Between 1980 and 2021, the number of incarcerated women in the US increased by more than 525 percent, rising from 26,326 in 1980 to 172,700 in 2023. What’s gone wrong ? How can we fix it? ________________________________________________________________________ Excerpts from a prison writing workshop, Wyoming Women’s Center, 2017 “When you are young you feel that you… Read More
I must admit I skimmed over Turkish history in my youth. But I had wanted to visit Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) ever since I was aware of its existence. The city had an aura of mystery and mixed influences. It was the setting for James Bond films. Today the nation is supposed to be a… Read More
My husband Neil had been badly injured in a biking accident in early September. He went head first over handlebars zooming down a hill when his brakes failed. He lost consciousness, sustained a fractured rib and wrist, dislocated fingers, and covered himself in road rash so extensive it looked like a Hollywood makeup job. A… Read More
by Arielle Emmett Tameca Cole, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, spent 26 years at Julia Tutwiler Women’s Prison (Wetumpka, AL) for a drug deal gone bad. She was 21 years old at the time and won’t disclose further details except to say that someone was killed. Today, at age 51, she’s an artist whose work… Read More
My 24 year old landlady, the R&B rapper, Wangechi Waweru Mwende, survived a horrific car accident four years ago. Today she’s rebuilding her life and career without much fuss or desire to talk about either. I happen to have chosen the house she lives in with her Mom, Nancy Wangaru Migwi. The two share a modest… Read More
After staying in Nairobi 24 hours on no sleep, I took a flight to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to attend a conference entitled Africa-Asia: ‘A New Axis of Knowledge 2.’ The object was to learn about the region and run into contacts who might help me locate Chinese enclaves and business folks making interesting money… Read More
Dawn: Mwingi Rd., Kileleshwa, Nairobi. My Lufthansa flight -an Airbus A340-300 — touched down last night at 8:11 pm local time. It has taken me an entire summer to prepare for this day. I haven’t slept much. The cock is crowing. There was a slow-mo feel to the entire season of renting, interviewing, writing magazine… Read More
My Mom’s best friend, my surrogate mother growing up, was an opera singer named Maria Callas. No, not that Maria Callas, the tempestuous vocal genius and companion to Aristotle Onassis. This Maria Callas was altogether different — warm, gifted, fragile, yet steely strong. She passed into another life September 8 2017, and her daughter, Michele Morin, sent… Read More
[Read full story in Smithsonian.com] His reconstructed faces have tongues that taste and eyelids that blink. But will they withstand the test of time? [Dec. 9, 2016] There have been 38 facial transplants worldwide to date. Not all have survived. (Elnur / iStock) By Arielle Emmett SMITHSONIAN.COM DECEMBER 9, 2016 On September 5, 2001,… Read More
Harbin, Manchuria: Officials here seem reluctant to spotlight the Japanese germ warfare scientists and what they did to thousands of local inhabitants here in 1932 and beyond. Perhaps that’s the reason Harbin has built China’s greatest contemporary war museum, known formally as “The Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731,” in… Read More