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Photo: John and Suzanne’s Mom.
Mother and baby sculpture at Mass General Hospital in Boston.

Sending love to all mothers today and to nonmothers who rise up in times of need to mother children. This year, I’m thinking particularly of those in the world’s trouble spots who do all they can to mother and protect frightened children. Wishing them strength and an end to the chaos around them.

Photo: Kat Baulu/Wikipedia.
Alanis Obomsawin in photo of the crew of Canadian film
Waseteg, 2010.

What caught my attention in one story about Alanis Obomsawin was that when an instagrammer I follow went to a dinner with the filmmaker, the 91-year-old prepared the food herself. That is, she’s still going strong.

CBC Radio interviewed Alanis Obomsawin not long ago in an episode produced by Nicola Luksic.

“At the age of 91, prolific Abenaki artist and filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin is not slowing down. For nearly 70 years, her storytelling and documentary work has served as a mirror for Canada, vividly capturing and reflecting Indigenous experiences, providing a space for all Canadians to witness perspectives that have otherwise been suppressed and ignored.

“Obomsawin talks about her life’s influences and the quiet power of listening in her 2023 Beatty Lecture at McGill University.

” ‘I continue making documentaries. In those days, everything was so full of pain and danger. It was hard for our people to imagine change,’ she told an audience at Pollack Hall on McGill’s downtown campus. ‘My dear brothers and sisters, we are all born with a gift. And to each one of you. Your life is sacred. You must change the perspective from limitations to all is possible. Slowly change came.’ …

“Making documentaries was a way to provide a space for Indigenous experiences that would otherwise go unseen and unheard, nurturing better Indigenous and settler relations. …

“After her Beatty Lecture, the legendary documentary filmmaker and artist spoke to IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed. …

Nahlah Ayed
“You said that you see this as a moment when all is possible. Can you speak a bit more about you know, you’ve seen a lot of change in the relationship between the Indigenous people of this country and the settlers on this land? 

Alanis Obomsawin
“I think that it didn’t happen overnight. It’s been very bad for many generations. And part of that is why I’m still here, because I really believe what is possible. But the extraordinary thing, like let’s say even 10 years ago, I could not have talked the way I do now.

“For instance, if you’re in conversation with anybody from anywhere, if you mentioned the word treaty, the reaction I know with me was all, ‘Oh, that doesn’t even exist anymore. No, there’s no treaty.’ And it really annoyed me. Something awful. But I made a film called Trick or Treaty. That tells you a lot. And since then, it is very much used at all levels. …

Ayed
“What’s changed? 

Obomsawin
“I think the educational system has changed. For many generations, the books that were used in places were called The History of Canada, written by the brothers of the Catholic Church, which was pretty ugly, full of lies and designed to create hate towards our people. I was getting beat up all the time as a child. When I figured it out, I thought if the children could hear a different story, they wouldn’t be like that. They’re not born racists. And that’s when I started singing and it took quite a while to get to that point. But telling stories to children. I’ve done hundreds of schools over the years, and I still do whenever I can. …

“I can say that now I can see Canada is at the front for a lot of things concerning education. So then this is a big change. And I don’t want anybody who is making the changes to get discouraged. I want to praise them because I see the difference. And I think I’m lucky to have lived this long to see the difference. …

Ayed
“What do you look forward to as evidence of a genuine attempt at truth and reconciliation in Canada?

Obomsawin
“Well, you’re not going to believe me, but it’s happening. I don’t know what exactly it will come to. And I never thought that, for instance, I could be part of a group with the government that we criticize and you know, they’re listening. We have some of our own people who are working there [in government]. There are the possibilities and the strength is there. I’m not saying it’s going to happen tomorrow, but we work on it.” More at CBC Radio, here.

This post about Obomsawin was inspired by Eve Respini (Curator_on_the_Run), who wrote at Instagram: “Honored to be invited to dinner at home with 91 year old legend, film-maker, singer and activist #alanisobomsawin. She cooked us (colleague @sirishr and I) a wonderful meal, serenaded us with songs and stories, and reminded us to cherish the sweet moments in life. Merci Alanis.”

Photo: Dezeen.
Abandoned Los Angeles skyscrapers covered in graffiti.

Is graffiti a scourge or an art? I guess that depends on the graffiti and your point of view. In Los Angeles, graffiti on a monumental scale is the subject of debate.

Corina Knoll reports at the New York Times that, first, there were fancy buildings.

“It was a billion-dollar aspiration meant to transform a neighborhood. A trio of shimmering skyscrapers would feature luxury condos, a five-star hotel and an open-air galleria with retailers and restaurants. …

The vision was called Oceanwide Plaza, and the chief executive said it would ‘redefine the Los Angeles skyline.’ An executive for the design firm said it would create ‘a vibrant streetscape.’ The website said it would be a place of ‘rare and unexpected moments.’

“All these statements, some would say, proved to be true. Just not in the way originally imagined.

“Funding for the venture quickly evaporated. The towers went up but were unfinished and empty. Plagued by financial and legal issues, the plaza was in a quiet limbo for five years. …

“Now those skyscrapers have become a symbol of street swagger, ‘bombed’ with the work of dozens of graffiti writers and artists. Their aliases cover windows that rise more than 40 stories, visible from the nearby highways.

“ ‘Everybody’s talking about it, of course,’ said Ceet Fouad, a French graffiti artist based in Hong Kong, known for his commissioned murals featuring cartoon chickens. … ‘It’s the best promotion you can have.’

“The sentiment is obviously not universal. Many Angelenos see the graffiti as unconscionable vandalism, encouraging waves of crime. Those who live near it say it has jarred their sense of safety. Civic leaders see it as an immediate hazard to the neighborhood as well as to trespassers, not to mention a worldwide embarrassment.

“Others have admired the work, some traveling to see the embellished towers for themselves and ruminate on what they represent. …

“A subculture took note that no one was bothering to clean off the fresh paint. Crews were trudging up together, their backpacks rattling with spray paint. Some lugged up gallons of paint and roller brushes. Security guards on patrol were easy to evade. Inside, they saw loose wires dangling from ceilings and rebar left exposed. Ladders and buckets littered the concrete floors. Bathtubs were full of water from the rain.

“ ‘We got a little lost at first; it’s kind of like entering a little city,’ said a graffiti artist who goes by Aker and managed to paint his alias twice. Although advice was passed around (bring water, the flight up is killer), he said there was no coordination among artists, just individual ambition. …

” ‘This is the problem of the city, people do whatever they want,’ said Rodel Corletto, who built Aladdin Coffee Shop on a nearby corner four decades ago.

“Mr. Corletto, 76, said that over the last 15 years, his windows have been broken, his chairs thrown into the street. He often feels like there is no recourse. The plaza, he said, was a larger example of downtown’s lawlessness. …

“In mid-February, city leaders were scrambling to figure out their role in a private property gone wrong. They had a responsibility, they said, to keep people safe and set an ultimatum: The plaza owner, Oceanwide Holdings, a conglomerate headquartered in Beijing, was ordered to secure the property within a matter of days. …

” ‘For them to have just completely abandoned these properties speaks more volumes about their irresponsibleness as opposed to the graffiti artists,’ said Kevin de León, the councilman who represents the area.

“The city earmarked $1.1 million to start to secure the property, including fencing. Mr. de León also said city leaders were looking into estimates for graffiti removal and putting a lien on the property. ‘The taxpayers will be repaid,’ Mr. de León insisted. …

“Some residents have openly wondered whether the funds might be better used to house the homeless. Or whether the trespassing will be curbed completely. …

“Whatever happens, graffiti artists like Aker say the takeover magnified and transformed a company’s folly hiding in plain sight.

“ ‘They failed not just themselves but the city,’ he said. ‘And this is what happens when things just get left — graffiti artists are like spiders, we’ll go out and put webs up there.’ “

Many outlets have covered this. More at the Times, here, at Dezeen, here, and at the Guardian, here.

Photo: The Japanese Food Lab.
Grating a wasabi root. The fumes from this horseradish relative have been found to kill fungus on papyrus.

I love stories of great discoveries made by accident, but was the discovery in today’s post made by accident? I haven’t succeeded in finding out. Perhaps it was just a matter of understanding how chemicals work, as in the case of the Bryn Mawr professor who wrote that a pinch of salt improves a cup of tea. (Read about that tempest in a teapot here.)

Verity Babbs writes at Artnet, “A new study reveals that Japanese horseradish isn’t just good as a sinus-clearing part of a plate of sushi, but is also effective in art conservation.

“Wasabi vapors have been found to effectively treat fungal infections on both painted and unpainted samples of mock ancient Egyptian papyrus, and to do so without impacting the papyrus’ delicate chemicals or painted pigments.

“A study led by Hanadi Saada of the Conservation Center of the Grand Egyptian Museum and published in March’s volume of the Journal of Archaeological Science shares the results of treating fungally infected replicas of ancient papyri with wasabi.

“To create accurate replicas for the study, the team heated modern papyri (painted with accurately replicated ancient pigments) to 212°F for 120 days, mimicking a 1,000-year aging process. They then exposed the replicas to fungal species and treated them with vapors from wasabi left on nearby aluminum foil after three days.

“Exposure to the wasabi vapors was found to completely eradicate microbial growth and increase the sample papyri’s strength by 26 percent. The treatment only negligibly impacted the chemical makeup of the pigments used, and no noticeable change was observed in the color of both painted and unpainted samples of papyri.

“Papyrus — made from the stems of the plant Cyperus papyrus — was used in the ancient world for baskets, sails, and boat-making in addition to being a popular writing material. …

“Famous papyri include the Ebers Papyrus, which documents ancient Egyptian medical practices and is considered the world’s best-preserved and most extensive example. Dating to around 1550 B.C.E., it is kept at the Leipzig University Library in Germany. …

“Native to Japan as well as Korea and the far east of Russia, wasabi is a popular condiment, made from the plant Wasabia japonica, which is similar to the horseradish.

“This new conservation solution is a much greener and safer treatment than disinfectants previously used, which were known to harm the artifacts, possibly as badly as the fungus itself. Further research will be carried out to test the efficacy of wasabi for treating fungal infections on other organic, textile, and paper artifacts. The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza plans to use the wasabi treatment for future preservation.  The study concluded that ‘Wasabi can be considered a safety biocide for controlling biodegradation of archaeological painted papyri.’ ”

More at Artnet, here.

Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/CSM Staff.
An assortment of books published by Angel City Press. The press’s owners donated the indie publishing operation to the Los Angeles Public Library in December 2023.

Libraries are under pressure because, you know, they offer people books. One library is taking the general outrageousness of book culture a step further by getting into publishing.

Ali Martin writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “The City of Angels is known for glitz … but Angelenos recognize a deeper creative spirit, found in its eclectic and diverse neighborhoods, where stories of resilience are illuminated with quirky, indelible characters. 

“ ‘There’s something really valuable in trying to reflect a true portrait of the city, not just to the people who live here, but [to people] everywhere,’ says Terri Accomazzo, editorial director for Angel City Press. …

“For more than 30 years, the small independent Angel City Press has published nonfiction by local authors. Now, the company’s founders are handing it all over to the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) in an arrangement unprecedented in scope — forging what the city’s top librarian describes as a natural alliance. ‘The library is about collecting stories, we’re about preserving stories, and we’re certainly about telling stories,’ says City Librarian John Szabo. …

“With e-books and self-publishing, getting a book to market has never been easier, says Andrea Fleck-Nisbet, CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association. The hard part is connecting with an audience. 

“ ‘By taking a small indie publisher and then being able to continue its life through a nonprofit like a library that’s already serving that market, you have that built-in community,’ she says. …

“Angel City’s donation includes its catalog of published books — titles that might be retired if acquired by a company focused solely on profits, says Ms. Accomazzo, who will keep her position after the transition. It also ensures that the press ‘continues to operate with an eye toward storytelling and a focus on telling things that matter.’ …

“One of those stories is A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, by Lynell George, about the life of the celebrated science fiction writer. Ms. Butler, a Black woman, grew up poor in Pasadena during the 1950s and ’60s, finding refuge in her journals and sanctuary in the area’s libraries. 

“Ms. George, a well-published author, says Angel City’s local focus allows for a ‘much more rich conversation about shaping and sharing stories.’ Publishers from outside California often want LA stories to fit a preconceived narrative, she says. But in working with local publishers, ‘you’re just writing about what you see, what you love, what you have complicated feelings about. You’re not writing in response or retort to … a cliché.’

“In KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell, author Robeson Taj Frazier brings to life the far-reaching cultural impact of a multimedia arts pioneer. By tracing Mr. Caldwell’s journey from his childhood in the American Southwest to filmmaking at UCLA and the establishment of his media arts center in LA’s Leimert Park neighborhood, Dr. Frazier shines light on civil rights and the Black experience in America. 

“The self-described ‘latchkey kid’ who spent much of his childhood in public libraries now runs the University of Southern California’s Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg. …

“The LAPL is the nation’s second-largest public library by population served, with the largest digital circulation — more than 10 million e-books, audio books, podcasts, and other electronic media. That kind of reach combined with publishing can have a profound impact, says Sonia Alcántara-Antoine, president of the Public Library Association. …

“The Angel City collaboration builds on an evolution of libraries as maker spaces, where anyone can access resources to build, fix, or create things. ‘This is very much part of where we are in libraries,’ says Ms. Alcántara-Antoine, who heads Baltimore County Public Library, ‘which is not only providing access to content, but facilitating the creation of it.’ …

“Angel City’s 135-plus titles are eclectic, diverse, weird, fun, and beautiful, says Mr. Szabo. As the library picks up that mantle, ‘it’s about telling stories that might not otherwise be told.’ ”

More at the Monitor, here. No paywall.

Photo: Oscar Espinosa.
Residents of a Japanese apartment building designed to combat loneliness in seniors are seen weeding with a boy from the child development center on the first floor.

Social media, working at home, and lack of face-to-face interaction are among the reasons for the increased isolation of all ages in our world. Isolation is not good for individuals or for society.

At the Christian Science Monitor, Oscar Espinosa describes an apartment building in Japan specially designed to bring people together more.

“A message on a small whiteboard near the elevator,” he writes, “is a reminder that dinner in this apartment building is tonight at 7 p.m., as it is once every month. Many of the residents are likely to attend, since being together is the point.

“Nagaya Tower, in the peaceful city of Kagoshima on the Japanese island of Kyushu, houses 43 people, ages 8 to 92, including a family with five children. With shared community spaces, the tower was built so that different generations could meet and interact. The staff is dedicated to supporting residents and connecting them with each other to generate that community life so important to combating the loneliness of older people, which has become a significant problem in Japan’s increasingly aging society.

“ ‘This community is inspired by the ancient nagayas of the Japanese Edo period,’ says Nomura Yasunori, who moved here five years ago with his wife. ‘From children to the elderly, families, singles, from different occupations, all lived together in the same long compartmentalized house.’

The building was designed in a V shape so that everyone could see each other when they enter or leave their homes.

“[In 2021], the Japanese Cabinet Office appointed a minister for loneliness and social isolation. … According to a survey conducted in 2017 by Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, 15% of older men who live alone talk with one person or no one every two weeks, while 30% feel they have no reliable people they can turn to for help in their day-to-day lives.

“Dozono Haruhiko, founder of one of Japan’s first palliative care clinics, saw how his patients could suffer from social isolation. He believed that what these patients needed was human interaction, and so, in 2011, he applied for a government grant with his idea for Nagaya Tower, which was completed in 2013.

“By 6 p.m. on this evening, residents are starting to arrive with food for the communal dinner. Some of them rearrange tables to form a single one that takes up almost the entire room; others go to the kitchen to lend a hand.

“ ‘After coming to Nagaya Tower I feel rejuvenated,’ smiles Kukita, who arrived three years ago with his wife. … ‘Here you stay young because you are surrounded by children and young people.’ Kukita says he walks every day in the park, swims in the pool, participates in the art workshop once a month, and, above all, takes every opportunity to talk and spend time with the children.

“ ‘I can learn a lot from the elderly people through the exchange,’ says Takai, who is in his 30s and is one of the younger residents. ‘We help each other from time to time if we have a problem.’

“The building was designed in a V shape so that everyone could see each other when they enter or leave their homes, allowing them to greet each other, which is not common practice in other places, according to Moemu Nagano, age 27, who has lived here for two years. …

“After dinner, Kawasaki Masatoshi sings Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ to a standing ovation, making it clear that Nagaya Tower’s motto, ‘Life is happy when you have someone to smile with,’ is more than just a phrase on a piece of paper. He loves community life and boasts of being resident zero, when he moved in 10 years ago.

“ ‘I signed up before the construction of the building was finished, and I will stay here for the rest of my life,’ Mr. Kawasaki says.

More at the Monitor, here. No firewall. Charming photos. And for more insights on communal or supported living, read the blog Making Home Home, here.

Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/CSM Staff.
Artisans do “respectful” work on jamdanis at Abul Kalam Jamdani Weaving Factory in Bangladesh.

Recently I wrote about the the Fuller Craft Museum’s exhibit of the Red Dress, an embroidered garment “worked on by 380 individuals from 51 countries, mostly female, many of whom were vulnerable and living in poverty” — women who felt uplifted by an art project that honored their skills.

Today’s post is also about women’s handcrafts.

Sara Miller Llana reports at the Christian Science Monitor, “Two dozen artisans crouch over hand looms threaded with bright-orange and sky-blue cottons. Their fingers nimbly create a jamdani, an intricately woven sari dating back to the [16th century] Mughal Empire. …

“Made of fine cotton or silk, the jamdani was a pinnacle of fashion centuries ago. But in the 19th century, British colonizers brought in their iteration of fast fashion, and the tradition nearly went extinct. …

“After Bangladesh became an independent nation in 1971, the nongovernmental organization BRAC set out to revitalize the weaving practice. It approached artisan families like that of Anwar Islam, owner of this shop. ‘I didn’t think it was feasible, but I was happy to be part of the solution,’ says Mr. Islam. 

“Today he employs 120 weavers at Abul Kalam Jamdani Weaving Factory. …

“But this is not just a business success story. … The jamdani is seen as a story of cultural success, too. It’s part of the championing and preservation of objects from sealskin parkas in the Arctic to duck decoys and quilts across the United States that otherwise may be forgotten.

” ‘People have been striving to decorate their lives to tell the world who they are for centuries,’ says Chris Gorman, a deputy director of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. … ‘Without people championing the study and preservation of objects like these, and others, there is the possibility that people will simply forget about them, and it is hard to revive them or prove their relevance.’

“About the time the jamdani was being revived, a women’s collective was coming to life at the northernmost tip of Canada, in the town of Taloyoak.  

“Begun in 1972, the group, called Arnaqarvik, garnered a burst of fame in its day with its Inuit parkas, mitts, and boots made from caribou, wolf, and seal and patterned with dyes from tundra lichen and flowers. The collective’s work — including, eventually, duffel-wool ‘packing dolls, or miniature stuffed animals carrying their babies in parkas as the Inuit do — was showcased in New York City and the 1974 Arctic Winter Games in Alaska.

“Yet today, just as the jamdani is enjoying global appeal, the work of Arnaqarvik has been largely forgotten. So the Kitikmeot Heritage Society in Cambridge Bay, in Canada’s Nunavut territory, has set out to restore its memory in a digital archive. 

“And to mark the 50th anniversary of the collective, about 250 items in 2021 were sent back to Taloyoak in an exhibition. It was the first time most in the community found out what Arnaqarvik even was. ‘Everybody was really surprised by what their parents did in those days,’ says Arnaoyok Alookee, Arnaqarvik’s co-founder.

“Brendan Griebel, an Arctic anthropologist and manager of collections and archives for the Kitikmeot Heritage Society, says this reconnection is about far more than just the production of goods. ‘Having that physical contact ignites something in the memory and in the senses,’ he says.

“When Arnaqarvik began, the semi-nomadic Inuit of Taloyoak had only gradually moved into this permanent settlement the decade prior. The collective helped the community bridge a gap — between its Indigenous traditions and the new wage economy into which it was settling. 

“Judy McGrath co-founded the collective with Ms. Alookee when her husband was posted for work in the Arctic community. She says she still recalls the sense of purpose that craft-making gave all of them. They collected flowers with their children in 24-hour sunlight; they’d use the 24-hour darkness of winter to boil their dyes on the stove. ‘I can still feel the confidence that the skills they had mattered, and the excitement over making new things from the old, from the land,’ Ms. McGrath says.

“In Bangladesh, the rise of the jamdani was also driven by economics, to help artisans whose enormous skills couldn’t find the market for livelihoods. BRAC, the country’s largest NGO, created the brand Aarong to distribute their products. …

“Making a jamdani, which derives from the Persian words jam (floral) and dani (vase), is what weaver Mohammed Monir calls a ‘respectful’ job. … ‘When I see someone famous wearing something I made, I feel proud,’ he adds.

“Today jamdani weaving is included on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.”

More at the Monitor, here. No firewall. Reasonable subscription. You can also sign up for their free weekend updates.

Photo: EPA/Ali Haider via the National News.
Female camel-racing event in Dubai, October 2021. Of the eight women who took part, seven were trained at the Arabian Desert Camel Riding Centre, the first in the region dedicated to teaching women to race camels.

For some reason, I’ve been hearing about camels a lot lately. Not just how long they can travel without refueling but how nutritious their milk is, how lovely their hair. Today we learn about racing camels.

Stacey Vanek Smith reports at PRI’s (Public Radio International’s)The World, “It was a scorching hot day at the Al Marmoom Camel Racing Track located just outside of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. …

“On a typical morning, [the] arenas are packed with hundreds of enthusiastic fans placing bets on the early-morning camel races (early morning because temperatures are often in the triple digits by 10 a.m.). …

“Camel racing is an ancient sport — its roots stretch back to at least the 7th century on the Arabian Peninsula. But the races at Al Marmoom are a modernized version. Instead of riders, small robots sit atop the camels’ humps and control them with reins. The robots are controlled remotely by men who speed alongside the racetrack in cars, directing their camels. But the people gathered on this hot afternoon had come for something different but also far more traditional: The season’s first women’s race. 

“Though the crowd was undoubtedly smaller than the hundreds who regularly show up for the men’s races, the women’s team — a part of the Arabian Desert Camel Riding Center — has started to get real traction in the last few years. News outlets covered the race, and Jeep sponsored the event, along with a handful of local businesses, including Camelait, a company that sells camel milk.

” ‘It’s high in calcium,’ the emcee informed the crowd. …

“Meanwhile, the four women riders led their camels to the racetrack. One of the racers, 31-year-old Linda Krockenberger, is the reason behind the rise of women’s racing — she founded the women’s camel racing team. 

“Krockenberger came to Dubai in 2015 to work in the hospitality industry. She had raced horses back in Germany and decided to try her hand at camel riding. She was instantly hooked and was determined to learn how to race camels. The only problem was she couldn’t find anyone to train her. For years, she was told the sport was not for women. …

“But Krockenberger kept trying until she found a willing trainer, Obaid Al Falasi, a highly respected community member.  As soon as she felt comfortable with her skills, Krockenberger and Al Falasi decided to open a school. …

“Before she knew it, local and tourist women were flocking to her for lessons. Krockenberger emphasized the support she has gotten from the camel-riding community. … Still, Krockenberger added, there have been many skeptics.

“ ‘Critics sometimes say, “Oh, do we really need a German to teach us an Arabic tradition?” Of course, these comments do get to me because I don’t want to impose myself on the culture,’ she said. ‘But I try to calm these thoughts by saying, “Well if you’re such a great teacher, there’s nothing that stops you from teaching as well.” ‘

“Krockenberger’s riding school emphasizes the Bedouin camel riding tradition. The racers ride barefoot and don’t use saddles, just Bedouin blankets. 

‘Barefoot, it’s more freeing,’ racer Rawan Salah explained. ‘You feel everything. You can feel the belly of the camel. You can feel if they’re nervous. Everything.’

“ ‘The Bedouin didn’t have shoes, so we don’t have shoes,’ racer Yanna Schmiel added. …

“While the racers led their camels to the start line, a group of spectators got into their nearby cars and drove up beside the camel track where the riders mounted their camels. Spectators may watch the races from their vehicles or stand at the finish line.

“The women perched just behind the hump on their single-humped Dromedary camels, sitting on blankets. They clung to the camels with their legs, wearing riding helmets and team jerseys.

“Salah said that she feels that all-women racing is a special experience. ‘It feels empowering,’ she said.”

More at PRI’s The World, here.

Some additional fun: “Camels and Riders will be disqualified for the following reasons:

  1. “Belts used to strap rider to camel.
  2. “Electric shockers found mounted to the camel or used in whips, overusage of the whip.
  3. “External influence of camel owner on camel during race beyond vocal cheering on.
  4. “Interference with gear of competitor camels and riders
  5. “Riding gear that has not been tested and approved prior to the race.”

Photo: Fuller Craft Museum.
The Red Dress” is the culmination of 15 years of work by 380 embroiderers from over 50 countries, many of the contributors from impoverished, marginalized groups.

My friend Ann, a textile artist, invited me to pay a visit to the Fuller Craft Museum, a beautiful place in Brockton, Massachusetts. She was especially interested in seeing an embroidered dress that had traveled the world and uplifted many talented but marginalized women, but we got a kick out of all the exhibits.

I took photos — quite a few of works by button artist Beau McCall.

The first image below is of McCall’s jeans top and the second of some sneakers — all covered with buttons. The third piece is also covered with buttons, even the black parts. The only button-free place is where the zipper would go.

The button-covered bathtub was particularly arresting. Ann says she wants to find out how McCall sources so many buttons, many of them clearly antique.

The next photo, of an embroidered dress, features the handicraft of embroiderers of all kinds around New England, a local homage to “The Red Dress.”

My last shot is of George Greenamyer’s steel train at the entrance to the museum, a hint that the ugly suburban highway where the museum is located has something magical behind the parking lot — a modern building with courtyards and vistas of swans sailing along serene Upper Porter Pond.

More at Fuller Craft, here.

The Arabic Sesame Street was designed especially for children in refugee camps, but it’s a delight for other children, too.

I posted about the development of a “Sesame Street” for Middle East refugees in 2016 (here) and for Bangladesh refugees in 2019 (here).

To give you the latest, I’m sharing a recent interview that National Public Radio’s Deborah Amos conducted in Beirut.

NPR Host Audie Cornish
” ‘Sesame Street’ is taking on one of the world’s biggest crises — the plight of Syrian refugee children. The Muppets are reaching out to millions of displaced children in a new program. Refugee children face special issues — losing their homes, missing time from school and frequent moves. They grapple with emotions and fears they barely understand. NPR’s Deborah Amos reports from Beirut.

Deborah Amos
“The Syrian refugees at this soccer practice are part of the target audience for ‘Ahlan Simsim’ — ‘Welcome Sesame,’ a new show on Arab TV stations and online — also for refugee kids in Jordan, Iraq and Syria. Some here are old enough to remember the war. Many more were born as refugees, raised by parents who fled violence and devastating loss and can pass on the trauma. …

Bassil Riche
“Definitely, these kids have experienced something that no kid should have to experience.

Amos
“Bassil Riche, the soccer coach, has seen the signs in these kids.

Riche
“Maybe the kid misses a shot or something. You know, you can see kind of over-the-top anger or frustration or disappointment in themselves. It’s important for them to talk about these things and not keep it inside.

Amos
“Getting those emotions out is the aim of the new program. … Produced in Amman, Jordan, the scripts are in consultation with regional educators and researchers. For 50 years, ‘Sesame Street’ has pioneered programs to address childhood challenges. The new challenge — to create a show for children who are likely to remain refugees throughout their childhood. Scott Cameron is the executive producer in New York.

Scott Cameron
“The show was developed to help children become smarter, stronger and kinder and give them skills to be — to thrive and be resilient. …

Amos
“[Grover] speaks Arabic in ‘Ahlan Simsim.’ The newcomers are Jad — bright yellow — Basma is purple. She becomes Jad’s best friend when he arrives in the neighborhood. Jad is sometimes sad because he’s had to leave everything behind, including his favorite toys. Research shows displaced children don’t have the language to identify emotions and the skills to cope, says Cameron. So that’s a key educational goal.

Cameron
” ‘Ahlan Simsim’ focusing an entire season on emotions is … a bold move that is born out of a need.

Amos
“The teaching techniques are sometimes silly. They’re always fun.

Cameron
“Debka dancers are three animated dancers whose sole function is to identify emotions and label them in a really funny way. … They pop into frame out of nowhere, sometimes. So it’s always fun to see where they’re going to come from. Sometimes, they pop up out of the bushes. They do a dance. They are a very important way for us to make sure that the children pay extra attention when we’re first introducing the vocabulary word that matches the emotion.

Amos
“Syrians are now the largest refugee population in the world. The statistics for going home are grim. Displacement lasts longer than ever before, sometimes for decades. Head writer Zaid Baqaeen says he never uses the label.

Zaid Baqaeen
“It was never put in any script that, oh, you’re labeled as a refugee or not because our focus is about welcoming. …

Amos
“The welcome is extended on the ground. In a partnership with the International Rescue Committee, the IRC is sending thousands of outreach workers to four countries and extend the lessons of the TV production and tackle some of the hardest subjects, says Cameron. … The ‘Ahlan Simsim’ project is a new way to correct the shortcomings of traditional humanitarian aid that provides for immediate needs but does little to prepare a generation to become resilient adults.”

NPR transcript and audio are here.

All sterling silver birthstone rings are 20% off with code RING20 at Luna & Stella this year.

I always like to tell new readers how I got the title for this eclectic blog. My daughter’s birthstone and vintage locket company, Luna & Stella, offered to host a blog that didn’t need to be only about jewelry. Suzanne said I could write about anything that interested me, and as you have probably figured out, a lot of things interest me. So in May 2011, I was off to the races! Today I can boast 13 years of daily posting — and many fascinating blogging friends.

Occasionally, I do like to point out that Luna & Stella is an awesome place to buy jewelry and that there are often sales in May, in the lead-up to Mother’s Day. This year, Mother’s Day is May 12.

You have been thinking about what to get a certain person for Mother’s Day, haven’t you? This would be a good time to look at the sterling silver birthstone rings at Luna & Stella because they are 20% off with the code RING20. Order by Monday, May 6, with standard shipping, or Wednesday, May 8, with 2-day shipping.

And if the mother in your world prefers earrings, necklaces, vintage lockets, etc., take a look at the many other beautiful things at the Luna & Stella site. Tell your friends.

Photo: AP.
“Factum Foundation, a Madrid-based digital art group, analyzed 10 fragments from a sculpture of Constantine the Great, a fourth-century Roman emperor, to create a 1:1 replica,” says AP. See the digital scan above.

Planning to be in Rome anytime soon? Here’s a sight that’s a bit out of the ordinary — both ancient and completely modern.

Elisabetta Povoledo writes at the New York Times, “It may not be authentic, exactly, or very old at all. But the colossal statue of a fourth-century emperor, Constantine the Great, is a newly erected monument to Rome if nothing else: a homage to the ancient city’s grandeur, and of its endless capacity to remake itself. In this case, the remaking was literal.

“Towering over visitors, the 43-foot seated statue was painstakingly reconstructed by a Madrid-based digital art group, Factum Foundation, from the 10 known fragments of the original sculpture. …

“ ‘Seeing Constantine, on top of the Capitoline Hill, looking out at the whole of Rome, he feels extraordinary,’ said Adam Lowe, the founder of the Factum Foundation, which originally created the statue for a 2022 exhibit at the Prada Foundation in Milan.

“The head and most of the other fragments of the colossal statue were discovered in 1486, in the ruins of a building not far from the Colosseum. They were transferred to what eventually became the Capitoline collection, and nine of those ancient fragments — including a monumental head, feet and hand — are permanently on show at the museums.

“The fragments found fame from the moment they were excavated, said Salvatore Settis, an archaeologist and one of the curators of the Prada exhibit. ‘They have been etched by leading artists from the 15th century on,’ he said. …

“Five hundred years and many more technological advancements later, a team from the Factum Foundation spent three days using photogrammetry, a 3D scan with a camera, to record the fragments in the Capitoline courtyard. Over the course of several months, the high-resolution data became 3D prints, which were used to cast replicas, made of acrylic resin and marble powder.

“Those were then integrated with other body parts — the ones Constantine was missing — that were constructed after historical research and discussions with curators and experts.

A statue of the emperor Claudius as the god Jupiter, now at the ancient Roman altar known as the Ara Pacis, was used as a model for the pose and draping, which was originally in bronze.

“ ‘It’s through the evidence of those fragments, working rather like forensic scientists, with all the experts from different disciplines, we were able to build back something … awe inspiring,’ Mr. Lowe said, adding that new technologies were offering museums new avenues of research and dissemination. …

“Recent scholarship on the statue has suggested the statue of Constantine was itself reworked from an existing colossus, possibly depicting Jupiter. Irrefutable signs of reworking are especially present on the colossal statue’s face, according to Claudio Parisi Presicce, Rome’s top municipal art official, the director of the Capitoline Museums and an expert on the colossus.

“Indeed, some experts hypothesize that the sculpture was originally the cult statue of a temple devoted to Jupiter — the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus — which would mean that the Constantine facsimile has finally returned home.

“ ‘We can’t be certain that it’s the same statue, but there is some possibility that it was,’ Mr. Settis said. Constantine, the first emperor to convert to Christianity, may have specifically selected a statue of Jupiter to transform into an icon of himself. ‘That’s one hypothesis,’ he said. ‘It would mark a passage in Western Europe, from the pagan empire to a Christian one.’

“The statue will be on show in the Capitoline garden until at least the end of 2025, officials said. Where it will go afterward, and whether it will withstand the ravages of time better than its fractured original, remain open questions.

“ ‘It’ll be as fine as anything is outside,’ Mr. Lowe said. ‘We hope. Of course, even during the opening there were pigeons sitting on its head. I’m afraid there’s not much you can do about that.’

More at the Times, here.

Moving Into Spring

Partly, of course, spring is about the angle of sunlight, how early the sun comes up, how late it stays. I never thought I had seasonal affective disorder, wasn’t sure I believed there was such a thing. But I do find I’m cheered up by sunlight, discouraged by gray skies.

The photos today are mostly self-explanatory, but I want to point out how vibrant the moss looks in early spring. Also, the last photo is of a New England wildflower called Mayapple.

Photo: Weliton Menário Costa via Science.
Says Science magazine: “In his winning ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ video, Weliton Menário Costa shifts his dance style to match other dancers, mimicking how kangaroos adapt their personalities to fit the group.”

This is a story about Science magazine’s annual “Dance Your PhD” competition. The winning video replicates something a researcher studied — kangaroo behavior. Runners up included dances about stream-bank erosion and moth mating.

Sean Cummings writes at Science, “In a broad grassland beneath an Australian sunset, dancers in everything from fishnets to field attire let loose an unchoreographed mishmash of steps, leaps, twirls, and twerks. There’s no unified style to the movement, but the resulting video — this year’s winner of Science’s annual ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ contest — carries meaning nonetheless in its joyful madness. To Weliton Menário Costa, its creator, this dance mirrors the one between individuality and conformity in kangaroos — and celebrates the value of diversity in all species.

“Menário Costa, who was awarded $2750 in the annual contest now sponsored by the quantum technology-artificial intelligence (AI) company SandboxAQ, earned his ecology Ph.D. in 2021 at the Australian National University, studying eastern gray kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) living at Wilsons Promontory National Park. Even as joeys, he found, individual kangaroos seemed to have distinct personalities. Bolder animals, for instance, would approach a remote-controlled model car driven near them whereas others shied away. These personalities aren’t set in stone, however: The marsupials modify their behavior to conform with those around them, adjusting as they move between groups.

“Menário Costa, who has since transitioned from science into a career as a singer-songwriter under the name WELI, recorded an original song, Kangaroo Time, for the contest. He then recruited a score of dancer friends representing styles from urban to classical, ballet to Brazilian funk. ‘I wanted to showcase the diversity of kangaroo behavior, and the easiest way was to get the diversity of dance we already have. I didn’t choreograph them, they were just being themselves,’ Menário Costa says. The only instruction?

Do as the ’roos do. In other words, mingle with dancers of other styles and adjust your movements in response, gradually unifying into a group effort.

“The result resonated with a judging panel of artists, dancers, and scientists. ‘There was a sense of surprise and delight in it. You could tell they were having fun through the process’ … says judge Alexa Meade, a visual artist who uses optical illusions in her work. She also praised the video’s original songwriting and costumes, as well as the simplicity and accessibility with which it explained the science relating to kangaroo group dynamics.

“Besides finding a whimsical way to teach viewers about kangaroos, Menário Costa hopes to convey the message that diversity — in all its forms — should be celebrated. ‘Kangaroos are different, just like us,’ he says. ‘Differences happen in all species—.’ …

“The project also provided a way for Menário Costa to translate his academic experiences into an accessible form for friends and family in his small Brazilian hometown. Many of them didn’t fully understand what he was doing in Australia, he says — including his grandmother. ‘Once I released Kangaroo Time, she was like, “That’s my grandson! I get it now!” says Menário Costa, who [planned] to release his first EP, Yours Academically, Dr. WELI, at the beginning of March. …

“ ‘This year’s entries did a great job of incorporating art and science to [create something] greater than the sum of their parts,’ Meade says. In the past, she explains, ‘some entries have incredible research but the dance component feels like an afterthought, or we might get some incredible dance performance, but I’m not sure what it has to do with science. It has to be a blending that accentuates both.’ The entries were so strong, the judges noted, that the second-ranked dance in the social science category might have won the whole thing if not up against the kangaroos.” Click on that one: It’s pretty funny.

You can make a dance about anything — as I learned when I was 14 and had to choreograph a dance about oxygen in combustion. You couldn’t just show Antoine Lavoisier mixing chemicals but had to somehow replicate the chemicals themselves!

More at Science, here. Hat tip: ArtsJournal.com.

Photo: Josh Appel/Unsplash.
The New York City melting pot, where 700 languages are spoken — 150 of them endangered.

New York City attracts people from all over the world, so it’s perhaps not surprising that there are an extraordinary number of languages spoken — major languages and endangered languages.

Alex Carp’s impressive story at the New York Times digs into the details.

“Most people think of endangered languages as far-flung or exotic, the opposite of cosmopolitan. ‘You go to some distant mountain or island, and you collect stories,’ the linguist Ross Perlin says, describing a typical view of how such languages are studied. But of the 700 or so speakers of Seke, most of whom can be found in a cluster of villages in Nepal, more than 150 have lived in or around two apartment buildings in Brooklyn. Bishnupriya Manipuri, a minority language of Bangladesh and India, has become a minority language of Queens.

‘All told, there are more endangered languages in and around New York City than have ever existed anywhere else,’ says Perlin, who has spent 11 years trying to document them.

“And because most of the world’s languages are on a path to disappear within the next century, there will likely never be this many in any single place again.

“Language loss has been a natural part of human history for centuries, but it was typically small in scale and relatively confined. The lost language could sometimes leave traces in the language that overtook it, what linguists have called a ‘grammatical merger’ of intersecting societies.

“About 30 years ago, though, the linguists Ken Hale and Michael Krauss warned of a new, more dire form of loss in which a dominant language would ‘simply overwhelm Indigenous, local languages and cultures.’ Hundreds of languages were essentially gone, Krauss noted, and others were quickly fading. Several were spoken by as few as one or two people.

“As Perlin writes in his new book — Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, out this month — what stands to be lost is more than mere words. ‘Languages represent thousands of natural experiments: ways of seeing, understanding and living that should rightly form a major part of any meaningful account of what it is to be human.’

“With Daniel Kaufman, also a linguist, Perlin directs the Endangered Language Alliance, in Manhattan. When E.L.A. was founded, in 2010, Perlin lived in the Chinese Himalayas, where he studied Trung, a language with no standard writing system, dictionary or codified grammar. (His work helped establish all three.) He spent most of his time in the valley where the largest group of remaining speakers lived; the only road in or out was impassable in winter.

“After three years, Perlin returned to New York City, where he had grown up. … In 2016, E.L.A. began to map the languages spoken in the city. A vast majority were not recognized by large businesses, schools or city government. Officially, Perlin said, they were simply not there. ‘None of the communities with whom we planned to partner were recorded as even existing in the census,’ Kaufman and Perlin later wrote.

“Since their project began, Perlin and Kaufman have located speakers of more than 700 languages. Of those languages, at least 150 are listed as under significant threat in at least one of three major databases for the field. …

“A language’s endangerment is not simply a function of its size but also a measure of its relationship to the societies around it. Sheer numbers ‘have always mattered less than intergenerational transmission, Perlin writes in Language City. Until recently, in many regions of the world, dozens of languages lived side by side, each with no more than a few thousand speakers. Gurr-goni, an Aboriginal Australian language, had long been stable with 70. A language survives, Perlin writes, by sharing life with those who speak it. …

“When Perlin and Kaufman document a language, they work alongside native speakers to transcribe and translate video interviews that are recorded locally and during trips to a language’s home region. …

“To document Seke, for example, Perlin works with Rasmina Gurung, a 26-year-old nurse who happens to be one of the youngest Seke speakers in the world. Most Seke speakers, about 500 people, live across five neighboring villages in northern Nepal, near Tibet. Though the villages are within walking distance, each has developed its own Seke dialect. Like many of the smaller languages of ‘traditional face-to-face societies,’ Perlin writes, Seke has no ‘formal, all-purpose hello,’ because villagers live among the same groups of people and rarely encounter a Seke-speaking stranger. Instead, a question — Where are you going? What are you doing? — would be more common. …

“As E.L.A. produced its first language maps, the institute’s work caught the eye of Thelma Carrillo, a research scientist in the city’s Health Department. Carrillo, who is part Zapotec, was working on a Latino health initiative, but the city had what Perlin and Kaufman found to be ‘no basic demographic information’ on New Yorkers from Indigenous communities in Latin America, even though they have been migrating here in large numbers since the 1990s.

“ ‘We found ourselves in this odd position of being a conduit between the Indigenous Latin Americans of the city and the city agencies, because other organizations that work with them see them as Mexican or Guatemalan,’ Kaufman says. …

“By the start of the pandemic, the city had begun official outreach in nine Indigenous languages and recorded videos in several other endangered languages. By reaching these communities in their own languages, New York City offered what is almost certainly the first official recognition that they exist.

“Still, Perlin and Kaufman are keenly aware that the corpus they are building — word by word and sometimes syllable by syllable — might someday turn out to be a kind of fossil record.

“Outside of the office, Gurung mostly speaks Seke in voice notes to elders overseas or to tell her mother a secret she doesn’t want her sister to hear. On her first trip to Nepal with E.L.A., she ended every interview with the same question: ‘Do you think our language will survive?’ ”

More at the Times, here. Terrific maps and graphics.