These pieces explore the seasons of sound in a city caught in the global pandemic.

The idea of representing a city in 10 word descriptions comes from a writing workshop that I led in the Senegalese capital of Dakar in 2015, on the invitation of the Dakar Women’s Group. The pairing of the ideal 10 word descriptions with the ideal 10 images developed as a result of multiple revisions for various occasions, over the course of a year. I hope that the selection here gives a glimpse into but also a feel of a place rich with color, vibrancy, hospitality, and contradiction.

These poems attempt to capture our experiences of verticality in the city, as a daily practice. “Ice-skating” attempts to capture what it means to glide on the ice rink in the city and connect to things beyond the immediate present; “Nightstands by the Curb” records seeing two discarded nightstands by the side of the road and how in their loneliness they stand tall and significant despite the fact that their owner found them useless. In “Hair A-Z,” I list all possible variations of hair styles and accessories, as a way of seeing how hair makes us distinct, unique, tall in the city. “An Urban Riddle,” written in the voice of the elevated park, the High Line, in Manhattan, investigates what it may mean to have such an unusual green “presence” in the city. Each of these poems is paired with a photograph: some were taken on the occasion of the poem, like the ice-skating one, others, like the photographs by my friend Nikola Bradonjic—not, but we decided that they went well with the poems (the “Nightstands by the Curb” and “Hair A-Z” poems). The photograph accompanying “an Urban Riddle” is of a site-specific artwork, Broken Bridge II, by El Anatsui, which graced the High Line park from November 2012 until October 2013.

When Argul Weave officially opened in Bursa, Turkey, in the Fall of 2014, it became the first structure of its kind in the region: master- minded by architect Burak Pekoglu, it combines complex geometry with local labor and building materials—Patara beige natural stone for the façade, from Burdur, and dark-red Aegean marble for the plinth, from the Aegean area—to make a bold aesthetic statement in Yildirim, Bursa—the textile industry hub of Turkey—a complex geometry can be scaled down to a buildable design here, by the locals. This article examines some of the forces that helped shape Argul Weave into one coherent, and visionary, composition: from theories of modern architecture to practical knowledge of local customs, and ponders the importance of the structure in summoning the varied resources of Turkey’s Hinterland while also facilitating the creative synergy among the locals (workers, residents, users).