The House of Yes: Remembering Paul Farmer
He founded Partners in Health and dedicated decades to focus on healing the poorest and the sickest in a dozen countries. By Catherine Gardner Sharing a commitment to helping the poor and a hug: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Paul Farmer. Photo courtesy Skoll Foundation Paul Farmer’s life was one dedicated to health, human rights, and ameliorating the consequences of social inequality. He was someone known personally by many in the Peace Corps community, and he has inspired countless more. Tracy Kidder, in his biography of Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains, described him as “a man who would cure the world.” As a college student, Farmer...
WorldView Magazine is Finalist for Three EDDIE and OZZIE Awards
The magazine for the Peace Corps community is up for best cover, best full edition, and best series of articles. By NPCA Staff BIG NEWS for WorldView: The magazine published for the 240,000-strong Peace Corps community has been named a finalist in three categories in the FOLIO Magazine EDDIE and OZZIE awards — the most prestigious awards program celebrating excellence in editorial and design in the publishing industry. BEST COVER The Peace Corps at Sixty | Illustration by Tim O’Brien, art direction by Pamela Fogg. BEST OVERALL EDITION Special 60th Anniversary Edition. Six decades after this Peace Corps endeavor took flight,...
Giving Voice to Refugees: Firsthand Accounts from Children and Teenagers — Some Many Years Later
Finding Refuge REAL-LIFE IMMIGRATION STORIES FROM YOUNG PEOPLE By Victorya Rouse Zest Books Reviewed by Nathalie Vadnais In the Newcomers Center at Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington, Victorya Rouse teaches immigrants from all over the world how to speak English. It’s work she has done for three decades, after she served as an education Volunteer with the Peace Corps in eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) 1981–84. For Finding Refuge, she has put together firsthand accounts of kids’ and teenagers’ experiences — some recounted many years later — to help young readers understand war, conflict, and what it means to be a...
Lifting Every Voice: William Robertson
William Robertson (1933–2021) was the first Black American to serve as an aide to a Virginia governor. He went on to serve five U.S. presidents and lead Peace Corps posts. By Catherine Gardner Photo of William Robertson courtesy University of Virginia Press The first Black American to serve as an aide to a Virginia governor, William Robertson sought ways to enact change and transform systems. After earning degrees in education at Bluefield State College in West Virginia, he helped integrate a white school in Roanoke as a teacher, and was the first African American member of the Roanoke Jaycees civic...
The Swan Song that Truman Capote Did Not Intend to Write
Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era By Laurence Leamer G.P. Putnam’s Sons Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum “For years, Truman Capote had been proudly telling anyone within hearing that he was writing ‘the greatest novel of the age,’” begins Laurence Leamer’s latest biography, a tale of the literati and glitterati. Capote’s book “was about a group of the richest, most elegant women in the world. They were fictional, of course … but everyone knew these characters were based on his closest friends, the coterie of gorgeous, witty, and fabulously rich...
Andy Warhol’s Cats, a Floating Subway Map, and More NYC Delights
Art Hiding in New York AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE CITY’S SECRET MASTERPIECES By Lori Zimmer | Illustrated by Maria Krasinski Running Press Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum In this compendium of delight, illustrator Maria Krasinski brings playful color and a lightness of touch to an exploration of art and artists whose work populates dedicated spaces and so much more in Manhattan. She teams up with writer Lori Zimmer to traverse unexpected places and limn faces of the artists. Works range from Alexander Calder’s “Janey Waney” in Gramercy Park to Francoise Schein’s “Subway Map Floating on a New...
Afghanistan: For an Educator, a Journey Back to a Time of Peace
Afghanistan at a Time of Peace By Robin Varnum Peace Corps Writers Reviewed by Jordan Simmons Friends en route to a provincial school. Photo courtesy Robin Varnum Afghanistan at a Time of Peace traces Robin Varnum’s years as a Peace Corps Volunteer, 1971–73. Varnum chronicles her journey into learning the place she came to call home: adapting to the chilly weather in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, and understanding why she and other foreigners are mocked as “Mister Kachaloo” (literally, “Mr. Potato” in Dari), and traversing the length and breadth of the country — from Jalalabad to Mazar-i-sharif. As a Volunteer...
Two Years in Afghanistan with the Peace Corps for Parents. And Two Deployments in Afghanistan for their Son.
A Few Minor Adjustments TWO YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN: A PEACE CORPS ODYSSEY By Elana Hohl Independently Published Reviewed by Jordan Simmons Before Elana Hohl and her husband, Mike, traveled to Afghanistan to serve with the Peace Corps 1971–73, she had only been beyond her native Midwest a handful of times. The journey filled her with constant amazement — at the smells and tastes of foods, the splendor and beauty of the land in which she found herself. That includes her first trip north with an Afghan friend, Faiz, to the Salaang Pass in the heart of the...
A Study of Land, the State, and War in Afghanistan Raises Some Big Questions. For Starters, Could It All Have Gone Differently?
Land, The State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan By Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Ilia Murtazashvili Cambridge University Press Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum Could it all have gone differently in Afghanistan? That was the premise for a conversation last September with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili about her recently published book, Land, The State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan. Surveys, fieldwork, and historical analysis point to this conclusion, among others: Imposing Western-style institutions is not a panacea. Rather, as Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili distilled in another conversation: “It wasn’t because Afghan social norms don’t...
Scholar and Human Rights Activist, She Was Also Invited to Play Piano with Elvis Presley’s Band. A Remembrance of Jan Knippers Black.
Jan Knippers Black (1940–2021) wrote the definitive book on U.S. interference in post-colonial Brazil. By Catherine Gardner Photo by Elëna Zhukova Professor emerita, world traveler, beloved role model and mentor to thousands of students, singer and songwriter, advocate and ally: These are just some of the many terms one could use to describe Jan Knippers Black, a prominent scholar and human rights activist. She wrote the definitive book on U.S. interference in post-colonial Brazil — some years after she was invited to play piano in Elvis Presley’s band. She was well known for her expertise on political dynamics within Latin America,...