A lot of stuff is about to close down come 2012 — here in DC. There are a few things I’d like to see; one, I’ve already been there and done. Andy Warhol’s Headlines National Gallery of Art – until January 2, 2012 This one’s a maybe. It got a lot of good local press [...]
We have no symbolic life, and we are all badly in need of the symbolic life. Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul – the daily need of the soul, mind you! And because people have no such thing, they can never step out of this mill – this awful, banal, [...]
Years ago while studying the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 for a cultural anthropology class, we held a kiddush in honor of and as a living interpretation of the young women, many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who died when the 9th floor factory accidentally caught fire near closing time. It was the practice [...]
This is the month where programmers and cultural professionals go gaga. It’s always a February feast kicking off with Langston Hughes’ birthday (February 1). If you want to savor the history of the African American experience in the arts, you must, must, must get a copy of Black Magic: A Pictorial History of Black Entertainers [...]
I defer this post to my 2008 Thanksgiving post – still one of my favorites. Here’s the link. Last year I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with my family at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. We almost missed having turkey due to the crowds. In keeping with that spirit, I share this news forwarded [...]
The Historic Charleston City Market has an interesting story as well as an interesting entrance: the Daughters of the Confederacy Museum. Sweet grass basket makers set up their stands right at the entrance. I asked one of the basket makers about the African American history of the market. Apparently, prior to Emancipation, enslaved Africans sold [...]
It’s Labor Day weekend. How many people still connect this with a labor movement, unions, workers rights? Any reference to the real history of the holiday would sound like “socialism” in the lean right populist echo chamber. So how do we approach it? “The official end of summer.” The President’s weekly is about “Honoring the [...]
When labor leader A. Philip Randolph, organized a special march in Washington, DC for “Jobs and Freedom” in 1963, I have no doubt Randolph made deliberate choices on the date — August 28– and the venue — the Lincoln Memorial — as organizers did on the program and selection of speakers. On this day in [...]
This was one I missed when it came out. Before “freedom fries,” the last great butting of heads between the U.S. and the French was about [mais qui] wine: “Judgement of Paris.” Bottle Shock (2008) dramatizes how California wines from Napa and Sonoma earned their props in 1976–around the same time Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse [...]
For Filmmakers… NEH FUNDING INITIATIVE – BRIDGING CULTURES THROUGH FILM: INTERNATIONAL TOPICS – CALL FOR ENTRIES Deadline: July 28, 2010 (receipt deadline); Notification of awards will be in December 2010. Bridging Cultures films will spark Americans’ engagement with the wider world through the exploration of countries and cultures outside of the United States, and/or across [...]
