Marah Al-Za'anin, an 18-year-old Palestinian artist, has transformed a tent in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighborhood into a studio. Al-Za'anin can't have been more than 15 or 16 years old when the genocide began, but she continues to pursue her passion for art and uses her brother's phone as a light source while she paints and draws late into the night. (photo by Saeed Jaras/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Mamdani's run was barely a blip then, but Califano sensed the swell of something shifting. He asked Mamdani's communications director if he could follow the campaign behind the scenes (and on his own dime) for a long-term documentary project. They said yes, and over the next nine months, Califano embedded himself within Zohran's team, photographing everything from union rallies to neighborhood canvassers to Ramadan iftars among aunties. He burned through more than 100 rolls of film in the process.
Families grabbed placards declaring "Every Zip Code Deserves Excellence," "Equity is Access," and "Respect Our Choice," while charter school leaders rallied alongside them. By noon, the crowd - representing more than 200 charter schools - spilled out of the park and onto the Brooklyn Bridge to advocate for the education sector. As it did during the 2013 New York City mayoral election, the charter sector has shifted into offense in recent weeks as Democratic Socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani leads the polls.
