Earlier this month, Mahmoud Khalil reached out with a piece of writing he had just completed. It was a reflection on his experience living in New York one year after his arrest by ICE at Columbia University (and while his case continues to be litigated in the courts). His detainment had seeped into every aspect of his daily life, from how he dresses to the restaurants he frequents. When I read his draft, I was immediately pulled in by how vividly he put words to feelings. “I miss wandering with Noor through Times Square at night, letting it swallow us, that particular New York surrender to noise and light and strangers, necks tilted toward glowing screens,” Mahmoud writes. “I miss Sunday brunch at Community, in Morningside Heights, followed by coffee at Qahwah House, and the long walk home along Claremont Avenue — that narrow, tree-lined stretch that always felt like a pause. Back then, we didn’t think of those walks as anything. That’s the thing I can’t get back: the not-thinking.”
—Gazelle Emami, editorial director, New York
