Nina Strochlic

Nov 19, 2024 | atlasobscura.com | Nina Strochlic

The walls of Arthur Brand’s Amsterdam apartment have been graced with masterpieces by Picasso and Van Gogh. Once, he briefly displayed the blood of Jesus Christ on his counter. And for a little while, his finger donned a ring previously owned by Oscar Wilde. These treasures come to Brand just for a night or two, as he plays middleman between the world of fine art and Europe’s criminal underbelly.

May 31, 2024 | saxafimedia.com | Nina Strochlic

In Kurdistan, Seddiq and Rafiq have dedicated over 20 years to building an archive named Zheen, collecting artifacts that narrate the turbulent history of the Kurds. The act of archiving serves as a peaceful war to ensure their people’s history isn’t lost.

May 29, 2024 | nationalgeographic.com | Nina Strochlic |Diana Markosian |Emily Garthwaite

Seddiq Salih had a favor to ask. It was dusk, and we were standing in his family’s small orchard on the outskirts of Slemani, a city known as the cultural capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. I’d been granted a meeting later that night with a secretive elder sheikh rumored to possess one of the finest collections of Kurdish manuscripts. Seddiq, a mild-mannered 65-year-old with a permanent smile, now looked serious.

Apr 15, 2024 | thestarryeye.typepad.com | Nina Strochlic

In the early 1920s, Brooklyn-born Mackenberg was working at a detective agency in New York when she was assigned a case about a psychic who had recommended worthless stock to a local banker. A mutual friend introduced her to magician Harry Houdini, who was then waging his own crusade against Spiritualists. At the peak of his career, Houdini had decided to use his spotlight to denounce a practice he just couldn’t stomach: psychics who preyed on the bereaved.

Apr 4, 2024 | internazionale.it | Nina Strochlic

Era una buia sera di febbraio quando un giovane professore di matematica somalo ha deciso di pubblicare una poesia su Facebook. Seguendo la tradizione dei suoi antenati, portatori di una cultura orale fino a un passato ancora recente, l’ha pronunciata ad alta voce, scandendo il ritmo: Quando ho capito che non ci sono né pozzi scavati per voi né soccorritori in arrivo e che i leader eletti per servire la nazione hanno corrotto ogni risorsa; Poi ha caricato la registrazione sul suo profilo.