Curse of Geography: San Mateo Del Mar
On the far southern coast of Oaxaca, the indigenous Ikoots people struggle to maintain their cultural identity and communal practices while fending off the pervasive forces of extractive capitalism.
Curse of Geography: Lower Bottoms
The dense and layered sociocultural fabric of West Oakland – a fascinating mix of the sub/urban, industrial, and historic – has faded from public recollection yet retains a character that persists despite the dispossession the neighborhood has endured for decades.
Curse of Geography: Mount Mabu
Deep in the interior of Mozambique, Indigenous tribes protect one of the world’s last undisturbed rainforests while contending with corporate extractivism and foreign conservation efforts that place their primordial livelihood in peril.
Curse of Geography: Kibera
In Kibera, Kenya, one of the world’s most populous and cramped slums, Emelda Ochieng explores the colonial history of the shantytown and the heroic efforts of local artists and activists as they find creative solutions to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Curse of Geography: Kachin State
In the resource rich jungles of Myanmar’s Kachin State, young Kachin students living in internally displaced people’s camps, traumatized by a sixty-year war, are exorcising their psychological demons and preserving their culture through painting and poetry.
Curse of Geography: Boriquén
Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and unleashed a public health and human rights crisis that forced a group of artists to initiate recovery and rebuilding efforts, while untangling colonial legacies and seeking an autonomous future for Boriquen.
Curse of Geography: Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
In the wake of the 2010 Yushu earthquake, celebrated Indonesian artist, Arahmaiani, spent ten years working with Buddhist monks on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to cultivate sustainable rebuilding projects and amplify the voices of women in Tibetan civil discourse.
Curse of Geography:
Western Newfoundland
During the early 1990s, when cod stocks in Western Newfoundland were on the brink of extinction, a moratorium on fishing caused the “largest mass layoff in Canadian history” and threatened the cultural fabric of coastal communities reliant on the ocean for their livelihoods.
Curse of Geography: Badakhshan
In the inaccessible borderlands of Badakhshan, Tajikistan, the M41 or “Heroin Highway” serves as the primary trafficking route for opium and heroin smuggled out of Afghanistan on its way to Russia and Europe, leaving a trail of uneven development and outward migration.
Curse of Geography:
La Mosquitia
For most people in La Mosquitia, the far eastern coast of Honduras, there are only two forms of gainful employment – lobster fishing and drug trafficking. 90% of the cocaine that ends up in the United States passes through this isolated and neglected corner of the world.
