Call For Change

An Age of Social Justice Movements

On March 24th, 2018 chants of “Vote them out!” rang out from the throats of over 200,000 angry protesters. I was among them. The March for Our Lives was a student-led protest in support of legislation to prevent gun violence in the U.S. It took place in Washington, D.C. after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which happened a month prior. The event gained national recognition and was described as a “possible tipping point” for gun control legislation. It was certainly a tipping point for me.

I’ve experienced the aftermath of a shooting in my own school, so the march was something I personally cared about, although at first I wasn’t taking it seriously. For me, going to the march was just an excuse to take a roadtrip with two of my best friends and see D.C. for the first time. Plus, in addition to the normal speakers, there was a performance from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt that I was excited to watch. It was essentially a glorified field trip. The mood stayed light and everyone was walking around, joking, and making new friends.

My two friends on the left and me on the right.

Then, it started. The mood transformed. Suddenly, through 200,000 people, there was silence as the speakers came on stage. The energy was palpable; a mix of anger, determination, and kinship. I remember thinking, This has to change something, it can’t be worse than this. I was so moved by what was happening and I felt like my generation was doing something right as the march was largely organized and attended by young adults and high schoolers. There was an acknowledgment that every person there was working toward the same goal and witnessing that crowd in person made it hard to believe it wouldn’t stimulate a change.

Growing up we are taught about social justice movements as if they are historical events and are not things that still happen. We are given the impression that people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. are in the past and that we are living in a society that they made better. This is true, to an extent. Their history is closer to the present than we realize and, though we can see the success of their movements, there is still a long way to go.

Many social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter, have received criticism for the intense and sometimes destructive behavior of some protesters. The truth is, that’s how it’s always been. We’d like to think that we are evolved enough to solve societal issues without these extremes, but that’s just not the case. We have always needed extreme measures to promote change and we may always need them. Individuals can be mad about how our society works all they want, but without movements and combining our voices no real action would take place.

When I attended the march as a teenager I was young, naive, and ignorant. It was the first time I realized that social justice movements are still very much a thing, I can be a part of them, and I should be a part of them. Many in my generation are realizing the same thing.

Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, I am once again surrounded by angry protesters, throats raw from screaming, but this time the words have changed from “Vote them out” to “I can’t breathe” in memory of George Floyd. In the US, and many countries around the world, protests for Black Lives Matter are building in numbers. Once again, I can feel that the energy has changed. Anger dominates. Now, we are fed up with inequality and we are fed up with not being heard.

Complacency is the enemy of change. We need active involvement. Seeing firsthand the way my generation fights for change allowed me to let go of a worldview that centered around myself and my experiences. I realized that I was an idiot in thinking that being a part of social justice movements “wasn’t my place” because that’s the point! Regardless of political views or background, it is everyone’s right to voice the changes they want to see.

My personal beliefs have not changed, but now I educate myself on what I don’t know and try to rid myself of complacency. Social justice is never on the back burner; there will always be people struggling for equality and those fighting for it.

Photographing Maadi

Maadi is an Egyptian neighborhood that was formerly built to accommodate extravagant villas and ferries. Although much of the original charm of the area has withstood the test of time and Egyptian urbanization, it almost seems as if worlds collide as the locals watch the iconic area be transformed into an arguably superficial center for chic dining and shopping, as the surrounding urban complex of Cairo mushrooms into the area.

A ‘50s era villa obscured by a ‘00s era pickup truck

A symbol of Maadi’s perseverance through the ages

The fitting metaphor

An antique shop exterior, hosting all sorts of artefacts from the Egyptian romance period

Merchant’s shops on the side of the road are common the the area, and have held up quite well

Road Trippin’ to Interlaken

During this year’s March photo trip we had the opportunity to visit Interlaken and explore the mystical beauty of the city. Upon our arrival, we unloaded all of the equipment necessary to photograph our eight-by-ten negatives and slowly cruised around the city to find our first shooting location of the day.

Our first setting was in front of the Interlaken Casinò where Camilla and David took their photographs, featuring a bronze statue of an Indian film director and Interlaken’s honorary ambassador, Yash Chopra, who shot many movies in Switzerland.

Further, along with our exploration of the city, we stumbled upon a charming main street, where we took advantage of recently opened stores post-Covid lockdown. It didn’t take long to lose track of the students, roaming the shops was a much-appreciated distraction. Alessandra and I then found our shooting location along the river; the water looked clean and powerful, contrasting with the stable mountains and lazy sky to produce a symphony of the three elements; water, earth, and air. It took approximately 30 minutes to take the shots, whilst we were photographing, others were admiring Interlaken’s unique taste in architecture. By the time we were done, everyone was eager to return to our chalet and dig into the wonderful barbeque awaiting our arrival.

Al Balad

Hi, My name is Renad Mumenh. I’m a student at Webster University Geneva. I am currently stuck in my home country – Saudi Arabia, so I decided to walk around my town Jeddah and visit the historical locations, where my ancestors lived.

The historic center of Jeddah, Al-Balad, which translates ” The Town,” was built in the 7th century. While the historic city walls of Al-Balad fell in the 19th century, it still holds its unique architecture and beauty to this day; people still live there.

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”

James Baldwin

“Life is like a box of crayons.”

John Mayer

”The door is always wide open.”

Luis Buñuel

“Each building has its own story to tell.”

Renzo Piano’

”Buildings help us understand the world we used to live in.”

Unknown

“Yesterday it was a history, tomorrow its a mystery.”

Bill Keane

“Usually, I like to live in the moment. But right now, I’m enjoying the past.”

Unknown

Live Smart, Die Old

Younger siblings all around the world will surely understand the experience of having to ride on their older sibling’s reputations, as they followed in their footsteps through school. And if the discourse with teachers wasn’t “why can’t you be more like them”, then it was just a battle to prove that; no, our family name isn’t cursed.

That said, I think I may be one of the few who ended up going to the same tiny university as their older sibling, which is a whole new can of worms, Especially when it’s the exact same major…

So for my first few months at Webster, I was mostly referred to as “Nadia’s Brother.” Apparently she had left quite an impression, which is fair, seeing as she had won Geneva’s edition of Webster’s Got Talent. It also helps that she was the youngest competing rower at the 2016 Rio Olympics at the age of 18. Now she’s 22 and her repertoire of crazy cool shit hasn’t stopped ballooning.

Needless to say, there’s a lot to live up to. Nadia’s in bed with a nasty flu on the other side of the planet. So, in true younger sibling fashion, I decided to call her up and pester her a little about her very exciting life.

Nadia transferred out of Webster to go to row on the UC Berkeley team, which she says is one of her proudest moments.

“Webster was very good preparation for me, because I became very independent when I was there. It really provided me with a lot of tools to be ready for the states.” At Berkeley, she studied Film & Media. Nadia points out that in an alternative life,

“I probably would have studied environmental law because now I’m more interested in the logistical and legal side of fighting for the environment. but I still love the arts.”

These days, my darling sister is living it up in the San Francisco Bay Area as a UC Berkeley Graduate, working to save the wilderness, and teaching girls how to row a boat in the midst of a pandemic, and wildfires raging next door. I still distinctly remember how rowing took over Nadia’s life for about 10 years (and consequently our family’s,) but she embraced it. It consisted mostly of early morning trainings and late drives home from race events.

All the work paid off in the end when she found herself representing Egypt at the Olympics, and

years after the fact, the hype lives on.

“It’s more than I give myself credit for. People think I’m way cooler than I actually am. Everyone’s like “Wow you went to the Olympics” I’m like yeah I did and it’s cool but it’s not like I cured cancer. There’s still so much to be done” As I pointed out, she has done just that.

“Yeah I guess so. Sorry I’m so emo”, she jokes

“I’m working to help organizations advocate for the end of wildlife crime and environmental causes. So right now I’m working with ADMCF, an organization in Hong Kong. I work with their wildlife team, and make videos for them and highlight policies they want to change. They get pitched to governments and CITES, (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and hopefully change comes from that.”

The next day, she announced to me that one of her videos was shown to the Chinese supreme court, and now the trafficking of wildlife is going to be outlawed in Hong Kong. Sibling rivalries are never easy, are they…

Personally, I can’t recall a moment in my life where Nadia wasn’t obsessed with animals, so the trajectory she’s taken in life is pretty on-brand. This is the same girl who once bit me so hard when we were kids that I bled because she was pretending to be a lion. Typical Leo.

Along with that, she has also been working with Richard Blair, a photographer and nature advocate, digitizing his photographs from the ‘70s and running his Instagram pages, along with completing numerous other errands. She recalls:

“I spent three days a week sleeping up in Point Reyes (a national park in Northern California) two kilometers from the fire. I had to pack up cars with my boss’s stuff and drive them up and down to a downtown center where we had storage. I had to help him prepare for fire, there was ash raining on me and I was basically inhaling smoke and ash for three weeks. Almost lost my workplace, but the firefighters came through and saved the day“

It’s safe to say that along with a recent job she picked up as an assistant coach at a rowing club, Nadia needed a break. Unfortunately, the one she got hasn’t been the one she was envisioning, semi casually mentioning how I’m interviewing her on her “covid deathbed.” Although it didn’t seem like that at all when she video-called me wearing a bucket hat and basking in the sun.

“I have Covid and it really sucks so please wear a mask”

I guess nobody is truly unstoppable, but that doesn’t stop her from seeming like she is.

At this point, besting my sister in our little rivalry feels a little like trying to dig an elephant’s grave with a spoon. While my sister was sweeping wins at races and competing at the Olympics, I was busy doing absolutely nothing notable. What did I do at the age of 18? I don’t know, probably vibing or something. The only thing I have on her is that I was objectively easier to deal with for my parents. So what’s the secret to her iconic determination?

She explains: “Live smart, die old. Do what you want because you’re the only one that knows how much you want it, and regret nothing because at the time you did it it made you happiest. That’s my last quote.. I’m gonna go have risotto and sleep”

The Rabbit Hole of Words

An Interview with Amanda Callendrier

“I don’t care what anybody thinks about my writing, but my shoes, that’s really nice,” Amanda laughs at herself.

Amanda Callendrier is an academic advisor as well as composition and creative writing professor at Webster Geneva. She’s also working towards a doctorate and is a published author. In 2017 she released her debut novel Camino Beach. She studied English and French before ending up at Webster, almost accidentally, after falling in love with a French man. “Life happens and you just have to go with it, but you also have to be open to it,” she adds.

Amanda is inarguably one of the coolest professors on campus. She sits down for the interview rocking Puma sneakers, skinny jeans, and a bright red fluffy jacket. It’s very bold, and I’m a little jealous. She turns in her chair and chuckles, the wall of books behind her in the Webster learning center is composed almost entirely of her own collection. She even grabs one to take back home with her. For Amanda, creativity and storytelling, in all its forms, is everything.

“I think people who write or do creative things just always did. You don’t know when you started because you just always do it,” she says, reminiscing on childhood. Writing her own stories came as naturally as reading or writing, she doesn’t remember ever learning because that’s the way it always was. Inspiration came from everywhere; from watching way too much television to reading Roald Dahl, Stephen King, and Agatha Christie, even from a young age.

So how does she manage to balance everything in her life with creative writing? “The short answer is I don’t,” she sighs, “And it weighs on you to have the things you want to work on that you can’t, but it’s really just finding a moment in between projects and deadlines where you can work.” Yet, writing finds a way to make time for itself. Amanda explains that even when she’s not actively working on a project, she’s still making progress. Just by existing, going places, and listening to people talk you can get inspired. Now she’s working on her second manuscript and wondering how COVID-19 will impact the future of writing. Will stories now have to be set in a post COVID world, or will we get tired of that?

The labor of love that was Camino Beach took three years from idea to publication. After bringing a first page to a Meet the Agents event held at Webster, Amanda realized she was onto something. The agents loved the page and so she wrote the first chapter. The main writing took nine months and by the end neither the original first page or the first chapter had made it in. It then took months to get an agent who wanted to publish the book, but eventually she found one.

“Meanwhile, I decided I hated it and I rewrote the whole thing,” Amanda says. Like most writers she is never fully satisfied with her work. “Usually you go through and think, how could I have written this garbage? Then you get back to a point where you’re okay with it. You kind of have to find yourself on a good day and force yourself to stop. The good thing is I had a team who directed me. I admire someone who self publishes, and especially someone who self publishes and is successful. I don’t know how they do it because I needed a village.”

For a lot of writers getting published is the ultimate goal. It’s the mark of success, ultimate validation, and proof to others that your little hobby can pay off. For Amanda, it was different. She quotes Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird, “If you weren’t enough before publication, you won’t be enough after publication.” Getting published was only ever secondary to the work itself. “It’s about the story and the work. The work has to be enough on its own,” Amanda explains, “but publication is great if it lets you do the work or helps you feel justified in doing it.”

Though she remains proud of herself and her work, Amanda finds no validation in how well her novel was received. “I’m completely ambivalent of anybody’s opinion about the work,” she says. “It feels like it has no connection to me whatsoever. It leaves me absolutely cold.” She stays away from reading any reviews, and hasn’t even read the book herself. “I’ll talk about the story writing process for days, that’s tremendously rewarding. But the book itself? Those characters are dead to me, it’s done.”

Writing is a hobby for some and a part of life for others. For Amanda it is clearly the latter. So, why does she write? “I have to,” she responds, without a second of hesitation. “If I could choose not to, I would choose not to. I think it would be better for me to spend more time at the gym or making new recipes. But I have to. There’s something interesting about going down the rabbit hole of words. I used to think you have to do it all the time. I think that there are points in time where you write a lot and times when you’re not going to write, but you’ll come back to it because one day the story will come up and you’ll have to.”