Latest Articles & Columns

painted image of hourglass

Farewell, Memory!

Оlga Bubich
July 19, 2023
Have we lost the art of remembering? With the inescapable reach of digital memory and the rise of state-led censorship — as seen in Putin's Russia — our ability to remember is in existential danger. We can say that at the visible, cultural interface of the networked image, media is now ...
Writing on the Wall: An Interview with RaMa

Writing on the Wall: An Interview with RaMa

Sampsonia Way Staff
November 30, 2022
The revolutionary writer from Sudan shares her story. “Like the fire that comes from a little bit of flames. We were that spark for ourselves, for our spirits, and for others.” A protester throws back a tear-gas canister that had been fired by security forces, during a march demanding an ...
On Exiting: Fences & Wires

On Exiting: Fences & Wires

Simten Coşar
November 17, 2022
When we acknowledge the enclosures around our social and emotional lives, we get to reimagine a world without limits. When I lived abroad, finding asylum in places like Pittsburgh and Ithaca and in Ottawa, I was repeatedly asked how I felt about exiting my country. And I had to get ...
On Exiting: Assumptions, Presumptions

On Exiting: Assumptions, Presumptions

Simten Coşar
October 11, 2022
"Where does the home start? Where does it end?" The author explores the notion of exile, home, and (non)belongingness. Illustration by Waad Aljurayyad Nomads are free; exiles are not. So why not claim nomad/hood? For most of my life, I never pictured myself as a settled person. Instead, I romanticized ...
Anatomy of a Failed Book Ban

Anatomy of a Failed Book Ban

Delphie Backs
July 7, 2022
How a community of students and educators in York, Pennsylvania, reversed a book ban, demanded a more inclusive education, and found a home within each other. Central York students protest the school board's ban on anti-racist literature. (Photo courtesy of PARU.) ORIGINS OF A BOOK BAN In the summer of ...
REVIEW: Exile Poems: In the Labyrinth of Homesickness

REVIEW: Exile Poems: In the Labyrinth of Homesickness

Alayna Powell
May 12, 2022
In his English-language debut, Tuhin Das reveals the extraordinary in the ordinary. Religious intolerance. Racist indoctrination. Violence against anyone who dares to speak out. This was the life of injustice Tuhin Das fled in Bangladesh, and it's the backdrop upon which he's crafted his debut English-language collection Exile Poems: In ...
On Bryan Fogel’s “The Dissident”: To Find Justice for Jamal Khashoggi, More Must Be Done

On Bryan Fogel’s “The Dissident”: To Find Justice for Jamal Khashoggi, More Must Be Done

Delilah Bourque
April 1, 2021
In the months following the mysterious disappearance of Saudi-Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, Khashoggi’s colleagues at the Washington Post ran full-page ads that asked the question: “Where is Jamal?” Around the same time, The National Inquirer leaked sexually explicit texts by Amazon ...
Diversidad y Unidad

Diversidad y Unidad

Mia DiFelice
May 6, 2020
Identity and Community in the Latinx & Proud! series One mid-February evening, an audience gathers in City of Asylum’s cozy Word Cellar for the third installment of the Latinx & Proud! series. Staff members squeeze extra chairs behind the back rows to make room for latecomers. Chatter rises to the ...
Friends in Translation

Friends in Translation

Prachi Patel
September 9, 2019
Osama Alomar settles into his home in Pittsburgh’s North Side and opens up Skype. In Quebec, Canada, more than 750 miles away, C.J. Collins sits at his desk, pulls a set of headphones over his ears, and does the same. For about eight hours a week, the pair work off ...
The Great Life of Huang Xiang

The Great Life of Huang Xiang

Huang Xiang
November 8, 2010
My name is Huang Xiang. I was born in 1941 on December 26 in Wugang in Guidong county Hunan province. My father was a general. I was raised by my paternal grandparents. China was so was ruled by a dictator and everything was supposed to be seen how the government ...