Allison
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Union Hall Day of the Dead Event
This Day of the Dead, November 1, I’m going to lead a class on Cemetery Symbols & Secrets from New York’s City of the Dead at the wonderful Union Hall in Brooklyn. Focusing on funerary art found in cemeteries across the five boroughs, we will discover some of the most common cemetery symbols and their…
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Houdini Panel Discussion
On October 28 at 6pm, I’m joining the “Houdini Among the Villagers: The Magician’s Life and Afterlife in Greenwich Village” panel discussion hosted by Village Preservation and Boroughs of the Dead. It should be a lively evening on Houdini’s life in magic and the debunking of Spiritualism in NYC. Free to attend, even more magical.
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Art on American Memory
For the Art Newspaper, I wrote a preview of an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on the work of Beverly Buchanan and Dionne Lee and how they have explored art as a form of divination and of uncovering American history. Read it online and in print!
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Pete’s Mini Zine Fest 2026
On Saturday, September 19, I’ll be joining the Pete’s Mini Zine Fest! It’s presented by Quimby’s NYC at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg and is free to stop by and browse zines great and small from a variety of local makers.
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Saving a Civil Rights Landmark
For the Art Newspaper, I covered the preservation efforts for the Edistone Hotel, which has stood in downtown Selma, Alabama, since 1855 through the history of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement. After years of neglect, it’s being reimagined as a community hub. Read the full story here.
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Mortal Matters at Green-Wood
On Sunday, September 20, I’m joining the Mortal Matters happening at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn to lead a walk on the past, present, and future of the grave. The schedule of the full weekend of (free!) events offering “a rare chance to engage mortality on Earth and beyond it” is online.
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A Poem to the Prairie
For the Art Newspaper, I wrote about the preservation of the Prairie House in Norman, Oklahoma, designed by modernist Herb Greene in an organic shape made from cedar planks: “While cities across the United States were being transformed by sleek glass towers in the mid-20th century, on the Great Plains a more fantastic vision of…
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Apollo Cover Story
I wrote the cover story for the July/August 2026 issue of Apollo magazine. It explores the expansion of the New York Historical museum in the context of America’s 250th. Find it in print and online!
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A Refresh for NYC’s Oldest Library
For the Art Newspaper, I reported on the recent refresh of the New York Society Library. Established in 1754, it’s considered the oldest library in New York City. You can read about how they are reimagining their historic space on the Upper East Side.
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An Opinionated Guide to New York Architecture
New book alert celebrating my home and the great city of New York! I authored An Opinionated Guide to New York Architecture for the UK-based Hoxton Mini Press. It’s a compact, photo-illustrated book featuring over 70 sites I think represent the diverse history of local design: “From Brooklyn brownstones to swaggering skyscrapers, Art Deco icons…
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Online Cemetery Symbolism Class
On Sundays in August, I’ll be teaching the online class Speak with the Dead: Understanding Cemetery Symbolism for Morbid Anatomy. The four virtual sessions will each cover a different era of cemetery symbolism and how it evolved from the visual expression that came before. Each will include recommended readings and a prompt for exploring symbolism…
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Hidden Muses of NYC Walk
To coincide with the release of the Women’s History New York Map I authored for Blue Crow Media, I’m leading a Hidden Muses of New York Sculpture Walk on June 13. We’ll recover the overlooked stories behind some of the city’s most iconic public art, where behind the faces of angels, goddesses, and allegorical figures,…
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America’s Most Endangered Places
Sites threatened by federal erasure and rollbacks to public land conservation are spotlighted on this year’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I reported on it for the Art Newspaper: As celebrations of the US’s semiquincentennial kick into gear, many of the historical sites that recognise…
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The Great American Trees
For the latest issue of ArtDesk, I rounded up some of the greatest trees in the United States, from those that traveled to the moon to those that have endured centuries of change. You can find it in print! If you’re in the Oklahoma City area, free copies are at Oklahoma Contemporary.
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Cemetery Greenhouse Restoration
For the Art Newspaper, I reported on Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery opening its new welcome center in a restored Victorian greenhouse: Green-Wood acquired the landmarked greenhouse from McGovern Florists in 2012 for $1.6m. At the time, it was in a deteriorated condition, with damage to the glass and its wooden frames rotting. While restoration progressed over…
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Zine Guide to Artist Studios
The hints of spring we’ve been having inspired me to make a scrappy mini zine to encourage some local exploring, with its pages highlighting some of NYC’s historic artist studios that are available for you to visit! (Or to keep an eye on for their rare openings.) I gathered 13, from Robert Rauschenberg’s converted chapel…
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NYC Women’s History Map
Just in time for spring walks and wanders, it’s a brand new Women’s History of NYC Map! It was an honor to author this for Blue Crow Media (my fifth for them) and chart 50 of the famed and little known markers, landmarks, monuments, and other places where you can remember the women who built…
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Raw Vision Feature
The spring 2026 issue of Raw Vision magazine includes my feature on artist Margaret Mousseau, a self-taught artist who uses intricate colored pencil drawings to reflect on her life. You can find the full piece in the print issue and read an excerpt online: Each work is layered with pattern and detail that draw a…
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Dance of Death Talk
On Monday, April 20, I’ll be giving an online talk for Morbid Anatomy on the art of the dance of death. Learn about how in times of uncertainty and calamity, the danse macabre has resurrected again and again. From Hans Holbein’s playful mocking of the elite to Alfred Rethel’s 19th-century meditations on cholera, to haunting…
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Asia Society at 70
In my first feature for Apollo magazine, I reported on how the Asia Society is marking its 70th year. You can read the story online and in print: When John D. Rockefeller III founded the Asia Society in New York in 1956, many Americans associated Asian countries with war and political upheaval. … He felt…
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Leroy Johnson Feature
For the winter 2025/26 issue of Raw Vision magazine, I wrote a feature on artist Leroy Johnson. The full story is in print with an excerpt shared online. The late Johnson transformed discarded materials he found on the streets of Philadelphia into complex sculptural works that tell the stories of Black life.
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AI & Architecture
For Prattfolio, the magazine of Pratt Institute, I talked with people from across the field of architecture about the opportunities and challenges of AI in their work. The story is out now online and in print.
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Protecting Cave Art
Did you know there is publicly viewable 800-year-old cave art in Tennessee? I wrote about Dunbar Cave for the Art Newspaper and how it’s being conserved after historic flooding, while also preparing it for more extreme storms in the future. Read all about it here.
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Monumental Sculpture Story
There’s now a colossal head in Miami Beach commemorating the overlooked history of women’s service in the Coast Guard during WWII. It was sculpted by artist Prune Nourry. I spoke to Nourry about the project for the Art Newspaper, read all about it here.
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New Mini Zines
I wanted to make some smaller zines for fun timed with the Halloween season. These try out something I haven’t before which is folding one page into a 14-page little booklet. The selected spooky topics are L’Inconnue, the drowned muse of Paris; the protective lore of witch bottles; and mortsafes, made to safeguard against graverobbing.…
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Spooky Trees Podcast
I contributed to Tree Speech’s podcast “The Trees Remember: Tales from the Haunted Grove” with a haunting tale of why mulberries are red. Listen to the episode here!
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Cypriot Art
For the Art Newspaper, I reported on a new gallery of ancient art 100 years in the making at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. It was collected by John Ringling of the Ringling Bros circus. Read the story here.
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US Modernist Radio Interview
I joined US Modernist Radio for an interview on the Modernist New York Map I worked on with Blue Crow Media. Listen to the discussion on all things modernism in the city and why maps are great!
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Self-Taught Artist Biography Project
I spent much of this year on a project for the American Folk Art Museum rethinking biographies for “outsider” artists and I’m proud these are now coming online! It was inspiring in this time of undervaluing human creativity to commune with those who made their own paths. You can explore them here.
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Preserving Black Churches
For the Art Newspaper, I reported on how the National Trust for Historic Preservation is supported Black churches in the US, from preservation projects to augmented reality experiences. Read online and in print!