Indice dei contenuti per February - March 2016 in Huck

THERE’S A QUIET MOMENT in Catcher in the Rye where Holden Caulfield, everyone’s favourite angstridden teen, becomes more than just a disaffected kid. Expelled for the fourth time, and cast off as a petulant cynic by all the “phonies” in his world, Holden is challenged by his sister to name one thing that he likes. “One thing? One thing I like?” says Holden. And all he can think of is a boy called James Castle – “a skinny little weak-looking guy, with wrists about as big as pencils” – who would rather jump out of a window than succumb to bullies, and ends up plummeting to his sudden death. James Castle is the true star of Catcher in the Rye – but Holden is our hero because he recognised that.…

defience Standing on the soft sand of Regência beach, Eric Freitas Mazzei is feeling nostalgic at the memory of his last surf session. “It was unbelievable! Five-foot, hollow sets, barrel after barrel. I only got out of the water after my surfboard broke in half.” But on that morning of November 21, 2015, a mirthless atmosphere hovered over this worldclass beach break, located in Espírito Santo state, Southeast of Brazil. A stream of highly toxic mud was rushing down the Doce River, and would reach the sea later that Saturday afternoon. It was another chapter in the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history. This tragic domino effect was triggered by the collapse of a dam holding 62 million cubic metres of mining waste, which belongs to Samarco, a joint venture…

It’s a chilly December morning in Southeast San Diego. This part of town was once a byword for deprivation and violence. But things are changing: a modern tram whizzes past a building site for affordable houses, and where once booze shops dispensed liquid amnesia from behind iron bars, a community centre has risen, complete with a parade of family restaurants and a Starbucks. The San Diego Gun Buyback started with a tragic killing, explains Brown in a baritone voice. “In 2008, two of our kids, Monique Palmer and Mike Taylor, got shot in a random act of gang violence. They were just fifteen. Sadly, this wasn’t the first time something like this happened. So usually, the community comes together and collects money to help with the funeral. But my predecessor…

defience There’s a traffic jam developing outside the busy Remera bus station in central Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. More and more mototaxis join the crowd, trying to see what all the commotion is about. At the heart of the tangle of revving motorbikes, tech entrepreneurs Peter Kariuki and Barrett Nash are demonstrating their innovative new app, SafeMotos. Curious drivers ask about how it works and the registered drivers proudly explain that they’re connected to potential passengers via their smartphones. SafeMotos has been billed as Africa’s answer to Uber – but it’s so much more than that. The app is designed to reduce the shocking level of preventable deaths on the continent’s roads. It encourages safer driving and ensures that responsible drivers are rewarded with a stable income by helping them stand…

DAVID BOWIE, 1949 - 2016 OCCUPIED PLEASURES CALAIS, FRANCE, JULY 2015…

It’s a cold Friday morning in Brussels and Les Ursulines skatepark is empty. The park is a concrete island in the city centre that sits between the Gothic Notre Dame de la Chapelle church, a row of elegant Flemish-style brick buildings, and Brussels’ busy rail corridor, which emerges from a tunnel below. The quiet is punctuated only by the odd police siren and the crunching of metal on metal as trains make their way out into the light. In the summer months, Ursulines is a lively meeting place for skaters across the city. But on this late November day, as the Belgian capital emerges from a security lockdown, the park and surrounding streets are near deserted. After November’s Paris terror attacks, in which 130 people died, attention quickly shifted to…

In the early hours of November 9, 2015, Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky approached the main entrance of Russia’s most feared institution and set the door ablaze. Posing in front of the burning door of the headquarters of the FSB (the successor to the KGB in modern Russia) mere seconds before he was detained, Pyotr, with his diamond-cut cheekbones and heavy gaze, looked like one of those death-and-doom dispensing angels heavily featured on dramatic frescoes by the likes of Mikhail Vrubel and Victor Vasnetsov. Weeks later – as Pavlensky sits in prison awaiting his trial – I’m in a warm Moscow kitchen with two people closest to him – Oksana Shalygina, the mother of his children, and Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova – or Nadya Tolokno, as she is widely known.…

defience It’s just after 11:30pm on a December Saturday night in Melbourne, Australia. Following the lead of Akala, the entire congregation of the packed-out Northcote Social Club are chanting, “Fuck it, I’ve had enough!” over and over to help him kick-off his song ‘Sometimes’. It’s a track about realising the game of life is rigged, about taking it on the chin, about pressing on when the odds are stacked against you. The crowd is an impressive ocean of pumping fists and nodding heads. The scent of weed fills the room. Tonight’s spectacle is even more impressive when you consider two facts; Akala is an independent underground UK hip hop act who spends a lot of his time rapping – and writing – about social and political issues affecting young British…

UUKHAI WAS THE WAR-CRY of Mongol warriors as they charged into battle, defying odds – and rival kingdoms – eight centuries ago. The incantation powered them to carve out the largest land empire in human history – spanning from the sea of Japan to Eastern Europe. The battle cry has now been claimed by a new generation. Instead of tearing across the plains on horseback, they glide through the industrial urban sprawl of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, on skateboards. In a country where half the population is under thirty, these skateboarders – members of the Uukhai skate crew – offer a glimpse at Mongolia’s rising creative class who take pride in their heritage, but are frustrated by the toll of the endemic corruption sowed by the generations before them. They’re…

THE CALL TO PRAYER RISES over Kirkuk from hundreds of mosque minarets piercing the city’s skyline. Leaden thunderclouds hang oppressively low over the crumbling rooftops. Recent rains have flooded the streets with muddy water. The only bright spots on the horizon are the gas flares burning from oilfields on the outskirts of town. Somewhere in an unfinished shopping mall, the muffled sound of drumming competes with the drone of the muezzins. It’s coming from a three by five metre room on the top floor. Inside, five men, a drum kit, two guitars, a bass and their amps fill the space. Otherwise the room is empty but for a threadbare oriental carpet. Sermet’s bass joins Mahmoud the drummer and then Murad and Rebeen saw in with their guitars. Finally, Mir unleashes…

ADUSTY PICK-UP TRUCK drives along the road that passes through Serikani, leading to Al Qamishli, a once sleepy provincial town in eastern Syria. Its only cargo is an unfolded colourful scarf, casually thrown on the front seat. The truck passes by dozens of roadside billboards showing images of young female martyrs. “Without you there would be no us,” reads one. The scarf is all that remains of Cicek Derek, one of thousands of young female fighters who stand at the forefront of the battle against the Islamic State. Cicek, only seventeen, died fighting in Kobane some months ago. With her braided hair, military fatigues and courage to take on violent Islamic militants, women like her have become heroes in the West. But it wasn’t just the fight with the Islamic…

defience Nothing about Kano’s rise through the ranks of British music has been predictable. Ever since he found a voice in early-noughties East London – where a new underground sound (that would later be called grime) was percolating through the streets via rap battles, homemade mixtapes, and illegal raves – he’s charted an unexpected course through fifteen years of provocative music-making. There were no templates in Kano’s world for the life he chose. So the multi-disciplinary rapper just made it up as he went along. His new album Made in the Manor is his first in six years and with the Drakes and Kanyes of the world clucking excitedly around the ‘grime revival’, anticipation is high. Not bad for a kid from East Ham who learnt to spit in his…

SALWA MANSOUR and Karima Algelany are poised on the jammer line, rollerskate wheels braced against the asphalt, eyes narrowed against the sun. Ahead of them is a tight pack of blockers from both teams: half will be helping them race around the elliptical track, the others will try to stop them with spine-jolting body blocks and, ideally, send them smashing into the ground. Protective pads and helmets are adjusted, mouth guards are in place, the trailing ends of headscarves are tucked into mesh sports vests. There’s a whistle blast and the two opposing jammers – the game’s only point-scorers – skate full tilt into the mass of bodies. We’re at a basketball court in Corniche El Nahr, east Beirut, and dozens of adults and kids have assembled to watch eight…

defience It’s a chilly day in Williamsburg, but it’s warm and cozy inside this small apartment. MacKenzie Peck – twenty-eight-year-old freelance designer by day, feminist pornographer of her quarterly Math Magazine by night – has just shot naked for her own feature, on a rooftop wearing nothing but a black bra and panties, gripping the ledge in reaction to a real fear of falling. Down now from the roof – shaking off the jitters of nearly being blown away – she focuses her attention on her next issue’s centrefold. It’s a dreamy lingerie shoot. And, while her female photographer takes a few test shots, MacKenzie helps to calm the nerves of a beautiful blonde in blush lingerie. This is where MacKenzie’s approach to pornography shines, making sure the model is…

defience Through the gaps between buildings on the tight, close roads around Manhattan’s financial district, one structure beams the sun back twice as hard. The Freedom Tower is a shimmering, angular piece of work, jutting into the bright blue afternoon. In late 2011, in the shadow of this juggernaut, artist Molly Crabapple witnessed the birth and death of Occupy Wall Street. The apartment where we meet today is a stone’s throw from Zuccotti Park, a couple of blocks from the skyscraper. Crabapple devotes a lot of ink to Occupy Wall Street in her new memoir, Drawing Blood. Paintings and sketches that she committed to paper at the time appear in the book alongside her recollections to illustrate the optimism and violence of that moment. The few short months in which…

Will Meyer - Brother Cycles When Will Meyer first moved to London about ten years ago he had a transformative experience. Frustrated with public transport – sweaty, overcrowded tube trains that took him on the daily commute – and suffering from claustrophobia-induced panic attacks, he decided to get a bike. “I’d lost my connection with the outdoors,” says Will. “So I bought this bike off a man on Gumtree, which was blatantly stolen, and then remembered that I used to love cycling so much in my teens, and that was it. I suddenly loved living in London. I was cycling right through Hyde Park, along the Embankment, over London Bridge. Suddenly London became this amazing place.” That passion for cycling soon turned into an obsession for the machines that made…