ATLANTA MAGAZINE (Reported News)
Nothing Can Stop Lonnie Holley
Atlanta-based artist and performer Lonnie Holley never plays the same song twice. Not because of some avant-garde decision but because at seven years old, he says, he was struck by a car and spent the next three and a half months unconscious. “They considered my brain dead,” says Holley. “Ever since then, it’s been a struggle to keep reviving my own brain to a point it can be productive.”
WIRED (reported news)
Free All-Terrain Chairs Are Making the Great Outdoors Even Better
BEN OXLEY WAS 35 years old when he connected with nature for the first time. Born with cerebral palsy, he’d spent his whole life in a wheelchair, unable to access hiking trails or rugged parks without the help of some very dedicated friends and serious equipment…
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SLATE (opinion)
Please Don’t Leave Bagged Dog Poop in the Outdoors!
Recently, on a hike with a friend, among towering Douglas fir and western hemlock trees, by a glassy, pebble-rich creek, we saw giant plops of black-bear scat every few hundred yards. We were miles from the trailhead. Among the views, among the bear excrement, was a green bag, on a stump: dog droppings. The poop had been scooped, bagged, and then just … left there.
INSIDER (personal essay)
Dr. Dax returns to graffiti paradise
Legendary graffiti artist Dr. Dax got his start guerrilla spray-painting freight trains in Atlanta back in 1985. Only 9 years old at the time, he had recently moved from the dense swamplands of South Florida, an environment that couldn’t have been more different than the vast urban sprawl of Georgia’s capital. Yet, there in the concrete and railroad jungle of Atlanta, Dr. Dax found a playground of inspiration.
CAPITAL REGION LIVING (reported news)
The Eagles of Peebles
Forget about driving up to the Adirondacks to catch a glimpse of America’s majestic national bird. Heck, you don’t even have to leave the Capital Region. Sandwiched between the urban sprawl of Waterford, Cohoes and Troy is a little bald eagle hotspot called Peebles Island. Barely 10 miles from downtown Albany, this 190-acre state park is home to a pair of nesting bald eagles that have caught the attention of a local group of wildlife photographers and bird enthusiasts.
HOLLINS MAGAZINE (reported news)
Immigration Is A Black Issue
Patrice Lawrence ’11 knows what life is like for the more than half a million undocumented Black immigrants in the United States—she’s one of them. Also, as the cofounder and co-director of the immigrant’s rights nonprofit UndocuBlack Network, Lawrence understands all too well how difficult it can be existing in the immigration shadows of modern day America, of constantly fearing detention or deportation.
HUFFPOST PERSONAL (essay)
I Was Taught Not To Tell Anyone I Was Jewish…
HUFFPOST PERSONAL (personal essay)
I already knew the litany. “Don’t go to synagogue. Don’t put your names on any lists. Don’t tell anyone you’re Jewish.” Growing up, we were the only Jewish family in the community. Although only a half-hour north of Birmingham, where there are three synagogues, we grew up isolated from the small Hebrew community there because my parents worked so much to provide for my siblings and me.
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HUFFPOST PERSONAL (personal essay)
I’m Vaccinated And Still Got COVID-19. Here’s What A Breakthrough Case Is Like.
“Alabama is probably the worst spot to get infected with the coronavirus right now, especially if you’re uninsured like me.”
THE INDEPENDENT (opinion)
My family and I all have Covid. We’re fully vaccinated. It’s clear we need another lockdown
I remember the day I received my first shot of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination. It was April 1, and I went with my mother, who was also receiving her first dose. At the time, we had to drive forty-five minutes one way to reach the closest vaccination site at an old regional airport in Jasper, Alabama.
HUFFPOST PERSONAL (essay)
I Spent 5 Days At The Largest Migrant Refugee Camp On The U.S. Border
“Biden has sworn to undo the previous administration’s damage to the nation’s immigration system. Meanwhile, for those waiting in refugee camps, nothing has changed.”
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Jeff Dingler 