This past weekend, I joined 60 fellow NYU graduate students on a powerful and deeply moving journey to Montgomery, Alabama, where we visited The Legacy Sites. As part of our course, Narrative Strategies for Racial Justice and Equality, led by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, we spent time at the EJI offices, walked through the Legacy Museum, reflected at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and previewed the soon-to-open Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

Dean Majd began using a 35mm camera to challenge notions of gender normativity and gender-expression by photographing the everyday intimacy of his group of male friends in New York City. His photos liberate our thoughts grounded in heteronormative perceptions, enabling us to accept the nuances of male identity, friendship, and intimacy.

Chaos, noise, and clutter have taken a strong hold over our existence and our broader perception of the world. We might close our eyes every so often, hoping to visually access calm, ease, and liberation. It’s an innate human condition to want to tap into a state of equilibrium and balance from within, but can we ever achieve consistent tranquility? Perhaps not. Yet, a glimpse into the aesthetically mesmerizing world of Ismail Zaidy will awaken your senses and nudge you closer to a state of peace, even if for a moment. From the richness of the colours to the softness of various traditional textiles that fluidly merge within his compositions, Zaidy’s images take on a symbolic form, communicating to the viewer what he may not find possible with words.

Ming Smith’s photograph, Pharaoh Sanders at The Bottom Line (1977) captures both a meaningful image of a musician in his element and the essence of jazz itself.

In 2004, an unfortunate night in basketball known as the “Malice at the Palace” became a sports media spectacle. I reflect on the “Malice at the Palace” event as I engage with scholarship by James Lull, Noam Chomsky, Adorno and Horkheimer, and Reece Peck to explore the power of media in perpetuating hegemonic ideologies.