Kami Rice – Anthrow Circus

Channeling Hemingway One Autumn Night

CREATIVE PROJECT CURATED BY KAMI L. RICE

One fall night last year, we created a project for ourselves. The American students were studying abroad in Paris, and I was a mentor in their program. Two artists and three writers, we assigned ourselves homework. We’d spend an evening all together at one of Ernest Hemingway’s famous haunts. The writers had to choose someone, or someones, from among the clientele as their inspiration for a short story. The artists’ drawings would be similarly inspired by someone who was there that night. We’d package the works together and discover what we’d jointly created
—

MicroStories: A Venetian Screenplay

PHOTOGRAPH BY JC JOHNSON & STORY BY KAMI L. RICE

A tiny fictional tale inspired by a magically miniaturized photo of a real-life place.

MicroView: Sagrada Família Was What I Needed

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAMI L. RICE

I hadn’t even stepped inside yet but had already declared Barcelona’s Sagrada Família my new favorite place in the world.

From the stony stations of the cross built into the façade on one side, to the splashes of color in just the right places all over the exterior, to dripping, stony incarnations of gingerbread house icing, to engraved names here and there of characters in the Bible stories the building tells—it was all magnificent. It was a storybook come to life.

Losing Naïveté While Advocating for Afghans on Capitol Hill

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAMI L. RICE

I spent a May afternoon rushing through the wide halls of the U.S. Senate office buildings. It wasn’t the first time I was on Capitol Hill this past spring, but this time I chanced being late for an important flight because the clock was ticking on this issue that kept me coming back to the Hill. The next morning, I learned that day’s meetings had seemingly been for naught.

Clashing Conceptions of Statehood Mean Civilians Suffer

ARTICLE BY KAMI L. RICE
PHOTO BY JOEL CARILLET

Hours after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Douglas Webber, emeritus professor of political science and a Europe specialist at the prestigious business school INSEAD, framed the conflict starkly.

“It’s really a decisive turning point we’re looking at here, and for me certainly I think that it’s the most dangerous moment in international politics if not since the end of World War II, at least since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962,” said Webber to an online meeting of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

An Editor’s Note on the Occasion of MLK Jr. Day

On the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday, we recorded a short conversation between Armon Means and Kami Rice, Anthrow Circus’s Manager of Operations & Social Media and its Editor-in-Chief, respectively. We take you behind the scenes as our team wrestles with how Anthrow Circus should acknowledge this day and its ethos, ultimately deciding that letting you into this conversation was the best way we could honor what the day embodies.

Anniversary Letter From the Editor

BY KAMI L. RICE

If you follow us on social media (if not, find us on Facebook and Instagram!), you should already know we’ve spent the past week celebrating our one-year anniversary of publishing as Anthrow Circus!
We’re awfully proud of all we’ve accomplished during this hard year. While travel has been curtailed around the world, our amazing writers and photographers have brought so many corners of our grand globe to a screen near us: from Togo to Georgia (the country), from Nigeria to Mexico, from Australia to Jordan, from the United States to France, to name just a few.
We’re building something solid under our big tent!

Why Is Slavery Missing From French Novels?

STORY BY KAMI L. RICE

Take up residence in France and you’ll find that everyday life is infused with history. If you’re a curious person, you can’t help but absorb facts it would take years of history classes and careful concentration to learn back in the United States. Here you see and touch history, observing how its effects are felt even long after its scenes’ original actors have departed.

From dime-a-dozen Roman ruins, to the castle where Henri IV was born, to the ancient port of Marseille, to the angles of Cézanne’s beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire, to the beaches of Normandy, history has come alive during my years of French life.

Listen as Myanmar Speaks

INTERVIEW BY KAMI L. RICE
AUDIO AND VIDEO PRODUCTION BY MAHBOOB FAIZI

Our source, we’ll call her Sandra, is a friendly, hospitable, thoughtful Myanmarese professional living abroad. Sandra enjoys staying well-informed regarding world news and events and stays closely connected with her home country of Myanmar. Rather than recreate major media outlets’ coverage of the coup by Myanmar’s military, we are giving this story the Anthrow Circus treatment: sharing the voice of a regular citizen who can give us context for the large-scale geopolitical reports.