The annual Smithsonian Institution Folklife Festival starts this week from June 24 - 28; and from July 1 - 4. The festival takes place on the national mall by the Smithsonian castle and Ripley Center. This year’s featured festival programs include:
- Mexico - commemorating Mexico’s Independence Bicentenary (1810-2010) and Revolution Centenary (1910-2010)
- Asian [...]
If there’s anyone who personifies the “eclectique citizen,” it’s Ruben Blades. Yesterday, my friend Dawn and I arrived 3 hours before he was to give a public interview covering his life as an artist, citizen, and just plain old human being at the Carmichael Auditorium in the National Museum of American History and Culture. [...]
This is one year I wish I was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. The city’s already pumped about the Saints being in the Super Bowl. And as UndercoverBlackman told me “The city really needs this.”
But I’m working Fat Tuesday on another Mardi Gras celebration at Eatonville Restaurant for Food and [...]
Anyone who keeps up with the artifact and art market or have seen at least one “Indiana Jones” movie, is familiar with the underground and sophisticated ring of curatorial thieves waiting for an opportunity (natural or man-made) to pounce on valuable artifacts for very wealthy clients. Oh, let me not forget - to feature [...]
This is the last week of the Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens exhibit at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. If you know DC, you know it’s tough for a native like me to shell out $12 to see an art exhibit with all the free Smithsonians in town. But [...]
Seeing red ribbons? Today’s World AIDS Day. Be a Valentine. Wear red. Be aware. Don’t discriminate. No one is immune.
http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/
The President’s Address to the Nation on Afghanistan – Live at 8 PM tonight…and even FOX is carrying it.
Busboys and Poets is hosting watch events for President Obama’s speech outlining [...]
Since the President’s Weekly was released on Thanksgiving, I thought I’d give the space to one of my favorite photo journalists, Bill Cunningham and his “On the Street” column covering NYC’s street fashion scene during the Thanksgiving week. Granted Bill’s coverage is a lot less humble or sober, but we have plenty of time [...]
Yesterday evening - My first visit to Madame Tussauds in Washington, DC.
Why is Confederate General Robert E. Lee in the room with the Founding Fathers (Jefferson, Washington , Ben Franklin)? There’s a gray costume you can wear to take a picture. Where’s Ulysses S. Grant (who did become President) or Sherman? [...]
Two exhibits I’m definitely going to catch this month at the Smithsonian Institution museums:
IndiVISIBLE: AFRICAN-NATIVE AMERICAN LIVES IN THE AMERICAS
Opens November 10. I got the heads up about this one a few weeks ago from Phoebe Farris who has an essay in the exhibition catalog. Click on the title or here to [...]
This is the one pilgrimage I planned during my stay in Boston in June - a visit to Concord, Massachusetts. Concord is the site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War. I’m so used to “Freedom Trails” meaning Underground Railroad stops around the Mason Dixon line and the mid-west. In New [...]
