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Gambian, Muslim, American: A Bronx Woman
No full textKujegi Camara is Gambian, Muslim, and American. She was raised in the Bronx, in neighborhoods, madrasas (Arabic, school for Islamic education) and masjids (Arabic, mosque) rooted deeply in Senegambian (a region encompassing Senegal, Gambia, and neighboring countries) culture and community. Kujegi was raised by a stay-at-home mother and a father who worked in construction. The oldest of nine children, she spent her childhood taking care of her siblings and doing housework, but her parents always emphasized and prioritized her education. Her adolescence and early adulthood were marred, but not tainted, by experiences of Islamophobia in school. After 9/11, fear and uncertainty led her to question the actions of members of her faith in ways that she continues to do now in her community, aiming to uplift Gambian Muslim women and carve out a space for them in education. In interrogating her identity, Kujegi must reconcile being a Black West African Muslim woman and what all of these labels mean to her and the world at large
Donna Joseph
No full textJoseph is a woman who puts her people first and will do anything to help them succeed in whatever they need. It can be providing financial aid to struggling students, supporting local communities, or educating people about voter registration and the importance of being active in politics. She will always be there to support because she knows it’s a struggle for people of color, as she’s been discriminated against. She is a woman who wants to serve as an avenue for others to succeed in any field it may be. LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: https://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/baahp/id/109/rec/2
Edward Lowe - Part 2
No full textMembers of Lowe’s family continue to stand up for their values and help others. This willingness to fight for what is right dates back to a very important member of Lowe’s family, Edmund Kelly. Lowe shared a photo of Kelly’s letter to Abraham Lincoln on August 21st, 1863. The letter is titled “The Colored Man’s Interest in the Present War.” He wrote the letter supporting the recruitment of troops for the U.S. Colored Troop at the time. Kelly was also known for being a minister. He bought himself and Betty out of slavery. To Lowe, the Civil War is alive in both sides of his family history. This has led him to have a deep appreciation for his family and leaves him with the ability to speak about them honorably – highlighting their experience within the context of crucial U.S. history.
Lowe’s mother, Mary J Lowe, purchased a home in City Island in 1969 so that her commute to work was easier. They were one of the first Black families to settle down in the area. They had a tough time at first because they were paying the mortgage on the house as well as the tuition of Lowe and his sister Leslie. Lowe ended up getting a scholarship for medical school because of this. After he finished medical school, Lowe practiced at a community health center in the North Bronx. The majority of his patients have been in the Bronx, with a few in the Manhattan and Yonkers area. He also did many home visits during his career.
Edward Lowe’s family history is dynamic, deep rooted, and shows a realistic snapshot of what it was like to be directly integrated within U.S. history. It is this deep history that has given him the wisdom and courage to apply within his career in the medical field.
LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: https://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/baahp/id/101/rec/2
Beyond Borders: The Lubomirski Dürers and the Global Debate on the Ethics of Art Restitution
No full textDespite the validity of national heritage claims and the legal principles governing ownership, the most ethical resolution to the restitution of the Lubomirski Dürers lies in a global collectivist approach. By prioritizing accessibility to the largest possible audience while acknowledging historical injustices, universal museums can serve as platforms for education and cultural exchange. This approach not only mitigates the exclusivity inherent in nationalist or legalistic solution, but also advances a shared human heritage that fosters global understanding and reconciliation
The Last Divided Capital: How UNFICYP Has Inadvertently Perpetuated a Frozen Conflict and the 50-Year Quest for Peace in Cyprus
No full textThe island of Cyprus has been divided for over 50 years between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, reflecting a decades-long struggle to reunite the two communities. Since 1964, the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has remained stationed on the island in the heart of its capital, Nicosia, physically dividing the two communities. As one of the longest UN peacekeeping missions in history, and one of the oldest and most symbolic cases of a “frozen conflict,” understanding the role of UNFICYP provides insights into the limitations and challenges of long-term peacekeeping, especially in situations where resolution remains elusive. In this paper, I examine to what extent the presence of UNFICYP has contributed to the prolongation of the Cyprus problem resulting in a frozen conflict and the failure to achieve a comprehensive, lasting peace agreement over the past 50 years. Drawing on interviews with UN officials and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, I argue that the long-term presence of UNFICYP troops along with the existence of the buffer zone has inadvertently diminished the urgency for negotiation, particularly from Turkey, further entrenching beliefs in a two-state solution. Additionally, Cypriots have become accustomed to living with UN forces and a divided island, normalizing the status quo and further complicating prospects for reunification. However, I argue that creating communal spaces for dialogue between Cypriots on both sides of the buffer zone could foster mutual understanding, potentially influencing broader peace negotiations. Understanding UNFICYP’s role in Cyprus not only sheds light on the challenges of resolving one of the world’s longest-standing frozen conflicts, but also provides valuable lessons for other frozen conflicts and future peacekeeping missions by highlighting the consequences of allowing a conflict to remain unresolved for decades
Waste in the Food Industry: How Farm-to-Table Restaurants Reduce Food Waste and Promote a Circular Economy
No full textThis paper addresses the issue of food waste and how farm-to-table restaurants use minimal waste through their promotion of a circular economy. Using quantitative and qualitative data, Chapter 1 describes the current issue of wasteful human habits, diving into the causes and effects of food waste and how excessive waste affects our ecosystem. Chapter 2 explores the environmental history of farm-to-table restaurants and how we went from living on farms to living in cities, where there is a demand for more local produce. Chapter 3 delves into the environmental economic aspects of farm-to-table restaurants and their monetary versus non-monetary costs and benefits. Chapter 4 lays out the environmental sociological dimensions of the farm-to-table experience taken from a case study at the Peskesi restaurant in Crete, Greece. Drawing on discussions and lessons learned in previous chapters, the concluding Chapter 5 lists environmental policy recommendations for how to deal with food waste in the future, such as consumer education, the prevention and reduction of food waste, and support for food recovery and redistribution
A Winter Triangle [EXCERPT]
No full textWinner of the 2023–24 Poetic Justice Institute Prize, Selected by Srikanth ReddyA poetic exploration that reimagines form and language through celestial patternsInformed by mystery, chaos, order and writing as container, A Winter Triangle explores poetic space and form amid the infinite possibilities of composition and change. Composed of three parts, or “points,” like its namesake asterism, this collection is inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s idea of composing poetry from the “senseless splendor” of the skies, as well as the designs for automata by twelfth-century inventor and engineer Ismail al-Jazari, and mythological depictions of Sirius, the dog/wolf star, as both a keeper of order and the agent of chaos and energy.Inventing a new poetic form, the septentrional, which trembles in its own process of becoming throughout the length of the book, Marcella Durand questions the potential of poetry in the face of artificial intelligence, climate change, and political turbulence in which language is often twisted into the opposite of its own meaning. By counting the seven syllables of the septentrional and opening spaces (caesura) within the poetic line to provide breath and rejuvenation amid exhausting world events, these poems resituate poetry as an alternate space in which to reimagine the given forms of constellations and how we imagine order out of seeming chaos. Thus the question is opened as to whether the poet may ever make sense of the “senseless splendor” of the skies, or simply convey them as they are through poetry, holding the infinite within the finite, for a time.Durand reads the “dustlike” script of the calligraphic galleon, a ship created entirely out of words, as art and struggles to understand the burning dog/wolf star that stands between law and lawlessness. Is there actual connection between stars in the constellations we have invented? Can we find room for composition within the broken loops of infinity? At the point between old and new, bow and arrow, chaos and order, A Winter Triangle asks us to face the overwhelm of change—self-inflicted, invented, planetary, and real
Nosagie Ekhator
No full textGrowing up in New York City and Pennsylvania, in the city and suburbia, Nosagie Ekhator navigated and rotated between two worlds that shaped his frame of reference. Having built community through this experience, whether it be through the shared memories of moving or Nigerian social clubs and conventions, he was able to create an identity of commonality. Although he felt the differences when shifting through both worlds, he was able to find people that understood his experience, as well as understanding his own individuality through food, music, religion, and being one of the only Africans in his public and private schooling in Pennsylvania. However, once he reached public high school, he started attending a predominately African American school, pursuing engineering. Though he appreciated the diversity of his later education, he refused to continue small-town life and wanted to expand his worldly views from his mother and father’s encounters with diversity in the Bronx. His memories from college were a collection of his learning from Kindergarten to high school, an “all-in-one” moment in his life that formed the path to his adulthood.
After obtaining his degree, switching his major to Criminal Justice and getting his Master’s in Information Technology at Penn State, Ekhator was compelled to move back to NYC due to the opportunities it offered and the accessibility of public transport. Living in Harlem with his father, it was easier for him to adjust than it had been when living in Pennsylvania. This necessary change allowed him to grow into the person he is today, compelling him to realize the important impact NYC had on his identity. Being introduced to Greek life through Kappa Alpha Psi (KAP) in high school at his cousin’s wedding prompted this extension of community he had in Pennsylvania when he lived in NYC. Ekhator pledged its Bronx alumni chapter after he graduated, demonstrating how the combination and interests of his youth’s experiences became an extension of what he wished to pursue in his adult life; learning more and more each day and continuing to create communities wherever he resides. Ekhator claims that the Bronx allows him to feel at home once more. Being a part of KAP’s community-based Bronx chapter propels him to consistently give back to his community and become a staple for its achievements. His goal is to continue to grow this community and its outreach throughout the states.
Ekhator continues to be a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, works as a payment analyst at an insurance company, and is on the board of directors for The Bronx Scholarship Committee. He is a prime example of someone who utilizes their life experiences in order to develop communities wherever he is at, and specifically the community that shaped his childhood and family life: the Bronx. Even through the COVID Epidemic, Ekhator has and continues to create change, growth, and achievement by building community in order to sustain the Bronx and and applying his collective mindset of giving back to a society he learned so much from.
Link to Video Recording: https://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/baahp/id/63/rec/1
Tyler Dow
No full textTyler Dow is an actor, rapper, and activist from the Bronx, interviewed here in conversation with Doctor Mark Naison and Stephanie Robinson Ramirez. A 33 year old from Co-op City—the largest housing development in the United States—Tyler gives his perspective on the art and cultural scene of his neighborhood during the turn of the twenty-first century.
Beginning with the background of his familial ties to Co-op City, Dow explains that the first twenty five years of his life were spent in one of the neighborhood’s many high-rise apartments. He describes Co-op City as a proudly middle-class community, one that residents made clear was different from the adjacent project housing units. As a child, Dow attended a private school near Woodlawn and then Talent Unlimited High School for the Performing Arts in Manhattan, a diversion from the expected path of Co-op City youth to the local Truman High School.
Growing up in Co-op City was, for Tyler, a unique experience. In the context of the greater Bronx, friends traveled to his neighborhood to frequent movie theaters, shopping, and more social activities that residents didn’t have to leave the area for. This isolation—though self-sufficient—made commutes a trek. The express bus for extensive commutes was a part of everyday life that members of Co-op City shared, which always involved at least one bus and often a transfer. Geographically isolated from the rest of the Bronx, the residents capitalized on their unique space to create a localized community, which they proudly displayed and defended.
This difference in attending school outside the borough, combined with the isolation from other parts of the Bronx, Dow remarks, shaped his personal interests and the artistic and cultural scene of the early 2000s in Co-op City. He remembers being different from the stereotypical Black kid from the Bronx. Instead of exclusively hip-hop, he enjoyed mosh pits and desired Jimi Hendrix-style hair. This placed Dow directly within the metal movement of the time, started by a guitar teacher from Lehman High School in a church basement. The First Lutheran Church basement became the epicenter of this cultural niche, bringing kids from the Co-op City area together to dance. Often overlooked in the shadow of hip hop and other Bronx art forms, the metal scene of the early 2000s held arguably equal significance, with over three hundred kids attending on any given night that bands were playing.
Tyler Dow’s excitable personality and pride for Co-op City are evident throughout the interview. Recounting his many memories and even adding a freestyle rap to the recorded conversation ([52:37-53:52]), he offers an account of middle-class lifestyle and metal-music culture that is essential for understanding Bronx history.
Link to Video Recording: https://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/baahp/id/64/rec/3
Acculturation and Puerto Rican Muslim Reverts
No full textIntroduction:
The documentary AmeRícan (n.d.) simultaneously covers the perspectives of two oft ignored groups of U.S. society–both Puerto Rican and Latino/e (both the gendered and gender neutral terms for individuals of Latin American heritage) Muslims. Bergenline Avenue, New Jersey has a heavy presence of Latino Muslims, especially those who are “Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dominican, Peruvian” ([00:00:49–00:00:50]). Latino Muslims in nearby neighborhoods have the privilege of having access to religious resources such as the North Hudson Islamic Education Center, “home to a large number of Latinx Muslims” ([01:23–01:25])