Category Archives: New Utopia

The Startup Wife

Tahmima Anam

Canongate, pp. 304, 14.99

Welcome to Utopia not an idyllic arcadia but a secretive tech incubator in a Manhattan office block. Here a computer scientist, Asha Ray, the narrator of The Startup Wife, her charismatic husband Cyrus and best friend Jules are nervously pitching their app platform Ashas cutting-edge algorithm aimed at people yearning for ritual without religion. Drawing on dreams, obsessions and secret desires an Odyssey wedding, Game of Thrones funeral, pharaonic celebration the app will create micro-communities of users; a virtual parish.

Their startup gets the crucial nod, and they join the cool, shiny Utopians who are pursuing projects to support humanity when theres nothing left. Youre planning for the apocalypse? Jules asks. On the office roof theyre growing vegetables, with self-generated electricity instead of soil, for when the bee population collapses. Other cheerful prospects include mass antibiotic resistance, climate collapse, world war and a deadly pandemic, but nobodys paying attention to that. And not everyone is catastrophising: instant orgasms at board meetings for busy women? Theres a startup for that.

Like her narrator, Tahmima Anam is Bangladeshi, educated at Harvard. Her prize-winning Bengali trilogy led three generations of a family through dark times of war and loss. The Startup Wife is blessedly comic; a satire on the madness of tech tyranny, underpinned by a bitter-sweet feminist love story.

The app is an instant sensation, the trio worth theoretical millions. But Asha has a deepening sense of dread: of something going disastrously wrong. And why is she sweating at her desk, marginalised, while her husband is hailed as an online messiah? Swept into the stratospheric excesses of high-tech, they think theyre living the dream. IRL they are in hell: the brave new virtual world.

Huxley would have relished the irony. But its tough for todays fiction writers to keep pace with reality: a highlight of Anams book is a mind-blowing startup offering interaction with your deceased loved ones. Ludicrous sci-fi? Hardly. Microsoft was recently granted a patent on an app that recreates a dead person, a chatbot participating in conversations after death. You cant make stuff up fast enough.

Tech geeks will read the book with knowing amusement; those of us floundering in the rarefied air will encounter baffling jargon and acronyms scattered like birdseed through the pages. But if you dont know your CTOs from your IPOs or an elevator pitch from a vertical, forget the STEM and enjoy the novel as a witty predictive comedy of manners until, with a stealthy nudge, Utopias future morphs into our present. So, is this the way the world ends, not with a bang but a virus? As Anams characters prepare to face the unknown, were already living through it.

The rest is here:

Brave new virtual world: The Startup Wife, by Tahmima Anam, reviewed - Spectator.co.uk

Bitcoins wild gyrations in 2021 have made sure of one thing: The future of money will be electronic, but it wont remotely resembleacyberpunk utopia. Peoples power will bow tosovereignsmight.

The mania and panic that have gripped decentralized cryptocurrencies are heighteningthe attractionof their coming rivals: digital cash, issued by central banks.These tokenswill be staid, centralized and state-controlled. Thats exactly what users will want in an Internet of Things world where machines need to settle claims with one another all the time, instantaneously, but without contributing to global warming.

Official electronic coinswill be a new type of central bank liability alongside physical cash, though for investors betting on the future value of the dollar, yen or the euro, they wont be a novel asset class.

That has clear advantages. To avoid becominga lightning rod for fresh speculationmeans that a global economy powered by FedCoin, digital euro and Chinas e-CNY will make far less onerous demands on energy resources than cryptocurrencies. In the absence of a trusted intermediary, the mining," or proof-of-work protocol that keeps the blockchain secure from double-spending attacks, requires power-guzzling hardware. Between Bitcoin and Ethereum, the electricity consumed can light up 16 million American households.

Not so for the distributed ledgers that will verifytransfers of official coins. These ledgers will only be held by a select group of intermediaries with the central banks permission. Instead of being in a race to solve puzzles faster than malicious actors,as we see with decentralized cryptocurrencies, the nodes in the network can lock their own funds to back legitimate transactions.

This approach, known as proof-of-stake, will require a fraction of the energy proof-of-work needs. Ethereum intends to switch. The cryptocurrency Ether will replace hardware and electricity as the investmentneeded to secure the network. Validators will earn fees by locking up at least 32 Ether. (Thats a $72,000 commitmentas I write.) If they misbehave, go offline or fail to do their job, the processorscan lose their collateral.

A central authority can perhaps run sucha network better. After all, those who are vouchsafing transactions must have skin in the game, as they claim and somebody trustworthy must ensure that theydo. As Chi Lo, an economist at BNP Paribas Asset Management Asia,says: A holders identity is inevitably required for verification" of balances on a digital ledger. Who has the legal identity of coin holders? The government!"

Central banks that arent constrained by how much fiat money they can create out of thin air use that flexibility to avoid catastrophe, asthey did recently during the Covid-19pandemic. By contrast, a bitcoin-ized" economy can bedangerous because of finite money supply. As Losays, if you fix nominal variables, real output has to adjust violently to absorb any economic shocks.

Besides, perfect anonymity of cryptocurrencies is impractical. It comes with unacceptably high risks of money laundering and terror financing. Governments do not want to pry into all or even most online transactions. But theywont give uptheir right to lift the veil of pseudonyms when they want. Hence, theinterest worldwide in digital cash. Chinas plans are most advanced, but othercentral banks are also in the fray.

If cryptocurrency adoptionis a headache for governments, an overwhelming popularity of digital cash could also be an issue. Banks couldlosedepositsshould customers prefer having a direct claim on their monetary authorities. Lenders financinglong-term loans with short-term market liquiditymightget into trouble later. These risks arent new. But byignoring them to a point where subprime mortgage-linked banking losses had to be socialized, authorities created a trust gap with the public: Techno-anarchists burst through it with thetemplate for an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust.

More than a decade later, the cyberpunk movements success is to be measured not by the highly volatile, speculative asset class it has helped spawn and popularize, but by the rising influence of blockchain technology within the traditional financial system. Digital cash with in-built, self-executing software code will alterthe future of money in a way that cryptocurrencies never could. Tokens will win. But trust won't lose.

Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. He previously was a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He has also worked for the Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Here is the original post:

Not Bitcoin. This will be the future of money - Mint

The thing I love most about Byrne's book, How Music Works, is his incredibly smart yet simple, Zen-like approach to describing music and the process of making it and listening to it. I find the greatest comedians, people like Chris Rock, will say something we've all thought of 100 times but just way more funny and succinct. I feel like Byrne does this over and over again in his book. In fact, if someone asked me to recommend one book that describes modern music the best, there's no doubt I would pick his.

2009, I guess, when the FADER cover was ... I imagine you were working on How Music Works for quite some time. I mean, it's so well put-together, and it covers such a vast range.

Yeah, I worked on it for ... It was at least a few years. The chapter about music and architecture and acoustics, that had been already done as a TED Talk. I think maybe at least one of the other chapters I maybe had written up as a blog post in a sketched-out form, and I realized, "Oh, there's more. I could do a chapter on this. I could do a chapter on this and all these things that affect how music sounds and how it gets to us that are not about, 'Well, I wrote this song because I was breaking up with my girlfriend,' but what recording technology, how recording technology affects the kind of music that we hear, and all that kind of stuff." I thought that would be an interesting kind of book because most of the books about music are about the other thing, like what the music actually sounds like and what it makes you feel. I thought, "I'm going to talk about the stuff outside of the actual music and how that affects the music that we hear."

Just in case there's people listening that haven't read the book, it talks very much about how early music and religious spiritual music was played in these giant cathedrals, so, tonally, it had to leave room for all that reverb so there's no discordance, and then as places get smaller ... Basically, the places music was played changed the compositions. Is that fair to say, a very basic nutshell?

Not only allowed other kinds of writing and composing to happen, but it almost demanded it in some ways.

So one thing that you said in the book that I wondered since then, at that time, you weren't sure if there's been a compositional response to the MP3 itself in the way that there was a compositional response to halls, cathedrals, clubs like CBs. Has anything happened since then that's made you change that? Have you heard of anything that feels more like that?

Wow. Lately, I've heard quite a few productions where things are really, really stripped down. There might just be a beat and a bass and maybe a little hint of a keyboard or something and, of course, a voice. But, sometimes, that's all there is. Sometimes, the beat will be really, really sparse, and I've thought, "Wow, I don't know if you could get away with that 10 or 20 years ago." This might be the result that we listen in cars, we listen in headphones, and so we can have that space in the music now that we maybe couldn't have before. I don't know. I'd be interested if you have any ideas.

I hadn't thought about it in this context of this question, but now I remember, I've always thought one of the most dominant colors in all of modern music, hip-hop, which is essentially pop music, is the hi-hat now and the very busy hi-hat and the tickiness of the trap hi-hat, the ... all that. That is one of the main frequencies that you can hear out the speaker on your iPhone, so I definitely think that there's something about the sounds or the things that are going to cut through, almost like they used to have the loudness wars of who could master their things to sound the loudest on radio. Now, it's like what are the frequencies that are going to sound the most distinct and pronounced coming out of somebody's phone speaker, which is essentially probably where they'll be listening to their music, I guess.

Yeah, so it's going to be those frequencies and then sub-bass for people in cars.

Okay. Just to cover other ground, too, there's a section in your cover story about where The FADER picks artists that they see influenced by you. So, at the time, it was Grizzly Bear, Micachu. Because you do seem like such a generous fan to new music and you're not really the kind of person that I feel like sits around pointing a blog going, "They stole that from me, they stole that from me, they stole that from me," do you hear yourself in artists? You must hear yourself in current-day artists. Are you kind of psyched? Does it give you a bit of pride, or do you want to be like, "Hey, go find your own thing to do?" I'm just curious, and maybe some of your favorites today.

Occasionally, yes, I'll hear something and I'll go, "Is that me? Does that have a little bit of me in it? Is that really there?" Then, sometimes, I go, "Is that what they think I sound like? I don't think I sound like that. Do they think I sound like that?" It's really confusing. The other thing that happens is I go, "Oh, I really like this band," or, "I love this artist," and then I'll have a friend go, "You like them because they sound like you. That's why you like them." I thought, "Oh, that's kind of predictable." I don't think it's always true.

Well, there was an article I remember in The Times. I don't know where it was, but it really just felt like the last wave of bands ... And we always say these different things, is band music on its last leg, whatever. But certainly the last wave of weighty, important bands, LCD, Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, you're certainly the patron saint of these bands, whereas, at one point, you could tie things back to The Beatles, the Stones, Stevie Wonder. In some ways, the last remaining important guitar music kind of points back to you. I know that you've talked about those bands. You have good relationships with these guys.

I know those people.

Yeah.

Yeah. As my friends say, I like their music, too. I don't have my playlist in front of me, but I remember a few months back I did a playlist. I'd been hearing all this really glitchy-sounding music. What was that group? 100 gecs. There's the person that just passed away, SOPHIE, and there's a bunch of other ones. There's a whole lot from Japan, of course. I thought, "Wow, is this a thing, or is it just me collecting this stuff that makes it a thing?" Is this really something that's happening, where it's just like the beats and the sounds, everything sounds really kind of fucked up. There's no straight beat in there. Everything was kind of fractured. I thought, "I really like this, but what does this mean? Does this say something about how we're feeling these days, the fact that this music is so jagged and fractured?"

I remember the first time I heard some of Arca's production, this is 10 years ago, 11 years ago, for FKA twigs. I was like, "How much can you play and stretch time and syncopation before ... Is there a point where I no longer how to move my body to it, which this is awkward, or am I afraid of this because it's a new thing?" I do think there's only 12 notes in the scale or the Western scale and all these things. Yes, for music to progress, people have to break down the foundation of the roots of some of the foundation, rhythm and things like that, the glitchiness you're talking about.

Yeah, and I remember hearing those tracks as well. Those were also some of the ones where it feels very, very stripped down, and I've thought, "Do I like this because I like listening to it just at home while I'm wearing headphones? I can't imagine hearing this at a club. I can't imagine people dancing to this." But maybe they do.

I remember the first time I went into the dubstep tent at a festival. I was playing a festival in England. This must've been 2005. I walked into this tent, and it was packed. Everybody was losing their minds, but at the same time nobody was moving. There was just this slow-bodied through the whole thing. Then dubstep became a bit of a different thing, it almost met up with Rage Against the Machine somewhere. But this was this moment where it was this very somber, solemn music, and people were just losing their minds. I was like, "But they're not dancing." As a DJ, you feed off seeing the rise and the ebb of the crowd, and I don't know how I would know when people are enjoying it or not. Obviously, it was just a new scene and something that was out of my wheelhouse, and it was exciting. It's like the way people dance to juke music and stuff. I mean, I can barely dance to Michael Jackson. But I love watching it, and as a curiosity ... I was speaking to Santigold last night, and she said to say hi, obviously. She-

Oh, yeah. I miss her.

She told me a really beautiful story, that she said that you had come to a gig of hers, because I know you love to go to at least one gig a week, and she had no idea that you went, and then you sent her a really sweet email. Of course, if she had known that you were there during the show, it probably would've terrified her because so many people look up to you so much. Then there's also this vulgar thing of going backstage after to say hi to the artist and let them know that you came. You did none of that, and then you just sent her a message after. I thought, "That is quite emblematic of who you are." I just wanted to talk about that thing, going to shows every week, obviously, we can't do that now, and how you're filling the void. Are you just a little bit miserable over it or ...

Yeah. A lot of us really miss that, going out to the club, hearing live music, DJ music, whatever, yes, being with other people. It's been a year without that, pretty tough, pretty tough. I think, somehow, I don't know exactly how it's happened, people have continued to release a lot of music in the last year. There's a lot that's come out. So I've been doing, yes, a lot of listening at home, sometimes exchanging playlists with friends and that kind of thing. But, yes, a lot more listening at home than I ever used to do, just listening or listening while I'm cooking because now we cook at home a lot more than we used to. People are desperate to get out.

The cooking, it's crazy. I've only really learnt to cook since COVID. I could make an omelet, but I just mean as far as, like you said, we're all cooking at home. I've enjoyed and discovered music in a way I've never discovered it and loved it at home. I have a little record player in the kitchen, and leaving that record on from start to finish, and whether you're listening to a playlist or a record, it doesn't matter, this period has made me love music in a completely different way and made me stop ... Of course, that's why I have a job, because people like listening to music at home, but I don't ever see myself that way. When I'm listening to music, it's more ... I know what you mean. This period has made me appreciate music in a way that I haven't before.

It's true, yes. I now have a turntable in my kitchen.

Do you? You have one as ... You as well?

Yeah. I mean, I also listen to playlists that I've made and streaming music and everything and play it through the speakers. But, yeah, just put something on and start slicing onions. Yeah.

Yes. And then I have to turn the music down while I Google how to dice an onion. Then I turn it back up. But, yeah, bands that I know one song by that I like, like Prefab Sprout or The Durutti Column, and who I never would have listened to their album otherwise, I would've probably put that song I really liked on a playlist. Now, I'm just ... By virtue of leaving the record on, it's been kind of nice. I feel like I'm in 1985 or someone discovering that band for the first time again.

Oh, yeah. What was that Prefab Sprout record? Was it called Two Wheels Good or something like that or ...

I'm not sure.

I think it had somebody on a motorcycle on the cover of the record. It was-

Oh, yeah. The whole band is on the motorcycle, yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that record.

Yeah. Me, too. Then one other thing that you said in the FADER article, you said you're not usually nostalgic except maybe occasionally when a building comes down. I think of you as such a New Yorker at this point, I mean, you are a New Yorker, that maybe there are no buildings coming down, but New York has changed so much, the landscape, storefronts, everything, during this time. But there's still something pretty great and exciting and there's the feeling of just whoever stayed here, at least, is in it for the long haul. In June, when a lot of people left following the riots and stuff, I was like, "Okay, that's kind of great. Downtown looks a bit like a freak show again, or at least when I started going out in the early '90s." I wondered how you felt about that.

I first noticed it when ... It was probably late summer or summertime. I would often go for fairly long bike rides, just to get out. Sometimes, I'd meet up with band members or friends or whatever, and we'd go explore some neighborhood that we didn't know about. I remember coming back home and riding down 5th Avenue from Central Park, and almost every store was boarded up. It was like the whole avenue was made of plywood. It had kind of gone up overnight. I'm not sure exactly. This might've been just before the election. It might've been before something else, but the day before something else was going to happen, and they expected people to come smash windows, which I don't think it ever happened. It happened that once and kind of went away.

It was kind of extraordinary. People were then painting a lot of the plywood, which a lot of it's still up. People are now selling or archiving some of these paintings that were done on the plywood. Yep. Coming down 5th Avenue, with a lot of luxury stores and things like that, I thought, "Oh, this really looks like a city under siege. This is a city that's afraid of its own citizens. They're barricading it against their own citizens." I thought, "And I live here. How's this going to be?" Yeah.

Yeah. And now, with a few months since then, and then, obviously, there wasn't the same apocalyptic, like you said, the siege mentality, how are you feeling about New York right now?

Every couple of weeks is a different feeling. Right now, we're in the feeling where some people are getting vaccinated. I'm old enough that I qualify, but, of course, like a lot of other people, you'd go on the websites and just forget about it. It was like trying to get the hottest concert tickets in the world. It'd be gone the minute that the new batch came out. I eventually got-

Oh, you did? Okay, good. Good.

I eventually get it, but it was ... Like the stories of some of my friends, it was through a friend of a friend who said, "Oh, there's this high school in Brooklyn where they usually have a few shots left at the end of the day. If you can get out there at 6:00, they'll give you a call, and if you can get out there, they'll give you one of those shots," which is what I did. So, right now, it feels like we're in this in-between period where there's this really clunky, chaotic rollout of the vaccines and people are wondering, "Okay, when do we all get this? Then we can start going out to restaurants. Can we do that again, after we all get vaccinated?"

Yeah.

Yeah. We're in that kind of period where it's kind of hopeful but also kind of like, "Can we do this a little faster so we can get there? We see that there's an end to this. Can we get there? Can we get there a little faster now," whereas there was a period there where it just seemed like, "Oh, this is never going to end."

Original post:

David Byrne on a lifetime of innovation and finding American Utopia - The FADER

Hadestown, the brooding musical about the underworld, has set its Broadway reopening date on Sept. 2, jumping ahead of such megahits as Hamilton and Wicked to position itself as the first show to welcome audiences on Broadway since the pandemic.

Producers announced Monday that tickets will go on sale June 11 for the eight-time Tony Award winning musical and that the production will resume playing the Walter Kerr Theatre weeks before its rivals. The first Broadway show to welcome a live audience is likely to get a lot of attention.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said Broadway theaters could reopen Sept. 14 but producers may make their own economic decision as to when they reopen. They also will be allowed to decide their own entry requirements, like whether people must prove theyve been vaccinated to attend a show.

Soon thereafter, Hamilton Wicked" and The Lion King announced they would restart their shows Sept. 14. Others have followed, staking out spots further into fall and winter, including Six and David Byrnes American Utopia for Sept. 17 and Dear Evan Hansen in December. Some off-Broadway shows have already restarted with social distancing guidelines.

The Broadway that reopens will look different. The big budget Disney musical Frozen decided not to reopen when Broadway theaters restart and producers of the musical Mean Girls also decided not to return.

But there will be new shows, including Antoinette Chinonye Nwandus Pass Over that is slated to reopen the August Wilson Theatre, the same venue Mean Girls has vacated. And a Shubert theater has been promised for playwright Keenan Scott IIs play Thoughts of a Colored Man.

All city theaters abruptly closed on March 12, 2020, knocking out all shows, including 16 that were still scheduled to open.

Some scheduled spring 2020 shows like a musical about Michael Jackson and a revival of Neil Simons Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker pushed their productions to 2021. But others abandoned their plans, including Hangmen and a revival of Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Here is the original post:

'Hadestown' jumps ahead of pack to welcome Broadway patrons - The Independent

This story is part of L.A. We. See. You!, the second issue of Image, which explores various ways of seeing the city for what it is. See the full package here.

They were hood trading cards. They announced that you were newly single. They announced that you were newly together. They showed off the new haircut, the fresh fit. They mandated that you practice your poses in the mirror. They gave you a reason to coordinate looks and flex with your crew. They cemented a new friendship. They were your Friday night in 98, your Saturday in 01. They were the reason you went to the mall. They were your first family portrait. They gauged your popularity. They filled the plastic cardholders in the binder you got at the swap meet. They were the original Instagram. They were small but everything. As soon as you held one, flipped it over, saw the KIT, plus the number, you knew the deal.

Star Shots were currency to so many. It was our version of social media, poet and author Yesika Salgado says. Makeup artist Selena Ruiz took her first Star Shot when she was 5 at Tyler Mall in her hometown of Riverside with her mom and sister. Star Shots were just a norm, she says. Toms One Hour Photo in Koreatown is still a mecca for Star Shots in Los Angeles. Walking into the small studio on Beverly Boulevard feels like walking into 1999, when the ritual of choosing an airbrushed backdrop was the biggest decision youd make that weekend.

Tom Tuong and his wife, Lisa Le, are masters of the form. Theyre internationally known, thanks to a visit from country singer Kacey Musgraves in 2019, but their brilliance hits different in L.A. They are keeping alive a tradition of portraiture that feeds on the energy of IRL. Recently, thats spilled over to online spaces, where artists and archivists like Map Pointz and Veteranas and Rucas Guadalupe Rosales collect, catalog and share Star Shots, reimagining their place in the Instagram age.

For the second installment of Image, we asked artists, activists and creatives to put their own contemporary spins on a visual form that has kept so many connected in this city of sprawl. They came, they posed, they remembered.

L.A. is awesome, says artist Ruth Mora. I dont care what anyone says.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? L.A. is awesome, I dont care what anyone says. If youre born and raised here, you know exactly what I mean. Theres definitely different senses of community in different areas that you go to. One of my favorite things about L.A. is all the different sign painting and sign graphics, even just the liquor store signs. All the color and lettering around L.A., specifically in the hoods, I love it.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Smaller subculture groups [continuing] to work together to do cool, artistic things for the community.

Brittany Chavez is the founder of Shop Latinx, an online marketplace by and for Latinas. Her hope for L.A.: that everyone in Boyle Heights can live long, beautiful lives. Chavez is photographed with her dog, Pawla.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? The borough I live in, Boyle Heights, is home to hardworking and loving Latinx. They take pride in their homes, their cars, their plants, their parties, their food and their families. There are so many characters that live on my block, and every morning that I wake up and walk my dog Pawla, were greeted with the smell of fresh pan dulce, the sounds of birds chirping and cars headed to work, and a Buenos dias, mija from the elders in my neighborhood.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Well, I hope my block never changes, thats for sure. And I hope that everyone in Boyle Heights can live long, beautiful lives without the fear of them ever losing their homes or communities. The future of L.A. looks like intergenerational appreciation for the diverse cultures that are found throughout this city and a child-like curiosity to explore all the magic and nostalgia it has to offer.

Selena Ruiz is a makeup artist who lives in L.A., a place she says is more than just Hollywood.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? Its not Hollywood. Real L.A. is like, South L.A., East L.A., West L.A. Its not all glamorous, its actually really hard out here.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? I just hope that all of the creatives who are on the bottom get the representation they deserve. Weve been going hardest in the pandemic because we have nothing else, you know? Were trying to push our craft. I just hope we can finally reclaim whats been taken by white creatives.

Kazi is an animator, Claymation artist and musician from the Crenshaw District. He sees a creative renaissance in the citys future, basically a Black utopia.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? You have what L.A. is portrayed in media. My L.A. is the flipside of that. Its like if you were in the forest, and you flip over a log and theres a bunch of bugs under there. I feel like Im part of the teeming underlife in L.A.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? I always refer to it as a renaissance, whats going on right now in our communities. In the future, it will be fully realized and it will be basically a Black utopia.

Activist Astrid Cota photographed with their friend Ricci Sergienko, an organizer. My L.A. is for everybody, says Cota.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? My L.A. is for everybody. We all belong here whether we were born here or not its for us. By the people, for the people. However, gentrifier energy is never welcome. The land must be respected and nurtured.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? My L.A. of the future looks like a safe place where everyone can be their true selves, without fear or shame. A place where people can come together peacefully or wildly if they want to. Where motivation and love is always in the air.

Artist Kenturah Davis wants to see more thriving Black- and brown-owned buildings/businesses in L.A.'s future.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? My L.A. is a chill vibe (except in traffic). The multiplicity of creative connection points in visual art, music, food and film readily feeds the soul.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Did I mention the traffic? That can go. Time-warp us back to a future when you can get from the Eastside to the beach in 25 minutes. A more realistic expectation I have for the future is to see even more thriving Black- and brown-owned buildings/businesses, in whatever neighborhoods we want to be in.

In the last year, educator and well-being curator Jacqui Whang has grieved anti-Asian hate and racism toward Black and brown communities. For the shoot, she wore a white hanbok to represent the death to my old self and the new space of healing.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? To be honest, I dont see this city as my L.A. but more like ours. L.A. is such a dynamic city comprised of people from all different walks of life, and what brings us together is the shared experience of being a part of the legacy of Los Angeles. I grew up in the outskirts of Los Angeles, and as a non-native, I am here to listen and share in the stories that are the backbone of L.A. culture and community. It can be easy to get caught up in our own singular experience, but the city reminds me that we are all here together. Especially as a Korean American, I have felt that this city symbolizes so much for my family and friends. It is a gathering space where many of us immigrant families began and has become a home away from home.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Im looking forward to a season of well-being for my personal self and wish that upon others as well. I hope that we all take care of ourselves and be present in our lives, appreciating every moment, person and experience.

This has been a challenging past few months, with not only an ongoing pandemic but the rising of anti-Asian hate and violence, the deaths within our Black and brown communities from the police, and the exposure of our systems of inequities. Even though there has been so much to grieve from our experiences of racism and hate, the movement to pause and restore our collective healing has been overwhelmingly inspiring. I will always remember during our city closure, the sky became clear and the radiance from the clouds was surreal. This moment was so deep and spoke to me. It showed me the power of pausing and the peace that it brings to the chaos by simply being present.

We have everything we need to grow into our future, one breath at a time. I am working on being more present in the process so that I can be aware of who I am and not lose self-connection and intimacy as we journey together in navigating our impact on our local to global ecosystems. In this photo shoot, I chose to wear a white hanbok because I wanted to represent the death to my old self and the new space of healing and empathy that I want to live each day.

Writer Morgan Parkers L.A. will surprise you.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? It will surprise you if you let it.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Less borders between industries, neighborhoods, realities. More community fridges, more arts in schools, more mutual concern.

Xuan Juliana Wang (left) is the author of Home Remedies. She poses with her friend, Jean Chen Ho, author of the forthcoming book, Fiona and Jane.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? My L.A. is very Asian American, not just in a racial/ethnic census demographic descriptor kind of way, but calling forth the spirit of how the term Asian American was created out of political coalition-building in the late 1960s by two student organizers at UC Berkeley, Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka. L.A. as a city is often dismissed as a place without history, but of course we know thats not true. I think its that our city is so abundant, so expansive. We have too many stories here, many beautiful contradictions, that a traditional linear history cannot hold. Jean Chen Ho

What does your L.A. of the future look like? This is Tongva and Chumash land, before the missions. Lets start there. Lets imagine a radical future for our city to be radical means to return to the roots that honors that Indigenous story. Coming out of the pandemic, were craving a sense of community with people we normally wouldnt have a chance to connect with, but I think we can do that in our own neighborhoods and get to know the very distinctly local phenomena that have a material difference on our lives and the lives of people who live next to us. Jean Chen Ho

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? I was 7 the first time I saw Los Angeles from an airplane window. I knew then Id just be one blinking light in the sparkling grid of so many. People think of this city as a lonely place, but I think its vastness allows you to incubate a relationship with your truest self. A girl from another country can grow up in a suburb nurtured by that anonymity. You can want for nothing because the things you dont have, dont understand, are far away over the hills and across freeways by the sea or by the snow. It will be there when youre ready. Xuan Juliana Wang

What does your L.A. of the future look like? More public spaces. In my mind, I just keep thinking, I wish I could people-watch and have experiences with strangers more. As a writer, I need to look at people. I need to see them and I need to make up stories about where they came from and why they are who they are. Xuan Juliana Wang

Randijah Simmons, left, and Sisi Hood are co-founders of The Babe Cave L.A., a creative studio.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / for The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A. My L.A. has been very welcoming. Ive been able to find my tribe, my community. I love how community-based L.A. has been. I think thats the key. Sisi Hood

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Because Im a transplant, when you are a transplant to insert yourself into the communities that youre taking up, and putting in the work and getting to know the natives. That will have a positive impact on L.A. in general and your experience in L.A. Sisi Hood

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? Its super diverse and creative, and also very multicultural, which most people who just move here wouldnt see, because they dont go to certain areas, but I grew up witnessing Black culture and Mexican culture. Randijah Simmons

What does your L.A. of the future look like: Less gentrification, more creative spotlight on the natives who are already here doing the same thing people come here to do. It looks like housing for the homeless, because its just getting crazy. Randijah Simmons

Artist rafa esparza, right, poses with his brother, Fernando Esparza. For rafa, L.A. sounds like motor engines rumbling through two major intersecting freeways, helicopters soaring not so far off the ground and distant murmurs in all languages.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times )

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? The closest thing to one of my favorite places in Los Angeles would be a view from a high place, preferably a mountain or hilltop. On a clear day, you can see as far out as the ocean. A particular view from just a mile away from downtown gives you a 360-view of the city and is one of the richest culminations of sounds that include motor engines rumbling through two major intersecting freeways, helicopters soaring not so far off the ground and distant murmurs in all languages all and everything whirling in a soundscape of bright, dusty, hot, L.A. sunlight. rafa esparza

What does your L.A. of the future look like? The future of a Los Angeles I want to see, that I want to live in, is divested in a culture of incarceration in turn for education and has access to food, shelter and wellness for ALL Los Angeleans. rafa esparza

Yesika Salgado is an L.A. native, poet and the author of Corazon, Tesoro, Hermosa and the forthcoming Mentirosa.""My L.A. of the future is an L.A. that holds itself accountable, she says.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? I think those of us who have grown up in L.A. are aware of the fact that theres that fake layer over our city. So we are like, extra authentic, of course, because we know what it looks like to not be. My L.A. is the ladies who wake up to take the bus at 6 oclock in the morning. And the gardeners who travel west to go work every day. Its the community you make on buses and trains. And its Placita Olvera on a Saturday afternoon when all the elderly folks are dancing. The city that I know is a very resilient, very generous city.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? My ideal L.A. would be handed over to the POCs, L.A. kids controlling the narrative of this city. But on an actual civic level, something happening about this houseless crisis were having. To see the people in charge of taking care of us take care of our most marginialized. To see a defunded police department. (I grew up in the Rampart Division, so my relationship with the LAPD is an interesting one.) My L.A. of the future is an L.A. that holds itself accountable. I think as the people of this city, we do that. But it would be nice to see it on a government level.

Star Angel (right) is the creator of Sincerely GhettoBird, as well as an accessory designer and creative director. She poses with her friends and collaborators, Eyenzsi Reneaux (middle), a creative director and photographer, and Graciela Gutierrez (left), an artist.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? Its not the one on the movies. Thats not L.A. If you want to come to see L.A., you have to come to the Black and brown communities. Thats L.A. to me: Black and brown people in all caps, and just our joy and success. Star Angel

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Black and brown people thats what L.A. looks like in the past, present and future. But also giving us our flowers, thats what the future looks like. I definitely want justice and change. Star Angel

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? Being from L.A. is a blessing. If you want to know what L.A. is like, you find someone from L.A. to show you not to take you to just the hot spots of L.A. This s is history. Black and brown folks, Asian folks, we make L.A. what it is. Eyenzsi Reneaux

What does your L.A. of the future look like? I see the next generation of business owners starting to rise up a lot of them are Black and brown folks. Eyenzsi Reneaux

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? A lot of people say L.A. is fake, but I think its because they meet people who arent from L.A. The actual L.A. is very real, is very conscious, is very rooted in identity and resistance. Graciela Gutierrez

What does your L.A. of the future look like? The future of L.A. is not trying to get into industries and actually creating our own industries. We know what were worth now. And mutual aid, thats something in L.A. thats very special. Graciela Gutierrez

For the writer Rembert Browne, L.A. is all about small interactions, one-on-ones.

(Tom Tuong of Toms One Hour Photo / For The Times)

What do you want people to know about your L.A.? My L.A., predominantly during COVID, has been more about L.A.s natural beauty and appeal. Its not just Hollywood. Its not just aspiring screenwriters taking meetings. Thats part of L.A., but this is also a real city. The best part about being here is I would like to live better, live healthier, all that.

What does your L.A. of the future look like? Im in a place where Im very focused on small interactions, one-on-ones. There are people who have been here for longer than me. Id like to go to them more. Id like to not just go to the same places. The great part about being in Mid-City is you can go to the Eastside and it doesnt feel like a crazy thing. You can go to the beach. We can go to our friends that live in Inglewood. We can go to Hollywood. Theres a certain level of traversing L.A. that Im excited to do where theres people on the other side.

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Photo essay: What these artists and activists want you to know about their L.A. - Los Angeles Times

A weekly audio magazine exploring culture, style, sex, politics, and more, with host Avery Trufelman.

Photo: The Cut

A weekly audio magazine exploring culture, style, sex, politics, and more, with host Avery Trufelman.

In her last episode as host of The Cut, Avery Trufelman revisits the subject of her very first episode: optimism. (But dont fear, listeners,The Cutwill continue publishing new episodes each week in the capable hands of producers B.A. Parker, Jazmn Aguilera, and other members of the Cut team.) This time, she explores the privilege of positive thinking. She speaks to Cut senior writer Katie Heaney about one of her recent pieces, The Clock-Out Cure, as well as Palestinian peace activist and author Souli Khatib about his perspective on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

To hear more about what it means to truly look on the bright side, listen below, and subscribe for free onApple Podcastsor wherever you listen. You can also find the full transcript below.

AVERY: So, let me start with an announcement: This is my last episode with The Cut.

The show is not ending youre in Parker and Jazmins capable hands now, and we have two new producers to welcome aboard: Noor and Schuyler! They will take good care of you, dear listener.

And Im not leaving, per se. Im still at New York Magazine, working on a different project that Ill tell you about. But I am leaving my job. This job. And according to my colleague Katie Heaney, Im not alone.

KATIE: I had been seeing a lot of people on Twitter announcing that they were leaving their jobs. And youre like, Well, I also am tired and sick of doing my job and I also would like to quit.

AVERY: Katie Heaneys piece for The Cut is called The Clock-Out Cure, about how her social-media feeds were suddenly inundated with posts by everyone from academics and journalists to pastors to mayors who were quitting their jobs. And Katie wanted that too!

KATIE: I mostly mean in the worst parts of the pandemic. I just didnt want to have to sign into Slack or talk to anybody. I wanted to sink further into the bad feeling, and having a job got in the way of that.

AVERY: Well, its interesting that you say you wanted to sink further into the bad feeling, because in your piece that you wrote, youre like, I just kept telling myself tomorrow will be better. What was that?

KATIE: Thats partly realism talking. Even when I wanted to quit, I couldnt afford to. So I had to believe that it would get better.

AVERY: Ive definitely felt this over the last year. I was just sort of white-knuckling with hope. Optimism was pragmatism. I kept telling myself, This time wasnt a wash I was using this time to learn so much about myself. Things have to get better. Tomorrow will be better, next month will be better. I dunno, it just has to be.

KATIE: Because even really bad feelings and really bad days arent permanent. No feeling is the last one that youll ever have until youre dead. So I just feel like its just true. Things will get better, and then theyll get worse again, and then theyll get better again.

AVERY: Well, I guess one of the interesting things [about] reading what you wrote is that this is going to be my last episode of The Cut and the first one I made was about optimism, in which the optimism expert told me we are naturally inclined toward negativity.

Youre a writer, you know what its like when you get, like, five positive comments and one negative one. Youre like, Oh my God, my life is over. We tend to fixate on the negative. She said that optimism is like a necessary corrective. I just wonder what you make of that?

KATIE: I feel like I disagree. Like, I just dont think I agree that were naturally negative. I think almost the opposite I think people can be delusionally positive and avoidant more than negative. Maybe this is me generalizing from myself, because I think Im generally a pretty optimistic person.

AVERY: And I suppose I am too. Because since I started working on that original Optimism episode almost exactly a year ago, in my privileged little world, I stayed pretty staunchly optimistic. Like, We have to vote Trump out. We have to find a vaccine. The jury has to find Derek Chauvin guilty. We have to. We will. We must.

Now, in a lot of ways, things are relatively, objectively better I am alive; a lot of my hopes came true. I should probably feel even more hopeful. But the truth is, I dont. Lately, I feel bleakness trickling back in. Im like, Oh, right. Climate change. You know? I feel less optimistic, actually.

KATIE: Yesterday, the CDC said vaccinated people could go mostly maskless, and I just felt like this is pretty purely good news.

AVERY: In a weird way, this is like everything that we dreamt of. That moment. It wasnt the relief that I expected to feel because it was paired with horrible images from Gaza and news of more mass shootings. I dont know. Im just feeling weird.

KATIE: Yeah, no, thats totally fair. And I think that maybe my version of optimism isnt as optimistic as other peoples? I do think good changes will come. I think bad ones will come too. But I think nothing is permanent, and that includes my optimism.

AVERY: And thats just life, right? Cest la vie. Roll with the punches. So it goes. So what do we do with that optimistic urge to continually grasp at something called happiness or satisfaction or peace? That hope that life will somehow not only get better, but stay better and better.

But as Eduardo Galeano put it:

Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk another ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, Ill never reach it. So whats the point of utopia? The point is this: to keep walking.

Im going to keep walking. And the project Im moving on to, or actually back to, is called Nice Try! Its a project from Curbed and Vox Media. Its about humanitys perpetual quest for betterment. Season one was about utopian experiments around the world, including the ways that quests for utopia have been the seeds of colonization, subjugation, and disenfranchisement, because someones utopia is someone elses dystopia. Season two is not going to be about utopias, but it will be about this same pursuit. This same, relentless force of optimism and its pitfalls. Because optimism, at times, can look like the most glaring form of privilege for the lucky and the safe. It certainly felt that way the first time I took off my mask to drink a fancy cocktail at a bar in Brooklyn. Cheers to brighter tomorrows! We did it! But maybe its the other way around: being able to discard optimism is the real luxury.

SOULI: I feel like I, and we, have no privilege to lose hope. What options do we have, like, just to die or to leave this place? Im optimistic despite everything. Well talk about that.

AVERY:Optimism in Brooklyn is one thing. Optimism in the occupied West Bank is another. After the break, one Palestinian activist explains why he has had to learn to be optimistic.

SOULI: Youve been here, actually, Avery?

AVERY: I didnt do Birthright, but I have been there.

SOULI: Do you have a family here or something?

AVERY: No family. Mostly just very conflicted feelings.

SOULI: I see. Yeah. I just want to smoke, if thats all right.

AVERY: Oh, yeah, of course. Go for it.

SOULI: I need a permit as usual.

AVERY: Oh jeez.

SOULI: No, Im kidding. Im just a sarcastic person. What can I do?

AVERY: Its a little on the nose. Its a little too true.

SOULI: I cant help it. Its my personality, but also a survival strategy.

AVERY: Sulaiman Khatib often goes by Souli. Hes an activist living in Ramallah. His biography, In This Place Together, which he co-wrote with activist and writer Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, just came out this year. In it, Souli repeatedly calls himself an optimist. His relentless optimism is that Israelis and Palestinians can, in his lifetime, coexist in full peace and freedom, and that it can be achieved together through nonviolence.

SOULI: If you ask anybody at the time in Berlin in 1988, like a week before, even intelligence. They didnt know. They didnt feel. They were not optimistic that Berlin would be united. Our conversation is the same. Change can happen in very strange ways in history and mass movements can really mobilize much quicker than we think.

AVERY: Souli was actually nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2017 and 2018 for his work with the group he co-founded called Combatants for Peace. They give talks and organize gatherings and demonstrations with both Israeli and Palestinian former fighters. Some people find Combatants for Peace super-controversial, that Souli is reaching out to Israelis to do direct action together.

SOULI: The foundation really started from people that participated in the violent army side, and they reached the point that there is no military solution for the conflict.

AVERY: Wait, why say conflict? The sides arent equal.

SOULI: No, I mean. Im trying to describe the reality, whatever words people will use, they will use. So this intellectual, privileged conversation about the terms I dont care about it so much. We live under Israeli control. Army control. Thats a fact. You can call it what you want.I also know some Israelis because thats who I am, Im a bridge person. I cant change myself in that way. I know Hebrew. I have Israeli friends. I write to them and they also write to me every day. This gives me hope that there are more people [who] know in their heart that this occupation must end. And we have to change the way we deal with each other.

AVERY: You call yourself a bridge builder, and you are, like, bending over backwards to, like, meet Israelis where theyre at. Theyre the ones with all the power and the money and the energy. Why do you have to be the one to learn Hebrew, and learn about them, and educate them?

SOULI: Yeah. So we speak a lot about the power dynamic. Its a very important subject. And I know were tired. How much can we teach the world? Its not just even the Israelis. So I think, in my experience, like building the bridges among our people is so important, because for the first time, the Palestinians [are] almost united right now compared to the previous times. Even [on] social media, the internet and the world, people feel the world start to listen to our voices.

AVERY: I just feel like the thing thats uniting the Palestinian diaspora and the world right now is not peace.

SOULI: Mm-hmm.

AVERY: Like, thats not what has been the uniter right now.

SOULI: Uh, yes. This is our thing. Of course, there are a million opinions. You can ask ten Palestinian people now, and they will give you ten answers.

AVERY: Right. I want to talk to you as an optimist.

SOULI: Yeah, Im accused [of being] optimistic; I dont think I live in the sky. I live a reality also. My family lives here. My sisters son was arrested tonight and was released this morning. Im trying to say, I live in reality. Its not like Im a dreamer and living in the clouds.

AVERY: The Palestinian founders of Combatants for Peace all spent time in prisons. Souli was released in 1997, when he was 24 years old. He had been incarcerated since he was 14.

SOULI: I spent ten years and five months, all in all. When we were in jail, we always expected the freedom to come. How? Nobody has the answer.

AVERY: So, Souli, when you first entered prison, was there an end in sight? How long did you think you would be there?

SOULI:No, I didnt know how long I [would] be there, and I didnt think about it so much. You cant think about it. If you think about it, you will spend the next decade in jail. It will be too hard.

AVERY: Before he was tried in military court, Souli was growing up in a village called Hizma.

SOULI: My village, which is located ten minutes from Jerusalem, is surrounded by three or four settlements around. So Ive seen this with my eyes. I dont need to read books about colonialism or anything. No, its something you feel that your home physically, literally, is really in danger. You have a blood connection to the land, to the trees, and you start feeling this big power taking this land step by step. You see they are building and bringing in new settlers that didnt even speak Hebrew at the time, from Russia and other places. So my little village was part of Jerusalem. [You got a] haircut in Jerusalem, [went] shopping in Jerusalem, dating in Jerusalem. Memories [are] just there. Jerusalem was our central life.

Because the settlements [settled] on that road, we are not allowed to enter anymore. There is a checkpoint. And later on, [it became] a wall, obviously. So it has many effects, one of them on water. On agriculture. On the seasons. On life.

AVERY: Does it literally cut off water?

SOULI: Yeah, basically, the settlers, they built around the water sources.They control every aspect of our life. Thats the truth.

AVERY: When Souli was a kid, he couldnt say the word Palestine. It was illegal to fly the Palestinian flag.

SOULI: You couldnt talk about any politics or draw a Palestinian flag this was illegal. So I did everything I could at the time, like raising Palestinian flag illegally at night because you could be arrested for six months for that. Any activism, any political action will be faced with heavy Israeli army presence there, arresting people. Ive seen this in my eyes, of course, many times.You just have a feeling: Either you will be in jail or you will be killed. These are the two options. Around my village we had a big valley, a historical one with a lot of water. Now its all under Israeli control and settlements around there. Thats where my dad and my mom met, on the water spring. We used to laugh at them, as a romantic thing. Thats where I learned to swim. And thats where I attacked two Israelis.

AVERY: In August of 1986, Souli and a friend of his waited by that spring. With knives.

SOULI: Israelis used to come to the spring to drink. Usually there would be an army there or sometimes civilians. So we expected to find Israelis there. We didnt know who we [would] meet. We saw these two Israelis that were in the army but at the time they were on vacation, so they were hiking. They were 19, 20 years old. I was 14 and five months at this point, and yeah.

[BREATH]

Sorry. Yeah, we used knives, we stabbed them. The intention was to take the weapon in order to use it later on. I wanted to get a gun in order to use it against this new settlement. At the time, the only way [I knew how] to resist this situation was armed struggle.

AVERY: Were you like, Well, I guess Im just going to get arrested anyway, so I might as well do it?

SOULI: Yes. Also, [it was] I dont want to live in obeying the occupation policies. So for me, I dont want to live with this. Its not, I want to die. For Palestinians, generally, the occupation is a terror thing to happen to us. Any struggle against it is just legitimate and moral and should happen. Its a reaction to the system. I believed in what I did. But I didnt think about the risk and the price so much.

AVERY: And so the soldiers were just wounded.

SOULI: Yeah, they were wounded. And they [took] us to a military jail, since we are not Israeli citizens and we live under the occupation rules. Its not the normal Israeli law. They take you to the investigation section, which is the hardest time in jail, because you are isolated alone and you are under physical and psychological torture for a while. Like with the darkness in the cell all day, or when they put the I dont know what to call it in English.

AVERY: Like the hood?

SOULI: Yeah, and like with the handcuffs and with beating. And this was very harsh times for me, like a lot of trauma from the time. And I was struggling to stay strong and dreams that the sun [would] shine again.

AVERY: Did it ever make you feel foolish? Like in 1994 when over 4,000 prisoners were released, including many of your friends, and not you? How did you hold on to that hope?

SOULI: Yeah, of course, there [were] moments like this. This was one of the hardest moments, of course. You feel deeply sad and you cry, and you feel lonely. You [feel] left behind. Things became darker at these kinds of moments. I recognize this. You look at the four walls around you, just in the room. Alone, smoking a lot at the time. After being down in my energy, I recognize what happened, and I breathe again. I think [about] what I should change and what should happen to accommodate a new situation.

AVERY: This is probably a stupid question, but you are in a jail, in an occupied territory, and youre asking yourself, What can I do? from the outside perspective, almost entirely powerless, and did it ever feel delusional to ask yourself what you could do?

SOULI: Let me say from within, we dont, I speak now, not for everybody that was with me in jail, but some of us or many of us. The strong ones among us didnt feel weakness. I understand from the outside, like, Youre in jail, what can you do? But, no. We can still think ofit in a positive way. Its really possible for each of us to even learn how to live with personal or collective crises.

My first hunger strike, I was 15 with a hundred teenagers. We had hunger strikes for 17 days, or 16 days, sometimes. We were organized in solidarity with different groups in jail and outside jail. We have to demand to improve the daily life in jail. To stop the physical torture, to stop isolating prisoners from each other, to allow us to have educational sessions, to bring more hot water. [We had] around 30 demands, usually. Once they agreed to give us like 25, we stopped because the point [was] to improve the life in jail, [and] not to die. And we always succeeded.

AVERY: But I mean, as a metaphor, its so heartbreaking that you had to hurt yourself. You had to severely, severely hurt yourself to make life a little better.

SOULI: Yeah. I think in jail, the power dynamic between the prisoners and the Israeli army is zero to compare. We have nothing [but] our determination and our spirit. And our unity, our solidarity. We always succeeded.

AVERY: Certainly. Again, just pushing back. [Mahmoud] Abbas is the most compliant leader and compromise has only been met with murder. So what do we do with that?

SOULI: I can bring you from my experience, I never studied this professionally, but I know from my personal experience. In jail, there is a lot of teaching and how to stay calm and optimistic despite the challenges. This is one of the tests that we have right now during the war in Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah and Jerusalem. I have been talking to some friends, Palestinian Israelis, and they felt there was really a good moment to create a huge mass movement of nonviolence.

Strategical wise, its very stupid to use violence in front of a heavy, well-armed army like the Israeli army. [Its] one of the strongest, supported and backed by Germany, by America, by all the way. Their systems interest is to shift things to the violence corner because there they win, obviously. It happens all the time, the nonviolence here happens all the time and will continue.

Its actually not something we imported from Martin Luther King or Mandela or Gandhi. It does exist in our culture strongly. Like, Im not religious, but in the Muslim culture, Abu ibn Talib is a famous scholar that spoke a lot about nonviolence. Its really hard to convince people under the occupation that nonviolence can even work the people here who were in jail and humiliated and still humiliated. And the ones in diaspora that cant visit their homeland. I believe the anger is legitimate. I think we have to be strong and not lose hope.

AVERY: But what are you, ultimately? What is the goal for you?

SOULI: Yeah, okay. For me personally, it is really to end the occupation and to create a safe space and equality for everybody that lives here.

For many Palestinians, including the ones supposed to be radical, this is the narrative: Jewish lived among us over the history, but not like a state [of a] Zionist European colonialist movement. But Jewish just a religion like any religion. They could live here as in the past.

Im not legitimizing any wrongdoing that the Israelis are doing. I just dont know, on a personal level, any way out if we dont coordinate responsibility together. Im not a superfan of two states. Im aware we cant jump from an apartheid system to live together in harmony. Thats not going to happen tomorrow. I want us to live together, next to each other. Thats what I want, and [its] the ultimate goal. I feel humanizing the other and their story and narrative will make things easier.

I definitely dont mean that getting to know each other is enough. Obviously, its one little piece of it. Boycott and many other pressures have to happen. Direct action and disobedience and many other strategies. All this optimism doesnt mean we set aside and that we dont do anything. Thats not what I meant.

I actually have a question to you.

AVERY: Yeah.

SOULI: How do you feel?

AVERY: How do I feel?

SOULI: Honest.

AVERY: Personally, it feels very understandable and Im having a hard time because it also can sound like another trope. You know? Like, a violent Palestinian goes to jail and gets reformed and comes out a freedom fighter. It is your story, its truly your story. It is also a story that Westerners like. That white Jews like. Im having a hard time navigating it because I dont want to oversentimentalize it.

SOULI: Yeah.

AVERY: And I want to hear your motives and understand. You know what I mean?

SOULI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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The Cut Podcast: The Other Side of Optimism - The Cut

An immersive storytelling company with an international reach and some animated films on its belt, new local company Moti aims to offer content and 5D events that can help people not to escape reality but to experience it fully, founder and CEO, Pak Chau, told Macau News Agency in an interview.

Founded with an initial MOP3 million (US$375,234) investment, Moti has so far produced two animated shorts, Whats There and Pursuit of Heaven, with Pak pointing to many more on the way produced by an international team and some local talents.

As great as Macau is, it is not a representation of humanity as a whole. So to do this we have created a borderless, international team. For example, our animation director is from India, our lead writer is from the US, and our lead visual artist is from Montenegro, Pak tells MNA.

Over the course of only one year, we have worked with over 200 people from over 20 different countries. Some of our people are full time, some of them are part-time, and some of them work on a project by project basis. We are interested in acquiring the best talent the world has to offer, and the internet is just filled to the brim with inspired, hungry talent.

Founded in January of this year and officially launched in an event in May, Motis founders include Pak Chau and Ray Yang, with Mathew Tsang as its COO.

The two young founders CV already includes roles in several startup projects, with Yang previously the COO at WOW Talents and with Pak involved in at least five consumer tech startups.

Pak recalled how he started his first company at 17, eventually selling for MOP14 million before he had even graduated high school, later founding Oction, Gamico, and Breakthrough Innovation Labs, as well.

None of these are still in operation. One thing I want to make very clear is that Moti is my final company. Im pouring my heart and my soul into this because nothing has ever felt more right in my life and thats how much I believe in this. Im playing chicken with destiny because I know with every fibre of my being that this is it. This is how its supposed to be, he states.

Although its previous main focus was on tech, Motis main business model will be centred on storytelling products, in a multiple medium approach similar to the one employed by animation behemoth Disney.

Look at a company like Disney, utilizing different forms of storytelling media to transform their stories into different business models so that they can keep doing it in a sustainable format that can immerse you in the full Disney experience. The selection of storytelling avenues we have before us is immense: movies, television series, music, free content where you can have advertisers and membershipsyou name it, he adds.

However, the founder points out Moti will differ on its ethos, since while Disney is about creating happiness, Moti is about inspiring perspectives so that people can be opened up to the holistic nature of life.

To not escape reality, but to experience it fully. This is where we are vastly different, he underlines.

The young entrepreneur indicates the company has had already begun production of an animated anthology series called Koan, which explores existential concepts and already released three music singles, Fuse, Lessons, and Centered,with a series of animated poems also in the pipeline.

The company has also partnered with some gaming concessionaires and companies, including MGM, Suncity, and Melco with Pak noting the company intends to use some of the companies many venues for large 5D events.

We will also make documentaries about the lives and stories of the people who work for these brands that form their very backbone, he adds.

Even before its official launch ceremony, Moti had already announced an immersive storytelling event named Moti Talk: The Search for Utopia described by its organisers as a 5D storytelling experience, where attendees would be able to able to not only see and hear, but touch, smell, and fully experience the event.

Moti Talk will feature inspiring content, talk and multimedia with a line-up including the junket and hotel businessman; Hong Kong actor and singer Dicky Cheung Wai-kin, professional swimmer and singer Alex FongChung-sun, and Taiwanese actress Annie Liu Xin-you.

Initially set to be held at Studio City this year, the event is now scheduled for the Spring of 2022.

Our criteria for who we chose was that they are storytellers that represent human values that are inherent within us as a species. The Search for Utopia goes as follows: Ignition, Separation, Perspective, Search, and Home,thefounderindicates.

Ignition, will include Alex Fong who swam for 11 hours around Hong Kong Island. 43 kilometers. He did that as a true manifestation of someone who traveled into the dangerous unknown.

Meanwhile, Annie Liu will speak for the Separation theme having left her home in Taiwan to start a new life in Hong Kong and forced to basically rebuild herself from the ground up to find her new identity, with Ruby Lou sharing her experience as a single mother raising a child with severe autism in Perspective.

Yet she is so enormously grateful for having him in her life, and her life is all the more beautiful by him being such a key part in it.

Meanwhile, Dicky Cheung a world-renowned artist[] extremely gifted actor and singer and now motivational speaker will discuss his journey to find his true calling in Search,while businessman Alvin Chau Paks father will hold a talk named as what he represents to the founder, Home.

According to Pak, the MotiTalk experience will look to engage all the senses, via different multimedia tools.

For example Alex Fong. When he is telling his story, we want to transform the entire arena into an underwater world where you can smell the ocean and feel the cool breeze, with lighting and projections that give you the sense of being underwater, he states.

The company also includes a large list of advisors that include the Chairman Of Anzac Group Company Limited and Director Of Tai Fung Bank Company Limited, Kevin Ho; the CEO Of Sun Entertainment Limited, Jones Chong Cho Lam and the Founder Of Flash Forward Entertainment, Patrick Huang.

The advisor roster also includes several storytelling advisors with backgrounds as diverse as known local MC, Jose Chan Rodrigues and Neuro-Linguistic Programming expert, Lee Sheng Wah, and a creative and production team counting with film director Jack Lam and music director Elliott Leung.

We have a core team of very experienced individuals, such as Jones Lam and Kevin Ho, who have a deep understanding of the market and society as a whole. Its only once youre fully grounded that you have the courage to blast off into outer space, and this team of very knowledgeable advisors enable us to have the unlimited creative freedom that we see not as a luxury, but as a necessity, Pak adds.

In the end, Pak underlines Motis work will be done if it achieves one of its main mottos, to help anyone in Macau (or the world) discover its inner utopia by something as simple as telling a story.

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Animation, storytelling, music and 5D events the main avenues of startup Moti towards our inner utopia CEO - Macau Business

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Melissa Etheridge celebrates her 60th birthday by taking her full band into the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles for a One Way Out...Of the Garage virtual concert at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 29. The show will also preview Etheridges new album, One Way Out, which is coming Sept. 17. Tickets via etheridgetv.com.

Other Events (all subject to change)...

FRIDAY, MAY 28

SiriuxXM hosts a virtual Dance Again Festival, featuring DJ sets by deadmau5, Kygo, Diplo, Marshmello, Tiesto David Guetta and many more, Friday through Sunday on its BPM, Chill, Revolution and Utopia channels. siriusxm.com/listen/freeevent for more information.

They Still Want to Kill Us, an aria by Daniel Bernard Roumain marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre is performed by mezzo-soprano JNai Brides and streaming through July 31 via SummerStageAnywhere.org.

Radiohead revisits a 2018 concert in Lima, Peru at 3 p.m., free via the bands YouTube channel.

Joe Russos Almost Dead tribute band plays at 6:30 p.m. from the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, Conn., with additional shows Saturday and Sunday, May 29-30. Tickets via fans.live.

The Ravi Coltrane Quartets October 2020 performance at the Village Vanguard in New York is reprised at 8 p.m., through Sunday, May 30. Tickets via villagevanguard.com.

Canadian folk trio the East Pointers plays at 8 p.m., with more shows on Saturday, May 29, and Tuesday, June 1. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

Canadian pop duo Neon Dreams streams live at 8 p.m. to benefit The Justice Desk. Tickets via sessionslive.com.

The Artis Quartet presents a program of Mozart and Beethoven in Vienna at 8 p.m. as part of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Tickets via ourconcerts.live.

Singer-songwriters Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser play at 8 p.m. from the Rehearsal Room in Tokyo. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

Vocal powerhouse Veronica Swift scats through jazz and Great American songbook standards at 8 p.m. Tickets via ourconcerts.live.

The Billy Flynn Trio plays the blues at 8:45 p.m. Tickets via ourconcerts.live.

Dead and Company streams its 2020 shows from the Playing in the Sand festival in Cancun at 9 p.m. and again on Saturday, May 29. Tickets via nugs.net.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band reprises an episode of its Fireside Sessions at 9 p.m. Tickets via nugs.net.

Shannon McNally celebrates her new album, The Waylon Sessions, at 9 p.m. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

Pop trio LANY plays at 9 p.m. for the Wiltern Livestream Series from Los Angeles. Tickets via lany.veeps.com.

Troubadour David Shaw continues his From the City to the Swamp Tour at 9 p.m., from a secret location in New Orleans. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

Brooklyn indie pop duo Wet plays its first-ever livestream show at 9 p.m. for Bandsintown Plus. Subscriptions via bandsintown.com.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 29

World premiere performances of Circus Days and Nights, a new opera by Philip Glass, will be livestreamed from Swedens Malmo Opera starting Saturday, May 29. The elaborate production is based on writings by American poet Robert Lax and is co-produced by Cirkus Cirkor. Showtimes and ticket information can be found via malmoopera.se/circus-days-and-nights-in-english.

Ramsey Lewis plays a show devoted to The Incurable Romantic in all of us at 2 p.m. Tickets via stageit.com.

Australian rock trio DMAs will be live from Carriageworks in Sydney at 3 p.m. Tickets via stabal.com.

San Franciscos Death Angel will be headbanging at 6 p.m. with a deep-dig set of The Bastard Tracks. Tickets via aftontickets.com/deathangel-gamh.

Finlands Nightwish returns for its rescheduled virtual concert at 8 p.m. from the Islanders Arms in its hometown. Tickets via nightwish.com.

Maine-based rapper R.A.P. Ferreira and guest Eldon Somers throw down at 8 p.m. from SPACE gallery. Tickets via noonchorus.com.

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier and his band the Chosen Few celebrate the release of his latest album at 8:45 p.m. Tickets via ourconcerts.live.

Chris Young, Luke Combs and Lauren Alaina perform at 9 p.m. and again at midnight from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Tune in via circleallaccess.com.

The duo Barbaro performs at 9 p.m. from the Station Inn in Nashville. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

Travis Tritt is this weeks guest on Talking in Circles with Clint Black, at 10 p.m. via circleallaccess.com.

SUNDAY, MAY 30

The jazz troupe Incognito lets loose at 3 p.m. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

Old Union, Andrew White, Dirty Reynolds and more play an all-star benefit for Nashvilles Exit/In at 3 p.m. Streaming free via nugs.net or the Nugs YouTube channel, with donations going to the club.

Canadian metal favorite Voivod plays its Nothingface album in its entirety at 4 p.m. as part of its Hypercube Sessions series. Tickets via thepointofsale.com.

Country singer Ashley Campbell plays Something Lovely at 4 p.m. Tickets via stagit.com.

Verzuz battle founders Timabland and Swizz Beatz stage a rematch at 8 p.m. via the VerzuzTV Instagram Live account, Trill and Fite TV.

Macy Gray takes to the virtual stage with a livestream performance at 8 p.m. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

The National Memorial Day Concert features performances by Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Sara Bareilles, Mickey Guyston, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and more at 8 p.m. on PBS. Check local listings.

MONDAY, MAY 31

The Metropolitan Opera Theatre begins a week of Aria Code: The Operas Behind the Podcast virtual concerts at 7:30 p.m. with Puccinis Turandot from 2019. The theme runs through Sunday, June 6, via metopera.org.

TUESDAY, JUNE 1

Americana favorite David Bromberg leads his Quintet at 8 p.m. from Marsh Gibbon Farm in Solebury, Pa. Tickets via watch.mandolin.com.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2

The X Factor finalist Grace Davies plays her monthly online show at 2:30 p.m. Tickets via stageit.com.

THURSDAY, JUNE 3

New Yorks Antigone Rising plays new music at 7 p.m. Tickets via stageit.com.

The fifth annual Love Rocks NYC concert honors frontline heroes at 8 p.m. via Facebook Live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Yola, Sara Bareilles, Jon Bon Jovi, ZZ Tops Billy Gibbons, Gary Clark Jr. and others will perform with appearances by Michael Imperioli, Tina Fey, Bernie Williams and others. Proceeds benefit Gods Love We Deliver, which brings food to vulnerable people.

Kent Blazy, Cory Batten and Danny Myrick play this weeks Alive at the Bluebird Presents at 8:30 p.m. from Nashville. Tickets via stageit.com.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band encores another Fireside Sessions episode at 9 p.m. Tickets via nugs.net.

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Melissa Etheridge, LANY top this weeks online concert picks - cleveland.com

The third full episode of The FADER Uncovered, a brand new podcast series in which host Mark Ronson talks with the worlds most impactful musicians, is up now and available for download wherever you listen to podcasts. This week Ronson sits down with David Byrne, the Talking Heads founder whose whose music has led the way for multiple generations of artists. Together they discussed Byrnes stunning Broadway show American Utopia plus his work with Brian Eno on 2008 album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

The two also bring up lots of music across the episode, referencing songs by Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Sly & The Family Stone, and many more during their conversation. To make that all easier to navigate, weve dropped it all into a 46-song playlist, which you can check out below.

Follow and subscribe to The FADER Uncovered here, check out this weeks episode with Questlove here, and check back for new episodes every Monday.

Originally posted here:

Hear every song mentioned in David Byrnes episode of The FADER Uncovered - The FADER

EFFORTS TO STRENGTHEN BONDS between the native and African diaspora have been ongoing since the mid-19th century. To foster unity among all African peoples, Henry Sylvester Williams coined Pan-Africanism and convened the First Pan-African Conference in London, July 1900. Pronounced in different forms, proponents of Pan-Africanism like Marcus Garvey called for Africa for Africans, at home and abroad whereas W.E.B. Dubois called for reforms in the imperialists' policies. Despite the variations in semantics and approach, they all rose in unison to create public opinion and enhance public sentiment in favour of a free and united Africa.

While these leaders directed their amalgamated efforts in this enormous cause, certain individuals of the same race were leveraged against Africa. With little to no faith in themselves or their fellow Africans, they heinously used their access to imperialists, helping them to exacerbate and maintain colonialism, which tainted the image of the Pan-African movement.

Their school of thought associates Pan-Africanism with self-centric radicals and opportunists, who outrageously denounce the rest of the world, and position themselves as a new African elite (African/neo colonialists) who are up no good siphoning the wealth that Africa retained after years of exploitation. This unfounded view has robbed the concept of the initial intent that triggered its scripting. Degraded by multifaceted oversight, the Pan Africanism movement has not yet fully realized its primary aim.

To keep Africa as a dependent continent, narratives have been shaped by imperialists and their African puppets. The African image has been painted as destitute - it has been portrayed as a 'dark continent', a place of horrific savagery where 'inhumanism' thrives; a place of feudalism and barbarianism, with people rotting in hunger and poverty. It is pictured as a continent where naked kids play in the rains or with AK 47s as toys. It has been labelled as a continent where natural resources are shipped to the Western world by greedy leaders in the name of attracting development and creating employment. Such stereotypical stories told by the Western powers seek to diminish our esteem as Africans and narrow the relevance of Pan-Africanism to nothing but a failed utopia.

The fostering of this altered reality is sold to break us further apart and keep us in circles, chasing endless ends. Africa has been viewed through the lenses of a fragile state and profoundly ignored the meritorious success stories within the vast continent. The scintillating stories of great men like Cheikh Anta Diop, who predicted that man first lived in Africa, have been kicked under the carpet but promoted the narratives of recent historians like Yuval Noah Harari, who preaches the same tales.

The realities of Africa's transformation from small tribes to spontaneous cartographic dissection of Africa into states, and still tried to stay as intact communities go uncaptured. The mysterious shift from over 40 coup d'etats in different African nations to having the fastest-growing countries two decades later, remains utterly ignored.

Whereas Africa has been branded unfairly, the fact that Africa as a continent has achieved tremendous results over the last 60 years can't go uncounted for. This doesn't imply that African states are perfect, but should call for a joined voice to ensure that our stories are captured with honesty and proper representation.

Africa is not needy. Africa is vastly endowed. We are responsible for making use of our diverse abilities to make it a better place, a haven other than auction it to the West for the benefit of a few. We should work together, united in our diversity and seek the promotion of an authentic story that represents our beliefs and lived realities. We cannot ignore that conflicts still exist, hunger and poverty, disease and ignorance. But we should equally show that we have walked through this and made commendable steps. While we paint a new picture, we should not wallow in comfort and ignore that we have more issues to solve.

Firmly, we should not be a people without memory, as Cheikh Hamidou Kane writes in the New School: The Cannon and the Magnet. We have a vast past, we have endured a tortured history, and we have been able to thrive even when the world keeps us at bay in significant global conversations whose consequences affect us. Our willingness to learn from the past will enable us to define a more coherent future where Africa is united and able to live up to her rights of self-definition.

Ousman Touray is Young Pan Africanist from Gambia .

The views expressed in this article are of the author

editor@newtimesrwanda.com

Originally posted here:

Africans, we should all be Pan-Africanists - The New Times