Images

  • Sharing Tombstone Recipes Insights in the New York Times

    As much as I enjoy writing, it’s also fun to be an interviewee for topics I’m passionate about! The New York Times asked me about tombstone recipes and gave a very kind shout out to the Cooking With the Dead zine that I co-wrote all about the people who choose recipes as their epitaphs: Allison…

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  • On New York’s Most Famous Unknown Artist, for Fine Books

    In the final years of Ray Johnson’s life, the artist famed for his collages and mail art made a shift to photography. It remained an obscure part of his practice until this year, and I wrote about it for the Summer 2022 issue of Fine Books Magazine: Nearly three decades since his death, these photographs…

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  • Transit of the Dead Talk

    I joined the May 9 “Underworld Tales: A Transit Museum and Morbid Anatomy Variety Show” presented by the New York Transit Museum and Morbid Anatomy for their virtual evening of history. I discussed the “transit of the dead” and how NYC cemeteries impacted the transportation in the city. You can watch it all online!

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  • The Art Newspaper: A Meditation on an Island of Lost Souls

    In my first story for the Art Newspaper, I interviewed artist Coco Fusco about her work in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Her video piece meditates on the dead from the COVID-19 pandemic who were interred on Hart Island, New York City’s potter’s field: It gives the viewer the sensation of floating above the earth, where…

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  • Fine Books Magazine: André Kertész

    For my photography column in the spring 2022 issue of Fine Books Magazine, I wrote about the early work of Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész. Before becoming an influential photojournalist, he used postcard prints to capture the bohemian life of Paris. Selections of these works are on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta…

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  • NYC Microseasons Project

    On Winter Solstice 2021, NYC Microseasons was launched, an ongoing project I started with my friend Erin Chapman. Each week we are sending a newsletter marking the small shifts in the seasons across the five boroughs, reflecting on how both natural and unnatural forces are at work in New York City. The first season—The Solstice…

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  • The Photographer Who Chronicled the Monumental and Ephemeral Land Art Movement

    For the Winter 2022 issue of Fine Books magazine, I explored the legacy of photographer Gianfranco Gorgoni who captured many of the most significant Land Art works in the United States. The story is timed with a retrospective of his work at the Nevada Museum of Art: 50 years after Smithson completed the Spiral Jetty,…

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  • In Tombstones and Sculptures William Edmondson Allowed His Black Community to Be Seen

    For Art & Object, I wrote about the sculptor William Edmondson who used discarded limestone in 1930s Nashville to create tombstones for the final resting places of neighbors, family members, and friends. His practice evolved into a major sculpture career including a solo show at MoMA. The story is timed with his first major museum…

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  • Hulda, the Witch of Sleepy Hollow

    For the Hudson Valley – Times Union, I explored the legend of Hulda, a witch said to live near Sleepy Hollow who is referenced in Washington Irving’s famous 1819 tale. I interviewed people who are keeping Hulda’s memory alive, including the recent marking of what’s believed to be her final resting place: “I see Hulda…

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  • Before Audubon, there was Mark Catesby

    For the Autumn 2021 issue of Fine Books magazine, I contributed a feature on Mark Catesby who visualized the vibrancy of North American nature a century before John James Audubon. I talked to historians, authors, and curators who have investigated his work and its impact: With the assistance of Indigenous guides, he journeyed through environments…

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  • A&E’s You Need to Know

    I regularly work as a story pitcher and researcher for A&E, specifically its short video content for Biography channel. One of the latest series is “You Need to Know” which highlights significant yet often overlooked figures from history. The animated shorts now online include a feature on Osage dancer Maria Tallchief, America’s first prima ballerina.

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