Ode
Yoga for at-risk communities
Dressed alike in loose grey pants, blue T-shirts and dark navy sweatshirts, a group of teenagers files into the bright room. They remove their shoes and sit on the identical green mats arranged in two rows on the floor. Once they’re seated, Annika Hanson, their teacher, asks for silence. A few kids, ignoring her, keep laughing and talking. Eventually, one speaks up. “Just go ahead and be quiet.” Then amid minimal noise, Hanson leads them in chanting “om.” Yoga class has begun.
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What a long, strange trip its been
Frank Ferrante allowed a film crew to record his transformation from obese drug addict to clean, serene grad student. Now he’s coming soon to a theatre near you.
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Puerto Rico’s clean-up woman
“I’m just a housewife. I work to protect my family and my community against pollution,” Rosa Hilda Ramos explains. Of course, the Puerto Rican activist, one of the winners of this year’s prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, is selling herself short.
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A sucker for conspicuous consumption
You’ll find “the Vacuum Cleaner”—not as well-known as James, a UK-based activist and artist who asked us to withhold his last name because many of his actions are illegal—in the mall, but not among the domestic appliances. On entering what he calls “the Church of the Immaculate Consumption,” he kneels before clothing and makeup displays, hands thrust skyward, loudly praising the designer brands for “the opportunity to buy a beautiful lifestyle.”
Read this article at Ode Magazine