First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

Happy Independence Day!

Image: Flag 1, by Jasper Johns, 1973

The Tenacity of Marriage

Despite the brutal racial segregation of apartheid in South Africa, noted photographer David Goldblatt captured this triumphant moment at a wedding party in Soweto in 1970. An exhibition of Goldblatt’s beautiful and heart-wrenching work is at the Jewish Museum in New York until September 19th.

Are School Uniforms a Good Idea?

My friend, a former dentist, loved going to work wearing his scrubs. Getting dressed in the morning was a breeze. No decisions about color or silhouette. No insecurities about making a fashion faux pas. His closet was a sea of blue. I can’t imagine. I’d get so bored. But the other day, this friend’s niece was at the house, all giddy about the uniform she’s required to wear when she starts high school in the fall. (Maybe it’s genetic.) Tell me, is there an upside to dressing like your peers?

Artwork: Us and You, 2007, by Sidney Pink (pencil and watercolor on paper)