As the blindfolded guests entered the dining room, they barely managed to stifle their gasps at what unfolded before them. They could not see, but what they could smell was more than enough. It was as if someone had extracted the magnificence of a single rose petal and amplified the…

An Indian-American writer explores the popularity of a Chinese spiritual movement through one group in New York The most vivid memory from my first Falun Gong practice session in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park was of falling. Feeling faint, I momentarily went weak in the knees and started drifting backwards. Fortunately…

July 23, 2018 — Some spontaneous thought poetry. Enjoy! Or don’t. Either way, thank you for reading. In 2018. What does it mean For something to live Only inside your own head Instead of on the page, in the Words of your tweet, in the Contours of your Snapchat, in the Filters of your Instagram, even in the Words of others? What does it take away from you For it to exist only inside of you? In 2018.

Children splashing around in the cast-off water from an open fire hydrant in Harlem on a ninety-degree day While police sirens buzz in the background like mosquitoes in summer heat Hipsters in Williamsburg waltzing by bodegas with signs advertising the finest craft beer While a man on the street corner…

While I was ordering basil fried rice — my go-to meal — one evening at a Thai restaurant in the East Village, the server hemmed and hawed. “Umm. We don’t have that as a summer special.” “It’s on the menu,” I responded, more bluntly than I needed to, without couching…