James Kessler is a justice architect. That means he works in criminal justice architecture. He is a senior principal at Hellmuth, Obata + Kassebaum, Inc, better known as HOK, one of the largest architectural firms in the world. Here’s how they describe justice architecture: “As an integral part of society and a component of contemporary [...]
Posts under ‘General’
Haunts: Azbaa’s anguish, Auden’s blues
Pakistani born Azbaa Dar is being held in Yarl’s Wood. On Monday of this week she reported, dutifully, to the Liverpool office of the UK Border Agency. She has been applying for asylum for nine years, and as part of the process, she has to `visit’ the UKBA offices regularly. At this visit, she was [...]
Art South Africa: Who is your audience?
Who is your audience?
by Zanele Muholi
My audience is not here.
My audience is those people who look at two lesbian women in a photo and say that it is a shock: ‘Oh my God, don’t show that!’ That is my audience.
I don’t know who my audience is.
I know that I have brothers who give me a [...]
Nascent Collectivities: Transnational Abandonment, I
On November 20th 2008, as reported by George Washington University’s student newspaper, the Hatchet, a Latino worker installing windows in a GW residence hall was killed after a fall from the 7th floor. The worker, Rosaulino Montano, worked for Engineered Construction Products, a window subcontractor for primary contractor Clark Construction. His death was featured in [...]
The ordinary household: Dirty little secret
I have a dirty little secret. Well, perhaps it’s not so little. And maybe, it’s not that dirty. But it’s something I like to keep secret. You see, my parents, for as long as I have been alive, have employed domestic workers. I don’t want to self-flagellate in public, but this fact of my life [...]
Inside her soul: echoes II
unmade beds,
dirty clothes,
the stench of yesterday’s garbage
in my nose
and my man wonders why
i don’t love him
no more
well, he should read this poem
she’ll speak of my grief
of how I
toss and turn
toss and turn
wondering why
why?
HE took me
from the afric’s shore
i died that day
you shackled me with your shame
violated
my ancestral rite
of chastity
only to label me
i need purity
so I [...]
Nascent Collectivities 2
In my previous posting, I looked at testimony of Everlyn Masha Koya, a twenty two year old sex worker-turned-peer educator from Isiolo, Kenya. Ms Koya’s failure to persuade women who have children to leave the sex trade led me to reflect upon contradiction between women’s economic contributions to nation-state and the nation-state’s desire to control [...]
Black Looks: Sange
We thought collecting black gold would make us truly free
You do not blame a woman whose belly has been empty for fifty years
If she scoops the sand onto which the gari has spilled
Hoping to sift through later
So as soon as we saw the tanker tipping over
Agonizing
Slow
Like a tortoise that had fallen on its already cracked [...]
Haunts: FIFA and the maids
The 2010 FIFA World Cup is drawing to an end. On the pitch, it has been filled with thrilling moments and surprising turns. Off the pitch … not so much.
Ever since South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the government has been feeding promises and creating expectations about how good [...]
Kafila: “Mother I will make you cry today”
‘Mother I will make you cry today’
(On June 30th 2010, Asif Rather age nine ran out of his home in Baramulla in Kashmir to look for his older brother. As he left, he told his mother ‘I am going to make you cry today’. Minutes later he fell victim to shooting by the forces. At the time he [...]