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Growing old in โ€œpost-recessionโ€ America

Zhandarka Kurti

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Like so many other children of aging parents, I will at some point assume the responsibility of looking after my mom. Her Social Security benefits are insufficient for her to live on and she relies on ...

Loss Prevention

Zhandarka Kurti

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Grey and cloudy days like today make the Bronx look uglier. The streets are strewn with garbage, the sidewalks smeared with dog shit, and some old lady is likely to poke you with her umbrella. Nonetheless ...

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Purging with Marie Kondo: The Lack of Joy in Middle-Class American Households

Zhandarka Kurti

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I am captivated by Americaโ€™s fascination with Marie Kondo. Namedย Timeโ€™s most influential person, Kondo is a 34-year old Japanese millennial (or xennial is it?) and professional home organizer whose books have sold millions of copies. Over ...

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Escaping into Music and Fashion Part II: Alexander McQueen

Zhandarka Kurti

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From High School Drop Out to World-Renowned Fashionista As a closeted goth (which wasnโ€™t exactly cool in Bronx public schools in the late 90s) who scribbled dark and depressing poetry on the margins of her notebooks, ...

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Escaping into music and fashion: Whitney Houston and Alexander McQueen

Zhandarka Kurti

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Part I Like most Americans I am obsessed with celebrities. I am often that annoying person holding up the line at the local Rite Aid with her one item (usually Twix caramel chocolate bar), thumbing idly ...

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Unnamed Harlem resident finds old letter

Zhandarka Kurti

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In the dusty book shelves of an unnamed Harlem residentโ€™s basement we uncovered this letter written in 1912 from the man later known as Ho Chi Minh to his father back home. Dearest father, I wanted ...

#NYCStripperStrike: Race, Class and Women’s Work

Zhandarka Kurti

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โ€œHoney, I guess you can sum up this business in one sentence,โ€ stripper Bobbie Bruce told reporter Jack Griffin at Minskyโ€™s Rialto Theater, a hub of early-1950s Chicago burlesque. โ€œYou grab as much sex as the ...

Viva Mexico! Dispatches from the World Cup

Zhandarka Kurti

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Little Italy in the Bronx is slowly waking up from the previous nightโ€™s revelry. A man wearing a โ€œKiss me, Iโ€™m Italianโ€ t-shirt sets up his makeshift sidewalk kitchen, soon to be selling zeppoles, sausage, and ...

A Galopar

Zhandarka Kurti

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A musical performance from Cadiz, Spain. English translation: Go riding The land, the land, the land of Spain The large, single, deserted plains Gallop, alabaster hoofed steed Rider of the people To the sun and moon ...

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Coming to America

Zhandarka Kurti

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I was 12 years old when I first watched the movie Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy, about a pampered African prince who travels to Queens, New York to look for a wife that he can ...