The Nile Project

Hello TED Friends....

I'm here in San Francisco, relishing a rather rare moment of hilltop gazing, getting ready to head out on tour tomorrow. Much time has passed since I've last written, but it's been a beautiful few months. And of course, there's lots to share.

First - THE NILE PROJECT - This is my big new initiative. It is a multicultural musical platform that will bring together hip-hop, traditional and contemporary musicians living in the Nile countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt) to play and record music, to tour down the river and its source lakes on a boat made of recycled water bottles, and connect the people of the river to each other and to the broader world. Loosely based on the Silk Road Project, and created by myself and Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis, the Nile Project explores the intersection of ecology and culture across much of East Africa.

We are in the homestretch of a kickstarter campaign, and oh-so-close to our $10,000 kickstarter goal... Only $1300 left to go to make it to the finish line. And you know how kickstarter is.... If you don't raise it all, you don't get a thing. We just need a few word spreaders to tip us over the top! Post away!

Second, a new album.... ALMOST COMPLETE. CopperWire's Earthbound. It's a hip-hop space opera made in collaboration with two Arba Minch Collective members, Gabriel Teodros and Burntface, and born out of our last trip to Ethiopia. Using metaphors of space travel and intergalactic distances, we explore diaspora and cultural connection and disconnection. NASA star sounds are in the songs. Yes indeed. The website is in progress, but just launched. Check it out at www.copperwiremusic.com.

Third - an East Coast tour coming up NEXT WEEK with shows in Montreal, Burlington, Boston, Pittsburgh, Arlington/Washington DC, and New York City. Please join me!

http://www.facebook.com/events/226843364063717/

The adventure continues!
More - very - soon,
Meklit

Posted by Meklit Hadero 

Comments [1]

Sri Lanka: The kingdom of giants

Dear Fellows,

Here is an article I wrote for a local magazine that is distributed free to all passengers coming in through our airport. It is an attempt to help my country promote 'responsible' tourism and create a conscience amongst those interested in partaking in whale watching tours. I hope you enjoy it and it inspires you to responsibly travel to my beautiful country soon :)

Asha.

Img_6884-1


Sri Lanka: The kingdom of giants

While the width of its fluke is the length of an average Sri Lankan fishing boat, it is with great respect that we maneouver through its territory knowing that a mere flick of the tail would send us reeling. But it is with unending fascination that we stop to watch. Even as a researcher who has the privilege to spend many hours weaving through their world, each encounter reminds me how lucky I am to experience something that only the smallest percentage of our world has, and ever will get the opportunity to marvel at.

The largest animal to ever roam the planet, the blue whale, is fast becoming a national icon; a symbol for the Sri Lanka in a new era of peace. While Sri Lankans are now free to roam and experience the entire country, the blue whale is free to explore the entire ocean, however, those in our waters do not wander afar. The northern Indian Ocean basin is home to a population of blue whales that, unlike others of this species, remain resident all year round.  While the warm waters of the tropics are a key reason for tourists from around the world to flock to our shores, it is precisely what prevents most whales from hanging around throughout the year. Tropical waters are generally less food-rich than those in the cooler areas such as the poles. For a species that feeds exclusively on tiny shrimplike animals called krill, that are no bigger than a 2 rupee coin, and consume about 3.6 metric tons or 2/3rds of the weight of an elephant in a single day – having areas rich with food is a key to their survival.

The blue whale is a baleen whale. This means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material, called baleen attached to their upper jaws and a distinct absence of teeth. These giant animals feed by gulping an enormous mouthful of water, which is made possible by the expansion of their throat pleats. The whale then uses its massive tongue, which weighs as much as an elephant, to force the water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates. The krill that are left behind are then swallowed in a single gulp.

So why are they called blue whales? Because as they swim under the surface of the ocean, they take on a beautiful tinge of blue; while at the surface, they are a mottled blue-gray in colour. While blue whales are generally considered solitary, in Sri Lanka, one often gets the opportunity to see more than just a couple in a single area. So why are our waters so popular with these great leviathans? Well, evidence comes in the form of a reddish substance that floats at the surface of the water before dissolving….blue whale poo! It gets its beautiful hue from the reddish-pink krill that the whales consume…and the fact that they defaecate is a sign that they are feeding in our waters.

While Sri Lanka is now being crowned one of the most accessible places in the world to see blue whales, for over two thousand years another giant has become synonymous with our island – the elephant. It became such a symbol of Sri Lanka that the coat of arms used during Dutch and British rule were adorned with an elephant standing majestically between two stands of palm trees. Sri Lanka is a blessed land. An unimaginable range of cultural and natural sights, smells and sounds abound as you travel through this island and the sight of the largest land mammal roaming the planet today is certainly one to behold. The mere fact that it is possible to see the largest land mammal and the largest marine mammal in one holiday makes Sri Lanka a very unique land and definitely worth a visit.

Unfortunately, both these species, the largest mammals in their respective habitats are endangered – they face a very high risk of extinction in the wild. They face problems related to increasing human encroachment – directly linked to increasing population size. Blue whales face significant threats from increasing ship traffic and elephants suffer from loss of territory and habitat due to increasing land development. While research on blue whales is still at its infancy mostly due to the costs related to working in the marine environment, we are beginning to understand their needs and better ways to conserve the populations.

So, while we sit back and enjoy the moment it is always important to remember to treat these giants with respect. We must recognize that these are wild animals, and while seeing them is a moment to celebrate, there is no guarantee for nature. To truly appreciate these giants, we must watch them in their natural habitat indulging in their natural behaviours. Rushing to get as close as possible or any other invasive action on our part only disturbs them and sends them fleeing. It is essential that you tell your operator that while you are keen to watch these animals you are happy to hang back and get the real experience to prevent harassing the animals. Make a statement about the importance of conserving these species when you pick your guide and don’t be afraid to vocalize if you think they are disrupting the animal’s behaviour. We have to remember that while we have the privilege to experience these giants, two of the greatest that have ever lived, they are not ours to destroy. We have a responsibility to protect them as they belong to all of us and most of all to our unborn children.

divdivdivdivdiv

Posted by ashadevos 

Comments [0]

Udder genius: Fellows Friday with Su Kahumbu

Su Kahumbu

Agriculturalist and social entrepreneur Su Kahumbu created iCow, a mobile app that supports farmers caring for livestock. Soon it will become an information-delivery platform that could help generate a whole new crop of young farmers.

What does iCow do?
The iCow application essentially reminds small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya of important periods in gestation. This was information farmers previously had to acquire by contacting veterinary offices or artificial insemination providers. Now, via SMS, farmers register, inputting information about their livestock, and iCow pushes information and instructions to them, prompting them on what to do during vital gestation days. It also offers tips and information on feeding practices, disease control, and so on. Much of this information is delivered over SMS, but farmers may also speak to a live person in our customer care centre. Our farmers will never trust something that is absolutely virtual — they like to know there’s a voice at the other end of the phone if they need it!

But iCow has already grown from when we launched it in June 2011 with two features — the gestation calendar and a search directory to help farmers find nearby vets and artificial inseminators. Literally — within two days — farmers started asking for more features. So we started building them, such as the iCow marketplace.

Farmer registering with iCow

A farmer registers with iCow. Photo: Su Kahumbu

How does the marketplace work?
Many farmers in the dairy sector often upgrade or sell their animals. There’s as much interest in selling your in-calf heifers as there is in selling milk to processors. But while the processors have done a fairly good job of networking on developing milk-aggregating posts, not as much has been done where farmers can actually find other farmers who are selling animals. iCow allows farmers to post notices of animals for sale on the platform, and then farmers across the country can find them. If you’re looking for a specific breed within a particular distance, you can find out easily whether there’s one for sale.

Also, some products don’t have a very well-developed value chain — say, goat’s milk. iCow enables farmers who have only have few goats and therefore small amounts of milk to find each other and aggregate their product so that it can be taken to market. Farmers can post produce for direct sale on the platform as well, of course.

But the platform goes beyond serving farmers’ needs.
iCow is the last mile to the farmer. And that is very, very powerful. For many organizations, government ministries, and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector, the only way to get out to the farm is either by vehicle or working in small projects with us around the country. iCow essentially networks farmers that would otherwise be very difficult to access. Right now, iCow has 80 percent geographical penetration across the country. This enables all of the other stakeholders access to those farmers. iCow is already becoming a tool that’s not only used by farmers, but also by government and other agricultural industry stakeholders.

For example, the platform allows farmers to alert the system immediately when there are disease outbreaks, allowing everyone react to it very quickly. The local authorities can then broadcast this news to all farmers on the platform in the affected region, telling them where and when to find vaccination services. Other stakeholders are using it to advertise agricultural field days or exhibitions in certain locations, or to offer financial services, for example.

The customer care centre

iCow’s customer care staff. Photo: Su Kahumbu

To read the complete interview, visit the TED Blog.

Posted by Karen Eng 

Comments [4]

Taking a shower

After I don't know how many months of inactivity, I am finally finding a moment to reconnect and share my thoughts.  The past few months can qualify as the most demanding and stressful times in both my professional and private life by far.  For over 10 years I have been designing, drafting, redesigning, redrafting what would be my dream house, including all the ideal spaces and gadgets I have ever through of, to showcase all strategies and technologies for a more sustainable living, and as my life and living patterns suffered changes, going from 1 kid to two and later to three, and finally adding a dog to our already large family, the house also suffered changes in the drafting table.  When getting close to the 10 years of design I decided it was time to venture myself into the building process, so taking into account all the additional effort it required from me and my family financially and time wise, I still decided to jump in the pool, and dragged everyone in with me.  

As an architect I was very much aware of the construction process and its demands, however my children and husband were not, and even through my office staff is also familiar with the construction process, none of us could actually grasp all the strength this would drag from me and all the sacrifices to be made.  My kids getting used to waking up at 6:00am to see me rush through the door to the construction site, my husband complaining of the long nights at work to make up for time spent at the construction site during the day, and my office pretty much begging for more of my time to solve other pressing matters in projects much more important that my dream house.

Every day I took to the construction site to see how things were blossoming, as to my eyes they did blossom from a very interesting sometimes risky idea into actual objects and spaces I could see and touch.  I saw how the site was prepared and the top soil reserved for future planting, how the reused oil pipping was coming up as structural elements, how the wood used for formwork for the concrete pieces was being carefully selected and stored for future reuse on site as doors and furniture, and how the pipping was being organized to allow for water classification and reuse of gray water within the same bathrooms.  All the time I continued to see my ideal house develop in front of me, and despite the stress, bringing a sense of fulfillment.  Of course this happened only to me, its designer and creator, however all those around had different perspectives, my children complaining about the materials chosen, my husband about the size of certain spaces, but I kept on urging them to wait until the building was complete in order for them to pass judgement.

Eleven months later, I have already spent a couple of weeks living in my dream house, and can confirm everything is great about it.  My kids and husband at the end have understood all the effort put into it, and have come to love all the different spaces, materials and textures.  Visitors still find the house "different", "odd" and in some cases have even thrown harsher remarks, but I know it is difficult to understand, it is difficult for people who have not experienced spaces like these to grasp its strength and purpose.
The house sits on a large site, filled with 30 year old trees, and it is a curved house adjusting to the central tree, placing surrounding over building.  The house is a built model of all my design principles, it includes reused pieces such as oil pipping for structure, a truck chassis for staircase, shredded tires for wall and floor covering in bathroom areas, has the concrete slab as only and final floor finish,  recycles all of its lavatory and shower water for reuse in the toilet, and in a 3 month period will be all PV powered and will heat the water from solar collectors.  

So lets get to the point, taking a shower.  In my previous homes, every time me or my kids took a shower, we had to leave the shower running for a few minutes before warm water came through, thinking of all the water going to waste down the drain, and most times I was always rushing everyone to take fast showers in order to minimize water waste.  
I can summarize the house and the impact it is already having on all of us, by saying we now think about the ways in which we are reducing our footprint and impact as we are taking a shower.  My children are learning about the impact each person has on its surroundings though the use of resources and they are proud to tell their classmates and friends about how their home is efficient, about it's recycled and salvaged materials,  how it has become now also THEIR dream house.

So in the end we all think this has been time well spent.

Photo



Veronica Reed
SDS
Sustainable Design Studio
www.sds-arch.com
P. 59399161587

Posted by Veronica Reed 

Comments [4]

What Mountaintop Are You Climbing? What Story Do You Have to Tell? (MLK DAY)

Mandela_authorized_portrait_se

[photo by Hans Gedda/Corbis in Mandela: The Authorized Portrait; edited by Kyra Gaunt-Palmer with picnik.com]

Each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves.    --  Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

WHAT MOUNTAINTOP ARE YOU CLIMBING?

Today marks the 26th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday. On the 25th anniversary I celebrated by releasing a book of racism op-eds highlighting structural inequalities that touched the lives of 27 students who participated in a racism course I taught in the fall of 2010 at Baruch College-CUNY. The student represented 14 different countries. The group unanimously chose the title Could You Be the Bigger Nigger? which eventually was salvaged into Could You Be Bigger? with a few slashes here and there thanks to then-Facebook-friend (now husband) author Jim Palmer.  That title was a mountaintop for many readers. To accept the n-word as a possible access to something more powerful than the word.

I cautiously opened the issue and came away strengthened. (anonymous)

As a professor of hip-hop, anthropology and black studies and as a trainer, I've taught several courses, workshops and events for over 15 years that have been devoted to up-ending socially constructed notions of race-as-human-difference and I've constantly encountered a similar phenomenon or reaction in participants that is racial and is not racial at all. It's human fear at work. Whenever I meet someone who is not from the U.S. (from Europe or even Canada...but never South Africa), to be precise, it happens whenever a participant is not from the U.S. and happen to NOT be of African descent, 90% of them always feel the urgent need to assert to me, as facilitator, that they are interested but that where they are from there is no racism. After the workshop or event, they begin to question their pre-existing thought.

Racism is not just a U.S. thing. I prefer to redefine "racism" as anything that separates the oneness of humanity--not just skin color preference, housing discrimination, or U.S. race relations. The poorest, the disenfranchised, and darkest in other nations and the inequities felt by those countries and islands that are not part of the U.S. and other "first-world" nations, they all tend to be aware of facts that suggest that "racism" does exist--various social and/or economic disparities that leave them out of what is considered real, viable, available, and/or "civilized" to those who have privilege of one sort or another. Skin color is often part of that privilege but it is not always present in the abused.

WE ARE ALL UNTOUCHED BY SOMEONE

We all, each and every one of us in this world of 6.9 billion, are some kind of "untouchable" to someone else at the level of individual, group, community and/or nation. The paradox that we all came from the same genetic source is mostly lost of too many individuals at all levels. There is no question in my mind. We are one.

In January of last year, I was preparing to embark on my first journey to Scandinavia with my friend I met on twitter wedding photographer Parris Whittingham. My trips to Europe, China, and Scandinavia since I became a TED Fellow in February of 2009, have changed my listening of who I am as a person of color, as a black woman, and who I am as a person committed to the transformation of conversations of race and racism such that those superstitions disappear without changing a thing about you or me.

The photo above of Mandela is similar to the one I share in the story below. A story that has sat in a draft email since February of 2011. Here I salvage that story in honor of MLK day. In honor of my own growth and development which could only begin when I left my comfort zone of blackness and began to notice how those who are not-black-like-me also have stories and connections just like me to figures like Mandela and MLK. Jr.  This is my story. What's yours?

I wrote this right after a woke from hearing words speaking in my dream. This is essentially unedited; exactly as I wrote it to myself a year ago.

AWOKEN BY A DREAM

There's something about the power of telling a story, the sharing of which is not about accuracy or whatever really happened. It's about a wisp of life apprehended or a thread that weaves awareness into some random moment. "There is something about the power of telling a story" was the line that awoke me at 12:30pm Norway time [I was living in NYC back then]. It was my 8 hour alarm clock for I had hoped to sleep 8 hours my second night in Trondheim. 

My eyes opened on a image hung on the wall beyond the foot of the bed. I had not noticed it before. Hilde Iglebaek, my Norwegian host, is bunking with her housemate while I have her room to myself. The image is sepia-toned, a black and white photo. It's beautiful, slated to the right. Nelson Mandela beams. His eyes nearly closed with aged fingers like some inverse tripod gently upholding of his chin. His hands foreground the beginnings of a glorious smile as if his lips were the horizon of some bursting sunrise. His teeth peek through, beginning to show. 

The close-up shot was captured on some kind of newspaper print. The size is almost perfectly 8 x 11. Unframed, there was deep crease sloping down across the middle of the paper in the space between his teeth and his lower lip. The crease marked a happiness. The traces of Hilde's happiness. The print was at some time ago handled, gripped without a care, perhaps from some rally or event honoring South Africa's King [She later shared it was a rally and she was mesmerized and held the paper tight].

How do you describe the power of what I glimpsed in that moment...in words? How do you write about an encounter with something so new [being in her room discovering myself through a photo on her wall that reflected my life back at me? How do you write that] to others who are at such a distance from the experience that it cannot be measured in kilometers, nor translated into miles. [Brooklyn was a millennia away. Black Brooklyn even further.]

There is something about the power of storytelling, of sharing one's discovery of another's learned ways of thinking, feeling, believing and behaving in terms that are not their own and yet my own and theirs. Translation cannot get you there. But we anthropologists must begin to write it anyway. Tell one story. One story at a time. [Martin and Mandela did theirs. What is mine?] No matter where [...our story] begins. I hope to captured some of that during the trip to ISFiT (link updated).  [Written 2/20/2011; Rev. 1/17/2012]

Sunglass.io: Design Without Boundaries

Friends in the TED Community -- 

Building on Kaustuv DeBiswas's TED Fellows talk, we've just launched Sunglass.io, the easiest way to share and collaborate around 3D content directly in your browser. The early version you can try right now has already been reviewed as "one of the slickest web-based 3D apps yet.." Since hacking at MIT, and having the opportunity to be part of the catalytic TED Fellowship, we're excited about how far this idea has moved and are keen to contribute.

We'd love your feedback on how we can make this most useful for your workflow. Let us know if there are any particular requirements we can custom build for you, and if you'd like to showcase your work to the global community. Here is a preview video tutorial to get you started, ahead of our upcoming professional release. Looking forward to hearing your experience with Sunglass.io!

Nitin Rao & Kaustuv DeBiswas

Posted by Nitin Rao 

Comments [0]

Calling all weather Gods

260311_adv_img_0001-2

Life is about challenges...and in some ways, things would be boring if this was not so. Thats what I think..... in general....

Then, there are days like this. Days when I wish the challenges would go away at least temporarily, leaving room for us to continue with the task at hand. I write from my field site on the southern coast of Sri Lanka where I study the habitat of a rather different population of blue whales....ones that choose to remain in warmer waters year round. The challenge I face right now is one beyond my control - the weather. The fact that the weather Gods are not cooperating as we would like. In a country whose climate is governed by the monsoons, this is the season to work in this area. The good days are glorious and make up for the few bad days, but back to back days spent on land can lead to frustration.

The thing is, we need reasonably flat seas and low winds to be able to sight, observe, follow and photograph the whales and cast our salinity and temperature recorders. Even collecting acoustic data requires the boat to be quite still so the predominant sound isn't the boat slapping on the surface of the water. Besides the requirement for nice seas for research purposes, there is also the comfort factor. Unsettled seas make the boat roll when we stop at which point data entry becomes an unpleasant task for some.

Field biologists are plagued by this problem and I think working on the ocean adds a further dimension. In August last year I had the privilege of working with a team from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and the Mingan Island Cetacean Study on humpback whale related research in Mingan, Canada. While I looked forward to a whole month of research - we were only able to head out on the water for 6 days because of intense fog. At first, the fog was a novelty because I had never experienced the sensation of 'walking through clouds'. As you can imagine, the novelty soon wore out and we were doing everything in our power to keep our spirits up and stay positive. I guess in some ways it's the life of a marine biologist, but it is not something we ever get used to or are willing to acknowledge.

Perhaps I sound ungrateful, which I hope I don't. Perhaps I sound frustrated, which I definitely am. I guess ultimately what I am requesting is if any of you have contact with a congenial weather God - please pass on the number....our days in the field are limited as are our funds and we really need to get out on the water much more than 50% of the time.

Posted by ashadevos 

Comments [13]

New application: Mideast Tunes - Music for Social Change

Screen_shot_2012-01-13_at_8

We're happy to present our massively revamped application showcasing music from throughout the Middle East & North Africa: http://mideastunes.com

At Mideast Tunes, we have faith in the marginalized voices of these artists looking to influence the world around them if they can be given a chance. When Kurdish hip hop bands and Bahraini metal artists can access an audience beyond their discreet circle, these artists will have an unprecedented opportunity to break stereotypes and lend strength to their movement. We believe that the unique sociopolitical and culturally diverse environments of our region will continue to give rise to a musical revolution as powerful, and as widespread, as that of metal and punk. A revolution that will, in its unapologetic candor, remind the world of just how powerful music can be.     

Founded in 2010 in Bahrain, the site has expanded to serve as a primary resource for discovering up and coming Middle Eastern talents and making these talents accessible to anyone around the world.

Don't forget to download our iPhone application!

Posted by email 

Comments [4]

Waterwise: Fellows Friday with Sonaar Luthra

Sonaar Luthra

Sonaar Luthra is packing water-safety analysis and mobile networking into the Water Canary — a handheld, open-source, and easy-to-use gadget accessible to all — hoping to save lives and gather information that will improve global water health.

You have a background as a writer, educator and journalist. How did you end up creating the Water Canary?

I went to NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) because I realized that so many of the social outcomes I was after as an educator and journalist could be better accomplished by designing better tools. I wanted to come up with some way of becoming what I was calling an “urban planner for the global village”. At that point, I was thinking about tools that could transform classrooms, but it was really a bigger vision than that.

I fell in love with circuitry and with making tangible objects that had real functionality. Next thing I knew, I found myself in a class called Design for UNICEF, taught by Clay Shirky in association with UNICEF’s Innovations Lab. We were looking at ways to leverage technology and telecommunications strategies to transform the work that UNICEF does in the field. This was just as things like Ushahidi (an open source project that lets users crowdsource crisis information via mobile) were beginning to gain traction. People were just starting to realize the potential of leveraging mobile phones. I was interested in other ways we might design social interventions that relied on simple but important pieces of information. I wanted to see what was possible with water, and I was lucky to have an incredible team and the support of faculty that were willing to take on such a huge challenge. We started off as novices but we all became water experts in the process.

Water Canary prototype

Water Canary prototype. Click to see larger image. Photo: Water Canary

Why water?

My parents immigrated to Minnesota, but I used to spend summers in Delhi when I was a kid and worked there as a journalist, so it’s like home to me. I grew up seeing my grandfather getting up every morning at 5am to boil water, but not understanding why. I always found water safety confusing.

When I dug deeper, every document I read inevitably acknowledged that, even with the Millennium Development Goals, there was a complete lack of information about water. We had some information about water scarcity and depleting freshwater supplies, but almost nothing about water quality. I wondered, “What would happen if you knew whether your water was safe or not? What would that knowledge do in a city like New Delhi?” You can’t really excuse the lack of safe water there. It’s no longer a money issue. I decided it was really a matter of there being not enough demand for infrastructure — maybe if people had more information we could transform that.

So the idea behind the Water Canary was an inexpensive gadget that could instantly tell you whether your water was safe or not with a red light or green light, so you don’t have to be literate to use it. Over time, it occurred to us that what we really had was something that could transform disaster response with real-time information. This was right around the time when the Haiti earthquake happened. In emergencies, the assumption that every aid organization has to make is that all water is unsafe. And that leads to the entire response being completely inefficient. They never really know where help is needed. So it means you end up sending too many supplies to places that don’t need them, and that there’s never enough in areas that do.

It started out as a very simple device just for testing whether or not there was a high concentration of bacteria in the water, but that has expanded into detecting nutrient pollution and volatile chemicals as well as microbiological contaminants.

To read the complete interview, visit the TED Blog.

Posted by Karen Eng 

Comments [3]

On the repetition of blackness and difference in time and space

Kyra Gaunt-Palmer, Ph.D. | KyraocityWorks
Voicing the unspoken through song, scholarship & social media
2009 TED Fellow, Author, Tele-Coach, Singer-Songwriter and Professor of Listening
Tweet Me!   Friend Me!  Become a Blog Fan!   Email me!  http://kyraocityworks.com


KyraocityabtRacism #51: How can you be different without changing a thing?

The answer is in the video recorded by my dear friend from Brooklyn, artist Hanifah Walidah.