Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

www.facebook.com/tonycruzphotos

In an introspective mood. This pic taken about a month before Spalding invaded the house in early June 2004

.

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

I have my first commission coming up for headshots. It'll quite a bit different since they're supposed to be more simple but I'm excited. ^___^

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

Spent some coyote-human introspective time with this coyote at Grand Portage State Park, Minnesota. This little song dog has got some seriously "dogged perseverance". Its front left paw is missing, from the wrist joint down, probably gnawed off to escape a trap. Its tail seems to be missing the tip. Not so noticeable is an injury of the left rear leg, which it favored while walking. Its most remarkable trait was running, when it held its left rear paw completely off the ground, running on only its two right legs! I've seen plenty of canids running on three legs, but this is the first quadruped I've ever seen run on two legs...both on the same side!

Warts and all Mr Walpole .

Wow, has it really been that long since I've been on here!!

These photos are from a photo session I did last weekend with a wonderful family of five. We met at Brackenridge Park here in San Antonio on a beautiful day. Afterwards, they headed to the zoo. I bet mom and dad were exhausted when they got home!

View Large On Black

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

Original Here: www.flickr.com/groups/pimpmypixels/discuss/72157603574779015/

Part of the group: www.flickr.com/groups/pimpmypixels

Original asked to be pimped by Texas Mommy

Qualeasha Wood: code_anima

May 24, 2024 - September 22, 2024

Qualeasha Wood: code_anima explores identity, physical and digital boundaries, and the process of individuation through analysis of complex and socially accepted paradoxes. Defined as "an individual's true inner self," anima serves as a leitmotif in Wood’s introspective work, which examines the archetypes found within physical and digital societies. As the artist states, "This body of work draws inspiration from the concept of *deus ex machina* — a narrative device that introduces an unexpected, external force to resolve a complex situation. This device allows us to highlight the paradoxical position of Black women in society — cast simultaneously as both saviors and scapegoats within a white supremacist framework."

Wood's technical skills are evident in the digital collages of her tapestries as well as the colorful scenes of her hand-made tuftings. The materiality of these textiles (the warp and weft) are embedded with a "code," serving as a symbol for the inner workings of the dual experiences felt by Black people, particularly Black women, as well as the multifaceted online identities that mirror or oppose our physical existence.

For Wood, "code_anima delves into the complexities of identity, expectation, and erasure through the prisms of race, gender, and sexuality. This exhibition is a critical examination of the roles historically ascribed to Black women, which demand both a resolution to systemic issues and the simultaneous stripping of personal autonomy and agency."

Qualeasha Wood (b. 1996 Long Branch, New Jersey) is a textile artist whose work contemplates realities around black female embodiment that do and might exist. Inspired by a familial relationship to textiles, queer craft, Microsoft Paint, and internet avatars, Wood's tufted and tapestry pieces mesh traditional craft and contemporary technological materials. She navigates both an Internet environment saturated in Black Femme figures and culture and a political and economic environment holding that embodiment at the margins. Like the vast majority of her age-peers, Wood has operated one mortal and multiple digital avatars since pre-adolescence. For her, intuitive combinations of analog and cybernetic compositional processes make for a contemporary exploration of Black American Femme ontology.

While Wood’s tapestries blend images from social media with religious, specifically Catholic, iconography, her ‘tuftings’ represent cartoon-like figures that recall the racist caricatures widespread in popular family programs of the early-mid-20th century and beyond. The tuftings have a distinctly different visual style from the artist’s tapestry pieces. In them, Wood adopts a naïve aesthetic that calls on the nostalgia of cartoon animations and their association with racial stereotyping to unpack notions of Black girlhood. Despite their formal simplicity, the tuftings reveal a lurking tension drawn from the artist’s own experiences of consuming media rife with anti-Black prejudice throughout her life. Where the tapestries are absorbed in consumption and cyberculture, the tuftings speak to inherited trauma and necessarily implicate accountability in the viewer.

Wood has exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Hauser and Wirth (New York, Los Angeles, and Somerset, UK), Kendra Jayne Patrick (New York), Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, (London), Cooper Cole (Toronto), New Image Art (Los Angeles), and more. Her work is held in institutional collections, such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as international private collections. Wood lives and works in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and is represented by Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery.

_____________________________________________

Located in the heart of Uptown Charlotte at Levine Center for the Arts, the Gantt is the epicenter for the best in visual, performing and literary arts reflecting the African diaspora.

www.ganttcenter.org/visit-the-gantt/

Sometimes standing up for what’s right means having the courage to blaze your own trail.

Harvey Bernard Gantt grew up in the 1940s and 50s in then-segregated Charleston, South Carolina. As the oldest child of Wilhelmina and Christopher Gantt, he often attended NAACP meetings with his father. It was there, and at the family dinner table with his four sisters, that he began to appreciate the importance of advocacy and the injustice of racial discrimination.

After graduating second in his class from Burke High School in 1960, Gantt left home to study architecture at Iowa State University. In January 1963, after a legal battle that escalated to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Gantt became the first African-American student accepted at Clemson University. In September 1963, Lucinda Brawley became the first African-American woman to be admitted to Clemson and in October 1964 married Harvey. Harvey Gantt graduated with honors from Clemson in 1965, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and later a Master of City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He moved to Charlotte after graduating from MIT, and, in 1971, co-founded Gantt Huberman Architects. A pioneer in blending urban planning with the practice of architecture, Gantt Huberman employed a diverse group of professionals who were charged with designing buildings that encourage community. As a result, the firm has developed some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, including the Charlotte Transportation Center, TransAmerica Square, ImaginOn, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and the Johnson C. Smith University Science Center.

While significant, Gantt’s impact on the city extends beyond improving the built environment. He joined Charlotte City Council in 1974 and again broke barriers when he was elected Charlotte’s first African-American mayor in 1983. Remaining in office for two terms, Gantt stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other Charlotte leaders committed to establishing a New South City.

SouthBound Extra: A Preview Of Harvey Gantt Interview

Gantt continues to advocate for equity and equal rights and is often tapped to serve on civic, cultural, and business boards, and to lead philanthropic efforts and community initiatives. In 2009, the former Afro-American Cultural Center opened its doors to a new, award-winning facility and was renamed the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in honor of Harvey B. Gantt, an American trailblazer.

Naming The Center

When it was first proposed that this building be named after me, I hesitated. Being a man of tradition, I always felt it was more appropriate to name a building or street for someone after their passing, as a way to honor their work. Admittedly, it took some convincing by Board Chair Earl Leake and others. After much processing and discussion with my wife, Cindy, the prevailing factor that led me to say "yes" was that it was for the sake of posterity. I envisioned walking into the building with my grandchildren and had thoughts of others doing the same with future generations. I saw them talking about the sacrifices of many who made Charlotte great, and the enormous history and accomplishments of the African American community. And I remembered my parents and others who served as inspirations to me. I am forever grateful to them for being the driving force and motivation in my life.

I thought about the enormous history of the residents of the historic Second Ward community of "Brooklyn," where the Gantt Center now stands. I hope that those who have already "crossed over" can smile and feel proud knowing that we have not forgotten their sacrifices; how they nurtured, pushed and prodded young minds to strive for excellence. We are forever grateful to them. Brooklyn residents often referred to the old Myers School as the "Jacob's Ladder School." Its skyward stairway was a visible reminder of the importance of aspiring to greater things and a good education. Not just teachers, but an entire community rallied behind the youth, molding bright minds.

That's why I agreed to the naming of the building, and that's why I want you to join me in celebrating our history and the dawning of a new day for all of us. Charlotte is a great community and the Carolinas are a great region. I call this home because the city and community represent all that is symbolic to steadfastness and a "can do" attitude. While our nation and world still struggle with acknowledging and appreciating our differences, the Gantt Center can serve as a vehicle for people to come celebrate African American art, history and culture. Residents and visiting friends alike will have numerous opportunities to enjoy all aspects of Levine Center for the Arts. The Gantt Center will serve as one of the entry points to experience the arts, sporting events and many other amenities that Charlotte has to offer. Thank you for your interest in and support of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture. May this edifice always stand as a symbol that this community and nation are places where we all "belong".

By Harvey B. Gantt

Captain and co-captain being introspective....

A ’20s themed shoot, and an introspective look at Riley Willson, ft. a fishing spot near his home town of Red Deer, Grandfather’s fly fishing rod/Knights of Columbus attire, Riley's father's fishing rod, Riley's childhood N64 controller, and Riley/Sasha's dog Zoey.

The shoot consisted of various formats, including: 4×5, 35mm and digital full frame.

I’m still waiting to develop the Ektar and Delta frames, and will be posting those at a later date, along with an interview from Riley.

There was only one preview shot included in this set, and that's something I will be doing more of in the future- and iphone as well.

I've been in talks with Riley, and we'll be doing a second shoot, for sure- involving a boat!! Ideas are a floatin' already.

jlcpickett.wordpress.com

500px.com/jlcpickett

INSTAGRAM:mrpickettfence

Twitter: mrpickettfence

catching air on her scooter. the eldest and the most well behaved. very introspective for a 6 year old.

Ellie poses on the burrows of Braunton Beach, taking in the sprawling labyrinth.

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

Reading as Resistance

These young women do not read passively. They underline, they take notes, they write in the margins. They challenge the texts and themselves. They read because the world demands it of them—because, in a time of conflict and uncertainty, thought itself is an act of resistance.

Their books are worn, their pages stained with coffee, their minds alive with the urgency of understanding.

1. Political Thought, Society & Liberation

Essays, theory and critique on democracy, power and resistance.

Chantal Mouffe – For a Left Populism (rethinking democracy through radical left-wing populism)

Nancy Fraser – Cannibal Capitalism (an urgent critique of capitalism’s role in the destruction of democracy, the planet, and social justice)

Étienne Balibar – Citizenship (rethinking the idea of citizenship in an era of migration and inequality)

Silvia Federici – Caliban and the Witch (a feminist Marxist analysis of capitalism and gender oppression)

Didier Eribon – Returning to Reims (a deeply personal sociological reflection on class and identity in contemporary Europe)

Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt – Empire (rethinking global capitalism and resistance from a leftist perspective)

Thomas Piketty – Capital and Ideology (a profound analysis of wealth distribution, inequality, and the future of economic justice)

Mark Fisher – Capitalist Realism (on why it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism)

2. Feminist & Queer Theory, Gender & Body Politics

Texts that redefine identity, gender, and liberation in the 21st century.

Paul B. Preciado – Testo Junkie (an autobiographical, philosophical essay on gender, hormones, and biopolitics)

Judith Butler – The Force of Nonviolence (rethinking ethics and resistance beyond violence)

Virginie Despentes – King Kong Theory (a raw and radical take on sex, power, and feminism)

Amia Srinivasan – The Right to Sex (rethinking sex, power, and feminism for a new generation)

Laurent de Sutter – Narcocapitalism (on how capitalism exploits our bodies, desires, and emotions)

Sara Ahmed – Living a Feminist Life (a deeply personal and political exploration of what it means to be feminist today)

3. Literature & Poetry of Resistance, Liberation & Exile

European novels, poetry and literature that embrace freedom, revolution, and identity.

Annie Ernaux – The Years (a groundbreaking memoir that blends personal and collective history, feminism, and social change)

Olga Tokarczuk – The Books of Jacob (an epic novel about alternative histories, belief systems, and European identity)

Édouard Louis – Who Killed My Father (a deeply political and personal exploration of class struggle and masculinity)

Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other (a polyphonic novel on race, gender, and identity in contemporary Europe)

Maggie Nelson (though American, widely read in European academia) – On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (a poetic, intellectual meditation on freedom and constraint)

Benjamín Labatut – When We Cease to Understand the World (a deeply philosophical novel on science, war, and moral responsibility)

Michel Houellebecq – Submission (controversial but widely read as a dystopian critique of political passivity in Europe)

4. Ecology, Anti-Capitalism & Posthumanism

Texts that explore the intersections of nature, economics, and radical change.

Bruno Latour – Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (rethinking ecology and politics in a world of climate crisis)

Andreas Malm – How to Blow Up a Pipeline (on the ethics of radical environmental resistance)

Emanuele Coccia – The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (rethinking human and non-human coexistence)

Isabelle Stengers – Another Science is Possible (rethinking knowledge and resistance in an era of corporate science)

Kate Raworth – Doughnut Economics (rethinking economic models for social and ecological justice)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking coexistence and posthumanist futures)

The Future of Thought

These are not just books; they are weapons, tools, compasses. These women read not for escapism, but for resistance. In a time of political upheaval, climate catastrophe, and rising authoritarianism, they seek alternative visions, radical possibilities, and new ways of imagining the world.

Their books are annotated, their margins filled with questions, their reading lists always expanding. Knowledge is not just power—it is revolution.

View On Black

Introspective moment for the 2 yr old birthday boy

our bed we live, our bed we sleep

making love and I become you

flesh is warm with naked feet

stabbing thorns and you become me

oh, I'd beg for you. Oh, you know I'll beg for you.

pick a song and sing a yellow nectarine

take a bath, I'll drink the water that you leave

if you should die before me

ask if you can bring a friend

pick a flower, hold your breath

and drift away

she holds my hand we share a laugh,

slipping orange blossom breezes

love is still and sweat remains

a cherished gift unselfish feeling...

oh, I'd beg for you. Oh, you know I'll beg for you.

pick a song ...

she tells me things, I listen well

drink the wine and save the water

skin is smooth, I steal a glance

dragon flies "er" gliding over...

oh, I'll beg for you. Oh, you know I'll beg for you.

pick a song....

The Cinematic Orchestra - Time And Space

Art, Rock, & Talk

With Kate Myers and Wiitala Brothers

Saturday Feb. 26th

Chicago Art Department

Kate Myers’ music is passionate and introspective. Drawing influence from singer/songwriters of the past (Jim Croce, Bob Dylan) and of the present (Conor Oberst, Fiona Apple), she has been able to create a style that is completely and recognizably her own and that transcends the standard coffee shop singer/songwriter genre. Her songs are stories of pain, love, hope and the experience that she has collected through her travels, her family and her years.

Kate’s debut, self-titled album was released in 2004, her second album, “Blanket Sky” in 2006 and her most recent work, “Instant Clarification,” in 2008. She has performed on stages all over the USA and in Europe and is currently writing for her anticipated 4th release.

Wiitala Brothers

“The Wiitalas’ new Bad Blood could be qualified as minimalist indie pop-rock but it’s something much more effective than that might suggest. The duo’s stark guitars and lingering vocals tend to waft around, electrifying the air with their simplicity.”

Washington National Zoo

I’m having a very introspective week where things are hard, but I feel very grateful.

There are big poufy clouds outside and I just paused making dinner to jot this down. And by paused, I mean sat down on the kitchen floor with a beer over the quiet whirr of the fan and the buzzing that my busted kitchen fan makes, and here we are.

Besides those house-noises, it’s quiet. I’ve been able to turn off the ac for the first time in weeks. Open the windows. Burn some sage, get some air flow. The dog is passed out because it’s comfortable in here and not 80° (yes, with the ac on).

The world sucks right now, and at this moment, I’m grateful that I’ve seen enough “suck” in my life to know how to deal with things like this. I have the tools, and the resources, and the means, and I don’t know if any words could cover how grateful I am for all of that.

I can stay home now. In the quiet.

I can get my groceries delivered.

I have the luxury of sitting on the kitchen floor with a beer and a derpy dog and food in the fridge that I’m excited about eating.

I have the best friends - near and far - that see my “high risk” status and don’t make me feel like I’m “less than” because I have to be a bit more cautious than everyone else (or, if you want to be nitpicky - I’m choosing to be a bit more cautious than everyone else). I can never say how endlessly grateful I am for them.

Everything about this is hard. Weekends are hard, some week days are harder than others. But hard is relative. Will I take this over the “hard” of almost two years ago? The unrelenting dark thoughts that kept me in a place I thought I might never escape?

Fuck yes.

Will I take this hard over others’ version of hard these days? Others who have kids and who have to work? Or who have no choice but to take public transportation? Or who are stuck in abusive relationships, suddenly legally quarantined in the same living space as their abuser?

Fuck yes.

And for that (and these clouds), I am grateful.

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

Art, Rock, & Talk

With Kate Myers and Wiitala Brothers

Saturday Feb. 26th

Chicago Art Department

Kate Myers’ music is passionate and introspective. Drawing influence from singer/songwriters of the past (Jim Croce, Bob Dylan) and of the present (Conor Oberst, Fiona Apple), she has been able to create a style that is completely and recognizably her own and that transcends the standard coffee shop singer/songwriter genre. Her songs are stories of pain, love, hope and the experience that she has collected through her travels, her family and her years.

Kate’s debut, self-titled album was released in 2004, her second album, “Blanket Sky” in 2006 and her most recent work, “Instant Clarification,” in 2008. She has performed on stages all over the USA and in Europe and is currently writing for her anticipated 4th release.

Wiitala Brothers

“The Wiitalas’ new Bad Blood could be qualified as minimalist indie pop-rock but it’s something much more effective than that might suggest. The duo’s stark guitars and lingering vocals tend to waft around, electrifying the air with their simplicity.”

A wise and introspective subway passenger who was sitting across from me

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.

Photographer: Rich Davis

Submitted by: Rich Davis

This young man had a very introspective air about him as he sat n stared out at the sea

Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil

War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.

This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.

They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.

But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.

This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.

Where the Thinkers Go

They gather where the dust has settled,

where books whisper in the hush of halls.

Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,

cradling centuries of questions.

They drink coffee like it’s ink,

trace words like constellations,

follow Rilke into the dusk,

where solitude hums softly in the dark.

Outside, the world is fraying—

war threading through the seams of cities,

the weight of history pressing forward.

Inside, they turn pages, searching

for answers, for solace, for fire.

And somewhere between the lines,

between time-stained margins and fading ink,

they find the ghosts of others who

once sought, once wondered, once read—

and they do not feel alone.

Three Haikus

Night falls on paper,

books stacked like silent towers,

thoughts burn in the dark.

Tea cools in the cup,

a poem lingers on lips,

war rumbles beyond.

Footsteps in silence,

the scent of old ink and dust,

pages turn like ghosts.

ooOOOoo

The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025

In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.

Here is what they read.

1. Existential and Philosophical Works

In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.

Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)

Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)

Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)

Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)

Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)

Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)

These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.

2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience

Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)

Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)

Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)

Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)

Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)

These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.

3. Political Thought and Social Critique

Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.

Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)

Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)

Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)

Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)

Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)

These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.

4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning

In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.

Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)

James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)

Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)

These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.