum, “and in turn, how we think about and reflect on the role of news and the impact that journalists have and the profound responsibility that they have.”

Bradley McCallum addresses the panel audience in his opening remarks. (Gabi Gutierrez)

This rang true for audience members like Di Liscia.

“It’s important to have some context before you see works like these, especially if they’re so charged,” said Di Liscia. “It’s definitely important to have a conversation.”

 

Bradley McCallum explains his artistic choices. (Cheyenne Leitch)

Next steps

“It is a work in progress,” McCallum frequently explained his project as such, not only in the title of the exhibition but also to NYU Multimedia as well as the panel audience. “But it has a long shelf life, I hope, in terms of what role it can have.”

“I hope [the work is] not only being seen as an exhibition,” said McCallum, “but [also] being able to participate in shaping conversations.”

In Chapulines We Trust

Miscelanea NY – the now closed shop-and-eat stop in the East Village – was a cozy location to find Mexican products and an elevated street-style kitchen. Talking to the staff members in Spanish as I usually did while I ordered a torta, I noticed a lady, non-staff, stacking cans on one of the shelves. Chapulines. “Hello, I am Virydiana,” she introduced herself, “one of the founders of Merci Mercado. Have you tried my grasshoppers?”

Virydiana Velarde is one of the four founders of Merci Mercado, a business that sells dry and seasoned grasshoppers and worms, as well as these insects’ salt and grasshopper powder. She opened a can and stretched out her hand, “here, try them!” Though I grew up in Mexico and saw family members eat insects numerous times, I had never eaten an insect voluntarily before.

The very first time I tried chapulines was at a friend’s kitchen in New York’s West Village. Writhing half of the time, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I’d seen basketfuls of crickets and worms when I was growing up in Mexico. One of my grandfathers used to love them and he’d order guacamole with gusanos de maguey, or mezcal worms as they’re known in English. You could find an array of ants and other bugs in marketplaces in Oaxaca and Veracruz, as if they were any other “regular” product.

Six days after my not-so-terrible experience with grasshoppers, I then found myself standing in front of Velarde in the East Village. Why am I eating bugs in Manhattan when I never ate them in Mexico? I braced myself for the second time and took the insect off Velarde’s hand. Surprisingly, I enjoyed Velarde’s grasshoppers. They had no fishy aftertaste, were perfectly crisp and the three different seasonings she sells – natural, adobo, or chipotle – had a delightful smokiness to them, just like the one you feel after a sip of mezcal and a bite of an orange slice, but much dryer, sans the boozy kick.

Edible insects are a dietary staple in some areas of Mexico and other countries around the world, but why did it take me so long to find a liking in insects? Why did I have to opt-into eating them in Manhattan and not in my home country where they can be found almost nation-wide? At least two-billion people practice entomophagy – the practice of eating bugs – regularly, reported the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Have the other five-billion become interested all of a sudden?

The following images illustrate Velarde’s work and how chapulines can be incorporated in different culinary spaces.

 

The images were taken throughout December 2018. An article written on Velarde, grasshoppers and entomophagy can be found here.

Juuling: a College Lifestyle or Epidemic?

You encounter it everywhere: sitting in a crowded lecture hall, walking down Waverly Place, and even in the quiet study rooms of Bobst.  A quick puff of smoke followed by the sickeningly sweet smell of mango. The Juul, designed as a nicotine-packed electronic alternative to cigarettes and sleekly packaged to resemble a flash drive, has taken over many college campuses – including NYU’s.

The use of Juuls on campus is prevalent.

“I didn’t used to smoke before coming to NYU,” senior Shraddha Nair stated. Now, she says she smokes at least two pods a week.

“During finals it will be a pod every couple days,” she said.

A 2017 study in Sage Journals found that 16 percent of first-year college students in their sample of 2,110, from 24 U.S. colleges, who previously never used electronic nicotine products, were users by the end of that year.

Student Daniela Villa has noticed this addiction growing among her peers at NYU,

“Instead of it being an alternative to cigarettes, [Juuling has] become, in my opinion, a more drastic addiction than what people have with cigarettes,” Villa said and continued, “People Juul all the time because it’s super easy to carry around.”

The Juul next to a NYU student's workload. Courtesy of Shraddha Nair

NYU’s Student Health Center has resources centered around quitting smoking using nicotine replacement therapy, but the resources available to people who want to stop Juuling are limited. The Health Center’s website references literature that states health officials are concerned about the consequences of using electronic nicotine devices, specifically naming the Juul.

Growing concern surrounds the use of the Juul on NYU’s campus as being directly related to the high stress environment of the university. The average Juul pod contains the same amount of nicotine as twenty cigarettes. Meaning that when exam time comes, Nair is ingesting as much nicotine as if she smoked a pack of cigarettes every couple days.

Villa says that the Juul has become a part of the New York student culture.

“With all their advertising, with flavors, and colors, and young people, they’ve targeted college and even high school students,” she said.

The small rectangle can be found being passed from student to student in meetings as likely as inside any NYC club. The vapor doesn’t hang in the air or stick to clothes like cigarettes, creating an infinitely stealthier fix for college students as they charge into their weekends.

Nair expresses a desire to stop using her Juul. She said, “Working in a professional setting will definitely make me quit.” However, she also has doubts, “But, if I end up going to grad school, it is unlikely that I will.”

New Awareness Campaign Sparked By Sewer Backups, Flooding and “Fatbergs”

An increase in sales and subsequent flushing of so-called “flushable wipes” has created enormous mounds of congealed fat and wipes in the sewer system, sparking a public awareness campaign run by NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection.

These “fatbergs,” named for their fat content and resemblance to icebergs, have clogged sewer systems worldwide, including those in New York City, causing sewer backups and flooding, according to the DEP.

"Trash It, Don't Flush It" campaign poster in an NYC subway car

The campaign, titled “Trash It Don’t Flush it,” launched the week of Feb. 21.

“We hope to raise awareness generally about what is appropriate for flushing down a toilet or pouring down the drain, and what should be thrown in the trash,” said Edward Timbers, Director of Communications at the NYC DEP in an email statement.  “This is especially important when the wipes are being marketed and labeled as ‘flushable.’”

These wipes, marketed as “flushable” by major toilet paper companies like Cottonelle and Charmin, are causing a major problem in NYC’s sewer system and beyond, but continue to be misleadingly labeled.

According to Charmin’s website charmin.com “They’re flushable and safe for your sewer or septic system. But the DEP disagrees.

“When a product is labeled ‘flushable,’ it generally means that it will clear your toilet bowl,” according to the agency’s website fatbergfree.nyc. “It does not mean it will definitely clear your pipes or break down in the sewer system or at a wastewater treatment plant.”

Despite evidence in the form of fatbergs sometimes spanning 210 feet and weighing 130 tons, as was the case in London, this is not clear to many flushable wipe customers.

For those who think the problem is not theirs to worry about, the DEP’s website for the campaign assures them it is.

According to the campaign website, “Liquefied fat, oil, or grease that is poured down the sink can cling to the insides of pipes and sewers. Over time it can build up and block pipes completely.”

As also stated on the campaign website, “When wastewater can’t move freely through the sewer system due to these blockages, it can cause flooding in local neighborhoods and sewer backups in your home!” 

According to the Director of Communications, the NYC DEP has been in contact with wipes companies, but to no avail.

“Wipes have been a growing source of revenue for the companies,” Timbers said and continued, “And they have challenged other municipalities in court when they attempted to regulate the product and how it is marketed.”

The “Trash It. Don’t Flush It.” campaign informs in a simple and easy-to-remember manner what we can and can’t flush.

What is okay to flush, according to the DEP, can be confined to the “Four P’s.”

“Poop, pee, puke, and toilet paper are the ONLY things to flush down the toilet,” according to the campaign website.

NYU said they were unable to comment on the campaign.

A Day in the Life of a Blind Brooklyn Athlete and Rapper

A Day in the Life of Jahron Black

Brooklyn local Jahron Black relaxes in his backyard before heading to the New York Association for Blind Athlete’s goalball practice, a sports game specially crafted for the visually impaired. As the president of this organization and a visually impaired man himself, Black prides himself in the awareness he raises for people like him. “This was a sport that was founded over 20 years ago after World War II, to help the veterans cope with losing their vision,” said Black.

When he was born, Black was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, a medical condition in which some optic nerve axons in the eyes do not develop fully. As a child, he fell in love with sports and after getting involved in NYABA, he has worked towards inspiring all kids with visual impairments to be active. “A lot of times parents are afraid for their child, and what happens is that the child ends up being sheltered. They become socially awkward and they do not excel in public,” said Black. “Just because you are visually impaired, does not mean you have other cognitive disabilities.”

Black carefully sets up the 9 x 18 meter court with wire, to assist the visually impaired players with touching the court boundaries. He reaches for the 4-pound ball in the back of the gymnasium, which is filled with bells in its center to assist players with hearing when the ball is volleyed back and forth. “I always call it a mix of bowling and soccer,” said Black.

In the game, the court is broken down into three sections: the left wing, the right wing, and the center wing. Although all players are visually impaired, some have different levels of blindness. To make the game completely fair, all players are blindfolded.

Along with being a player in the goalball league, Jahron works to teach people with vision about the game. Pictured here is Jahron teaching two New York Cares volunteers with sight how to play.

Apart from being involved in the NYABA, Jahron works on telling his story through rapping, which he works on from his bedroom in Brooklyn. “It is therapeutic for me. I think music is a gateway into the soul, and I pride myself for the life I live to be a connection point to all walks of life. It can change many lives,” said Black.

Dynamic Profiles of Shanghai’s Longtang

Longtang is a public alleyway or a series of interconnected lanes found in traditional neighborhoods in Shanghai. Just like any other urban metropolis, Shanghai tells a tale of two cities. Even in some of its most expensive housing districts such as Nanjing East Road and Laoximen, there remain Longtang dwellers living in poor conditions and cramped spaces, which are in sharp contrast to gleaming high-rise luxury apartments just streets away.

These Longtangs are lacking in basic facilities such as indoor plumbing, heating and insulation. Often there are no toilets, so residents have to empty their own waste bowls. Urbanization has led to the demolishing of many such Longtangs because real estate developers buy places which have commercial value to be redeveloped. Many former residents are happy to receive cash handouts to leave their dilapidated dwellings and move into modern buildings. Those who remain because their Longtangs were not chosen to be redeveloped are unhappy with the current state of affairs.

Though, not all are complaining. Some people are content with just how things are. Others are calling for more cultural preservation instead of blind demolishing of these historical sites. Most of these Longtangs are nearly a century old, dating back to the 1920s and ’30s. These photographs provide a glimpse into the multi-faceted characters who make up Shanghai’s Longtangs.

Shopkeeper Mdm Zhang, 78, has been living in Shanghai for the past 50 years. “I told my grandson that in the past during natural disasters, we had to starve. He told me, impossible! He doesn’t believe me.” The bathroom area at the back of her store is hidden from sight with a modest piece of cloth.

Zhang says she runs the store because she is retired and has nothing else to do. Despite being a senior, she climbs a ladder to reach her bedroom which is located right above her store.

“You will be horrified by how bad the conditions are here,” Mr. Chen said and continued, “There is no toilet, we have to empty out the waste bowls… I wish to move out, but I have to listen to fate.”

Mrs. Xue has been a resident in this Longtang for 25 years. While the transportation is convenient, she complains that the space is getting too crowded. “This place is too small now that my daughter, 24, is older. I hope it gets torn down.”

Mr. Chen is a bachelor enjoying his retirement life. “I have no kids because I have no space to make babies!” His wicked sense of humor disguises his despair at his circumstance. “Who doesn’t want to live in a better house? Of course I want to move into a high-rise,” he said, echoing the thoughts of many residents who wish for their current houses to be demolished.

 

A Longtang which is cordoned off and being demolished right opposite Mr. Chen’s residence. The original residents have moved out of this estate.

This is a newly-renovated Longtang with newer and improved facilities. It has wide, spacious streets and even public toilets. Tourists armed with cameras stroll around here frequently.

“I like living here, I like the freedom,” said an antiques collector and trader who has spent 30 years in Shanghai.

“I only collect the finest of the finest.”

Born and raised in this Longtang, the young man is a university student studying film editing. “I like living here, there is nothing bad about living here. When I graduate, I will take over my father’s stores here.”

 

“I like all my classes at school. My hobby is running. I like everything about this place, in particular my family,” said a girl on the scooter.

    

Reference sources:

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2144013/development-destroys-old-shanghai-residents-win-payouts-lose-neighbourhood

The Reality of the Emotional Support Animal System

Noah DeFranceschi has hay and chewed-up cardboard under his dorm bed. When he buys items, he leaves the boxes on the floor if they do not have too much tape or ink on them. This habitat below his bed is for his emotional support animal (ESA), Chai, a brown and white bunny who loves to chew.

DeFranceschi adopted Chai in July 2018 to help with his mental health: he has been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

“If I feel like really like out of it and I don’t feel like getting out of bed, I have to push myself,” DeFranceschi said and continued, “Then I’ll get up and feed him, and then I’ll end up eating too. So it makes me feel responsible for someone else, and then I end up being more responsible for myself.”

Chai helps DeFranceschi’s depression by also making him feel less lonely and sad. When he is feeling anxious or having flashbacks that are associated with his PTSD, he pets the rabbit slowly as a way of calming himself and grounding himself in the moment.

Photo Courtesy of Noah Defranceschi. Chai, Noah Defranceschi’s emotional support animal, lays in his bed in Defranceschi’s dorm room.

Photo Courtesy of Noah Defranceschi. Chai, Noah Defranceschi’s emotional support animal, lays in his bed in Defranceschi’s dorm room.

According to Rebecca Stone, a licensed mental health counselor in Florida who trains other professionals on how to use ESAs as treatment, the number of people with ESAs has increased significantly recently.

Along with this increase, comes attention — and abuse. On June 4, 2017, the large dog sitting next to Marlin Jackson on a Delta flight lunged at his face, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jackson required 28 stitches and has visible scars. The dog’s owner said the Labrador mix was an emotional support dog, according to the Washington Post.

The exact number of ESAs is unknown; no entity keeps track of these animals, which has caused confusion. According to a Jan. 19 statement, Delta made its requirements for ESAs stricter because it is a “disservice to customers who have real and documented needs” to allow people to take advantage of loose regulations.

These new regulations were a long time coming. The airlines recently announced that it flew 150 percent more ESAs in 2017 than in 2015. Since 2016, Delta has had an “84 percent increase in reported animal incidents,” including urination, defecation, and biting.

This increase in incidents related to ESAs is not limited to Delta. In January 2018, a woman tried to board a United Airlines flight with a peacock she claimed was an ESA, but the airline refused because of the bird’s size, prompting the creation of a stricter policy to avoid case-by-case decisions in the future, according to the New York Times.

The lack of regulation regarding ESAs is in stark contrast to service animals. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, a service animal is a dog who is trained to perform tasks that benefit someone with a disability, including pulling a wheelchair or pressing an elevator button. The key differences between these systems are the intense and strict training that service animals receive and the tighter regulations and requirements that leave less area for interpretation.

Stone explained that this abuse of the ESA system is in part because the system still exists in a “gray area.” She said that determining whether someone qualifies for an ESA is subjective and is decided on an individual basis according to their mental health professional’s judgment.

Although no strict set of criteria exists, Stone said that mental health professionals follow three steps in order to recommend an ESA: identify that the person has a diagnosis, confirm that “symptoms or effects of the diagnosis significantly impact the person’s daily life, and agree that the animal will alleviate at least one of these symptoms.

This “gray area” is what people take advantage of to abuse the system. Oftentimes, people try to have their pet fly for free or allow the animal to live in no-pet or pet-restricted housing, according to Stone, because these are rights afforded to ESAs by the law.

“A cottage industry sprung up in service of low-level fraud,” wrote New York Times Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt. “For $30 on Amazon, you can buy a bright-red dog vest that reads, EMOTIONAL SUPPORT. With a quick web search, you can find a therapist to diagnose you long-distance.”

Megan Jeter, 19, lives with her ESA Pheobe, a grey cat that Jeter adopted recently to help with her anxiety and depression. She supports stricter requirements and advocates for one central regulation system so that she and others with ESAs do not have to feel “invalidated” or have to explain themselves.

DeFranceschi,19, feels that many people assume that everyone with an ESA is exploiting the system for their own benefit because this is all that they have experienced, which “makes it so much harder to have them take you seriously.”

Phone Banking with the ACLU

Phone banking during election season is a battleground of frustration and enlightenment. But doing so the last stretch of the weekend before the 2018 midterm elections can be a matter of life or death. It’s not easy to get up on a Saturday morning to phone bank for the American Civil Liberties Union at The Standard Hotel’s Narcbar.

The little luxury coffee-shop style bar was filled with people of all ages. Some of which who were first timers and some who have been veterans. College aged students anxiously re-read their scripts again and again in their booths to make sure that they weren’t going to stumble their words. Old men with new laptops recounted their first phone bank about 30 years ago. Middle aged women were blistering with confidence and embracing other volunteers who they have worked with in the past, asking how they have been, and what other canvassing jobs they were doing this past election season. While the bustle is going on, several volunteers ask for a cocktail from the bar or a cup of coffee to relax before asking strangers about their state legislation.

“So, are you sure you are registered to vote?” asked one woman volunteer to the bartender.

“Yeah, but somehow I’m registered for both Massachusetts and New York,” she said while the woman was frantically searching for her voter registration status online. It turns out she was in fact only registered for New York.

These civically engaged citizens are the forefront in the effort of making Virginia voters aware of Amendment 1 on their state ballot, which may restrict a woman’s right to abortion and gives leeway for politicians to pass more laws that are restrictive and puts a woman’s life in danger.

“We just want to give voters the last final push to say no on this amendment,” said ACLU organizer and Standard Hotel employee Caitlin McConnell. Pushing against the terrors of the current administration and even at state levels, the ACLU fights these unjust causes with the help of the average citizen sacrificing a couple hours of their time.

As an hour goes past, volunteers across the whole bar are glued to their laptops reading the provided script and calling Virginia voters through the phoning service Hubdialer. Volunteers flew by some of the calls with the average call being around 30 seconds and being constantly rejected.

Many of the Virginia constituents become frustrated at the first phrase of a phone banker. After a very unsuccessful call, one volunteer expressed at the corner of the bar, “I just got off the phone with a man who said, ‘I don’t want to talk about politics with a stranger. Bye.’”

Despite these negative interactions, there are some eager voters who want to challenge the Amendment. A woman volunteer matched with a voter named Christopher who was too enthusiastic about voting no. He rambled for 5 minutes about how the administration is failing and commended the volunteer for taking the time to call him. Before reading the script and saying her last remarks, she thanked him, “I’m going to think about you when I go to the polls, Christopher.”

No Sleep ‘Till Midterms

ASTORIA DISPATCH

Astoria, Queens — On the bustling street corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street, one young woman stands out among the crowd. 26-year-old, Hind Sophia, is spotted wearing a bright blue “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” t-shirt. Running on just a few hours of sleep, she still manages to flash a bright smile and hold a rambunctious puppy in her arms.

The pre-med, New York University alum, has taken to the streets to head the Ocasio campaign. “She’s only 28!” Hind tells of Ocasio’s success. “She’s barely older than me. And she’s going to be elected to serve in Congress.”

When Hind is not working on the Ocasio campaign, she works in a cancer research lab. “My parents wanted me to be a doctor,” she said. “Doctors help individuals. I went into research because I wanted to help a larger group of people.”

Hind got her start in the political world during Obama’s presidential campaign when she bravely canvassed door-to-door in her home state of Pennsylvania. Hind says her goal “is to work in Public Policy because that helps the largest group of people of all.”

On the gloomy Friday morning leading up to the election, Hind came prepared. Her canvas bag was overflowing with Ocasio posters, fliers, and pins in both English and Spanish.

Hundreds of people pass by, many keeping their heads down and headphones in, some refusing to even acknowledge her presence. But Hind stood on that corner, unwavering, with a smile on her face and a flyer in her hand. “It’s exhausting,” she said. “But the one person who does stop, makes this worth it.”

A mother pushing her son in a stroller stopped to tell Hind about her family traditions. “We love voting days,” she said. “Our whole family goes to vote, and then we celebrate with burgers.”

Some passerbyers, on the other hand, are not so friendly with their approach. “Communist!” A white, middle-aged man yelled to Hind from across the street. Still, the smile on her face remains. She took a deep breath, and prepared for battle. The two of them talked for quite some time before shaking hands and going their separate ways. “We need people to vote. That’s first and foremost. Who they choose to vote for comes second and I’m glad he’s voting.”  She let out a heavy sigh, exhausted from hours of rejection, and then announced, “I need to refuel. Let’s grab some coffee.”

A now fully-caffeinated Hind once again took to the streets to canvass for Ocasio, this time visiting shops and restaurants along 31st Street, asking owners and managers to put up Ocasio posters in windows. Once again, Hind was met with more “no’s” then “yes’,” but nevertheless, the smile did not leave her face. She trudged on, stopping at nothing to find the one store that would agree to put her poster in the window. “Look it’s my poster!” she exclaimed as she passed by an Ocasio poster hanging outside of a Liquor store.

“I am Muslim. I am a woman. And I represent America.” Hind says. “This is why I’m out here. I am the future.”