A crowd hovered close to the stage in Emerson Suites last month as political rapper M-1 brought his flow to the African-Latino Society’s “The Essence of Hip-Hop.” In army fatigues, he rapped about social injustice, racial inequality, political corruption and the hypocrisy of police, lyrics apt for a Black Panther revival. Fists pumped in the…
In 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project to explore and display the secrets of anonymous people, on their own postcards. A year later, Warren began PostSecret.com, a blog devoted to posting 20 new secrets every Sunday. Warren has since been compling secrets into books, and his fourth PostSecret book, “A Lifetime of Secrets,”…
As I meet students making their way through Europe, one thing stands out to me. It’s the red flag of premature wiseness. It’s a case of mistaken identity. Apparently, living in a place for a year — or even less — warrants instant expertise. A couple of weeks ago, I met up with a friend…
For the first time in my life, I am speechless. In the U.S., I’m a talker, writer and gesticulator. Yet living in Italy, something’s missing. I’ve reverted back to kindergarten, and I learn by playing games. I saw the challenge the language barrier would be early on, in stores and cafés, but I understood it…
Think back to when you were 5 years old and saw something you didn’t quite understand. Maybe it was a woman with bluish hair, or maybe a man in a wheelchair. Odds are you probably stared. Then your mom told you it was impolite to stare, and you learned your lesson. No matter how beautiful,…
As a young student studying abroad, I have certain expectations of my journeys. I try to plan what will be good and what will be challenging. But after my first day of travel, it was clear this was the wrong mindset when embarking on a trip. It started with the plane reservations. My father booked…
My name is Liz and I’m a pop culture junkie. I didn’t understand what a revelation that was until I spent a month in limbo between my home in Rochester and my new destination, Rome. People tell you that studying abroad will change your life. But standing at the precipice of change was not as…
