The Confederate Legacy in Savannah Historical Black Lives Matter By Lauri Lyons Please sign this online petition to change Confederate names of African burial grounds in Georgia: www.change.org/restwithhonorsavannah Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia and is known for its coastal beauty and historical architecture. The city was able to thrive and become one of the wealthiest cities in America, because of its rice plantations, cotton plantations, and access to Northern and foreign markets across the Atlantic. All of the labor used to work on the plantations and to build the city’s infrastructure was made by enslaved Africans directly imported from West Africa. Additional slave labor included African-Americans who were owned by the municipality or “hired out” (rented) to the city by their Master, and “free” people of color, that were required by law to work for the city one day a week for free. Africans were not allowed to be buried within Savannah. They were only allowed to be buried on the outskirts of the city in “Old Negro Burial Grounds”. In 1850 the Old Negro Burial Grounds were closed. Headstones from the graves were relocated to a new cemetery designated for Negroes. However, most of the graves were not exhumed, they remained in the original burial grounds. In 1851, the Old Negro Burial Grounds were redesigned as two public squares; renamed Whitefield Square and Calhoun Square. The latter in honor of John C. Calhoun, the former Vice President of the United States. Calhoun was fiercely pro-slavery and his philosophy and essays about white supremacy were the leading voice supporting terrorism and oppression against Black and indigenous people...
Black Americans and Wilderness Culturally Reclaiming Green Spaces By T’shari White There are plenty of words in the English language that can be homonyms such as “their, there, and they’re”. However, some words can also have different meanings based on human perceptions. Words can have various meanings depending on who you are talking to, where they are from, and their cultural upbringing. The term “Black Americans ” is used in this article to include African-Americans and descendants of Black populations from the African Diaspora, that reside in the United States and are impacted by the ramifications of slavery. For some White Americans the terms: woods, woodlands, forests or wilderness may mean trees, greenery, foliage. Those words may also conjure up the image of a sweet little Bambi deer bounding through a thicket. However, to some Black Americans, it may carry the sentiment of being dangerous, unsafe, or even remind them of the horrors of slavery. The enslavement of African people for nearly 250 years (1619-1865) in the United States has left a lasting negative impression on Black people and has influenced the cultural dynamics and relations of this country, in both covert and overt ways. Due to the history of slave hunts and lynchings that took place during and after slavery, traveling to forests or remote landscapes may not be an expedition that many Black Americans want to experience. Historically, there were segregation laws put in place that prohibited Black people from visiting national parks. When Black people were later granted access to the parks, they were restricted to subpar segregated Colored areas until the end of the Jim...
A Digital Nomad in Pulau Batam The Montigo Nongsa Workcation By Cindy Bingley-Pullin All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Jill a dull girl! Most people that work in an office fantasize about escaping the office, and people that work from home are sometimes challenged by family and cabin fever. Cindy Bingley Pullin is a spirited travel writer that has learned the fine art of working on the road while bringing her family in tow. What does one do when deadlines and client demands mean taking time off work is a no-no, or your kid’s school breaks are seemingly always around the corner? Could the best solution be a trip away? Enter the “work-cation”, a vacation where one spends part of their time getting work done. As the boundaries between work and everyday life become increasingly blurred, travel trends of mixing business with pleasure are increasingly popular. With the rise of the digital nomads and remote jobs, all you need for location freedom is a laptop and a decent wi-fi connection. Wherever you are, you can log on and create a virtual office poolside, beachside, or anywhere in between, as you enjoy the company of the ones you love. My new work + pleasure endeavour is a review of global work-cation resorts worth checking into. My first destination was the Montigo Nongsa in Pulau Batam, Indonesia. The Southeast Asian weekender destination of Pulau Batam (or Batam Island), is part of the Indonesia archipelago. It is only a 30-minute ferry ride from the fast pace and big lights of Singapore, making it the perfect work-cation addition...
Cookware Couture For Elegant Foodies A Dinner Invitation Not to be Missed By Allyson Volpe With its unrivalled craftsmanship, choice gastronomy, and seasonal ingredients, Florence is a city that continues to entice the culinary imagination and its ritual of fine dining around the table. Florence based Cookware Couture is one of the rising stars of today’s culinary experience. Launching its 100 percent silver cookware line, Cookware Couture takes its hand-crafted design inspiration from the world-famous history of Florentine artisans who have fashioned the gleaming prized silver since Renaissance times. When creating their silver cookware, both founders Petra Casini and Laura Shadden, took inspiration from the great historical lineage of Florentine design and silversmith tradition. Both ladies are firm believers in the bottega (workshop), employing the dedication and expertise of Florentine artisans, working with them, and valuing their finely tuned craftsmanship. The passion underlying Florentine craftsmanship is undeniable in the beautifully hand-made Cookware Couture creations, which exude this sort of authentic time honoured expertise in a very modern way. Teaming up to join forces, Laura Shadden, a Californian native and design consultant in the fashion industry, and Petra Casini, a German native that hails from a family of stone cutters, gemologists and jewelers, began collaborating eight years ago for a mutual client. Gradually, they began realizing their collective potential, love of cooking, and passion for the Tuscan way of life. The idea of creating a silver cookware line become a reality with the launch of their Cookware Couture in 2017. Although Shadden and Casini have fashioned a very unique line of cookware that is setting an important trend in the...
Spiritual Retreats in Ibiza Yoga Rosa & Legado Ibiza Finca By Cindy Bingley-Pullin & Wendy Tee Supersized yachts, celebrity DJs, glitzy beach clubs, and overpriced sushi with cocktails. Ibiza, Spain is a destination world-renowned for wild parties and excess, but there is also a milder and more intriguing side to this Balearic island that travelers have long been drawn to. With a history dating back centuries, Ibiza has captured the attention of the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Spaniards, and even pirates. More recently, bohemians started migrating here in the 1960s. They created a richly diverse culture and a free-spirited charm that continues to captivate many travelers today. Part of the mystique is attributable to Es Vedrà, an uninhabited rocky island off the southwest coast of Ibiza, that is shrouded in myths and legends aplenty. Es Vedra is the fabled home of the sirens who tried to lure Odysseus from his ship in Homer’s classic story The Odyssey. It is also considered to be a holy island associated with Tanit, the Ibizan patron goddess of fertility, the gateway to the lost city of Atlantis, and even a secret UFO base. There are also claims that Es Vedrà is one of the most magnetic points on Earth, like the Bermuda Triangle. Whilst unproven, all of these myths and legends only enhance the mysterious allure of Ibiza. It is away from the tourist hubs of Playa d’en Bossa and Sant Antoni, where my sister and I discover two boutique boltholes, where we can escape and hide. The charming founders of each resort are creating hospitality experiences. The retreat focuses on solitude and spiritual...
Annals of Depression and Love National Suicide Prevention Lifeline By Konstance Patton You can’t do it. You can’t do it. You can’t fucking do it. But I get it. I understand. It gets low, lower, then fucking lower, and bottoms out. Then it cruelly stabilizes, but so far down you cannot think or see yourself or anything else. You can’t move. You can’t create, sleep, bathe, clean, eat or stop eating, cry or feel enough to cry at all. You can fuck it away, drink it away, sleep it away, numb it away, but it’s still there hiding, waiting patiently to pull off its next lowly prank. Snuffing you from behind when you least expect it, when things are going swimmingly. It’ll be okay lover, but maybe it won’t ever entirely leave. No matter how much you try to force it away, it loves you and you hate it. It’s an abusive relationship that needs a solution. Nobody without depression understands the blessing to them from the Gods. Depression is real. To start to break this curse of years long, on and off depression, I had to literally wear a reminder - my heart, a symbol of self-love, just below my left elbow. A blood and ink sacrifice of dragged needles painfully etched into my long thin red appendage. It is my symbol of mortal love and permanence. Life has no permanence. It seems long, but I’m already waltzing towards middle age. I know that feeling of the all-the-way highs, and the way-too lows, the streaming tears, the inward and outward fights, the self-imposed loneliness. Through sun-bleached curtains and a thick...
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A Warrior of Light By Lauri Lyons As a person born after the signing of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, I was not a witness to the loud calls for justice that took place in the United States during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Like many generations that followed, my knowledge of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. primarily came from what I was taught in school and from archival film clips of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington. With that rote knowledge, I, like many others felt that I had a good idea of who Dr. King was and what he stood for. My idea of him was a noble, calm, and well-spoken civil rights leader. Indeed, he was all of those things, but he was also so much more. He was fire, brimstone, determination, strategy, and human. Reflecting on his life and career, he was an individual who willingly became a foot soldier for equality, during a Vesuvian explosion of cultural, political and social change. This period of time in American history could easily be classified as the rebirth of a nation. MLK’s most daring acts of faith were his strategical acts of nonviolence. His stance to fight physical power with soul power was and still is, a radical choice of weapons. At a time when black people were not legally guaranteed basic human rights in the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. had the audacity to demand that America be true to its commitments on paper, as was written in the Declaration of Independence and...
Travel Inspired Luxury Bags For Love Or Nothing, Baby By John-Paul Pietrus I enter the warm, wood-lined walls of number 59 South Audley Street in Mayfair, London. Sitting at the back of the bar is a gorgeous couple, the understated and chic Runaway and the effortlessly stylish Vagabond. They’re just so cool. They’ve got the perfect slouch, heart, and soul. I venture forth and ask “Who are you and where are you from?” They reply, “We’re Love Or Nothing, Baby”. If bags were people, Love Or Nothing Baby (LONB) bags would be those cool cats in the corner that simultaneously stand out with style, but are welcome in any environment. They carry a timeless, beautiful form, created for travel as well as a quotidian living. The idea for LONB started several years ago with the brand’s masterminds, Melissa Morris and Reinhard Mieck, frustrations with finding the perfect bag. As a bag-lover, Reinhard amassed a collection of over 50 varieties of bags, some of which he loved for function, others of which he loved for aesthetics, but he never found one which was just perfect in every way. Reinhard comes from a background in the business side of the leather goods industry, having been CEO of Labelux. He recalls the stress of waking up at 6 a.m. to catch a flight, gathering keys from one jacket, wallet from another, passport, boarding pass and all the essentials, only to arrive at the airport and realize that one thing had been forgotten. Melissa remembers living in New York City, and getting dressed and ready to go to work, only to arrive at the...
Escape From A Spiritual Cult A Wellness Retreat Gone Wrong By Charmaine Selwood Editor’s Note: The following story is one woman’s personal view and account of visiting an advertised spiritual retreat in Australia. The events described have been reported to the authorities for investigation. Reader’s discretion is advised. Earlier this year I was working as an au pair in Brisbane, Australia. Things were going well until I found myself in a wild relationship filled with alcohol, drugs, and hotel rooms. As our relationship continued, I noticed my mental health deteriorating. I needed to get away, be somewhere pure, and come back to myself. So, I decided to go to the Samaya Ashram, in the Byron Bay Hinterland of Australia. This self-sustainable, spiritual community had a tight schedule. We rose at 5.30am before sunrise, had a jam-packed day of meditations, yoga, “meditation in action” (work), and vegan meals. In the evenings, we had a sangha. The essence of a sangha is awareness, understanding, acceptance, harmony, and love. By 7 pm, the moon-illuminated forest led us to bed. Samaya, the 80-year-old Italian guru, and owner of the ashram was wise, charismatic, and intelligent. Through listening to him, I realized how one could so easily become a slave to society. He made us feel like we had escaped all that pain and suffering, and the ashram would set us free. Over the first few days, the intensity of the Osho meditations shocked me. We practiced the ‘Mystic Rose’, which was talking ‘gibberish’ for 10 minutes, crying for 10, and then laughing for 10 minutes. After a few days, we did ‘Dynamic’ mediation...
The Ottoman Chic Lifestyle Interior Designer Serdar Gülgün By John-Paul Pietrus The Ottoman Empire reigned supreme from 1299 to 1922, ushering in an era of opulence and global expansion. Although the empire has fallen, the Ottomans legendary taste for the good life is still inspiring design enthusiasts today. East met West, as NOMADS Editor at Large John-Paul Pietrus sat down to discuss the Ottoman chic lifestyle with the acclaimed Ottoman expert, author and designer, Serdar Gülgün. I swiftly walked through Kensington Gardens one misty morning, aware that I was cutting it close for the morning tea invitation on Gloucester Road with Ottoman expert Serdar Gülgün. Sedar had come to London to launch his pop up store in collaboration Assouline Books on Piccadilly Circus. I made sure I dressed well, as Serdar was known to be always impeccably attired. I arrived at the café and luckily had a few minutes to catch my breath before he arrived. He was as dashing as ever, with his round glasses, Turkish moustache, and gorgeous tailored jacket that he “picked up somewhere in Florence.” Always the gentleman, he complimented me on my Toile de Jouy jacket. Over many a pot of fresh tea, Serdar told me his story. A native Istanbullu, Serdar attended a French school as a youth and then began studies in business administration, which he quickly decided was not his thing, and then moved on to SOAS University of London for his master’s degree. It was a wonderful awakening for him, all he wanted. Post studies he worked for a very short while at Sotheby’s before returning to Istanbul in the...
