‣ Wafa Ghnaim penned a must-read essay on the history and legacy of Palestinian garment and craft traditions, including tatreez embroidery. She writes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Perspectives magazine:
Al-Nakba, Arabic for “the catastrophe,” recognizes the ethnic cleansing of Palestine—the depopulation of 418 Palestinian villages and the resulting displacement of 750,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1950 during the creation of the state of Israel. During al-Nakba, family heirlooms, including dresses, were looted from the homes of families who fled for safety with nothing but the clothes on their back, counting on the promise that they could return to their locked homes after the war. While donor acquisition records for Palestinian dresses are significantly lacking, the decade in which many were donated to museums corresponds with wars and other tragedies in Palestinian history.
The profound and lasting impact of al-Nakba significantly transformed embroidery and dressmaking traditions for women who became newly displaced refugees in villages not yet destroyed or in the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. During the 1950s, very few traditional dresses were produced as Palestinians “found themselves living and working under utterly different political exigencies, in transformed and difficult environments, with changed material realities.” The geographically specific embroidery and dressmaking techniques were no longer practiced, as women began sharing their patterns with one another amid the diverse and displaced populations now living in refugee camps. Many Palestinian women could no longer afford the specialized supplies required for tatreez, or the silks, beads, and coins that adorned the thobe. Nor could they find the traditional fabrics from the historic Gaza weaving center of al-Majdal, whose inhabitants were forcefully displaced to the present-day Gaza Strip where they attempted, time and again, to revive their centuries-old weaving practices with the looms they had saved. Over the past nine months, the historic looms of al-Majdal have been destroyed; the weavers’ fates are unknown.
‣ In a world that loves to extrapolate personality traits from penmanship, Canadian poet Anne Carson wrote a moving personal essay in the London Review of Books reflecting on handwriting and art while coping with Parkinson’s disease:
If your writing slants to the right you are a person strongly influenced by your father; procrastinators dot their ‘i’s to the left, etc. Graphology is the study of handwriting as a clue to character analysis. It’s hard to believe it isn’t a good clue.
Scriptural disintegration: also scary as an image of the cognitive breakdown that is another gradual effect of Parkinson’s disease. Vagueness, forgetting, discontinuity, gaps and fissures, slowdowns, stops. When critics talk about the ‘late style’ of Beethoven or Baudelaire, do they mean marks on paper as well as, or as a clue to, hauntings in the brain?
‘In the history of art, late works are the catastrophes,’ Adorno writes in Essays on Music.
Graphologically speaking, the art of Cy Twombly poses an aberration. His paintings feature handwritten words inscribed in such a way as to avoid offering any clues to him or his character or his inside state. Scribbled, scrawled, gauche, idle, unlovely – the hand is no one’s, or everyone’s, or mythic, or just a stain left behind by something written there before. A mark with no person in it. No shame.
‣ Transphobic tirades against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, led by my two least favorite people (Elon Musk and JK Rowling), launched a flood of hate toward the Olympian athlete. Journalist Karim Zidan contextualizes the attacks in his Substack, Sports Politika:
It should come as no surprise to Sports Politika readers that the vast majority of Khelif’s critics are vocal transphobes and are deeply ingrained in the ongoing gender culture war that is dominating online spaces. Rowling has long been criticized for views on gender identity and for saying trans women shouldn’t be allowed into female-only spaces. At one point, she even dared police in Scotland—where she resides—to arrest her under a new hate crime law after she described several trans women as men. The author has faced criticism from Harry Potter stars like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who attempted to distance the beloved wizarding world from its creator.
Musk has also been known to spread transphobic hate on Twitter, the social media platform that he owns. Last month, Musk stated that his trans daughter Jenna Wilson was “not a girl” and was “tricked” into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16. Wilson later took part in an interview with NBC, where she called referred to Musk as an absent father who was “cold,” “cruel” and “narcissistic.”
‣ Student journalist Lara-Nour Walton recounts her experience of being under investigation by Columbia University after she covered the Gaza solidarity encampment. She writes in the New Arab:
The truth of the matter is that Columbia left two known student journalists under investigation for over a month despite our immediate presentation of exonerating evidence, numerous follow-ups, and a written intervention from First Amendment attorneys and the Dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
These anxiety-inducing investigations carried out in the shadows of Columbia’s summer recess, set a dangerous precedent —potentially chilling the speech of hundreds of student journalists whose stellar reporting has been lauded by advocates of a free press, including the Pulitzer Prize Board.
It also raises serious questions about Columbia’s disciplinary procedure, which is outsourced to consultants with no prior relationship or history with the events on campus and seems to capitulate to the political intimidation animating the US electoral cycle, rather than genuine concern for free speech principles.
‣ For the Dissenter, Kevin Gosztola reports on a new ruling against the practice of searching cell phones at the US border without a warrant:
“Although the FBI ultimately obtained a warrant authorizing a search and seizure of the devices, it did not do so until seven days after the devices were searched and seventeen after they were seized,” the groups recounted. “In a typical investigation, there would be no question that the warrantless search of Mr. Xiang’s devices was unconstitutional.”
Nevertheless, the appeals court basically overlooked all freedom of expression and privacy concerns raised by the warrantless search and seizure that was conducted by border agents.
That is why the decision from Judge Morrison for the Eastern District of New York is remarkable. Morrison recognized that the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to address “whether a search of a traveler’s phone or other handheld electronic device at the border” is a “routine search” or a “nonroutine search.” The Supreme Court also has not addressed whether border agents must have “reasonable suspicion” for a “nonroutine search” or a “warrant and probable cause.”
‣ This $5 sewing club offers an anticapitalist vision for applying mending skills toward a larger goal of resisting fast fashion and consumerism, Lina Abascal reports for the Los Angeles Times:
Brenda Ceja of Whittier brought in a ripped pair of pants for her second visit to Radical Sewing Club. Before attending, she had no sewing experience. “I think this is very important because it’s a life skill that’s not being taught to people anymore. I can teach others the skills I learn here. It has a ripple effect,” she said.
This rings true for Quiquivix, who works as a manager of a thrift store by day and grew up in a suburb of Pomona. They learned to mend, sew and buy secondhand from their mother. During the pandemic, they discovered social media videos of creative embroidery used for not just design but repair. Quiquivix initially sought commission work mending others’ clothing but then decided to channel their experience and learned patience from working at youth summer camps to teach a class.
‣ Unearthing yet another piece of lore about Democratic Vice Presidential pick Tim Walz, the Minnesota Reformer‘s Christopher Ingraham explores an overlooked element of the former teacher’s past — his obsession with maps:
Walz says that he now relies heavily on maps to both share information with constituents and to target policy interventions.
“As a governor, the ability to use what I knew about mapping and the visual display of data to convey complex issues, to affect change amongst people, is really important,” he said. The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when maps of case counts and geographic spread were a ubiquitous part of newscasts and policy discussions, underscored this point.
“GIS helps build trust,” he said. “Conveying data to people in a complex way helps to build trust.”
Walz also boasted about St. Paul’s map of lead pipes that allows homeowners to look up their addresses and schedule service to get the pipes replaced. “This is the interaction between your map and policies, and a united world and good outcomes for people,” he said.
‣ TikTok begging us to wake up and absolutely not smell the roses under any circumstance:
‣ Is this a clandestine art project by the MTA or an unfortunate lack of spell check?
‣ Strega Nona’s got nothin’ on Pasta Grannies:
Required Reading is published every Thursday afternoon, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.
