Almost two years ago, I posted an excerpt from the West Bank chapter of my book-in-progress. The excerpt described my observations of anti-Wall protests in the West Bank village of Jayyous. I wrote about the “furious beauty” of stone-throwing Palestinian men. In today’s Haaretz, journalist Jonathan Pollak writes a compelling story of the death of […]
November
24
“Promised Land”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
From The New Yorker “Culture Desk“: “Too often in politics, very complex subjects are being turned into sound bites, so it’s easy to take them apart,” says Christoph Niemann, this week’s cover artist. In “Promised Land,” he says, “I draw a parallel between current immigrants and early settlers—the hope is that it will provide context, […]
November
21
“The Great Wall of Montreal”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
The current issue of Geist features my essay about the l’Acadie fence that stands between Montreal’s Parc-Extension neighborhood and the Town of Mount Royal. TMR erected the fence in 1960 to protect the Town’s children from traffic on the newly extended Boulevard l’Acadie. But since the fence stood between wealthy TMR and the working class […]
Elephants versus Fences
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I came across this video while rewriting my chapter on the border fence between India and Bangladesh. Add this to the growing list of unique ways the fences fail.
November
06
“It’s an industrially-produced medieval monster. However, I’m getting to know it.”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
About a year ago I traveled to Arizona to write about the U.S.-Mexico border wall. There I met Glenn Weyant, a musician who ‘plays’ the border wall and makes strange and fantastic recordings of what the border sounds like. I played a ‘duet’ with Glenn in Nogales, Arizona and wrote about it here. I also […]
October
14
“The Great Wall of Foolishness”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Here is a fantastic article by Toronto Star writer Alfred Holden. Inspired by recent news that the United States is mulling the idea of erecting fencing along its border with Canada, Holden takes on the folly of walls in general. Here is my favourite bit: But the bigger picture — the tide of history — […]
September
01
Shun Thy Neighbour – an excerpt
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
[What follows is a brief excerpt from my Walls book-in-progress. This is the beginning of my chapter on the U.S.-Mexico border wall. I visited the borderlands about a year ago and have finally hammered together a first draft. The photo is a view of the border from Bill Odle’s property.] Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa described […]
TEDxCalgary video: Subverting the Walls
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Last June I gave a talk about subverting walls for TEDxCalgary. In it I spoke about to men who defeated walls in Ceuta and Palestine by physically going over them, and about two artists in Arizona and Ramallah who subvert walls by transforming them through art. The video of my talk is now online. Thanks […]
July
22
“The world is not as small as Google Earth depicts it.”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Here is an article from the Financial Times on travel writing. The piece, titled “The places in between,” is a little cranky – Paul Theroux penned it, after all – but interesting nonetheless. I especially love the line I quoted above, and the following bit: So where are we now? Of course, many would-be travel […]
Walls by the Numbers
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
My return from Belfast on Monday marked the end of my travels for my walls project. I thought a little accounting might be in order: WALLS PROJECT TRAVEL INDEX Years since beginning of the project: 3.5 Weeks spent away from home: 46 ‘Territories’ visited: 14 Continents traveled to: 4 Flights taken: 37 Train journeys: […]
