Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2024 i AFAR

WHEN THE FIRST issue of Afar came out 15 years ago this August, we had a clear mandate: Cover the world beyond the United States. In the original blueprint for the magazine, we wrote, “Afar is the ‘non-ugly’ American, the one who is eager to learn about other ways of living, different philosophies, and diverse perceptions that help expand our own understanding.” If hindsight is 20/20, that viewpoint was a bit myopic. In encouraging readers to go further, ahem, afar and afield, we underestimated the incredible range of experiences travelers could have closer to home in North America. A couple of years later, we expanded our areas of coverage to include our own backyard—with the same approach of open-mindedness and curiosity we applied to the wider world. In this issue,…

Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters SAVANNAH, GEORGIA This 1819 mansion has some of the best-preserved urban slave quarters in the South, giving visitors a glimpse into the lives of 14 enslaved people who worked in a bustling city. Daily guided tours of the site begin every 15 minutes. Whitney Plantation EDGARD, LOUISIANA An hour’s drive west of New Orleans, the Whitney Plantation is Louisiana’s first museum dedicated exclusively to the history of slavery. The tour and exhibits focus on the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in Louisiana from 1719 to 1865. Every visitor receives a card that bears the story of a different enslaved person, gleaned from interviews with more than 2,300 former slaves conducted by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s and ’40s. Stagville State Historic Site DURHAM,…

Alay Alay Chef Andrea Sayeg dreams up creative riffs on classic Middle Eastern dishes, wrapped in fluffy pita bread instead of tortillas. Try the Lebanese-style pork quesadillas or seasonal lamb kebab taco. Matías Romero 98, Colonia del Valle Pàt Patz Mijael Seidel’s restaurant draws inspiration from a Palestinian-owned food cart he loved in New York City, but the dishes—such as the brisket kebab with macha sauce—are dressed in the bold flavors of his home of Colima, Mexico. Oslo 7, Colonia Juárez El Vilsito In the evening, this auto shop turns into one of the best spots to find the city’s classic fusion dish, tacos al pastor, a descendant of shawarma brought by Middle Eastern immigrants. Avenida Universidad 248, Narvarte Poniente Al-Andalus Set in a 17th-century colonial building in the historic…

ROUTE 66 EXEMPLIFIES WHAT photographer Rachael Wright calls “the enduring mythology of the American dream.” She moved to the U.S. from England about 15 years ago, but the highway’s vast and varied scenery across its 2,448 miles and eight states—particularly the neon and mid-century modern relics celebrated in pop culture—have intrigued her since childhood. As an adult, Wright also became fascinated with the road’s complex history. In 1926, as the U.S. was launching its first federal highway system, government officials cobbled local, state, and national roads together to create Route 66. Writer John Steinbeck called it the “Mother Road” during the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s as poverty-stricken Americans used it to head west in search of jobs. Since then, Wright says, it has lived many lives: a military…

There’s really no place like the United States. You can revel in landscapes as varied as the 337 million people who live here. You can visit new national landmarks and glamping spots on one trip and savor local wines and Andy Warhol art-works on the next. And after that, there’s still so much more to try: sunning on sugar-sand beaches, digging for your own diamonds, feasting at acclaimed restaurants in surprising locales, and relaxing in beautiful green spaces (such as Falls Park on the Reedy in Greenville, South Carolina, pictured above). To get you started, we’ve spotlighted something we love in each of the 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. They’re in no particular order, because the country itself is a sprawling, brilliant grab bag—and that’s part of…

WHEN I WAS 11, my school took a field trip to Walnut Grove Plantation, one of the oldest homes in South Carolina. The way the guides explained it, Scotch-Irish immigrants Charles and Mary Moore had been “given” the property by King George III in 1763, and they built their manor there in 1765. That day, we were told about the house’s furnishings and what life was like for white settlers. Nothing was said about the 12 enslaved people who worked on the property, which once spanned 3,000 acres. Its boundaries sat just six miles from my childhood home. Slavery is the reason my lineage exists in this country. Brought to coastal South Carolina in the 1730s, my ancestors were enslaved people whose labor helped make the state, at one point,…

GROWING UP in the Mexican capital, Andrea Sayeg, now 33, dreamed of opening her own taco shop where she would serve suadero, lengua, maciza, and other cuts of meat typically found in Mexico City’s taquerias. But the restaurant she actually opened in 2021 ended up looking nothing like that: At Alay Alay, Sayeg’s specialty taco features crispy fried chicken bathed in muhammara, a sauce of red peppers, almonds, cashews, pine nuts, and pomegranate syrup. It’s the perfect symbol of her combined culinary influences—the foods of her Lebanese heritage and of her Mexico City hometown. Sayeg found that the two cuisines work well together. “We use a lot of cumin in Mexican food and also in the Middle East. We use a lot of oregano [here], and in the Middle East…

IT IS LATE MORNING, the sun already bright and hot, and I’ve just arrived at Tchoupitoulas Street, a mostly non-descript corridor of New Orleans. As I stand on the sidewalk, cars whiz past, and I look in front of me at an expansive mural. It is colorful and vibrant, rich and impressive in its scale. But it is still evolving—much like the city itself. ¶ New Orleans–born artist and educator Jamar Pierre first conceived of the Tchoupitoulas Flood Wall Mural in 2018, after the NOLA Foundation selected him to create a painting for the city’s tricentennial. That painting, Resilience, inspired Pierre to embark on something more ambitious, and after years of red tape, he was able to begin working. ¶ When completed, the mural will depict more than 300 years…