Postcards From The Edge
When you walk with intention, magic unfolds around you. Focus on your strides and find your light. xo KO Astor Place // New York City Instagram | Twitter
Year: 2017
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Anya Peters
“There was a moment, in Marrakech, Morocco, that reassured and amplified my philosophy of feasting… One year ago, my sister and I went to work at the carpet shop she takes pictures for – measuring and documenting the thousands of carpets that are sold there. It was a long afternoon of holding up rugs while learning Darija (Moroccan Arabic dialect). We went in for lunch for a home cooked meal by Zoubida. We all settled into a small room lined with brightly colored, subdued and rich carpets on the floors, walls and rolled into stacks against the stairwells. A low round table was set out and my sister and I sat cross-legged on the floor with a bunch of Moroccan businessmen and merchants talking politics and agriculture, flowing in and out of Arabic to ask our opinions. Zoubida set before us the biggest tagine I’ve ever seen that smelled so divine. Loaves of semolina bread were broken and passed around the cipher. We dunked our piece of bread into the stewed tomatoes and they let us choose first which part …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Lili Lopez
“2013, I was traveling across West Africa with my mom visiting family. Car rapides after car rapides, making key stops here and there, rediscovering our country like we’d never been here before. We curiously roamed with a different set of eyes, with a different sense of purpose. From Mali to Senegal, a little bit of Gambia, our trip quickly turned into a month. We now had 2 weeks left and Guinea-Bissau was our last stop. I could spend 10 more hours describing the village that welcomed us, but instead I’m just going to jump straight to the ending of this trip. For 10 days, they fed us, gave us a place to sleep, shared their bed, prepared “Ataya” for us, and taught us expecting nothing in return. “Let’s buy a cow for the village before we leave,” my mom said. To tell you the truth, even 10 cows wouldn’t have been enough to make up for their level of hospitality. The chief declined our offer at first, he is not the “give to get” type …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Austin Willis
“Morocco…there’s still so much I want to see of the country. It’s refreshing to get away and kinda be off the grid and fully live in the moment. The food and people are amazing as well. The people of Morocco made me feel at home. I think it’s also due to the fact they thought I was Moroccan so I got a really unique perspective when I was there. A few people allowed me into their homes to meet their families and enjoy conversations about life over some delicious mint tea.“ – Austin Willis // @visualsbywillis Photo by Hanif Castle
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Eli Fola
“I traveled to Montreal, Canada in 2014 for the first time ever with a band I used to be in. My band mates and I got to perform at a festival in Québec, Montreal, known as the Orientalys Festival. Québec is the French part of Canada and most people there don’t speak English. So, it was really difficult to communicate with the locals because I don’t understand or speak French and neither did any of my friends. Communicating with the audience we performed for was also a challenge due to the language barrier however, the trip was still an amazing experience. This particular journey was significant to me because I got to explore a city outside of my comfort zone and enjoyed so much amazing food. I tried Poutine for the first time and Oh My! Oh My! Haha, it was so delicious, I had to order more! The city was also super clean compared to New York and I got to hang out with locals and played on a big stage. The trip made …
Err on the Side of Caution
Caution and creativity are two words that tend to live on opposite ends of the spectrum. There is a common myth that if you’re too cautious, you cannot be creative enough, and on the other hand, if you want to truly push the creative envelope, you must live with reckless abandon. This binary train of thought can actually disrupt the process of discovering your authentic voice within your work because fear is often pitted as the enemy. However, fear should just be seen as a subconscious caution signal you encounter on the road to discovering your next path. Similarly, just like the striking yellow and black color combinations of street signs strategically mounted ahead of the traveler, we can easily notice when we’re approaching a point where our fears are wrapping around our thoughts, hindering our next moves. These feelings act as internal flags regulating if the moves we’re about to make are inherently meaningful to us as well as the speeds at which we’re willing to drive past fear to actually risk succeeding. From …
A Moveable Feast: 4 Hearty Lessons from Food Book Fair
If the age-old phrase that “you are what you eat” manifests itself literally, I’d be one giant avocado rolling around the streets of New York City #deadsexy. All jokes aside, many of us don’t take the time out to recognize just how much food and the art of dining shape our collective identities, memories and social politics apart from the obvious physical implications food has on our waistlines. I got a quick reminder of just how significant each bite lends to food for thought when I accompanied the motley crew at Ace Hotel New York as they hosted this year’s Food Book Fair. Here are 4 hearty lessons I learned from foodies & bookworms alike: 1) “Come to the table with an empty stomach and leave with a full heart.” ~ Warren Bobrow aka “The Cocktail Whisper” On opening night of the Food Book Fair, Warren Bobrow discussed his latest book, The Craft Cocktail Compendium, which encompasses a mixture of contemporary apothecary cocktails and silent nods to Robert Louis Stevenson. I later struck up a …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Kamilla Sun
“It’s hard to choose one specific memory! So many of them! Each trip has its unique, fascinating story: sad, funny, risky or inspiring. But, all of them have a similar trace. When I followed my intuition and was open in all these moments, I had the most incredible adventures. So I’ll just tell the first that comes to mind… In 2013, when I just broke up with my long-term boyfriend whom I lived with, I temporary moved to my girlfriend’s apartment and stayed there on a month-to-month basis until I figured out my next step. I was lost, confused, broke, didn’t like my job, and didn’t know what I wanted from life. Somehow I came to the realization that all my life, I’d actually never really known myself due to living under so many societal conditions and expectations. So, I was determined to reevaluate my whole life and what I wanted from it. One night, I went to dinner with a group of people and met this German girl named Maria. We connected right away …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Marrisa Wilson
“In 2013, I lived in Paris for a semester in college. I was studying at the Mod’Spe International School of Merchandising and the Paris College of Art (formerly Parson’s Paris). There was a point in the trip when I was starting to feel lonely – this particular night I had called my mom a bit homesick and hitting a bit of a rut at this point during my stay. The next day, my best friend Nick and I went for a walk down Rue Saint-Honoré probably around 3 or 4 PM in the afternoon and we both got hungry. None of the restaurants were serving food at this time so we stumbled into a pastry shop called Rotin’s Home. I remember I had this delicious cheesecake and we both had tea. We both noticed that our server had those red high-top Margiela toe boots and we both gave each other a funny look. We finished our meal and went downstairs to thank the woman who seemed to be the owner. The man with the Margiela shoes came …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Deepa Paul
“I am a product of two very chaotic and colorful cultures: Indian and Filipino. But after living in Amsterdam for five years, I was surprised to realize while packing my summer wardrobe for a trip to Sicily, that everything in my suitcase was black, white or gray! I keep it that way so it’s easy to mix and match. But color is too deeply rooted in me, so I always accessorize with a flash of color—bright red sandals, hot pink lipstick, a glittery bag. My outfits are comfortable and unfussy, but put-together and feminine. I wear a lot of dresses and skirts. I have always struggled with my weight, but when I became a mother, I finally embraced my body. I prefer outfits that subtly show off and hug my curves, without being explicitly sexual. My culture prizes femininity and modesty, so no matter how my style evolves I feel I will always have that in me.” Deepa Paul About Deepa Paul Deepa Paul is the wanderer behind Currystrumpet, a blog filled with stories …