Dispatches from everywhere -- The winter palettes -- Three days in August -- Young Russia's defiant decadence -- Their irony, humor (and art) can save China -- The artists of South Africa: separate, and equal -- Vlady's conquests -- "Don't mess with our cultural patrimony!" -- On each palette, a choice of political colors -- Sailing to Byzantium -- Enchanting Zambia -- Phaly Nuon's three steps -- The open spaces of Mongolia -- Inventing the conversation -- Naked, covered in ram's blood, drinking a Coke, and feeling pretty good -- An awakening after the Taliban -- Museum without walls -- Song of Solomons -- Children of bad memories -- Circle of fire: letter from Libya -- All the food in China -- Outward opulence for inner peace: the Qianlong Garden of Retirement -- Adventures in Antarctica -- When everyone signs -- Rio, city of hope -- In bed with the president of Ghana? -- Gay, Jewish, mentally ill, and a sponsor of gypsies in Romania -- Myanmar's moment -- Lost at the surface.
Summary:
"...gathers Andrew Solomon{u2019}s writings about places undergoing seismic shifts{u2014}political, cultural, and spiritual. Chronicling his stint on the barricades in Moscow in 1991, when he joined artists in resisting the coup whose failure ended the Soviet Union, his 2002 account of the rebirth of culture in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban, his insightful appraisal of a Myanmar seeped in contradictions as it slowly, fitfully pushes toward freedom, and many other stories of profound upheaval, this book provides a unique window onto the very idea of social change..." -- amazon.com.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.