STORIES FROM YOUNG PEOPLE ACROSS THE GLOBE
From mafias to common good: How libera transforms land and lives
An unexpected Italy Far from the crowded cities and mainstream tourist routes, a different Italy emerges, a country marked by silence and resilience, where transformation is not always visible for an external visitor. In rural areas of the peninsula, old villas once...
The Moral Arc of the Universe
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”, a quote often associated with Martin Luther King. He said that while paraphrasing abolitionist minister Theodore Parker. I tend to hear this from people after something horrible has happened....
Becoming a Tesseract
Moving out, moving in, moving, move. Home is all you've ever known, until it isn't. Suddenly, all you've ever been immersed in becomes your 'background'. A background: two-dimensional, placed behind you and framed carefully in an image... Only in this case, the...
On a Dark and Stormy Naath… A personal tale on cultural appropriation
Three years ago, on a dark and stormy night, I was curled up in bed, face lit by my phone, scrolling TikTok’s endless void. Usually, the scroll feels like falling into a bottomless pit, where only the occasional shock makes you stop. That night, I stopped. The video...
The futures we fail to imagine
Every society is built on stories - not only the ones found in books, but the quieter narratives that govern what is possible, desirable, or inevitable. Some stories are explicit - economic growth is progress. Others give structure - time is linear, change is...
Universal Design Is The Blueprint For A More Inclusive and Innovative Future
The Forgotten Minority Disabled people are the world’s largest minority, with an estimated 15% of the world’s total population having a disability, equating to roughly 1 billion people. However, disabled people remain one of the most under-resourced, underfunded,...
Rediscovering Urban Biodiversity: A Personal and Global Call for Greener Cities
A Yellow Suitcase, A Greener Perspective Almost four years ago, I packed my life into a large yellow suitcase and moved to the Netherlands leaving behind one the most famous peninsulas on the globe. From the beginning, I noticed meaningful differences in how life and...
Belonging in Translation: What the Khmer Language can teach us
As I stepped out of the airport in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I was immediately greeted by hot and dry air. I was drenched in sweat within 10 minutes. As I waited for my Grab taxi, meter taxi drivers approached me repeatedly, saying, “Bong! taxi, same price Grab!” I didn’t...
Adventure Time and the serious work of being weird
The Land of Ooo is a strange place. Candy people live in gingerbread castles, lemon-headed tyrants scream about betrayal, a talking dog plays the viola, and somewhere out there, the remnants of a nuclear war flicker beneath the surface. It’s a post-apocalyptic world:...
Lockdown Theatrics
A portrait of the arts in the UK over the past five years. Picture a theatre. Spectators fill the stands, the sound of their chatter rising upwards and bouncing back off the ceiling. The great velvet curtain is about to lift. Each person holds their breath, poised to...
The Art of Pretending: navigating temporal perspectives of creativity in childhood and adulthood
When I look back on my own childhood, I often think of shoeboxes. I spent a lot of my free time stockpiling these staples of school summer holidays, using them to create a variety of small, rectangular worlds. From green felt-tip pens to repurposed chairs and tables...
Open Streets: The Power of Public Space
In an age where we feel more disconnected than ever, the need for third spaces has never been more important. On an Open Street, people traffic replaces car traffic, and streets are transformed into places where people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can...