The SPOTLIGHT Issue

FALL ‘19

WASH. U.’S PREMIER JUSTICE & DESIGN MAG

SPOTLIGHT ISSUE #019

1ST QUARTER

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Letter from the Editor President Lauryn McSpadden

Editor-in-Chief Swetha Nakshatri

Art & Design Editor Kimberly Clark

Senior Editor Emily Alpert

Issue 19 December 2019 Washington University in St. Louis Photo on cover taken by Kimberly Clark

Dear Reader, We are so excited that you’ve decided to pick up this copy of ISSUES. Our goal is to take deep dives into broad topics, using writing, art, and photography to embrace the varied dimensions associated with a given word or theme. Each issue is made with the intention of exploring our diversity of thought, yet reminding us that we are all bound by our introspection, creativity, and love for something.

The theme of this issue experienced an evolution.

It started as the FORGOTTEN issue, with the idea of allowing our contributors and readers to introspect on what may have gotten shadowed over time, buried under competing priorities, or simply lost in the sensory overload that defines our lives. However, upon contemplation, the word forgotten seemed passive. It seemed like an unchanging fate, a defeat, permanent rather than transient. So the FORGOTTEN issue became the SPOTLIGHT issue. Spotlight can function both as a noun and a verb. A spotlight is often a singular light in the dark, highlighting a single person or object at the exclusion of others in the same vicinity. To spotlight is to perform the act of giving someone or something a chance to shine. It is active, it is personal, and it certainly is not permanent. We often say in cliché: “fame is fleeting.”

There is no universal relationship with the spotlight.

Some embrace it, actively seeking it out. Others avoid it, content to remain in the shadows. Some seem to be

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forever hidden. Others are constantly under the glare. Sometimes this is in the form of praise and appreciation. Other times it is in scrutiny and a search for flaws.

These dichotomies often manifest themselves in the media, our access and desire for information, and our culture of sensory overload. In a constant stream of content, things are bound to pass us by without ever working themselves into our consciousness. To be the most informed comes in categories, as it has become impossible to be the most informed on everything. I get my news in a condensed form, via email newsletters and social media, clicking on the articles that interest me the most. I am aware that this brings a huge amount of bias into the information that I consume. I have realized that my news education tends to become concentrated on certain areas, which change according to my interests. There have been situations when I have felt ashamed that I missed something big, unable to contribute to a conversation that feels like it should be natural. But who has the time and energy to consume everything?

While our inability to consume everything is understanding, this can come with the cost of entire societies or generations missing the narratives and lived experiences of certain people. It can come with sidelining our own identities or feelings, letting others dictate how we feel about ourselves and how we present ourselves. And it can lead to pushing important issues aside. But we can create our own stream of information. In this issue, we gave our contributors the opportunity to create pieces of art, write articles, and take photographs spotlighting what is important to them and what they think we have forgotten. We encourage you to think deeply about where your attention focuses and challenge you to broaden your field of view.

If the world were a stage and you were the manager, where would you shine your spotlight?

- Swetha Nakshatri

Table of Contents 4

6 Asia Johnson-Brimmage by Alaina Baumohl 10 Forgetting to Remember by Allie Lindstrom 14 Kashmir: Conflict and Poetry by Swetha Nakshatri 21 Oceans by Leslie Liu 22 Potatoes by Emily Alpert 24 Sidekick Spotlight: Starring Six Forgotten Sidekicks by

Elisa Pappagallo

28 Spotlight on: Ghost Towns of St. Louis by Kimberly Clark 32 Misguided Meanings by Madhu Kandasamy 34 Spotlight on: The Sunrise Movement by Allie Lindstrom 36 Obliquity by Lauren Hirschmann 38 Mission Statement

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Asia JohnsonBrimmage Written by Alaina Baumohl

Asia Johnson-Brimmage is a portrait artist based in St. Louis. I went to high school with Asia, and her name was the first to pop into my mind when given the prompt to profile a creative. She is a freshman at Fontbonne University and I was lucky enough to get to talk to her about her and her art while sitting on the steps of the St. Louis Art Museum.

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Alaina: How old were you when you started “seriously” creating art, if you would even call it that?

Asia: I’ve been drawing and creating ever since I was really small. My mom still has pictures that were up on our fridge from when I was 5 and 6. But, I didn’t start seriously creating art until middle school; that’s when I knew, concretely, that I wanted to be an artist. Up until that point I let it get to me, people saying “that’s not a real job, you need to do something else”. My mom had cancer, so I thought I would be an oncologist or a hematologist even though I really hated STEM classes.

Alaina: Who or what has the biggest influence on you and your work?

Asia: To answer both questions, African-American culture. In general, it would be people, which is why I decided to be a portrait artist. I go out and people watch all the time, so half the time I’m just sitting in the park, watching people do their thing.

My admiration for people in general made me want to do portraiture, and once I looked into portraiture and the history behind it, you don’t see a lot of black representation in that kind of art. So, I thought, I want to do that, I’m going to make us be seen. That’s why, in my work I mostly paint black people, but I’ve also widened it to people of color in general, since everybody of color is underrepresented in art.

Alaina: Who is your favorite artist?

Asia: Kehinde Wiley. If you have seen his paintings, they are just amazing. It’s kinda obvious why he would be my favorite.

Alaina: Right, he’s doing exactly what you want to do. The patterns in the back of his stuff are so amazingly detailed, it looks fake.

Asia: [Those patterns] are beautiful, really meticulous. That’s as detailed as I want to be, eventually, when I get there. At the moment, I’m still in an experimentation phase, so I’m trying to do some more realistic work, and some abstract stuff, just to see where I actually want to fall on that spectrum. In terms of technique, I want to be as technically excellent as [Kehinde Wiley] is.

Alaina: Yes, he’s totally the pinnacle. I was wondering, the crown, that’s on the portrait of you, is it a Basquiat reference?

Asia: Yes! [For] that painting in particular, I wanted it to have some significance to me because a lot of the time I paint black people because I want to paint black peo-

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ple, period. But that one, I wanted to add more personal meaning and depth behind it. The crown is flower petals from a bouquet of flowers that my mom gave me on the opening night of Ragtime. *Asia and I were in the musical Ragtime together in spring 2019 at our high school.

The story is centered around a young African-American couple and their experiences with racism in 1900s America.

It was the only play that I acted in [during high school], other than making props for it. The fabric on the bottom are extra scraps from my boyfriend and I’s prom outfits. It’s also me, so it’s definitely a favorite.

Alaina: What duties do you think an artist has?

Asia: I think the only duty an artist has is to themselves. I battled with trying to impress other people through my pieces and develop meanings that would mean something to other people, just because they wanted me to have meaning in my pieces, not because I wanted meaning in them. Art should be a freeing thing that you can do in order to express yourself. Create what you want to create [because] that duty you have is to yourself, do what you want to do.

Alaina: Where would you like to see your work go in the future?

Asia: It would be to have a piece in the National Portrait Gallery. I went there two summers ago through school, and I got to see Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of Barack Obama and Amy Sheryl’s portrait of Michelle Obama, and I cried. As an artist, it just hit me. I was like, there are black people in this museum doing what I want to do. I can do that. Seeming my dream right there in front of me, it was great.

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Alaina: Are there any artistic thoughts you would like to get out about your art or art in general?

Asia: Stop telling people what they have to do. You can have opinions about other people’s art, that’s fine, constructive criticism is great, but stop telling people what you think they have to do to their art. Because, everyone has a different interpretation. If you bombard [artists] with all these different opinions, their creativity will be stifled because they’re constantly trying to please others. I’m speaking from experience. In high school, I went through this phase where I just didn’t create because I wasn’t making for myself. I was just making for other people, and you can tell in the quality of work. But, once you stop listening to other people, and once I stopped listening to my teacher, I made some good shit! And it was great.

Alaina: It’s interesting because at the same time, and I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I assume you would feel angry at her for...

Asia: Absolutely! I was mad as hell.

Alaina: Right! Why, as an art teacher, would she stifle creativity?? That doesn’t make any sense.

Asia: I kinda hated her for a while.

Alaina: But at the same time, although maybe she didn’t intend for this to happen, maybe you needed that experience to teach you potentially about not listening to others?

Asia: I found myself at [our high school], but not because of any positive influence.

I became who I was because I kinda had to. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself there, but I wouldn’t have become who I am if I hadn’t had to advocate for myself as an artist, as a black person, as a minority. I grew into my own skin because I had to. When I started at our high school freshman year, I realized [I’m relaxing my hair], but I don’t feel like them. Why am I doing this to myself to fit in? And then I realized, it hurt more to try and fit in with them than it did to just be who I was. So, freshman year is when I decided to go natural [with my hair]. On New Year’s Eve 2016, I cut my hair off and had a little bitty afro. I was really self-conscious about it for a while, but as you can see now, my hair is a part of me. I’m not me without my natural hair.

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Forgetting to

Remember

Written by Allie Lindstrom

I sprinted out of yoga yesterday. Lying in meditation, I suddenly remembered I’d forgotten to turn the oven off. It was a moment of pure panic during what was supposed to my mental break. As I drove home, I was both terrified I’d find fire trucks in front of my house and angry that I was unable to finish the class. In the face of impending doom, I wished that I hadn’t remembered.

I’ve recently delved into the world of hyper-productivity and organization. Did you know that there are classes on how to organize your file system and tackle your inbox? Or that there are apps dedicated to state-of-the-art to-do lists? I spend about 30 minutes a week setting up my bullet journal (a DIY planner for the self-righteously organized human) and even I find the plethora of apps, hacks, mantras, and Pomodoro timers overwhelming.

And incredibly tempting. I want to be the most productive, healthy, fun version of myself possible, and if an app promises to help me journal or schedule my way there, I’m in.

I consider myself to be quite organized—I update my bullet journal (BuJo if you’re hip) constantly, after all—yet I am constantly forgetting. I forget to take my vitamins, to pack the lunch I made, to respond to that email, to call my grandmother on her birthday. I’m armed with beautifully scripted to-do lists, my reminder app, and my various inboxes, yet things continually slip through the cracks. Am I just missing a keystone app or habit that will change it all?

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Probably not.

If I forget to set a reminder on my phone to turn the oven off, the system can’t tell me I’m an idiot. My own brain will as I’m trying to meditate (gotta schedule in time to think somewhere). A to-do list can’t save me when I’m too distracted to look at it.

Besides, there isn’t enough room on the allotted paper to fit basic daily instructions for survival under the cursive “tasks” heading. I have so much to do every day that I rarely cross it all off. No wonder I’m forgetting.

I often find myself overwhelmed. Not by anything in particular. Perhaps not even more than average (Let’s be honest, I’ve been on winter-break for two-plus months waiting to go abroad. How can I be so busy?)

I’m starting to think all the to-do lists are preventing me from actually living my life. This suspicion started when I returned home for the holidays, and I set some winter break goals for myself (yes, I am that person.) The first: read at least 10 books. I was excited for this challenge—I grew up as a bookworm yet had been “too busy” since late high school. Turns out, I couldn’t sit down and read for more than fifteen minutes, if that. My attention span was incredibly short. Fortunately, my capacity has been steadily increasing, but in the absence of school work and extra-curriculars, it was stunning how suffocating silence felt. No wonder I resented my Spanish literature classes. It wasn’t the language slowing me down and keeping me up at night (bueno, es una mentira. No puedo leer rápidamente)—it was the all the noise. I had so many things to do, tasks to manage, and calendars to make that I couldn’t think in full sentences. Anyone who’s received a long text from me for planning purposes knows it usually makes little sense.

Then, in my reading, I came across Wendell Berry’s essay “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer.” The essential argument: he didn’t believe it would improve his writing. I thought, fair enough, but I still need my computer, while my indignant brain listed my daily uses and “necessities.” One of the productivity experts I’ve listened to calls his to-do list app his “second brain” and espoused the need for backups, and backups of backups.

If my phone didn’t remind me every day, I’d forget to take my vitamins, log my work hours, and go to bed on time.

Right? Could I get by with a single brain, made out old-fashioned gray matter?

My mom still gets out my siblings’ multivitamins every morning without fail, no reminder needed. She always turns the oven off and knows a week out when I can

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borrow the car. My constant need to ask again and again, because I fail to remember, is certainly more frustrating to her than any effort required in just knowing. I considered adding a spot in my BuJo for car availability, but there wasn’t space. The productivity experts want our brains to be free from remembering, but I want to be free from the systems they require, because they’ll never be enough.

There’s a growing market for people like me (or all of us?). For example, I recently watched an ad for a device that allows one to tag essential items that should always be in one’s bag when heading out the door: keys, laptop, water bottle (I’d put it on my lunch bag). Neat. But do I really need that? How much time and money am I willing to spend in the quest to willfully forget? Will my life markedly improve if I hand over all responsibility?

I can’t believe that it would. Human life is too messy to be contained within lists and alerts. While I won’t chuck my journal or phone out the window, I do want to be less reliant on them. I want to resist the urge to fill empty spaces with tasks and events. My brain, while limited in capacity to remember (see: oven), is quite capable, and when I write something down, it makes room for more, and the lists become longer.

Human life is too That’s great for class and ideas, but if it ultimately just makes me busier, then the systems messy to be have fundamentally failed. I’m hardwired to contained within maximize my output. Millennials are now being referred to as the “burnout generation.” lists and alerts.

The ensuing exhaustion is not something I’m in a unique position to describe (come to think of it, I’m not a millennial, right? I forget the cutoff year). The solutions we’re being fed, however, may not be as helpful as they seem.

Let’s take an extreme example. I can’t remember anyone’s birthday, so, much like the rest of the world, I rely on Facebook, and every day I receive notifications about who to send my well wishes to: Happy Birthday!! (with two exclamation points to make it genuine). That is, if I bother, because I know so many others will help flood the birthday haver’s inbox. In a world without social media, would I just keep track of a handful of friends, and actually make an effort when their birthday rolls around? Would I feel less pressure to remember, less awkwardness when I run into a mere acquaintance on their birthday?

Another example: if I didn’t have access to a car, would I need to remind myself to go outside for a walk (it’s in the BuJo)? Answer: when I’m at school, I hardly think twice, unless I actively want to take a stroll or am late to class (I need to set reminders to leave on time).

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I believe my reliance on technology is a positive feedback loop (I had to google that term—I’d forgotten). The more I feel capable of managing, the more I’ll take on, to fill my schedule to the brim (it will, however, be color-coded). And when I get in the habit of trusting my second brain (as I’m told I must by the experts), I’m more likely to simply forget. If I were in the habit of knowing my schedule, looking inside my bag before running out the door, and completing each task start to finish (looking at you, oven) then, maybe, I’d just do enough. I’d bring enough supplies for the day.

I’d work just enough to get the essential tasks done, and having time away from constant notifications, I’d be able to ask, is the life I’m living enough? Rather than filling my schedule, am I fulfilled? That’s a question I can’t write into my calendar.

Brb, it’s time to check “creativity” off my daily habit tracker. *Edited in Buenos Aires, where I can’t remember how to speak in English or Spanish and have to memorize countless instructions in the latter. The real language I’m learning here? Chaos.

Oh, and I didn’t turn the toaster oven off properly last night, but at least I unplugged it.

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Kashmir: Conflict and Poetry Written by Swetha Nakshatri

Acknowledgement: The situation is Kashmir is nuanced and complicated. I am learning alongside the readers and the goal of this piece is to bring awareness to the situation in as well as the poetry of Kashmir. I am not Kashmiri and will never claim to speak for the experience. Rather, I am a concerned global citizen and a consumer of art and culture.

When learning more, be mindful of the sources and their perspective. First and foremost, aim to learn from those experiencing the situation. Amplify their voices.

Acknowledge the red display pictures and take them as a challenge to keep learning and growing. Everyone has the right to a voice, safety, freedom of language and religion, their family, and so much more.

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Kashmir shrinks into my mailbox, my home a neat four six inches.

I always loved neatness. Now I hold the half-inch Himalayas in my hand.

This is home. And this the closest I’ll ever be to home. When I return, the colors won’t be so brilliant, the Jhelum’s waters so clean, so ultramarine. My love so overexposed.

And my memory will be a little out of focus, in it a giant negative, black and white, still undeveloped.

“Postcard from Kashmir” – Agha Shahid Ali

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Kashmir. What is a passing headline in the United States has been a source of tension and war between India and Pakistan since even before India’s independence from the British and partition in 1947. Its fraught history and constantly uncertain status drives the rhetoric surrounding the state, particularly in the media. When a region becomes a war zone, it often becomes just that. Forgetting about its rich landscape, diverse population, and history of culture, the dialogue focuses on war imagery, occupation, and pain. While awareness of the conflict and living conditions is key (and something the Kashmiri people deserve), this piece simultaneously aims to celebrate the Kashmiri poetic tradition.

Creation and Conflict India was once a British colony, first under the indirect rule of the British East India Company and then under the direct rule of the British monarchy from 1858 until 1947. In addition to an increasing nationalist movement (accredited to Gandhi in history textbooks), there was also Muslim separatist movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League, which demanded that a separate nation be established for the Muslim minority in India. Thus, Pakistan was formed as a Muslim-majority nation on August 14, 1947 and India was formed as a Hindu-majority nation the next day. However, the partition was quick, leaving 562 princely states in India with the choice to either join India or Pakistan or remain independent.

Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir) was a Muslim-majority state that was led by

a Hindu maharaja (king), Hari Singh.

While the other states chose to join one country or the other, Singh wanted Kashmir to remain independent, signing a Standstill Agreement with Pakistan that allowed citizens to form travel and trade relationships with Pakistan.

However, in October 1947, pro-Pakistani rebels invaded Jammu and Kashmir and destroyed property, killed residents, and cut off the main power supply to Srinagar, the state’s capital. When Singh turned to India for help, the government agreed on the condition that Kashmir would have to become part of India. The Instrument of Accession was signed in October 1947, aligning Kashmir with India. However, as part of the Indian constitution, Kashmir was given special status, giving them independence over all governance except for communications, foreign affairs, and defense. This was part of Article 370. This arrangement did not lead to peace and tensions simmered for decades following.

In August 2019, the Indian military presence in Kashmir conspicuously increased and schools and colleges were closed. Tourists, one of the major sources of income in Kashmir, were asked to leave and internet and telephone services were cut off. Political leaders were placed under house arrest. On August 5, 2019, in a move condemned by international human rights groups, the Indian government announced that it was revoking Article 370, effectively removing Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. The 1954 Presidential Order was overridden and autonomy was removed. According to the New York Times, Mehbooba Mufti,

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the former chief minister of Kashmir stated “The Fifth of August is the blackest day of Indian democracy when its Parliament, like thieves, snatched away everything from the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”

The Kashmiri people still live in a state of violence and silencing. Our lives go on. The world has gone quiet.

In these times, it becomes easy to forget that Kashmir has a history and tradition beyond that of conflict. Poetry is an art form that has thrived in Kashmir before and during times of war and continues to impact art and music in the region and beyond.

Habba Khatoon (1554-1609) It can be easy to forget that a place has a history before conflict, buried in folk-

lore, art, music, and poetry that inspired generations to follow. Themes that we take for granted such as mysticism, spirituality, and romance had their origin in some person and their art many centuries ago. One such person was Habba Khatoon, also known as the Nightingale of Kashmir. She was said to have introduced the lol (lyric) to Kashmiri poetry and ignited the romantic tradition of lyrical Kashmiri poets. Much of her life is shrouded in mystery and legend, as she was said to have been forced into an unhappy first marriage with a peasant. When the ruler of Kashmir, Yusuf Shah Chak, heard her singing while he was out on a hunt, he reportedly fell in love with her and brought her back to the palace, where she became his queen consort and was free to write her songs.

When the Mughal emperor Akbar imprisoned her husband, she was desolate and spent the rest of her life wandering the Kashmiri valley, singing the songs she wrote.

Other Names of Note: Not Exhaustive

Ghani Kashmiri (Mulla Muhammad Tahir Ghani) - the foremost Persian poet of Kashmir who lived in Srinagar and reportedly scarcely left, enchanted by its beauty Arnimal - a leading female Kashmiri Hindu poet in the 18th century, who was said to have been inspired by Habba Khatoon Mahjoor - Abdul Ahad Azad’s contemporary and friend, who also primarily wrote on Kashmiri nationalism and the struggle for freedom Sir Muhammad Iqbal - born to a Kashmiri family in the Punjab province, he wrote in Urdu and Persian and is called “The Spiritual Father of Pakistan”

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Khatoon is known for leaving a tradition of poetry that runs the gauntlet of romantic emotions. She unabashedly expressed her love, desire, angst, and envy at a time when women were expected to be subdued. Her titles include (translated) “Why are you cross with me?” and “Gather Violets, O Narcissus” and include verses such as “And I ached with love in every limb/Forever a young girl I am in desire.” She wrote of the beauty of the Kashmiri landscape, a loss often lamented in the current occupation by Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese troops.

Her words have been passed on through Kashmiri women who have sung her songs through generations. Her lyrics, her expression of emotion, and her mythic love story have endured throughout wars, struggles for freedom, and attempts at subjugation, demonstrating the resilience of the Kashmiri culture. Kashmiri contemporary music takes from her words and her lyrics have provided solace, inspiration, and hope even today. Regions are so much more than that which is inflicted upon them.

Abdul Ahad Azad (1903-1948) When in the throes of conflict, it is inevitable that revolution becomes the language of poets and writers. Amrita Pritam, the poetess behind “Main Tenu Phir Milangi” (“I Will Meet You Yet Again”) and other odes to romance, found the most fame with the poem “Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu” (“Today

I Invoke Waris Shah”), lamenting the violence in her home state of Punjab during the partition. Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner” after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.

Therefore, it is inevitable that the conflict of Kashmir has been immortalized in language that endures not only due to its beauty, but due to its political relevance.

Abdul Ahad Azad wrote predominantly at the time of the Quit Kashmir uprisings against the Dogra rule, pre-1947.

The Dogras were a ruling class of Hindu Rajputs who controlled the predominantly Muslim region of Jammu and pandered to the British by forcing Kashmiri civilians to fight in British wars and drained the money and resources of the natives via begar (forced labor) and extortion of crops. Azad was keenly aware of the political landscape of his home and infused his poetry with an intense love of the beauty of the landscape and an intense hunger for change.

One of his poems, simply entitled “Change,” does not just indulge in poetic grace, but rather infuses the rallying cry “Change! Change! Bring a new change!”

Other poems are titled “Revolution” and “Shikwa e Kashmir” (“Kashmir’s Complaint”), providing no doubts about the political aims of his art. Buried in the tradition of Sufi mystics and ghazals that seem to dominate the Kashmiri literary tradition, Azad spent his life and his posthumous years largely unappreciated by academics and the public and in the shadow of fellow Kashmiri nationalistic poet Mahjoor (1887-1952), who changed

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the landscape of the ghazal and nazm.

However, as Kashmir remains a subjugated pawn in religious and political battles between India and Pakistan, his contribution to using poetry as a vehicle for resistance becomes increasingly more relevant and cannot be forgotten.

Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001) Poetry and Kashmir is often synonymous with Agha Shahid Ali, a prolific writer born in New Dehli, raised in Kashmir, and cultivated in the United States, where he taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Princeton University and wrote many of his famed collections. Although the Poetry Foundation states that he identified himself as an American poet, the influence of Kashmir on his poetry cannot be denied. His work is reminiscent of the ghazal and one of his most famous works is “Kashmir Without a Post Office,” published in the 1997 collection The Country without a Post Office. Like Azad, his poetry was informed by the political climate in Kashmir, this time the 1990 uprising against India that closed access to all of the post offices in Kashmir. The repeal of Article 370 is intensely similar, as Kashmir’s access to the outside world has been cut off and the situation has been sanitized by the Indian media and government. Ali responded to this violation with art, sparing no words on the injustice occurring at home, even as he was thousands of miles away.

He writes: “The houses were swept about like leaves/for burning. Now every night we bury/our houses – theirs, the one left empty.” It is the artists who do not sanitize, sugar coat, or hide the truth behind imagery, actors, and silencing. He also acknowledges the beauty of his home in “Postcard from Kashmir,” sampled in the beginning of this piece. However, we also fear reducing an artist to his childhood home, something we are prone to doing, particularly when the home is contentious. Ali wrote numerous poetry collections, touching on the range of human emotion. The ghazal in English would be impossible without his work and Call Me Ishmael Tonight.

Agha Shahid Ali is one of the great poets of our time. He is a product of his ethnicity, his home, and his culture. He used his platform to celebrate and bring awareness about pain. His words endure today.

Conclusion Kashmir is the most highly militarized region in the world. This cannot be ignored. Kashmir is also the home of artists and poets and people who fight everyday for their right to culture, safety, happiness, and preservation. This cannot be ignored. The red display picture on Instagram represents the long struggle of a people. Let us dignify them, celebrate their art, and share their story.

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The scorching winds of India distress me.

O Fate, take me to the gardens of Kashmir.

The heat of exile robs me of peace.

Grant me a glimpse of my land’s milky dawn.

-Ghani Kashmiri

Please read these to get more perspective on the situation and daily life in Kashmir https://onaizad.wordpress.com/2019/08/25/overheard-in-curfew/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/09/opinion/kashmir-curfew.html https://lithub.com/under-siege-mirza-waheed-on-kashmir/ For Perspectives on Indian Regional Literature: Daak References https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/03/kashmir-conflict-how-didit-start/ https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/kashmir-struggle-start-1947-today-190815093053238.html https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49234708 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu. html https://www.dawn.com/news/1409096 https://allpoetry.com/Gather-Violets-O-Narcissus https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/why-are-you-cross-with-me/ https://www.kashmirpen.com/abdul-ahad-azad-1903-1948/ http://www.contributoria.com/issue/2015-01/54633487f9a5159c0b000021.html https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/agha-shahid-ali https://ghazalpage.org/library/reviews/review-agha-shahid-ali-call-me-ishmael-tonight/ To Contribute: Donate to Helping Hand for Relief and Development’s Kashmir Relief Fund

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Oceans Created by Leslie Liu

A little sketch about the times when language escapes us, when we struggle to find our voice amid a sea of opinions.

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Potatoes Written by Emily Alpert

There’s something missing about me this semester at WashU. I started a new job so it can’t be that. I am taking a full load of classes so I’m definitely not missing work. I’m still involved in extracurriculars so I’m entertained and kept busy. So I am just confused as to what I’m missing. Could it be spending time with my friends since we’re all so busy now? Could it be not starting to see people until 10 pm because there is no other time possible for us to catch up?

Could it be a normal sleep schedule? I mean, it’s always a normal sleep schedule. There has never been an occasion when it has not been a normal sleep schedule. Could I have forgotten how to act like a rational human being because of my lack of a sleep schedule? I honestly didn’t know what I had forgotten and what I was missing, at least not until I started craving potatoes.

Why were potatoes significant? What was this weird craving that I was having?

And then I realized that I had started to forget home. Not home as in my home in the US, the place that I spend breaks and summers and where my house is.

No, home as in the place where my mother’s family is from. Home as in the first place that I grew up and the first place that I knew. Home as in my community and my family and my first language.

But what does potatoes have to do with that?

Simple, my home country is the home of the potato. No, not Ireland, but Peru, that small country in South Amer- I have decided that ica otherwise known as the now, in the middle of country that the semester at the Machu Picchu is in. But it is height of midterms also the home and projects and feelof the potato. ings of failure, it is Peru grows the highest time to start practicamounts of ing my culture. strains of potato in the world. Most of their dishes incorporate potatoes in some way, shape, or form. Oftentimes, if there’s rice in the dish there are also potatoes because one type of starch is clearly not enough.

So, when I started craving potatoes I wasn’t just craving a good potato dish, I was craving home. I was craving what I had forgotten: the culture, the food, my friends, my family. And that isn’t something I can just see at WashU. I don’t readily hear Spanish spoken, my only

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experience with it is the rare occasion I’m listening to Spanish music, but I can’t even really do that. My friends here would rather listen to the new Ariana Grande song or to some Ed Sheeran than listen to my music because they don’t know it. So I’m left feeling disconnected and separated. I’m left forgetting that piece of who I am. Honestly, it’s no wonder that people don’t believe me now when I say that I’m half-Peruvian, especially if it’s a hard thing for me to believe myself.

The truth is that I’m actually not just forgetting my home, I’m forgetting a part of myself. Going to school where I can’t truly express my culture, I can’t eat my favorite foods without dropping $50 I don’t have, a place where my identity is questioned because not only could I possibly not be Peruvian, I also could not possibly be Jewish. So I start to hide who I am and over time I start to forget.

But it’s time to remember.

I have decided that now, in the middle of the semester at the height of midterms and projects and feelings of failure, it is time to start practicing my culture. It’s time to start actively remembering who I am and what my culture is and what it means to me. I can no longer stand to forget who I am only to have potatoes remind me of what I am missing. I will not forget anymore.

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Sidekick Spotlight: Written by Elisa Pappagallo

Starring Six Forgotten Sidekicks Behind every big name in science, history, art or movies lies a sidekick. Colloquially regarded as the quirky, underrated, less-than-super “hero,� sidekicks are a staple of any great cinematic or every-day feat. In reading this, hopefully your mind jumps to your own personal sidekick or sidekicks. A sidekick is someone who elevates your ego and forces you to be the best version of yourself. The person who got you through the villainous depths of never-ending homework and supported you during the victory of success. In pop culture,

our trusty sidekicks might sometimes get the chance to star in a lower budget spin-off, but are all too often forgotten.

Here, we dedicate a piece to the sidekicks alongside our household names.

We aim to spotlight people who are underrated in their respective fields. They are scientists. They are writers. They are wives. And they have been excluded from public recognition. They may be a sequel away from the fame awarded to their peers, but the time is now to shine a spotlight on our sidekicks.

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Friedrich Engels

Grace Hopper When we think of pioneers in machine learning during World War II, we are justified in thinking about Alan Turing. However, in between mouthfuls of popcorn during The Imitation Game, we shouldn’t forget the enormous achievements of American computer scientist, Grace Hopper. She was one of the first pro-grammers of the Harvard Muck I computer, a crucial member of a team led by Howard H. Aiken. Muck I was one of the first general-purpose computers and was used during the latter half of World War II. Hop-per and Aiken co-authored three papers on the Muck I. Hopper had attempted to enlist in the Navy but was rejected on account of her age and the assumption that her job as a mathematician would not be valuable to the war effort. Instead, she joined WAVES, the women’s branch of the United States Naval Reserve. Despite having been proven wrong, the Navy rejected her second attempt at enlisting towards the end of the war. Regardless, Hopper continued to contribute to monumental advancements in the field of machine learning.

Karl Marx has been the bearded face behind communism since The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848.

People tend to vaguely remember that the groundbreaking piece was co-authored by Friedrich Engels. It is rarely discussed, however, that Engels was just as bearded and just as significant in the

codification of communist ideology.

Engels was a pas-sionate writer, who often worked under pseudonyms, and by the time he met Marx for the second time, had published over 50 pieces (significantly more than Marx). Engels supported Marx financially for years and helped him meet his journalistic writing quotas. Engles worked from firsthand, contemporary sources, and voluntarily experienced the penniless slums of the working class almost a century before muckraking became popular. Together, Engels and Marx created an ideological breakthrough that is still cited in theories of politics, economics, anthropology and beyond. However, the credit given to Marx often reflects the disparity the men criticize so deeply.

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Ella Baker tremely influential civil rights activist, despite a regrettable lack of name recognition. She was a leading member of a number of civil rights organizations among which included the Young Negroes Cooperative League and the NAACP. She helped organize Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was modest when dis-cussing the role she played in the movement. In assigning credit to something as influential as the Christian Leadership Conference, it is often easiest to look towards the loudest voices. In

that regard, Baker’s success was obscured. Ella Baker worked behind the scenes. She was a force that ensured the conference’s organization and success, despite clashing with the loud voices of Dr. King and other male leaders, who allegedly were not used to deferring to the push-back from a woman like Baker.

“You didn’t see me on television, you didn’t see news stories about me. The kind of role I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come.” - Ella Baker

Bill Finger At the end of every Batman featured movie, videogame, and comic is the phrase “Created by Bob Kane.” The name Bill Finger, the co-creator of Batman, is noticeably absent. Kane hired Finger as a writer who in turn shaped most of what we know about Batman. Finger was re-sponsible for the name Batman, the creation of the joker, Batman’s family history, among other contributes. Kane recognized Finger’s essential contributions 15 years after his death but is still celebrated as the ”creator” of Batman.

Zelda Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald is wildly recognized as one of America’s most celebrated literary figures. His stories often tell of love so raw it is hard to imagine that it is fictional. That’s because, often times, it wasn’t. Fitzgerald was inspired by his private life with Zelda Fitzgerald. He of-ten used lines written in Zelda’s love

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letters to him word-for-word as dialogue in his novels. In the Beautiful and the Damned, Fitzgerald used passages lifted almost entirely from Zelda’s writing.

Her influence was so great that it is hard to argue that she shouldn’t be credited when we learn about her husband in our high school English classes.

Rosalind Franklin James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick are the two scientists most closely associated with the groundbreaking discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. They published their “discovery” in 1953, two years after they received an image of the double helix produced by Rosalind Franklin without her permission. Franklin was a chemist and X-ray crystallographer and created the image at King’s College. Her work undoubtedly paved the way for the exten-sive study of DNA and its structure, contributing to much of what we know about it today.

The two accredited scientists mentioned her only in passing and received a Nobel Prize for what was essentially her work.

Above were just a few examples of the hero-like sidekicks who aren’t always dis-cussed in their respective fields. It is your responsibility, as both a hero and a

sidekick, to cast a light on these individuals, whether they be historical or members of our everyday life. Challenge the notions that any one person was the sole force of an accomplishment. Investi-gate those other forces, too. Give credit where credit is due, and do not let anyone be ob-scured by the shadow of others.

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Spotlight on:

Ghost Towns of St. Louis Photo Essay by Kimberly Clark

Walking down the streets of the abandoned neighborhoods of St. Louis you can see many buildings falling apart with holes in the walls, and sinking foundations. The lawns are overgrown, with too much foliage to even make it to the front doors. Trash piles into the streets and on abandoned lots. What happened to these once thriving and populated neighborhoods? What factors turned what used to be successful communities into dumping grounds while some of the wealthiest suburbs in the Untied States are just miles away?

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Misguided Meanings Written by Madhu Kandasamy

There’s such a strong emphasis on making meaning in the world, on creating changes to forge our own paths. It’s exhilarating to dream big and form hypothetical goals and believe wholeheartedly that we’ll reach them. I must say, however, that I need a break from that way of thinking.

The expectation that every person has their own personal thing, an idea or a passion that sums them up and defines their life path, falls flat when I think of how I haven’t found my thing and I’m not sure It’s time to stop that I ever will. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy my hobbies and activities, propagating the idea that but I always thought I’d find a compelwe must constantly ling passion in college or stumble across a groundbreaking idea that would manufacture ideas and define the rest of my life. It’s safe to passions to feel whole. say that most of us haven’t discovered a life-changing concept that makes us feel completely whole and satisfied at all times. Nevertheless, the implicit idea that time is running out for us to “make meaning” in the world hasn’t stopped looming over my head whenever I feel the slightest tinge of dissatisfaction with whatever situation I’m in.

It’s time to stop propagating the idea that we must constantly manufacture ideas and passions to feel whole. There is more to “making meaning” than just creating

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radical concepts and throwing oneself headfirst into new ideas. I’ve done my share of trying to force vigorous interest in new things, only to burn out and feel like I’m not doing something correctly. The representation of a purpose and a goal-directed experience is gratifying to those who have their things, but it’s important to understand that not everyone has reached that level of self-understanding. That’s not to say that we’re all simply working toward this enlightening moment, but that this should not be our singular goal when we try something new. As someone who gets bored easily, this is especially freeing considering how often I plunge into any situation I think will interest me. Now, I try not to get attached to ideas of contentment that I may or may not believe in the next day.

I try to find meaning in the parts of the world that I used to overlook for the sake of the newest eye-catching concept of the time. Instead of spreading my attention too thin and granting external objects the power to affect my emotions, I want to invite the world in for once. I’m trying to change the way I interpret the events in my life by noticing and enjoying the details that add to my day. I don’t have a passion project, but I allow myself to feel an odd amount of enthusiasm for the amusingly large leaves on the ground in front of me. There’s no correct way to channel your energy.

Whether you focus on a single revolutionary undertaking or the happiness that gloriously warm sunshine brings on a windy day, allow yourself to feel those emotions. I will still try to learn as much as I can from the opportunities available to me, but I’m taking the time to look past the first glance and enjoy the secretly profound elements of the world.

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Spotlight on:

The Sunrise Movement Photo Essay by Allie Lindstrom

Sunrise is a youth-led movement to stop climate change and create millions of jobs in the process. We work to elect climate champions and build popular support for the Green New Deal. sunrisemovement.org

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Obliquity Written by Lauren Hirschmann

She is In the future we surrender to

burning we no longer cry hope

her intimate marshes sinking her acidic tears

I remember vaguely

a period of colorful chaos

Before we enjoyed

the savory sting of mortality

Her words remind me of How collectively Only to uncover

Our doom

we challenged

the truth

her eyes had already glossed over

They resented when sprouted from

the futile resistance

her infertile womb.

is inconceivable to those Who say nothing can be done

Change

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To those who say

nothing can be done

Change is inconceivable The futile resistance sprouted They resented when

from her infertile womb

her eyes had

already glossed over

Only to uncover the truth How collectively

we challenged

Her words remind me of Of mortality A period of I remember

our doom

the savory sting before we enjoyed colorful chaos

vaguely

her acidic tears

her

Intimate marshes sinking We surrender to hope In the future

we no longer cry she is burning

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Our Mission: ISSUES Magazine seeks to raise awareness of the intrinsic link that exists between art, design, and social issues. The spaces we inhabit each day mold our experiences, both by fostering interaction and by building barrier. Using the city of St. Louis as our primary lens, ISSUES Magazine will draw connections between both tangible and intangible aspects of the social environment. With both a print and an online version of the publication, ISSUES Magazine will reach out to a diverse readership, including students of Washington University and residents of the St. Louis region.

By utilizing a wide spectrum of media, ISSUES hopes to inspire action as well as awareness about the intersection of design and social justice.

Stay in touch with us: contact us issues.mag.washu@gmail.com read our articles online issuu.com/issuesmagazinewashu @issues.mag.washu

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Contributors: Emily Alpert Alaina Baumohl Kimberly Clark Lauren Hirschmann Madhu Kandasamy Allie Lindstrom Leslie Liu Lauryn McSpadden Swetha Nakshatri Elisa Pappagallo

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