From backstage to front of house, feature contributor Jesse Newman, and photographer Daniel Kukla cover the S/S 2011 collection of Malaysian-born, New York based fashion veteran Zang Toi, during September’s New York Fashion Week.

Aakanksha Kapoor gives us a peek in to the Argentina Group Showcase on the last day of New York Fashion Week, September 16th 2010, at the Lincoln Center.
Inspiration from modern literature and polo, to nuns and deserts– this six designer showcase had it all.

As it happens, This Is Worldtown dropped by New York Fashion Week (NYFW) this month.
In the first of our coverage, feature contributor Shida Salehi of The Perfect Pairing, shares insights and images from the front row, at the NYFW debut show of Farai Simoyi, of Zimbabwean heritage, now making her dream come true in NYC.
The show took place at the Skylight West venue, Sept 13th 2010.

What could be more American than football? I’m sure there are plenty of things, but no sport offers a more iconic symbol for American identity. So it’s timely that a documentary tracing a High School …

Feature by Danah Abdulla of The Yuppie Activist :: I collect postcards. A box I keep at home contains numerous postcards from across the world, many from places I have visited, and some from places I have yet to discover. On my most recent trip to Palestine, my first since 2002, I entered every shop in Ramallah looking for a postcard of a city other than Jerusalem or Bethlehem. I was unsuccessful. And then I thought to myself, what would a postcard of a Palestinian city resemble?

For decades, many Western company failed to appreciate the unique needs of Muslim consumers, marketing experts say. Worse, some companies offended potential customers by not understanding religious sensitivities. But as the Islamic population has grown in size and affluence — there are now 1.57 billion Muslims worldwide — more multinationals are seeking to tap into the market.

Read the full story : Advertisers Seek to Speak to Muslim Consumers :: New York Times :: August 11th 2010

Photographer Caroline Irby spent one year tracking down a child born in every country in the world (now living in the UK), then photographed and interviewed each one.
Exhibit on at the V&A Museum of Childhood until August 30th 2010

‘Homegrown’ is easily the production that stirred up the most controversy– and national attention– at this year’s Toronto indie theatre and arts festival, Summerworks.
Based on real events and experiences of the playwright Catherine Frid, ‘Homegrown’ centres around a seemingly unlikely friendship between the young man, Shareef Abdelhaleem, arrested and accused of terrorism in 2006 as part of the so-called ‘Toronto 18′, and, the lawyer/playwright, who is determined to separate the facts of the case from the secrecy, delays and media spin (easier said than done).

In November, 76 Tamil refugees escaped Sri Lanka on a rusty freighter. They arrived in Victoria, where they were met by RCMP and Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials, who promptly jailed them for three months on allegations of terrorism. It would be fully half a year before the CBSA would admit that it had never had any evidence.

For anyone who likes to think identity politics is dead, irrelevent or both - Gary Younge, the prolific writer/commentator for the Guardian has published a new book on 21st identity politics: Who are We-And Should …