In the face of record temperatures, many of us rationalize wasting gas and not walking the dog. While running from our air-conditioned homes to our air-conditioned cars to our air-conditioned offices and back, we can’t imagine staying outdoors longer than necessary.

But not everyone can escape to someplace cool. In this issue of InTheFray, we pay homage to those who continue to seek a place to call home and examine what it means to be homeless, to lack the comforts others take for granted, to lead a life of uncertainty, to be an outsider in a world where everyone seems to have someone and someplace to call theirs.

We begin by visiting three kitchens. First, Inez Hollander, whose own middle-class existence has grown increasingly tentative, takes us to the soup kitchen where she volunteers in “Homelessness hits home.” There, she discovers how ordinary the people she serves are and how the American Dream remains evasive.

Then, on New York’s Lower East Side, Jared Newman learns that even though the anarchist group Food Not Bombs has just one goal — feeding the hungry a healthy meal — they’re often dubbed terrorists. And in Morocco Jillian C. York, who has left the familiarity of her Vermont home to teach English abroad, finally finds acceptance in the kitchen of a Muslim woman in ”For couscous and conversation.”

Back on U.S. soil, Geoffrey Craig discloses the challenges of creating art during and after Saddam Hussein’s regime in his profile of 30-year-old Iraqi artist Esam Pasha. As his illustration of ”Iraq’s art hero” suggests, Pasha, despite creating a life for himself in the United States, remains nostalgic for Iraq.

ITF Travel Editor Anju Mary Paul adds to the mix in her review of Devyani Saltzman’s memoir Shooting Water, a tale of her battles to embrace her identity in the wake of her parents’ divorce while negotiating their respective allegiances to two continents. Registered users can read Paul’s exclusive interview with Saltzman.

Rounding out this month’s stories is Guest Columnist Thomas Rooney’s take on the controversial phenomenon that has rendered many Americans homeless, or at least jobless — outsourcing.

Thanks for reading!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner