This is the place I like to do it…

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That is, the place I like to drink outside, drink in public, drink in the daily democracy of happening things: people, insects, birds, dirt, trees, and clouds. There is the pop of the tennis ball, the echoic bounce of the basketball, the racket of the brats on the playground, the cry of the birds, and the sips from the cans or bottles. It is peace on earth.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...