Escape From China & Libraries
How China’s power stretches far beyond its borders for Uyghurs. Also, Austin's libraries have become much more than that.
Featured Articles
He Made a Daring Escape From China. Then His Real Troubles Began.
New York Times • 10 Nov 2024 • ~9850 words • Archive Link
He fled brutal repression — only to discover, as so many Uyghur refugees have, that China’s power stretches far beyond its borders.
A week later, several guards entered Imam’s cell and read aloud a list of names from a notebook. The guards explained that these men, around 40 from two adjacent cells, were being sent to Turkey, too. Yolwas was one of them. Watching them leave, Imam felt uneasy, although he couldn’t say why. A night passed with no news. The following afternoon, on July 9, word came that the men had not reached Turkey but instead had been deported to China. Cries of despair filled Sadao as the news spread. In Imam’s cell, someone fainted.
Engines of Optimism
Texas Highways • 4 Nov 2024 • ~4150 words
This piece explores how Austin's libraries have become much more than that.
A library’s community shapes its mission. “We serve who comes through our doors,” says Danny Walker, the manager for the Terrazas Branch downtown. “Eighty percent of the people, at least, who come here are those experiencing homelessness or some type of challenge in their lives.” We speak in Walker’s office in the newly renovated Terrazas: new carpets and paint, new meeting rooms along the back wall, shorter shelves to improve sightlines (a trend in revamped library buildings). It’s gorgeous inside, with plenty of seating and computer terminals and some of the friendliest of all the library staff I meet. That is another resource that public libraries offer: respect for people who deserve respect but don’t always get it.
Recommended Articles
A Real Estate Queen and the Secret She Couldn’t Keep Hidden
New York Times • 10 Nov 2024 • ~4000 words • Archive Link
Alice Mason was New York City’s broker to the elite and a master at the art of hosting. One fête would alter her legacy and strain her relationship with her daughter.
Her life as a socialite and a real estate agent to wealthy Manhattanites was a paradox: Alice Mason, the seemingly white real estate broker, got her clients into buildings that would never have accepted her as a Black woman.
