columbia

A photograph I took during the Columbia University protests was published in The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled “Inside Columbia’s Tumultuous Protests, as Told by Student Radio Journalists” by Alyssa Choiniere. The image shows WKCR journalists Georgia Dillane and Sarah Barlyn napping on campus between reporting shifts — a quiet moment amid weeks of relentless coverage. The photo was credited as LEON ZHOU in the Journal. The Story The WSJ piece profiled WKCR, Columbia’s decades-old student radio station, and the 19-person team that pivoted from broadcasting jazz and classical music to delivering round-the-clock protest coverage....

By April 25, the confrontation at Columbia University had become a two-sided spectacle. As the Gaza Solidarity Encampment entered its second week on the lawns inside campus, a large pro-Israel counter-rally gathered on Broadway outside the university’s gates — filling the street with Israeli and American flags under the watch of the NYPD. Hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators crowd Broadway at the intersection of W 116th Street. Israeli and American flags fly above the crowd....

One week after the first mass arrests on Columbia’s campus, the protest had drawn the attention of the most powerful figure in the House of Representatives. On April 24, Speaker Mike Johnson traveled to Morningside Heights and held a press conference on the steps of Low Library — just yards from the encampment he came to condemn. Speaker Mike Johnson addresses a bank of microphones on the steps of Low Library....

While the Gaza Solidarity Encampment held its ground on Columbia’s lawns, the protest movement was spilling into the streets of Morningside Heights. Marchers carried their demands past the university’s perimeter, stopping outside Pulitzer Hall — home of the Columbia Journalism School — to display a banner aimed not at the university but at a different institution entirely. Demonstrators hold a banner outside Pulitzer Hall reading “33,000+ Killed / 14,000+ Children / 450+ HCWs / 7 Months of Complicity from the American Med....

Less than 24 hours after the NYPD cleared the original Gaza Solidarity Encampment and arrested more than 100 students, Columbia protesters had already reoccupied the lawn in front of Butler Library. Palestinian flags and hand-painted signs cover the grass in front of Butler Library as students gather at the rebuilt Gaza Solidarity Encampment on West Butler Lawn. The library’s facade, inscribed with the names of Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Virgil, glows behind them....