Life Stopped in Evin Prison

Mosaic Community Essays I, Mohammad H. Fallahiya, was born in 1975 in Ahwaz region in the southern part of Iran. In 2006 I was arrested in Tehran. I was considered a threat to national security. I worked as a journalist and a teacher. I spent more than 3 years in Evin prison from 2006-2009.  They […]

Art is Liberation

Mosaic Community Essays Art, to me, is liberation. This is really important because I am a woman of color. My mother is Puerto Rican, and my father is Cape Verdean. I am someone that was raised in various institutions in this country and never quite felt like I fully fit in. There are a lot […]

A True Anchor Baby

Mosaic Community Essays “Who is it?!” Mom stood silently, with her face turned towards me and her ear towards the door. BANG. BANG. BANG.“Open the door ma’am, it’s the NYPD. We just want to ask you some questions.” “Questions about what? I’m a single woman down here and I don’t open the door to nobody, […]

Growing in Sankofa

Mosaic Community Essays I am a child of South Asian immigrants, studying art and design at RISD. Out of the need for survival and success, much of Asian American values are based on hard-work, following a “stable” career path, and instruction, without question. But whenever I was forced to follow this status quo, whether that […]