Natalie Audelo

Coolness is an elusive concept without a universal definition, allowing everyone to have their own interpretation. Some people’s entire job is making sure you don’t remember that.

“Nothing is permanent,” she says. “So I’m very careful to be grateful every second that I get to be doing this at this level, because I’ve had it taken away from me before. There is one thing I’ve learned: My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art.” She considers. “But I’ve also learned there’s no ... See more

My narrative as I age is about using my skills, abilities, and know-how to make things better for other people. Helping to facilitate the circumstances under which others can flourish gives me joy. And it's not a sense of stepping in to save people, or whatever mucked up, ego-driven thing that might be. It's knowing where I have connections, privil... See more

Floors and clothing are exemplary everyday built environments, so pervasive that we tend not to notice them. They structure our every intimate, mundane, and extraordinary encounters with our own and others’ bodies and environments.

But, looking back, there wasn’t a single day I didn’t depend on others: an understanding colleague who told me it was ok to cry, a long-distance call with a dear friend, the countless small kindnesses of the baristas at my favorite coffee shop in the East Village. In the height of my so-called independence, I depended on everyone. Everything good i... See more

This paradox—deep longing for spiritual encounter, paired with weak interpretive infrastructure—calls for a renewed theological imagination.