Monthly Archives: August 2021

Youre probably quite familiar with the basic states of mattersolid, liquid, gasthat fill everyday life on Earth.

But those three different sorts of matter that each look and act differently arent the whole of the universefar from it. Scientists have discovered (or created) dozens of more exotic states of matter, often bearing mystical and fanciful names: superfluids, Bose-Einstein condensates, and neutron-degenerate matter, to name a few.

In the last few years, physicists around the world have been constructing another state of matter: a time crystal. If that seems like B-movie technobabble, its technobabble no longer. Using a quantum computer, a few researchers have created a time crystal that, they think, firmly establishes time crystals in the world of physics.

The researchers havent yet formally published their research, but last month, they posted a preprint (a scientific paper that has yet-to-be peer-edited) on the website ArXiV.

So what exactly is a time crystal? It might sound like the critical component that makes a time machine tick, some sort of futuristic power source, or perhaps an artifact of a lost alien civilization. But, to scientists, a time crystal is actually something more subtle: a curiosity of the laws of physics.

What defines any bog-standard crystalsuch as a diamond, an emerald, or even an ice cubeis that the crystals atoms are somehow arranged in repeating patterns in space. Theres three dimensions of spaceand a fourth dimension, time. So physicists wondered if a crystals atoms could be arranged in repeating patterns in time.

In practice, that works something like this. You create a crystal whose atoms start in one state. If you blast that crystal with a finely tuned laser, those atoms might flip into another stateand then flip backand then flip againand so forth, all without actually absorbing any energy from the laser.

If you step back, what youve just created is a state of matter thats perpetually in motion, indefinitely, without taking in any energy.

Thats no small feat. It beats against one of classical physics most sacred tenets: the second law of thermodynamics. That law states that the amount of entropy, or disorder, always tends to increase. Think of it like a vase, teetering at the edge of a table. The universe wants to push that vase over and make it shatter across the floor. To piece it back together, you have to put in the energy.

Time crystals are actually a rather new idea, having first been theorized by Nobel-winning physicist Franck Wilczek in 2012. Not all physicists accepted that theory at the time, with some claiming that the second law of thermodynamics would rear its legalistic head.

Naturally, determined researchers found loopholes. In 2016, physicists at the University of Maryland managed to bodge together a crude time crystal from a collection of ytterbium atoms. Other groups have created time crystals inside diamonds.

[Related: In photos: a rare glimpse inside the heart of a quantum computer]

But these latest time-crystal-tinkerers did something different. They turned to Google and used a quantum computer: a device that takes advantage of the quirks of quantum mechanics, the seemingly mystical sort of physics that guides the universe at the tiniest scales. Instead of using bits of silicon like everyday, classical computers, quantum computers operate directly with atoms or particles. That allows physicists to do experiments which can be agonizingly difficult with traditional computers, since quantum physicswhich allows particles to be multiple things at one and for particles to interact at seemingly impossible distancesgets quite esoteric.

The ability to simulate the rulesbecomes so much harder with traditional computers, says Gabriel Perdue, a quantum computer researcher at Fermilab, a national lab in suburban Chicago that focuses on high-end particle physics.

But, by arranging particles in a quantum computers processor, its possible to literally study systems of tiny particles as if they are building blocks. Thats a powerful ability, and its not something youll see much in the non-quantum world.

We dont compute, you know, how far a baseball goesby building miniature baseball players and doing simulations, says Perdue. But doing something quite similar on a very small scale, he says, is what the researchers used Googles quantum computer to do to make their time crystal.

In this case, physicists could take atoms, rearrange them, then pulse them with a laser to drive a time crystal. That setup has allowed researchers to create a time crystal thats bigger than any time crystal before it. While many previous time crystals were short-lasting and unravelled within a few back-and-forth flip cycles, the scientists behind this latest time crystal effort are marvelling at the stability of what theyve created.

The thing that is most exciting here, for me, says Perdue, its a demonstration of using a quantum computer to really simulate a quantum physics system and study it in a way that is really novel and exciting.

So, could these time crystals indeed lead to a new wave of nascent time machines?

Probably not. But they might help make quantum computers become more robust. Engineers have struggled for years to create something that could serve as memory in quantum computers; some equivalent to the silicon that underpins traditional computers. Time crystals, physicists think, could serve that purpose.

And this experiment, Perdue says, is also a demonstration of the power of quantum computers to do science. The same platform that makes it easy for you to simulate some cool algorithm, he says, works just as well, and I would argue even better, for simulating these kinds of systems.

Excerpt from:

What the heck is a time crystal, and why are physicists obsessed with them? - Popular Science

Quantum information plays a vital role in connecting several branches of physics. Specifically, the theory of quantum error correction, which explains how to protect and recover quantum information in quantum computers and other complex interacting systems, now becomes fundamental to the modern understanding of quantum gravity.

Anatoly Dymarsky, Associate Professor at the Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology (CEST), said,Normally, information stored in physical systems is localized. Say, a computer file occupies a particular small area of the hard drive. By error we mean any unforeseen or undesired interaction which scrambles information over an extended area.

In our example, pieces of the computer file would be scattered over different hard drive areas. Error-correcting codes are mathematical protocols that allow collecting these pieces together to recover the original information. They are in heavy use in data storage and communication systems. Quantum error-correcting codes play a similar role in cases when the quantum nature of the physical system is important.

In a rather unexpected twist, scientists realized not too long ago that quantum gravitythe theory describing quantum dynamics of space and timeoperates similar mathematical protocols to exchange information between different parts of space. The locality of information within quantum gravity remains one of the few open fundamental problems in theoretical physics. That is why the appearance of well-studied mathematical structures such as quantum error-correcting codes is intriguing.

Yet the role of codes was only understood schematically, and the explicit mechanism behind the locality of information remains elusive.

In a new study, scientists have discovered a new connection between quantum information and quantum field theory. The study offers clear evidence of the growing role of quantum information theory across various areas of physics.

In the study from Skoltech and the University of Kentucky, scientists established a novel connection between quantum error-correcting codes and two-dimensional conformal field theories. By describing interactions of quantum particles, they have offered standard theoretical tools to describe many different phenomena, from fundamental elementary particles to quasi-particles emerging in quantum materials.

Dymarsky concludes,Now we have a new playground to study the role of quantum error-correcting codes in the context of quantum field theory. We hope this is a first step in understanding how locality of information works and what hides behind all this beautiful mathematics.

Go here to see the original:

Quantum information and quantum field theory: Study found a new connection between them - Tech Explorist

Had it not been for his secondary school caretaker, physicist-turned-novelist Femi Fadugba might never have gone on to study material sciences and quantum computing at Oxford University. I dont usually tell people this story because it sounds like something out of a movie, he says, laughing, on a video call from Peckham, south London. He gave me a Quantum Physics for Dummies book when I was 11. It was only a couple of years ago that I found his phone number and called him up. He told me that he had a PhD and was really into physics, but just wasnt able to pursue it.

Similarly, had it not been for his career in quantum physics, Fadugba might never have written his debut sci-fi novel, The Upper World a book about time travel set in Peckham and deeply informed by the study of atoms, matter, energy and relativity. I decided I wanted to write this book because Id have conversations with people who would ask me to explain quantum physics. Theyd always be super fascinated and wanted me to recommend a book, but I couldnt find one that I could put my hand on my heart and say: Youll dig this.

So he set out to do exactly what Toni Morrison had asked of anyone frustrated by the lack of diverse stories in the landscape of literature: If theres a book that you want to read, but it hasnt been written yet, then you must write it.

The Upper World is a uniquely thrilling, heart-wrenching young adult novel that follows two teenage protagonists. Esso and Rhia exist in different time periods, 2020 and 2035 respectively, but are connected by a life-changing event a bullet heading for an alleyway and set to cause irreversible harm. When Esso is hit by a car, he is transported to a mysterious place where he discovers that he can see into the past and the future. He then seeks to change the course of this tragic event, which somehow involves Rhia a girl living in foster care who is desperate to learn the truth about her parents.

Peckham is full of people who look like me. People from somewhere else, but also from here, says Fadugba. His eyes light up whenever he talks about the neighbourhood. Ive seen two decades of change in Peckham, so I felt comfortable trying to project another couple of decades. I also just really like this place.

Now aged 34, Fadugba, who was born in Togo, moved to England from the US in 1997, when he was nine years old. He spent much of his childhood moving between a boarding school in Somerset and various African countries with his parents, when his father was working as an interpreter for the UN. But the summers and half terms at his aunts house in a Peckham estate had the biggest impact on him. As a Nigerian, there arent many places in the world, including Nigeria and including most of England, where I feel so at home.

The idea of feeling at home is something Fadugba struggled with when it came to his career in science, however. In addition to Oxford, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and taught science I published in PRL [a peer-reviewed scientific journal], which is where Einstein published. I was at the peak of my career. But at the same time, something about writing equations for my whole life seemed too abstract and removed from real life problems.

He eventually left academia and went into the energy sector, working full time at a solar finance company. He didnt start reading fiction until his late 20s (naming Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Stephen King and Orson Scott Card as particular favourites) but something clicked, and he decided to teach himself how to write. I had a couple of chats that convinced me that writing was something you could learn and didnt have to be born with. That was the switch for me. He still had the urge to communicate scientific ideas and theories, but wanted to do that through fiction rather than academia.

Perhaps thats why The Upper World, despite its humour, is also enjoyably educational. Theories relating to time and space are woven into the narrative. The appendix is full of equations relevant to the plot, such as the speed of light and the Pythagorean theorem. But deep down, the novel is about grief, loss and hope. I was dealing with a similar situation to what Esso goes through, in terms of losing someone before their time, because of some madness. The part in the book where someone gets shot: there are kids and adults who are dealing with this in real life. I felt a responsibility to explore what that meant.

An important part of the novel is its investigation into the concept of free will. As the two teenagers fight to change the future, the psychological and sociological influences on a persons destiny are a central part of the narrative. For the black community in the UK, so much of the tension is fundamentally about free will. Are our people in the position that theyre in because they made bad decisions or was it actually [out of their control]? Its tough. I do think we are a product of our environment, but at the same time, if Im standing in front of a kid who is in a shit situation, thats not a helpful thing to say. We have an obligation to explore both sides, instead of making the false choice that only one of them is true.

What makes The Upper World so groundbreaking is how it straddles multiple realities and truths. Its geeky but cool, otherworldly but also very south London, a genre-defying book for which Penguin Random House Childrens won the rights after a crazy 15-way auction. It also grabbed the heart of Daniel Kaluuya: the Oscar-winning actor will not only star in the Netflix film adaptation, he will also co-produce it.

My book leaked to Hollywood, says Fadugba in disbelief, speaking of the whirlwind that ensued in June 2020, straight after he sent his manuscript to publishers. I still dont know how that happened, but apparently, it happens. A bunch of studios got hold of it the big ones. Jordan Peeles Monkeypaw Productions and Brad Pitts Plan B Entertainment. You can circle a month around the period where I got my book deal and I got the Netflix deal. It was exciting and also very hard to process. Even now, I still talk about it as if it happened to someone else.

A big reason why the mammoth successes have yet to sink in is because they came at a personally difficult time. In early 2020, Fadugba had been living with his wife in Kenya when the countrys president tweeted that they would be shutting the borders due to the pandemic. I packed up my life in two days and went to my aunts house [in Peckham]. My wife is American and had to go back to her family. I spent a whole year in my aunts spare bedroom, separated from my wife, while the world went down. The couple finally reunited in June 2021.

It has all been incredibly stressful, Fadugba tells me. The gradient of change was insane. But hes grateful, of course. I can see how visibly excited he is speaking about his new life. He humbly smiles while talking about the fact that he will be executive producer on the Netflix film. Its a strong team, he says. Eric Newman [the producer of Narcos, Children of Men and Bright] has the experience of making sick films and shows. Daniel knows how to navigate both worlds. Hes from ends, but hes also an Oscar-winning actor.

I ask him if hes nervous about whether the adaptation will be as good as the book. My agent put me in touch with Nick Hornby, who has had the experience of having his books adapted into films, and he gave me a metaphor. If you design ankara suits and then someone buys it and turns it into a bikini, that bikini could go on to sell more than your suit. Even though the Netflix team has been really faithful to the vision, you have to let it breathe in whatever direction it needs to.

So what does Fadugba see when he looks into his own future? Im currently writing a film with a couple of mates, and a well-known rapper called CS. Hes also working on the sequel to The Upper World, which will focus on quantum mechanics and the multiverse. But, he says, my biggest purpose has always been about education. I dont mean that necessarily in terms of getting all kids into Stem [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]. I think its more about getting kids to explore all the different parts of their mind. Theres no reason why Peckham couldnt be the theoretical physics capital of the world I mean, there are reasons, but there are no good reasons.

His plan is to find a way to use music, virtual reality and gaming to facilitate maths and physics education. Looking at what he has achieved so far, with his physics career and his first ever attempt at writing fiction, very little seems impossible. I was born in a civil war. There have been too many times that things could have gone left, he says, referring to everything from his familys immigration struggles to his time spent in Rwanda, to living in a council flat and seeing all kinds of shit go on. When I think about the stuff that has happened to me, I think to myself: I was given this [gift]. Enjoy yourself, take care of your mental health. But use it.

An edited extract from The Upper World

After the collision, I expect to turn and see a pumpkin-coloured bench stued with people waiting for the 78, 381, 63 or 363. And, on the other side of the road, I expect a barbershop, followed by a Western Union, then a pub, then a corner shop selling fufu and Oyster-card top-ups the same rota of shops that repeats itself across Narm, interrupted only by the odd pound shop or chain cafe.

I expect to see a Range Rover with a dent in its front end and Im ready to go ballistic on the driver, threaten to sue him, punch him, both. I expect no, I hope to see a little boy, sitting safely on the pavement, in roughly the same shape and condition Id met him.

Instead I can barely see my own hands. Darkness has swallowed them. And inside the darkness are echoes: half-familiar screams and hushed voices, each one loud enough for me to hear, but not clear enough to make out the words. My mind draws its own imaginary lines in the dark, filling it with demonic creatures with jagged teeth and talons. Scenario A, I think, this is a dream, and Im alive. Scenario B: Im dead, and this is either heaven or hell.

A bead of sweat tumbles down my forehead. Above the echoes, I can hear my heart pounding and my breaths getting shorter. In all the Sunday school lessons I remember, not one mentioned heaven looking like a barren wasteland filled with screams. Not to mention the scorching heat. Please let this be scenario A.

See the rest here:

Femi Fadugba: Theres no reason why Peckham couldnt be the theoretical physics capital of the world - The Guardian

Do I understand quantum mechanics?

Well, no. I only recently came to understand something about the first word of the mathematical discipline we call quantum mechanics. It is defined as dealing with the mathematical description of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, incorporating the concepts of quantization of energy, wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, and the correspondence principle, according to something called Oxford Languages, which can be reached via Google.

My understanding is underwhelming. I understand what a quantum leap is not.

I now understand that a single electron does not whiz around a single atomic nucleus in a single perfectly round circle.

That is what I first learned about atoms. It was back in 1958, in sixth grade, as I recall. Science in 1958 was nowhere near what science is today. To us serious 1958 science students, atoms were clots of protons and/or neutrons, surrounded by neatly circular orbiting electrons.

Today, I am told that electrons do not follow bicycle-wheel circular orbits. Instead, electrons pop up here and there at predictable distances from the nuclei of atoms, nuclei being those clots of protons and/or neutrons.

Electrons get from here to there by traversing, invisibly, some teeny tiny distance called a quantum. How do they traverse this distance? Why, they leap, giving rise to our use of the term quantum leap.

That is what I just now learned this year. It constitutes the sum total of my knowledge of quantum mechanics and, for that matter, atomic physics. I have sons who are engineers and other children who are more recently educated. They understand such stuff. I am just learning about it.

For this knowledge, I am indebted to Bill Bryson.

Brysons A Walk in the Woods, gave millions of Americans the irrevocable impression that he is a doppelganger of Robert Redford, because that selfsame Handsomest Man of the Twentieth Century portrayed Bryson in the movie about his mostly successful and mainly hilarious attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, mostly for the hell of it.

But A Walk in the Woods did not teach me about quantum mechanics, though it did reinforce my predisposition to give the exercising that goes with cross-country hiking to my brain, as in reading about it, rather than to my arthritic knees, hips and assorted other joints.

A Short History of Just About Everything, also by Bryson and by now more than two decades old, explained the quantum clearly enough for me to claim its leap as my own for purposes of smart-alecky windbaggery, which I call conversation.

The book is a tour de force. It starts with the Big Bang, principally because all matter and energy that is, was or will be got its start with the Big Bang. I knew about that, but I knew zilch about the astronomy, cosmology, paleontology, taxonomy and dozens of other scientific disciplines that end in y. Bryson says he too did not know these things. Unlike me, he set out to learn about them by talking to experts and then translating their lingo into folksy, fun-to-read English.

The book ends with a depressing whimper. It notes that humans got here by an awe-inspiring series of billions upon billions of happenings, any one of which could have left us no more advanced than newts. Then it tells us that if the megavolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park does erupt, humans in our neck of the woods will likely be vaporized within nanoseconds.

Even if not, Bryson says, we are despoiling our only inhabitable planet at cataclysm-inducing clip.

But until that cataclysm is induced, we can revel in the knowledge that electrons leap, that great scientists often are petty and churlish people, that cells contain billions of ... things ... we didnt even dream existed back in 1958.

Brysons book, in sum, has quantumed my scientific knowledge by leaps and bounds, though what practical benefit that has at my age is puzzling. It took Darwin decades to perfect his theory of natural selection. Septuagenarians are unlikely to be sentient for decades.

Yet I am smiling broadly as I type these words, because gaining knowledge, even in subatomic quantities, is something worth smiling about.

I also gained knowledge, however evanescent, about trilobites and dinosaurs, dodos (the birds as well as the politicians) and gravity.

So there is something else to be said for our having disconnected our televisions satellite feed, besides the obvious blessing of having missed all of last years political advertising.

We fill that void by viewing sunsets, chasing chickens, chatting with friends and family, enjoying the company of dogs and, of course, reading books.

It is a discrete quantity of energy proportional in magnitude to the frequency of the radiation it represents.

I understood that. I really did for a nanosecond.

Denny Bonavita is a former editor/publisher at newspapers in DuBois, Brookville, New Bethlehem and Warren. He lives near Brookville. Email: notniceman9@gmail.com

Read the original:

Reading a book can warp one's mind | Columns | thecourierexpress.com - The Courier-Express

Admission to our graduate programs is done through the Graduate Recruitment and Admissions Committee which is made up of several faculty representing the departmental research areas. All candidates are evaluated on:

Candidates are advised to apply directly to the program best suited to their long-term academic goals. Students interested in pursuing research or academic careers should apply to the Ph.D. program even if they intend to get an M.S. degree as an intermediate degree. Those students that seek advance preparation beyond their undergraduate training for educational or industrial careers should apply to one of the M.S. programs.

Students applying to the Ph.D. program are not expected to have an M.S. degree and typically do not. Ph.D. candidates may opt to receive one of the M.S. degrees enroute towards the Ph.D. as an intermediate degree but there is not a requirement. Students who hold a master's degree upon entering the Ph.D. program may apply for transfer credit of their masters courses towards the Ph.D. program requirements.

NOTE: We regret that we are unable to evaluate any individuals probability of admission prior to formal application beyond the information already presented here.

In exceptional circumstances, a student who does not meet the criteria for regular admission may be granted conditional admission. The Department will specify the conditions a student must meet to achieve regular status and will advise the student accordingly. The student must fulfill the conditions within two sessions of registration in the Graduate College, or face dismissal. Admission in this special category is reserved for cases where there are strong indications for success in the program, despite weaknesses in certain parts of the application.

To apply online, go to theUI Graduate and Professional Admissionswebsite.

After you submit your application, you will receive email instructions on how to establish your HawkID and password in order to access your Admissions Profile on MyUI, our online portal for students. All supporting materials can and should be uploaded through your Admissions Profile. If your academic program requires letters of recommendation, you will be asked to provide the contact information of your recommenders on your Profile. The recommender will then receive an email from the Office of Admissions instructing them on how to upload a recommendation letter and/or recommendation form.

Applicants for admission to the graduate program must meet the admission requirements of the Graduate College; see theManual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate Collegeon the Graduate College website.

Read more from the original source:

Graduate Admissions Process | Physics and Astronomy - The University of Iowa - Iowa Now

The Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF)today announced that it will once again be showcasing the diverse voices originating in U.S.-based-Latinx communities and in the Americas and beyond through film this year from September 24 October 3, 2021.

This years festival will be hosted virtually and film offerings will include Q&As with filmmakers.

This year, BLIFF will present nine films including Ken Schneider and Marcia Jarmels documentary feature,Los Hermanos/The Brothers, as well as local filmmaker Monica CohensDreams of Chonta. BLIFF is also excited to be bringing two narrative features to the festival this year,Women is LosersandPerfume de Gardenias, among other films that aim to break Latinx stereotypes and bring cultures and communities together.

BLIFF all access and individual passes will be on sale in September on a soon-to-be-announced date, according to organizers. A complete schedule of BLIFF events, screenings, and tickets will be available soon atbliff.org.

COVID has made us redefine how we live, work, and play, says Sabrina Avils, Boston Latino International Film Festival director in a statement. Thats certainly true for events like ours. Most festivals, including ours, planned a hybrid, partial in-person event in 2021. But the recent rise of new infections forces us to change that. BLIFF has decided we must protect our audience, act conservatively, and present a compressed version of the festival virtually. That said, we are proud to offer a thoughtful and, we believe, well-curated film selection in 2021films that were showcased at A-list festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, South by Southwest, and others. It is important to stick to our mission, and host a smaller festival that continues to feature provocative films that celebrate our culture and community.

Confirmed films to be screened at BLIFF include:

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It Directed by Mariem Prez Riera

RITA MORENO: JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT illuminates the humor and the grace of Moreno, as well as lesser-known struggles faced on her path to stardom, including pernicious Hollywood sexism and abuse, a toxic relationship with Marlon Brando, and serious depression a year before she emerged an Oscar winner. Morenos talent and resilience triumphed over adversity, as she broke barriers, fought for representation and forged the path for new generations of artists.

My Darling Supermarket Directed by Tali Yankelevich

Grocery store employees, todays essential workers, get star treatment inMy Darling Supermarket(made prior to the pandemic). Set within a bright, colorfulsupermercadoin So Paulo, Brazil, this charming, funny documentary glides through a seemingly endless array of vibrantly designed shelves and displays, but its the stores employees who take center stage. Rodrigo (in bread) discusses quantum physics and parallel universes; Santo (a forklift operator) builds video game cities; a security officer tracks possible shoplifters on closed circuit TVs (Two suspects near the condensed milk!); Ivan (a baker) is into Manga cosplay; and then theres the artist who lovingly paints the prices. A panoply of individuals with fears, hopes, and questions about their place in the universe are celebrated in a quirky portrait that juxtaposes their idiosyncrasies with the assumed mundanity of bringing food to our table Film Forum

Los Hermanos/The Brothers Directed by Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider

Virtuoso Afro-Cuban-born brothersviolinist Ilmar and pianist Aldolive on opposite sides of a geopolitical chasm a half-century wide. Tracking their parallel lives in New York and Havana, their poignant reunion, and their momentous first performances together,Los Hermanos/The Brothersoffers a nuanced, often startling view of estranged nations through the lens of music and family.

Featuring an electrifying, genre-bending score, composed by Cuban Aldo Lpez-Gaviln, performed with his American brother, Ilmar, and with guest appearances by maestro Joshua Bell and the Harlem Quartet.

Fruits of Labor(Co-presentation with Bright Lights Film Series) Directed by Emily Cohen Ibaez

*Free Screening Event*

Ashley Solis is a high school senior who must divide her time between school and supporting her

family as a second-generation Mexican American. Located in a California working class town,

the harshness of agricultural labor in the strawberry fields shares a stark contrast with the

beautiful nature and relationship to her spiritual ancestral upbringing. Director Emily Cohen

Ibez documents Ashleys life guided by the spirit world through her hardships and joys in

modern America.

Dreams of Chonta Directed by Monica Cohen

DREAMS OF CHONTA follows the story of Diego Obregon, an Afro-Colombian musician who came to the United States 16 years ago in search of his dreams. He made the ultimate sacrifice by leaving his family behind and living a solitary life.

This is not just another immigrant story focused on terror, inequity and policy; this is a story about the hopes and dreams of an artist, the only ambassador of his music and his culture in NYC. People have never been this close to the life of an undocumented immigrant whos struggles go beyond himself and his family to create a bridge between 2 worlds. This story honors the wealth and the ripples of change that immigration creates.

Women is Losers Directed by Lissette Feliciano

In 1960s San Francisco, bright and talented Catholic school girl Celina Guerrera (Lorenza Izzo) survives a difficult home life by following the rules. That is until an indiscretion creates a series of devastating consequences. As Celina faces the compounded obstacles of being young and alone, she sets out to rise above the oppression of poverty and invest in a future that sets new precedents for the time. Inspired by real women and the Janis Joplin song of the same title, WOMEN IS LOSERS world premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, where it finished as one of the most-watched of the festival.

Missing in Brooks County Directed by Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss

70 miles north of the Mexican-US border lies Brooks County, Texas a haunted, inhospitable

place where thousands of immigrants have gone missing or died over the past decade. Missing in Brooks County follows the journey of two families who arrive in Brooks County to look for their loved ones, only to find a mystery that deepens at every turn. Stuck between the jurisdiction of border agents, local law enforcement, and cartels, the county is a barren landscape designed as a deterrent to illegal crossings. Despite this tactical designation, the municipality has never been provided the resources to process the remains of the hundreds of undocumented immigrants who succumb to dehydration and exposure each year. Missing in Brooks County is a potent reminder that these deaths are more than a statisticeach represents a living human being, loved by their family, now lost.

Perfume de Gardenias Directed by Gisela Rosario Ramos a.k.a. Macha Coln

Perfume de Gardenias, is the debut film from the renowned queer Afro-Puerto Rican singer, multi-disciplinary artist, and filmmaker Macha Coln.

The dark comedy that captures the idiosyncrasies and spirit of a nation adept at creating novel strategies for laughter in the face of adversity, tells the story of Isabel played by veteran theater and television actress Luz Mara Rondn in her first movie-starring role an elderly woman living in a middle-class neighborhood in Puerto Rico, who has just become a widow after having cared for her husband until his last breaths. However, her recent loss becomes a blessing when she crafts a beautiful custom-made funeral for him that catches the attention of Toa (Sharon Riley), a pious but domineering woman who involves herself in local funerals.

On the Divide Directed by Maya Cueva and Leah Galant

ON THE DIVIDE follows the story of three Latinx people living in McAllen, Texas who, despite their views, are connected by the most unexpected of places: the last abortion clinic on the U.S./Mexico border. As threats to the clinic and their personal safety mount, our three characters are forced to make decisions they never could have imagined.

For more information on the film festival, visitbliff.org.

About the Boston Latino International Film Festival

Since its inception in 2001, the Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF) has been committed to using the power of film to break stereotypes, bring cultures and communities together and reveal the complex issues that affect the Latinx community in the United States, Latin America and Spain.

BLIFF is sponsored in part by ArtsEmerson, BASE, Bright Lights Film Series, Boston Cultural Council, El Planeta, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Original post:

The Boston Latino International Film Festival will be held virtually September 24 October 3 - What'sUpNewp

A lot of us know what it felt like being stuck inside during the pandemic: We were bored, and almost always on the internet. Writer Leigh Stein's new book of poems is a sort of time capsule that captures this experience.

"I'm someone who has always pushed back against the idea that the internet is not real life," Stein says. "So I see our lives on social media as just as real as the lives that I lead when I'm grocery shopping."

The book is called What To Miss When, and though Stein has been busy she published two novels and a memoir over the last few years this is the first book of poems she has written in almost a decade.

It took work getting the poems out.

"There was a period where I was getting concerned about how much wine I was drinking and I didn't know how to stop it or change it," she says. "I felt like I was in this bad pattern. I couldn't get out of [it]. I didn't know what to do."

So about two weeks before we all went into lockdown, Stein decided to stop drinking for 30 days just to see what would happen. "And like a miracle, my poetry came back to me for the first time in ten years."

Leigh Stein Brian Jacks hide caption

It's now 18 months later, and Stein is drinking again, but just about a third of what she used to. Her experiment made her reconsider the habit of going out and always drinking with certain friends. And she realized that by not drinking, she wasn't giving something up, but rather getting back a part of herself she had really missed.

"It was almost like there was a room in my brain and I had lost the key to open the door to the room," she says. "And then I found the key."

During lockdown, poems started flowing out of Stein to the point where she was writing a poem a day. And the book that resulted from, as Stein puts it, is about a "certain laptop class of Americans" during the pandemic.

"We were all extremely online," she says. "We were fortunate enough to be able to work from home [and] we were watching a lot of drama unfold on social media."

The framing device for What to Miss When is actually a 14th century book about the plague: Boccaccio's The Decameron. And though she'd never read it before lockdown, she found it has "eerie parallels" to our current pandemic.

"The wealthy who could afford to flee Florence fled," she says, talking about the classic. "And the people who couldn't afford to have their second country home or their villa stayed in the cities and drank to escape their fear of death."

The people who fled to their villa in The Decameron would share stories and medieval fables with each other to pass the time. So Stein included our own pop culture moments in her book to highlight the stories we told each other during the pandemic.

"We were all having the same kind of pop culture experience because of what was available for us to stream," she says, talking about her descriptions of viral shows like Tiger King or Love is Blind. "And then we were all tweeting about what we were streaming."

Poems about stress cleaning and Zoom yoga and nighttime beauty routines live next to poems about movies that look at distortions in time, like Groundhog Day.

One poem, called "Everywhere You Look A Spectacle" references Palm Springs a film from last July in which two characters played by Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are stuck in a time loop.

In many ways, Stein's examination of her own drinking patterns was also a deeper look into our cultural obsession with social media. In reference to the film's time loop, the speaker ends the Palm Springs poem with a note to self:

Cristin Milioti had to teach herself

quantum physics on YouTube to escape

the rom com's repetition glitch.

All I have to do is sign off.

All I have to do is sign off.

All I have to do is sign off.

This story was edited for radio by Reena Advani and adapted for the web by Petra Mayer and Jeevika Verma.

Continued here:

Interview: 'What To Miss When,' By Leigh Stein - NPR