By losing your headphones By Marvin Cho Illustration by Selin Ho Take a stroll down Broadway. What do you hear? A conversation among friends walking to lunch, whose precise words escape you, but not the ring of joy they contain? The wail of an ambulance heralding the crisis of a life, a turning point in one person’s story? Birds? The rustle of trees? The earthly tapping of your own shoes against the pavement? Or, do you hear, instead, a curated list of your favorite titles,

By Marvin Cho Chapter 1: The Play P. thought he felt an itch at the tip of his nose, but he did not have the time to remove his mask to scratch it. The director had already finished introducing the University Classical Drama Company and P. was to enter the stage in just a moment. He thus resorted to wriggling his cheeks about, trying to rub the coarse cardboard of the mask against his face. As the audience obliged the director’s request for an applause, the stout junior who p

By Marvin Cho Tethered on marble steps firm under a city gathered by the Bard’s song and choral wail to tears and awe moved the City enamoured. And on the distant stage swooning bacchants sing winesongs, then at their leisure yield to koaxing Frogs or a lover’s heartburn or to acts of grace on a Trojan field. There I sat cross-legged and with critic’s eye grasped at intentions, and on that happy day I was with you. But impelled by a god’s whisper or by a chance curse I am sw

On getting your hands dirty. By Marvin Cho Illustration by Justin Chen Scraping away at the sediment separating my excavation square...

On crisis fatigue and political lethargy in South Korea and at Columbia. By Marvin Cho Illustration by Isabelle Oh Disgruntled from...