Author
Ivy Johnson
Ivy Johnson is an illustrator and cartoonist based in Queens, New York. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Toronto Star, The New York Times and MUBI Notebook.
Articles by this author
Stratford to Jordan: Shakespeare’s Echoes of the Arab World
Arts
History
Shakespeare’s works are woven into the cultural fabric of the Arab world, but so, too, were his plays shaped in part by Islamic storytelling traditions and political realities of his day.
The 1001 Tales of Hanna Diyab
Arts
Thanks to recently published translations of a Syrian storyteller’s handwritten travelog, we now know that it was conversations between him and a French writer that laid the foundations for the final four volumes of the most-famous fabulation ever published in Europe.
Astrolabe Tech Made ... Not So Easy
History
Science & Nature
About the size of a tablet computer, astrolabes were tools of astronomers, surveyors and navigators, to name a few. But using them took a lot more than typing, tapping and swiping.
Why Reinvent the Wheel?
History
The wheel may be an all-around symbol of human progress, but how did such a simple invention cause so much controversy?
The Great Migration of the Bani Hilal
Arts
History
In the 10th century, herders fled drought in Arabia, but the sultan of Egypt used them against his rivals. Their story went viral—oral-folklore style—as Sirat Bani Hilal, or the Romance of the People of the Crescent Moon.
What's so Funny About Lucian the Syrian?
Renowned and often notorious, Lucian wrote in Greek under the Roman Empire. Inspiring and famously satirizing, he conjured the source tale for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” penned the first space-travel science fiction novel and coined a term that became a beloved modern superhero.