Hammer and Hope

Hammer & Hope's First Culture Editor Wants You to Find Intellectual Anchors Culture editor Lovia Gyarkye's recommendations include the worlds of Black film, theater and poetry.

In this edition of our nightlife column LEAVE YOUR APARTMENT, we speak to the new culture editor of Hammer & Hope.

hellgatenyc.com/hammer-and-h...

It's gonna be online soon! Thanks for this post <3

The role of an editorial art director is often opaque to readers. Behind the scenes, we match artists to articles through research that unfolds across many spaces — online; in museums and gallery exhibitions; through teaching, studio visits, conferences, book fairs, and word of mouth. For the past 15 years I’ve logged that research into my massive online database of artists, with tags that record what they make (book covers, murals, woodblock prints), recurring themes in their work (psychology, politics, botany), where they live (Mexico, Los Angeles, Nigeria), and visual mood (emotional, humorous, dark), among many other details. This is just one resource I turn to when determining the right artist and visual tone for an article. But making a successful match also requires qualities that are harder to quantify: visual curiosity; intuition; an eye for what’s unique, striking, or unexpected; a sensibility cultivated through years of commissioning. I look for artists who can distill complex ideas and emotions into images, and I brainstorm alongside them to strengthen that translation. That means I often prioritize conceptual rigor over stylistic flair; an artist’s style should support the underlying idea, not overshadow it.

In other cases, I commission artists to create original work for articles, as with the watercolor above by Pallavi Sen for Arundhati Roy’s piece demanding a stop to the genocide in Palestine. These commissions are collaborative, and often require joint problem-solving. The process starts when I send an artist a draft to read, along with the budget, timeline, and a short summary highlighting the key concept to illustrate. Often, I also pull a few specific pieces from the artist’s portfolio that feel like strong visual starting points, whether conceptually or stylistically. In Pallavi’s case, I highlighted a few of her watercolors and prints with eye symbolism and intricate patterning that had an urgent, emotional quality fitting for the article. Next, the artist shares several sketches, and together we select, discuss, and refine the strongest direction. With Pallavi’s sketches below, I gravitated toward the one on the left: the eyes seemed to bear witness, and the border evoked Palestinian embroidery. For the final artwork, I suggested replacing the tents with bombed buildings to more clearly reflect Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. This kind of adjustment is inherent to art direction, which involves a series of collaborative decisions that shape how an artwork is made and how it will be read by a wider audience. Other adjustments might include refining the likeness in a portrait, emphasizing one element in a composition with a brighter color, or slowing down an animation so that it doesn’t distract from the reading experience.

Today's @hammerandhope.bsky.social nwsltr (not archived online 🥺) is from their editorial art director, Alexandra Zsigmond, who describes the power + poetry of what an art director *does* — part of which is "supporting artists as political thinkers... Editorial art is a form of public art."

Our Power Is Organized People Creating a movement across generations, races, and faiths in Minnesota.

I learn so much from @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social and his interview (newrepublic.com/article/2059...) read with @hammerandhope.bsky.social's great interview with Doran Schrantz are a must

The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.

The Martin Luther King Jr. We Don’t Know His work with gang members in Chicago shows how much he valued the part played by young people in the Black freedom struggle.

Grateful to @hammerandhope.bsky.social for recognizing the importance of Dr. King's work with Chicago gangs. Blackstone Rangers leader Jeff Fort stressed what a good listener King was —and how he saw their potential for community leadership & organization. hammerandhope.org/article/mart...

The Black People Who Fled Slavery Had a Lot to Teach Their Northern Allies Black-led vigilance committees not only protected and aided fugitives but also learned from the formerly enslaved as they built a movement pedagogy together.

Another super educative piece @hammerandhope.bsky.social

hammerandhope.org/article/unde...

Read and support the reporting being published by @hammerandhope.bsky.social

This is an incredible photo essay from Ashley Gilbertson and @hammerandhope.bsky.social. hammerandhope.org/article/ice-...

This is haunting and a great look into what we've been seeing on the streets and in the neighborhoods.

Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the @strandbooks.com in New York City, where Hammer & Hope co-founder @keeanga.bsky.social will discuss the 2026 edition of "How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective" with Michelle Alexander. www.eventbrite.com/e/keeanga-ya...

War at Home A record of ICE’s assault on immigrants and the people’s resistance.

Federal immigration agents in camo chase landscapers, students, and day laborers through U.S. cities in a deportation campaign, treating neighborhoods like war zones.

Ashley Gilbertson for @hammerandhope.bsky.social documents the courage of communities who resist.

War at Home A record of ICE’s assault on immigrants and the people’s resistance.

hammerandhope.org/article/ice-...

Wherever the agents appear, even when they lean idly, chatting, we see the cold threat of violence and the fragility of freedom. And in the brave crowds who gather to confront them, scrambling their illusion of total control, we see the power of solidarity, shining with human warmth.

People hide as the troops come, stores lock up, fearsome quiet. Children run for home. Neighbors blow whistles, film, yell.

In the masks and guns of the federal agents, we also see the riot gear of the Ferguson cops, the helmets and billy clubs of the Alabama state troopers, the Klansman’s hood.

Here is the self-assured state actor who is empowered to destroy lives, and beside him, the civilian who must decide, breath to breath, what to do in response.

In these pictures, a familiar dynamic: Here is law enforcement, armed and faceless, and here is a young man with a rose on his sweatshirt and a furrowed brow.

Gilbertson has photographed conflict and migration around the world. In Chicago, two agents said that they recognized him from war zones in West Africa and Iraq. He recognized them, too — not as individuals, but as soldiers treating a city as a battlefield.

He followed federal immigration agents in Chicago, New Orleans, and New York City as they cased parking lots and tree-lined streets and occupied court buildings, rounding people up.

In this special issue, we commissioned the photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson to show us the Trump administration’s arrest and deportation campaign.

The immigrant catchers, faces covered, chase the workers down the street in broad daylight. They are armed and dressed in camo, like soldiers. This is a war involving only one army. The enemy is the landscaper, the day laborer, the high school student born in Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela.

FTP Library Elections & Appointments Training Cohort Hello! You're filling out this form because you've expressed interest in running for or seeking appointment to a local library board seat in your community (or because you're a serving trustee who'd l...

That reminds me that TODAY is the last day to apply for @librariesftp.bsky.social's 2026 Library Elections & Appointments Training Cohort. Cohorts start meeting at the end of Feb.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This is what our government is doing. Our government. Powerful article and photos #AbolishICE