With time off of work and school lurking around the corner, many of us look forward to visiting exotic destinations and escaping the seemingly oppressive routine of daily life. But as the stories in this month’s issue of InTheFray suggest, the grass isn’t always greener across the pond.

We begin with John Liebhardt’s exploration of what happens when young men journey to the big city in Burkina Faso in hopes of finding good work and accumulating wealth. The water pushers he profiles in A drop in the bucket find that simply getting a hand on a rung of the ladder requires innovative thinking and a great deal of persuasion.

Meanwhile, in part two of his photo essay Vanishing heritage, Pulitzer Prize winner and ITF Advisory Board member John Kaplan documents the indigenous traditions of the Tibetan, Aymara, and Akha peoples even as immigration and industrialization threaten their disappearance.

Even in the imagination, there’s no going back to a place of sufficiency. In her pair of poems Marissa Ranello contemplates the way hunger and need transform us. And Katharine Tillman explores who bears responibility for our lost innocence in Land of enchantment, her tale of a teenager who runs away to be with her boyfriend, only to wind up pregnant, broke, and more alone than ever.

On a lighter note, ITF Contributing Writer Ayah-Victoria McKhail struggles to fit in on a Spanish nude beach, where she ultimately decides that her native Toronto’s beaches, dirty as they may be, might better accommodate her penchant for clothing.

Finally, be sure to check back on Monday, November 21, when JDGuilford unravels age-old myths about gay black men in his review of Keith Boykin’s Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America, and ITF Contributing Writer Emily Alpert exposes the abuse and harassment faced by transgendered prisoners in California.

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

Coming in December: ITF publishes its 50th issue and brings you something old and something new to commemorate the first 49 issues.

Laura Nathan-Garner

This issue of InTheFray explores the complexity of cultural change and the unpredictable outcomes that evolve when one way of life challenges another. This month, we explore the loss, liberation, conflict, and carnival that can ensue when old and new collide.

We start with the bad news. Modernization and assimilation often sound the death-knell for under-resourced minority groups. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Kaplan documents the fast fading indigenous cultures of China, Bolivia, and Thailand in Vanishing heritage.

Yet some old traditions die hard. Irene Kai’s The Golden Mountain chronicles four generations of Chinese women escaping the yoke of submission. In her review of the memoir, Always know your place, and in her interview with the author, Old traditions die hard, ITF Culture Editor Laura Madeline Wiseman explores both the limitations of a victim’s viewpoint and the liberation that comes of writing about suffering.

Former Peace Corps Volunteer Kathryn Brierley, in her essay Reflections on a new democracy, also shows that change comes slowly. Ten years after the end of apartheid, the writer encountered a South Africa that still bears many scars.

The good news, however, is that change can sometimes bring inspiration. In Girls just want to have fun, ITF Travel Editor Anju Mary Paul‘s second story on young Muslim women in the United States, innovative teenagers plan and execute an all-girls prom, joining in an American tradition, Muslim style. If only change were always reason for a party.

Meanwhile, here at ITF, we’re sure to inspire your inner media critic with our latest addition: weekly TV, film, and DVD reviews available only in our PULSE Web log.

Nicole Leistikow
Managing Editor
Baltimore, Maryland

Coming Up

In December: ITF publishes its 50th issue. To celebrate, we’ll highlight the best of the magazine so far — and introduce some new perks. Take a minute to vote for your favorite ITF stories from the past.

Nicole Leistikow

Not long ago, it seemed impossible to imagine the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Now as thousands of people lucky to have gotten out alive become refugees, thousands — perhaps even millions — of others seek to aid the relief effort, and all of us ask questions and demand answers, we can’t help but confront reality’s dark underbelly.

In this month’s issue of InTheFray, as we remember those whose lives disaster failed to spare and offer hope and prayers to those whose lives have been forever changed, we offer readers a reality check. We begin in Calgary, Canada, where Tatiana Tomljanovic traces the footsteps of Crime Scene Investigator Lisa Morton, only to discover that the job isn’t nearly as glamorous — or as easy — as it looks on television, especially for a woman in a predominately male enterprise, in CSI: Canada.

In London, meanwhile, InTheFray Travel Editor Anju Mary Paul, so used to  hailed as exotic when she journeys abroad, discovers that the city’s July 7 bombings changed everything. That is, they unleashed Fear and loathing in London, making an Indian citizen an instant terrorist suspect. And in nearby Frankfurt, Tatiana von Tauber finds the stark reality of violence, sex, lost innocence, and Little monsters she knew as an American mother has become foreign to her in Germany, where the mother is highly prized.

And for all of you bibliophiles, be sure to get your copy of Irene Kai’s The Golden Mountain so you can be in the know when OFF THE SHELF makes its long-awaited return on October 3.

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner

Ah, the last gasp of summer. A final chance to achieve escape — however briefly — before life’s routines take over. Exiting your traditional orbit, however briefly, brings perspective, renewal, and sometimes initiates change. That’s why it’s important to do some summer wandering, visit places you’ve never been, whether on your feet or in your mind.  

In this issue of ITF, we ponder pathways, where we’re going, where we’ve been, and what keeps us where we are. Francis Raven’s interview with Sasha Cagen, the founder of To-Do List magazine, investigates the quirky objectives that we jot down on the back of envelopes and what they say about us. “A good list raises questions and tells a story, but it’s elliptical” Cagan says. Lists, like a slice of our tissue under a microscope, illuminate the mystery of who we are, by showing who we hope to be.

To know where we’re going, it helps to know where we’ve been. Columnist Afi Scruggs examines the recent trial of Edgar Ray Killen to explore our country’s shameful history of racist violence and gauge the extent of our progress. To understand the current atmosphere in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964, and where Scruggs, in 1989, still found signs of segregation, is to realize how far America has come.

Finally, teacher Tara Horn discusses what it means to be a foreigner in her essay about her Shan students in Thailand. Hounded out of Burma by the ruling military dictatorship, but not officially recognized as refugees, immigrants from Shan survive in Chiang Mai by keeping a low profile, and hiding their national identity. Caught in political limbo, young men and women study in secret, in hopes of getting a say in their own future — and that of their homeland.  

The importance of going somewhere new is often what it reveals about all the old places your return to. Whether you stay home or go abroad, see where summer takes you.

Nicole Leistikow
Managing Editor
Baltimore

Nicole Leistikow

As people across the United States commemorate the Fourth of July with beach trips, fireworks, and barbeques, there is a semblance of unity among people of all backgrounds in this country. We all have a reason to celebrate — not just the United States’ independence, but also a much-needed extended weekend.

Published in the midst of this temporary concord, this issue of InTheFray highlights those who don’t quite fit in, those who are — both literally and figuratively — strangers to the space they occupy and the air they breathe. In Ayesha and me, we see what happens when ITF Contributing Editor Anju Mary Paul attempts to understand the experiences of a young Muslim immigrant. What she discovers about being “American” and being Muslim isn’t what you — or our immigrant-reporter — might expect. The same could be said for ITF columnist Russ Cobb. During a road trip from Texas to California, he confronts the Red State/Blue State divide head-on, only to discover that the 2004 election results don’t tell the full story of American politics.

Across the pond, meanwhile, American transplant Karen Ling discovers a way to compensate for her feelings of inadequacy in Paris — helping American tourists who have an even tougher time fitting in. And in Tofu and toast, Rhian Kohashi O’Rourke explores, through her eyes, what it means to be an outsider for her aging grandfather who has become a foreigner to his own life.

For those who still feel like they belong, Dave A. Zimmerman challenges you to think again. In Everything silly is serious again, he explores how Batman Begins gives us a taste of a comic book character quite different from the one we grew up with. Silly or serious, though, the newest Batman, Zimmerman contends, plants the seeds of truth about our own lives.

Happy reading!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Brooklyn, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner

June always brings many reasons for celebrations. Summer vacation. Weddings galore. The advent of summer — and the barbeques and sandal-wearing this implies.

But only in the past three decades have we found another reason to celebrate: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride month.

As we celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month in this special issue of InTheFray, we share a breadth of perspectives and stories reflecting the accomplishments and struggles of sexual minorities across the United States. We begin at Michigan State University, where Lindsey K. Anderson details how this once-anti-gay campus, in spite of lingering homophobia, enabled her to come to terms with her sexuality, in The perfect couple. Meanwhile, in neighboring Chicago, Queer Latino youth dance the night away in a prom all their own. Watch for Emily Alpert‘s observations of the night, coming on June 13.

Speaking of perfect couples, ITF columnist Keely Savoie shares her recipe for an unusually subversive marriage in Finding defiance in a sparkly rock. Later this month, guest columnist S. Wright offers up her own subversive perspective, when she suggests that the battle for gay marriage may only hurt queers — particularly those of color — in the long-run.

Describing a different sort of love, Sam J. Miller recalls his infatuation with the guys in a lefty punk-rock band and the reality check — er, homophobia — he grappled with when he got a closer look at Kevin’s basement. Rebecca Beyer, meanwhile, revisits the stereotypes she faced as a female soccer player and the role that these stereotypes played in keeping her in the closet for an additional four years.

From the East Coast we journey with photographer Jeffrey W. Thompson to the home of the Huddlestonsmith family in Columbia, Missouri. There a young girl named Katie basks in being her Daddies’ little girl while struggling with the discrimination and battles of being raised by two men in the Midwest. And in Chad Gurley’s short story, The stoning of Andrew, one sixth grader must bear the double-burden of enduring the “birds and bees talk” and confronting his own sexual differences on the playground. Back in the classroom, Brian Michael Weaver will reveal later this month just how difficult it can be for a primary school teacher to use language sensitive to children with LGBTQ parents — even when that teacher is a single, gay dad himself.

And thousands of miles from an American classroom, Penny Newbury returns to Fuerte Olimpo, Paraguay — a place she discovers she still doesn’t really know or understand, even after living there for three years in Ña Manu.

But neither the celebrations nor the stories end there. As part of our LGBTQ celebration this month, InTheFray is showcasing photographs of LGBT celebrations and events happening around the United States and the world. Readers can submit original photographs to our Media Gallery, where they will be posted daily. InTheFray asks that you provide a brief caption to be published with the photograph, telling us the who, what, when, and where of your photo(s). Please also include your first name and location.

(One final note: If you haven’t done so already, please complete our 2005 Reader Survey. Your anonymous answers will help us to improve the magazine.)

Thank you for sharing your stories — and reading ours!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Brooklyn, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner

If April is the cruelest month, then May deserves a stiff drink. But before you reach for that new Australian Shiraz, consider the mood-altering moments you are already soaking in.

Our overall environment, for instance, may be the most overlooked drug. Who hasn’t been transported by a sunset on the beach, felt their brain chemicals paralyzed by a stressful day of work, or developed a different understanding of reality by hanging with a different crowd?

In this issue of InTheFray, we explore the impact of environment in its many forms. We begin on the streets of Brooklyn, home to a pool hall frequented by a diverse mix of teenage boys. While Contributing Editor Anju Mary Paul tries to put her thumb on what being American means for young immigrants in 2005, Through the Looking Glass writer Kristina Alda writes from our northern neighbor, Canada, about her transformation into a typical Canadian “nice girl” after adopting Ottawa as home.

Of course, home can be a complicated place. For some, it’s simultaneously safe and oppressive, straining and joyful. For a wife who becomes caregiver to her husband after an accident, in Susan Parker’s short story Taking care of one another, it is exhausting. For Kelly Barnhill it is a place of warring priorities. Her essay A room of my own with the door wide open, details how becoming a new mother leaves little time to write. And on the Yangtze River in the small town of Wanzhou, where photographer J. Unrau lives, home is intoxicating. As his photo essay illuminates, the daily sounds and smells he absorbs while wandering the hilly streets are his drug of choice.

So imbibe with us, and expand your mind, by sampling our stories all the way from small town China to a Brooklyn pool hall.

And get ready to imbibe a little more this June, when ITF celebrates gay pride month. As part of our celebration, InTheFray would like to showcase photographs of LGBT celebrations and events happening around the United States and the world. Readers can submit original photographs to our Media Gallery, where they will be posted daily. InTheFray asks that you provide a brief caption to be published with the photograph, telling us the who, what, when, and where of your photo(s). Please also include your first name and location.

(A note to our readers: Please complete our 2005 Reader Survey. Your answers will help us to improve the magazine.)

Nicole Leistikow
Managing Editor
Baltimore

Nicole Leistikow

Belonging. It’s one of the most basic human needs, and the price of its absence — exclusion — is both the source of some of our greatest conflicts and, paradoxically, a motivator of change and innovation.

Sure, some of us may be chameleon-like, blending in so as to not stand out. But most of us, no matter what our nationality, struggle to fit in ways both big and small thanks to our beliefs, our gender, our sexual preferences, the color of our skin, age, our accents, physical and mental dispositions, financial circumstances, and family structures, to name just some of our distinguishing characteristics.

In this issue of InTheFray Magazine, we examine what it means to belong — and what it means to be an outsider. To elucidate the global dimensions of this phenomenon, photographer Chika Watanabe shares her photos from some of the world’s most vibrant and prosperous cities — New York, Madrid, and Tokyo — in Envisioning belonging.

Far from these metropolises, Raque Kunz relays how a move to rural Rincon, Cape Verde, demands reconsideration of the importance of family and friends and a new approach to dating in A hard bargain. Meanwhile, in rural Shandong, China, InTheFray Assistant Editor Michelle Chen illuminates how one Chinese teenager’s failure to belong to either the city or the village complicates her struggle to make her way in the world in Homecoming for Hai Rong.

Bringing us back to the skies, streets, and bookshelves of the United States, David A. Zimmerman, in Walk this way, tackles the question of how female comic book characters are faring in what is often thought of as a Superman’s world — and how today’s superheroines are improving humanity, one comic book at a time.

Rounding out this month’s stories is the winning essay from InTheFray’s first annual writing contest. Showing readers how he goes about Respecting life, Bambi-style in a small Minnesota town where killing is the norm, Thomas Lee Boles emphasizes the value of animal — not just human — life. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest this year — we received some great entries and look forward to receiving more next year.

Thanks for reading — and remember all of these dreary April showers are sure to bring May flowers!

Laura Nathan, InTheFray Editor
Brooklyn, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner

Between work, family, friends, and significant others, most of us are forced to relate to people with whom we don’t see eye-to-eye on a daily basis. But as daily media coverage of distant places like Iraq suggests, the struggle to relate to others is also a global one, as we deal with differences both unfamiliar and surprisingly similar.

In this month’s issue of InTheFray, we examine some of these struggles to see eye-to-eye with people who can often seem to be a world apart — even when they’re just a few inches away. At home in the United States, Stacy Torian takes a look at the difficulties faced by working class academics, who can lack the resources and pedigrees of their more privileged peers, in “Breaking through the class ceiling.” Former prescription drug addict Alexis Luna, meanwhile, exposes her own struggle to get over “The joy of six milligrams” and to have healthier relationships with people — including herself.

On the subject of illness, Chip Chipman illuminates how the spirit of the legendary uniter and healer, Mother Theresa, lives on after her death. Through his vivid photographs, Chipman reveals Mother Theresa’s impact on San Francisco masseuse Mary Ann Finch, who runs a massage institute for the homeless, in “Touching the untouchables.”

Halfway around the world, two ITF contributors share their struggles to relate to others in the Middle East and Africa. Writing in a time of war, Andrew Blackwell shares the skepticism he felt while producing pro-Western video clips during Afghanistan’s first election in“Democracy, Middle East-style.”

Providing insight on the role everyday practices play in reminding us of what it means to be alive, ITF Contributing Artist Josh Arseneau shares his photographs from the Gambia.

Rounding out this month’s stories is ITF Assistant Managing Editor and Columnist Russell Cobb’s “Go ahead, make my next four years,” an insightful look at the Religious Right’s inability to transform Hollywood’s liberal ways — despite harsh criticism of Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning film “Million Dollar Baby.”

Coming later this month: stories celebrating women’s history. And in April, check back for an issue concerning belonging — something we all know about, for better or worse.

Laura Nathan, InTheFray Editor
Brooklyn, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner