Don’t Close the Curtains on Kenya’s Acrobats

They Fly Through the Air and Build Human Pyramids to Tourists’ Delight. But the Performers Struggle for Recognition and Financial Stability

It’s showtime at one of Kenya’s five-star resort hotels.

Tourists from around the world move in small groups to the performance area next to the pool to see the evening’s headliner: Burning Spear Acrobats.*

The five members showcase the art and skill of Kenyan acrobatics. They adjust themselves into elaborate human pyramids. They fly through the air in perfect synchronicity as the ropes turn in opposite directions during the double rope skipping act. And they create an impressive tower of stacking chairs and hand balance from one to another to great heights.

Their …

More In: Glimpses

Finding L.A. in Food Splatters and Spiral Bindings

Three Centuries of Cookbooks from Clubs, Churches, and Other Groups Chronicle How the City Has Lived, Worked, and Eaten

This piece publishes alongside the Zócalo/LA Cocina de Gloria Molina/California Humanities program “Do We Need More Food Fights?” tomorrow, Thursday, September 14, at 7PM …

When Kids Make Art, a Richer Story of War Emerges

The Stone Soup Refugee Project Helps Young People Move Beyond Empathy

The sea is stormy, please help me!

My wings are small, please help me!

The butterflies are afraid, please help me!

My world is ignored, …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

I Turn Science Into Art

My Textbook Illustrations Help Educate the Next Generation of Biologists, Doctors, and Physicists

I graduated from art school in a muddle. All I’d ever really wanted to do was draw, and I had done so on every sheet of paper that came within …

The Hmong Dolls We Lost, and the Story I Found | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Hmong Dolls We Lost, and the Story I Found

I Couldn’t Save These Hand-Sewn Heirlooms From a Fire, But I Could Preserve Their History—And Maybe Even Part of My Heritage

The dolls were a seemingly trivial loss in the larger scheme of what went up in smoke when a fire burned through my neighborhood in the summer of 2020.

My family …

A Fragile Livelihood in Yemen

Photojournalist Asmaa Waguih Captures a Nation at War, at Work, at Rest

Cairo-based photojournalist Asmaa Waguih has always felt a close connection to Yemen, her Red Sea neighbor. Her father was an Egyptian military officer who fought in the country for many …