Elizabeth Murphy
- City with Walls: Another Look at Manhattan’s Luxury Towers
(fall2015)
“Inequality has in a sense crystallized in the forms of glass and steel residential buildings carefully designed to glitter. In growing height and number, they have come to stand for a consolidation of wealth that is seemingly insoluble. Or, to use another fluid metaphor, a wealth that is unlikely to trickle down.”
- Marches of Nations: Nationality, War, Humanity, and What
“Silent Millions” Really Feel
(winter2014)
“The strength of the common human bond that binds...silent millions to others across official national boundaries is a telling criticism of mainstream discourses and practices of national identity and sovereignty.”
- “As Having Life”: Reflections on the Gem of the Mall
a Photo Essay, with James Wrona
(summer2013)
“With more veterans of today’s wars returning to a world that does not understand, nor sufficiently treat the physical and psychological injuries they face, and more dying at home—by their own hands—than in combat in Afghanistan, Junger’s appeal to honesty holds great potential.”
- Perpetual Meadowlands: Among the Reedbeds
of the Hackensack with James Wrona, a Photo Essay
(summer2012)
“The Meadowlands are a place of contradictions. Decades of dredging and dumping have altered the Jersey marshland's ecology, ridding it of forests and species of animal and plant; changing the courses of bodies of water. Today the Meadowlands are home to several active landfills as well as experiments in conserving those, like PJP, that have been closed. The Meadowlands are a sanctuary for migratory birds and a Superfund site.”
- Demonstrating Democracy: Occupy Wall Street and Hoovervilles
(fall2011)
“Occupying a public space is a lot like casting a vote, except that in the case of occupation, the polls don't close, and the issues addressed are more diverse than those that appear on public ballots.”
- Where the Boardwalk Ends with Mark Ostow, a Photo Essay
(fall2010)
“In height, Revel is 710 feet of steel and glass. Altogether, the completed tower's windowed area dwarfs that of the Hooters franchise by approximately 1,775 times. Viewed as a hindrance to the comings and goings of coastal birds, Revel is remarkable. But more significantly, examined as a hindrance to the surrounding community—it is phenomenal.”
- Love Letter to Rane Arroyo
(fall2010)
“‘Why haven't I / written more love letters?’ When remembering Rane Arroyo, this the last line of his poem A Fake Owl, will probably always come to mind. The line sneaks up on you—after a poem's worth about airports, Toledo, and a fake owl—and does what I believe it was meant to do; it asks a question of us, sincerely. On first reading, my immediate thought was, ‘Yes! Why haven't I?!’”
- Bringing up the Bones
(fall2009)
“Perhaps love has nothing to do with agreeing. What if love and harmony, standing shoulder to shoulder in a secular trinity with peace, are nothing alike. What if all love is based on a misunderstanding between two (or more) individuals.”
- “Little Prayers”
(fall2009)
Poetry.
- Introduction to the Body
(fall2008)
“No matter what the intention, the preferred vantage for terrible scenes is from a distance. But what is the purpose of truth-telling that denies proximity (physical or otherwise) to the experience it tries to re-present?”
- An Editor Has Her Say
(springsummer2008)
“Critics too, at their best, are danger-makers.”
- “Borrowed,” “Words From a Debate,” & “Exhibit”
(springsummer2008)
Poetry.