My Girlfriend, Boyfriend

rnment's new austerity package-slashing arts funding, gutting community centers, hiking rents-had turned the city into a pressure cooker. He'd come to document the faces: the

he sa

ed ink. She was painting a mural on a bedsheet hung from a lamppost-a skeletal figure in a suit devouring coins, i

ctric. "It's a mirror! A knife!" A teenager handed her a spray can; sh

r braid lashed like a whip as she moved. But as she jumped down, a line of riot cops

stencil slipped, slicing his palm-a papercut

e stained with ink and what smelled like vinegar (a tear ga

ed at her mural. "They

offices, their cars-everywhere." She ripped a page from his sketchbook, scribbled

Smoke plumed. Clara yanked a bandana over

streaming past them. Clara's laughter cut thr

ut mirrored the slit in her mura

Romanticizing strugg

ho used her own

and drew a tiny scissors-and-sunflower on hi

s late mother had once served meals-was on the bill's chopping block. He flipped open his sketchbook, a

reliminary vote..." Outside, a helicopter bathed the streets in cold white l