Rita Bernstein

Apr 10, 2023 | thesunmagazine.org | Staci Kleinmaier |Rita Bernstein |Patricia Fancher |Leath Tonino

Since the 1960s American religious affiliation has been in decline. For more than two centuries religious institutions have given our lives meaning beyond day-to-day experience, offered a connection between the mundane and the spiritual, and served as a powerful source of social and political authority. But more and more, Americans are looking elsewhere to make sense of the chaos and uncertainty of life.

Apr 1, 2023 | thesunmagazine.org | Kechi Nomu |Staci Kleinmaier |Rita Bernstein |Patricia Fancher

October 2020: Lagos, Nigeria In the weeks before the riots, I was about a month into my first MFA year, living the sheltered life of a fellowship-funded student and Zooming in to classes in New York from Lagos because of pandemic travel embargoes. To pass the time I made mood boards — mostly collages of things I could not afford: Togo sofas. Matisse sketches. Muller Van Severen grid shelves. This was months into COVID, and I had recently discovered lifestyle vloggers with niche appeal.

Mar 31, 2023 | thesunmagazine.org | Patricia Fancher |Rita Bernstein |Kechi Nomu |Staci Kleinmaier

My mom wore Estée Lauder White Linen perfume: one spray applied before each 5 AM shift at the Denny’s off the highway that cut through Columbia, South Carolina; three sprays before church on Sunday morning; and three before Bible study on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It’s a sharp scent that not many women wear anymore. The Estée Lauder bottle was the only object on Mom’s dresser, a tidy surface in our cluttered trailer, which smelled distinctly like cooked meat and faintly of mold.