Jennifer Hattam

Istanbul’s position at the crossroads of two continents is looking like an increasingly precarious perch these days, with violent conflicts erupting in Syria and Iraq to the south and Russia and Ukraine to the north. Domestically, electoral victories in 2014 by the country’s longtime ruling party demoralized those energized by last year’s mass anti-government protests. But neither strife nor political stagnation seems to prevent forward-looking initiatives from cropping up all around Istanbul... Amid challenging and often depressing times, it was revitalizing to seek out some positive, inspiring initiatives for the 2014 GOOD City Index . As it did with last year's inaugural list , the quarterly, U.S.-based magazine GOOD  again seeks to celebrate the "cities around the world that best capture the elusive quality of possibility" -- not the ones where everything is necessarily working right, but ones with a heartbeat of "creativity, hustle, and civic engagement....

With the world's largest collection of living plants, and its scientists working around the globe to preserve biodiversity, the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London is internationally renowned for its conservation work. Less well known, perhaps, is the fact that its 300-acre grounds harbor the ingredients for some darn good cocktails... While visiting London earlier this summer, I ventured out to the Kew Gardens with a journalist friend from the International New York Times  to partake in an impossible-to-resist combination: fancy cocktails, fresh air, and a fantastic setting. As we sipped on Kew-cumbers, Rose Gardens, Gooseberry & Fennels, and Strawberry Cups -- all gin-based drinks concocted from fresh botanicals and seasonal fruits that grow in Kew Gardens -- we chatted with Gin Garden founder Jo Farish about her enviable job creating plant-based pop-up bars at all kinds of interesting places in and around London. Read my article  for Zester Daily ,  " Cocktai...

The inaugural GREAT Festival of Creativity rolls into Istanbul next week (20-22 May at SEED ), showcasing innovative ideas in a wide range of fields -- from fashion and design to technology and education to food and drink. The festival, which travels next to Hong Kong and Shanghai, is part of the British Prime Ministry's GREAT campaign, an ongoing drive to promote Britain abroad as a place to visit and do business. To further inspire the "cross-section of creative and commercial Britain" visiting Istanbul for the event, I contributed pithy write-ups of galleries, restaurants, shops and other spots across the city to the GREAT Festival Guide to Creative Istanbul , an online "directory of all that's creative and unusual in one of the world's GREAT cities."

It's a warm July day in the small harbor town of Ayvalık, on Turkey's Aegean coast. A horse cart with wooden wheels clatters down a cobblestone street, past a bustling, sun-drenched workshop, its front door flung open. Inside, a half dozen women are hunkered down over long wooden tables, cutting, stitching and crafting. Using bits of thrown-away packaging and factory rejects -- leather scraps, swaths of felt, surplus canned-food labels -- they're transforming trash destined for the dump into colorful clutches, purses and wallets to be sold in trendy gift shops around Turkey. Even more remarkably, the women, most of whom have no more than a fifth-grade education, are also transforming their lives: For the first time ever, they're being paid for their work... I met American expat Tara Hopkins not long after I moved to Istanbul, when she had recently founded Çöp(m)adam , a path-breaking social enterprise that combined women's empowerment with environmental respo...

Fascinating, frenetic, and often frustrating, Istanbul can sometimes seem like it’s defined by its unmet potential. With its young population and incredibly rich history, Istanbul should be a hotbed of innovation, but is unfortunately hampered by a lack of diversity, a vast wealth gap, and a political system that limits civic participation—as was plain to see during this past summer’s mass protests...  The quarterly magazine GOOD reached out this past fall to get my take on Istanbul for its " GOOD City Index ," a new feature highlighting "the cities that are emerging, the ones that are figuring out their growing pains or flourishing under the radar." The final piece, published in GOOD 's Winter 2013 issue under the headline "Celebrating Possibility," shines the spotlight on 20 up-and-coming cities, from Accra to Wellington. My writeup on Istanbul appears at number 7 on the index (n.b. I asked for the Bosphorus to be correctly identified as a ...

The two great cities fashion designer Serra Türker has called home are reflected in her past-meets-present style, which combines the knowledge and workmanship of Istanbul’s longtime leatherworkers, metalsmiths, and other craftsmen with her sleek, thoroughly modern geometric designs... When Beirut-based lifestyle magazine Selections asked me to do a Q&A with a Turkish fashion designer for the Spring 2013 issue, I followed a tip from fellow Istanbul journalist Vanessa Larson to check out the work of Serra Türker. The Istanbul-born, U.S.-educated handbag designer had recently moved back home from New York to open her first boutique. She cheerfully chatted by email about Istanbul's best and worst qualities, the city's best-kept secret, and her favorite way to spend a day. Read " My City with Serra Türker " in the Spring 2013 issue of Selections or view the article as a jpg by clicking on the image below.

The latest issue of SHOP Istanbul 's Style Edition features two pieces I wrote, a cover story about Turkish and international brands making inroads into the city's venerable Grand Bazaar , and a news piece about Hiç Crafts , an appealingly eclectic design store in the up-and-coming Tophane neighborhood. While the quarterly magazine, published by tourism company Global Blue, focuses on new shopping opportunities for visitors to the city, I took the chance while working on the bazaar story to poke into some of the famous covered market's hidden corners and learn how shopkeepers really feel about their new neighbors -- and about other changes in store for this historic location. That story will ( inşallah! ) appear in a major travel magazine this coming fall. Read my articles for SHOP Istanbul in the digital edition of the Spring/Summer 2012 issue: " Market Leader " begins on page 42 and " Eclectic Design Oasis " appears on page 40.