like so many around me, the last week and a half has crushed me. collectively we are watching a slice of the world become devastated (*acknowledging that this is one of many places suffering right now). i'm also bearing witness to the poison of war and what it's ripple effect on the people around me. social media (which i've recently learned is truly an addiction for me) has been a platform for hate speech, mis/disinformation all around. i've seen entire dimensional experiences and trauma being flattened while people are burying their relatives and fleeing from bombs. we are all struggling right now but especially those of us directly and culturally connected to the region. to be muslim or jewish in this moment is an extremely stressful experience, one filled with fear, grief, rage, confusion; watching our peoples be conflated with evil atrocities and our ancestry being completely misrepresented while trying to make sense of our feelings.
when i told my therapist this week that the conflict was causing me so much stress as i have connection to the middle east- she asked me if i was muslim or jewish (answer is jewish). we face different oppression of course but anti-semitism and isalmophobia are not opposites. its so easy to make this neat complete package of this vs that but we are all mixed with complex ancestries and long held narratives about our peoples.
yesterday morning i had coffee with a friend and while we were processing our experiences together, a car drove by with its windows rolled down blasting "imagine" by john lennon. i will never forget this tender, hopeful, poetic moment. what i truly feel is that we need to reach into our hearts and humanity and see each other as equals that want the freedom to live with dignity, liberation and peace. we are all shaped by our own lived and historical experiences and there is never just one truth- there are many that co-exist within us. what i do know is that innocent people don't deserve to die for just trying to live. we must live with wildly open hearts.
speaking of wonderful hearts, this week i am so excited to share the picks of the brilliant Luis Nieto Dickens, who I met when I was working at Elsewhere a few years back. he is the masterful eye behind all the images of Elsewhere's nightlife. an artist in every sense of the word. his answers brought actual tears to my eyes (*see the nose drawings). without further ado...
Luis Nieto Dickens is a photographer and artist working in New York City. He's currently the in-house photographer at Elsewhere Brooklyn.
Luis grew up in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, located in the Mexico-U.S.A. border and next to El Paso, TX. He graduated from the graphic design program at The University of Texas at El Paso with a specialization in printmaking.
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what kind of life do you want to live?
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a drawing of luis's grandpa's nose
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I WANT TO SMELL EVERYTHING! I have an obsession with scents, and all kinds of smells. I also think I would like to live a life of simplicity and happiness, with ups and downs but always enjoying and taking advantage of every moment, moments I enjoy by myself and moments with people I love.
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these days I find myself wanting to get back into street photography, and love walking in the fall/winter with camera in hand taking photos of my neighborhood and the weird and out of place things that catch my eye. I'll be uploading more to my photo blog in the coming weeks!
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CIANA - Amazing organization providing legal assistance, different types of classes, and many other services for the immigrant community!
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The Fifth Element - I love to rewatch it at least every two years, love the costume design, the music, and obviously Ruby Rhod, since when I was a kid, and to this day, I've always wanted to be a radio host!
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EIGHT LEGS - 'These Grey Days' - I'm a huge fan of Hedi Slimane, his work with Dior Homme, and his photography. The song by Eight Legs was featured in Dior's 2006/07 FW collections and I listen to it at least once a week.
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luis' article of the week
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This is not necessarily an article, but I have Cabinet Magazine's massive book of ten years of magazines, it's kind of an encyclopedia of their entries, and this week I opened it up to read one of them:
LAND ACQUISITION 2: QUEENS COUNTY, NEW YORK
Revisiting the sites of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Reality Properties: Fake Estates, by Jeffrey Kastner. I've always been fascinated by dirt, land ownership, precious metals, and all the issues and concepts that derive from them.
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My diet has not been the best best in the last few weeks cuz of work, but I love to make savory pancakes with an egg on top + vegan sausage and whatever veggies I have in my fridge that I need to eat ASAP. Aside from that, this week I went to Mao Mao with my boo, in the heart of Bushwick, a Thai street food restaurant and the vibe in there is amazing, apparently is a cinema as well, highly recommended!
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Well, I have a weird attraction to strange or unusual smells or scents, so I have to say that my favorite flower is the Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum), which actually might not be a flower at all. It smells like rotten flesh, or bad fish, but it is also so monumental and powerful, it only blooms once every eight to ten years, and only for about 26 hours. I still think it's a beautiful statement on how moments of joy and beauty can be temporary but in our memory they could last forever, and it is up to us to find the beauty in every day life, and find peace and happiness in the most unexpected places, and respect and celebrate one another!
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and a few picks from push...
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furniture music is exactly what it says on the box: furniture that makes music.
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...you know my love for all things hair and what it represents. this article from atlas obscura details the history of the wig industry in south korea, and how it was responsible for transforming their postwar economy.
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this site has an incredible deep dive into the city of tenochitlan--including 3D renders of what it may have looked like.
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next time you need a color palette, look no further than coolors.co.
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i know we all miss pee wee herman, so soothe your heart a little with this verge article on the set design of his playhouse.
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i don't care who's singing it
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one last tune to carry you through the week.
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we hope you are keeping cool and that you enjoyed another installment of push picks. as always, if you like what you read, forward it to someone or encourage them to sign up. it would mean the world to us 🌎
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