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Radical Access to the Arts

May 5, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Mahla Karimian/ArtsHub.
The launch of Diversity Arts Australia’s Fair Play: Equity, Inclusion and the Creative Industries report. Australia supports concepts like diversity, equity, and inclusion.

When I was around seven or eight, I hadn’t had the advantage of being around any children with a disability and didn’t know how to relate to a girl in Sunday school who had a condition like cerebral palsy. I was ignorant. Why did that girl walk like that? Why did she talk so slowly? I felt uncomfortable, and it never occurred to me to wonder how she herself felt about things.

Maybe she liked the same books I liked. Maybe she watched the same tv shows. I never found out. The best I can say for my benighted self is I was horrified when the minister’s daughter made mean comments. Time, experience, and knowing more kinds of people make a big difference.

Today people with different abilities are organizing. From the following report, we learn that creatives with disabilities are making change in Australia.

Sarah-Mace Dennis wrote in March at ArtsHub, “Between 2023 and 2024, the cultural and creative industries contributed $67.4 billion to the Australian economy. Proportionally, audiences with disability attend the arts as much as non-disabled audiences. This means that making these industries accessible for the more than 20% of our population who identify as disabled is an economic imperative. But what will it take to make Australia’s arts and cultural sector truly accessible?

“Established in 2022, the Access Fringe program at the Melbourne Fringe Festival is a 10-year partnership with Arts Access Victoria supporting d/Deaf and disabled artists through commissions, mentorships and specialized development programs. The initiative shows how embedding access into every space and conversation can lead to change across the entire cultural sector.

“At last year’s Access Fringe, Cultural Equity Consultant Caroline Bowditch hosted talks with national and international industry speakers about ‘radical access.’ As she said, ‘Radical Access imagines a radical version of best practice accessibility for the independent arts sector. It moves the conversation beyond the provision of access services into a space of cultural equity.’

“Reimagining ableist practices means understanding the effects of our everyday habitual behaviors and approaching our work with curiosity and care for how we might work together to create change. What becomes possible when we create space for bodies that think and move in different ways?

“Last month’s launch of Diversity Arts Australia’s Fair Play: Equity, Inclusion and the Creative Industries report at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre shows how sustained, behind-the-scenes work to shift equity and access across the creative industries can create important structural changes.

“The Fair Play program was developed in 2019 to address systemic exclusion in the creative industries for First Nations people, d/Deaf and Disabled people, and artists and arts workers from underrepresented culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Since its launch, it has grown into a national program that supports organizations to unlearn the systemic biases that no longer serve our communities or our creative sector.

“Reaching more than 75 organizations and over 2000 participants through training, mentoring and sector conversations, Fair Play is proof that long-term collaboration and shared learning can ensure that diversity, accessibility and inclusion become an integral part of organizational thinking.

“Speaking at the launch of the report, Fair Play trainer and mentor Kochava Lilit said: ‘A lot of disability justice practices benefit everyone. For people who are tired, who need flexible working arrangements because they are parenting, caring or living with disability and chronic illness.’

“Last year’s Art, Access and the Digital Now symposium at the Fremantle Biennale brought together world leading artists and arts organizations to discuss whether digital technologies such as artificial intelligence are tools for inclusion or exclusion.

“Although the unanimous undercurrent at the symposium was to exercise caution when it came to machine vision, there were many examples of using technology for good too. A clear standout was Scottish dance company Indepen-dance and their use of online and digital tools to enhance accessibility for disabled performers. Another example came from Nat Lim, Director of Singapore’s A11YVerse, who runs a living lab where technology provides opportunities for diverse communities to experiment with new approaches to work and learning.

“Examples like these show that for technology to be accessible, it must be introduced and developed in collaboration with communities – testing, adapting and asking: ‘does this work for you?’ …

“Disability, inclusion and equity consultant Morwenna Collett has devoted much of her career to examining best practice approaches and implementing systems to make creative experiences more accessible. With the support of a Churchill Fellowship and Music Australia, she has travelled the world researching how music festivals and cultural organizations are making real change when it comes to accessibility.

“When I asked Collett how the creative community can work together to make the future more accessible for all Australians she said: ‘I believe we all need to just jump in and start somewhere, seek regular feedback, plan for improvements and connect with each other to keep learning.’ “

Many more examples at ArtsHub, here. No firewall.

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Women’s Radio Stations

May 4, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: AFP.
Students attend a class at Afghanistan‘s Radio Begum in 2021. The founder wanted to get the station set up in hopes that the coming Taliban takeover would spare it.

What does it take for women’s voices to be heard? It depends a lot on the local culture but even more on the determination of individual women working together.

Gabe Bullard writes at Nieman Reports, “On March 8, 2021, a new radio station launched in Kabul: Radio Begum, run by women, for women. The timing was deliberate — the station opened on International Women’s Day, and just as the United States military was withdrawing from Afghanistan.

“ ‘I decided to launch this radio station in order to be ready for the day the Taliban takes power,’ said Hamida Aman, the station’s founder. ‘We knew that as soon as they take power, it will be segregation, and again, it will be against women.’

“Five months later, the Taliban retook Kabul and imposed new laws restricting women’s access to schools and their movements in public. Five years later, Radio Begum is still on the air. The station follows the letter of the law, even as restrictions tighten. It doesn’t cover politics or any subjects that are off-limits to public discussion among women under Taliban edicts. Instead, it focuses on health, religion, and providing educational programs to replace the schooling women are now prohibited from receiving. 

“ ‘They banned schools, but not education,’ Aman said.

“Begum may be unique in Afghanistan, but its model is in practice around the world. It is one of many women-run radio stations — from rural India to the Peruvian Amazon — that, although not part of a formal network, share many attributes and goals. 

“Some of these stations, like Begum, are oases of information in areas where women are restricted in what they can access. Others, in countries where the government is less restrictive, provide an antidote to male-dominated media that ignore issues that affect women. And still other stations challenge cultural barriers and break the silence around topics that are rarely if ever discussed. …

“ ‘There is no more public space for women, and it’s kind of a public space,’ Aman said of her station. 

Women have been working to create these kinds of spaces on-air since the earliest years of radio. … ‘Radio bridged, connected, and blurred the boundaries between the private and public spheres and by doing so, spoke to women as housewives, workers, consumers and citizens,’ says a UNESCO report on radio’s position in the world. 

“Modern women-run radio stations have seized on this potential to blur boundaries and adapted it to changing times and to specific locations and audience needs. 

“ ‘If given the opportunity, radio becomes a really important agent of change for women, in particular, especially in cultures where to speak out and to be open and to have an opinion, to have a say, can kill you,’ said Monica De La Torre, a media professor at Arizona State University and author of the book Feminista Frequencies. …

“Even as advancing technology has led to new independent media outlets and expanded ways of sharing and accessing information, radio remains a powerful medium for breaking barriers, broaching taboo subjects, and speaking directly to oppressed or obscured groups in society. The nonprofit that runs Begum, for example, also operates a TV station that broadcasts via satellite from France (where Aman is now based), and it has a smartphone platform as well. Because it’s not within Afghanistan’s borders, the television channel can be more open in its programming, but for Aman, radio will always have a place. ‘It’s cheap and everybody can have access,’ she said.

“Radio remains accessible and portable, even without an internet connection, electricity, or the ability to read. The fact that broadcasts generally come from a local tower gives radio a geographic connection that isn’t inherent to most other media. And through call-in programs, broadcasts aren’t limited to one-way conversations. 

“For Begum, this means women can — within the parameters of government restrictions — ask questions they may not be able to ask elsewhere, as the station’s programs center around life issues, and are interactive, Aman said. Listeners ‘can call us at any time, to talk with our doctors, to talk with our psychologists, to talk with our spiritual counselor to get information about religion,’ she added.

“Even when women don’t have specific questions, there’s value in hearing other women’s voices on these programs, according to Saba Chaman, who was the first director of Radio Begum and has worked for Begum TV since 2024. ‘It provides them with an opportunity to listen to other women, to listen to the way they talk, to listen to the way they start and finish their sentences,’ Chaman said. 

“Operations haven’t been entirely smooth for Begum, however. In February 2025, Taliban officials alleging violations of the law raided the station, arrested two employees, confiscated hard drives, phones, and documents, and shut down the broadcast. The station was back on the air in a few weeks, and the employees were released in a few months.

“ ‘It hurt us a lot. It was really a painful year for us,’ Aman said. ‘But despite all these challenges, we continue our activities.’ 

“Radio also offers another key benefit to its audience: anonymity. Listeners can tune in privately and there’s no record of their activity once they switch off the receiver. Nobody knows who is listening, who is speaking on-air, or who is calling in. The ability to anonymously call a station comes up often in conversations about women’s radio, usually with a similar narrative.

“Station managers have stories of women who call in to share experiences they can’t talk about with the people around them. Other women hearing the stories then realize they’ve had similar experiences. They call, too, and the process repeats, with more women calling in anonymously.  

“ ‘You could call in and maybe disguise your voice a little bit, or maybe share something so intimate and personal because of the medium,’ said De La Torre, the Arizona State University media professor. Because a station is local, a caller knows they will be heard by their community when they dial in to share a story. A listener knows they’re hearing their neighbor’s voice. Each broadcast chips away at a culture of silence.” 

More at Nieman Reports, here.

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Route 66 Is Turning 100

May 3, 2026 by suzannesmom

Did you ever hear the 1946 song by the Nat King Cole Trio about America’s most iconic highway? The chorus went, “Get your kicks on Route 66.” To some extent the song captures the feeling people have for a road that traverses both land and history.

Route 66 is celebrating a big birthday now, and the Christian Science Monitor thought it would be interesting to look at the changes the highway has seen over 100 years. In today’s feature, Joliet, Illinois, is the focus.

Reporter Harry Bruinius writes, “Route 66 courses through American cities that once flourished before their economies faded or were forced to change. The story of Joliet, Illinois, reflects the high times, the hardships and the reinvention found along the century-old road.

“Just a few blocks from the Old Joliet Prison, Johnny Williams is standing outside a tire shop, waiting for a repair. He’s a lifelong resident of the Joliet area, a father of six and grandfather of 10, and he remembers back in the day when the prison was part of the economic engine that made Joliet run.

” ‘I remember when people used to sit out there visiting their people — on the buses, you know?’ Mr. Williams says. ‘I have plenty of people whose parents and uncles worked there.’ He gestures toward the 25-foot limestone walls, still topped with razor wire. …

“He still marvels at how the once imposing former state penitentiary has been transformed over the past decade. Today, the people walking through its front gate are not prisoners or staff, but tourists and Americana-lovers there to have fun and celebrate the centennial of Route 66 [which] passed right by the prison until 1940, when it was rerouted a few blocks away.

“The prison once housed such infamous criminals as Richard Speck, James Earl Ray, and John Wayne Gacy. But since its closing in 2002, it has become a site for concerts, film viewings, and today, an event dubbed ‘The Big House Ballgame.’ …

“Said Quinn Adamowski, board president of the Joliet Area Historical Museum, which now runs the prison … ‘This site defined Joliet in many ways.’

“After the prison closed, it was largely abandoned, becoming a liability, Mr. Adamowski said, especially in this neighborhood. ‘In 2017, 160 years after the first inmates arrived, we had the opportunity to wonder what this site could be,’ he added. ‘It was our time – Joliet’s time – to define the prison.’

“The Big House Ballgame on April 30, which is the 100th anniversary of the naming of Route 66, featured the Joliet Slammers, a Frontier League baseball team co-owned by actor Bill Murray. It was one of the featured events of an official five-city kickoff of events commemorating America’s ‘Mother Road.’

“Baseball was also part of the prison’s history. In the early 20th century, inmates formed teams and played games against one another and against outside clubs, part of a broader effort to impose order and routine within the prison. The Big House Ballgame today is, in part, an attempt to revive that history — to connect the present moment to something that had once taken place on the same ground.

“What happened to Joliet over the past century and a half happened, in some version, to nearly every city and town along Route 66. The collapse of jobs, travel routes, and movement west – and then a slow, uncertain reinvention.

The roadway passed through working America, and then through America after the work was gone.

“The centennial is, among other things, a celebration of the survival of places that kept going when the economies that made them no longer existed.

“Curt Herron, like Mr. Williams, has lived in this part of Will County his whole life, growing up in Lockport, a small city just north of Joliet, before spending 45 years as a sports reporter covering high schools, the Slammers, and nearly every sporting event in between. Today, he’s an assistant at the historical museum.

” ‘Joliet was always a real working-class city,’ he says, pausing in the shadow of a guard tower as a group of tourists photographs the cellblock windows above him. ‘The second biggest steel city in the country after Pittsburgh. And then, on top of that, a prison city — two prisons within a few miles of each other, running simultaneously for 75 years.’ …

“The steel came first. In 1869, the Joliet Iron and Steel Works opened along the Des Plaines River, drawing on the region’s coal deposits and its limestone – the same blue-gray stone that built the prison walls, the same stone quarried from just beneath the city’s surface – to become one of the great industrial enterprises of the Gilded Age. At its height, it employed thousands of men and produced the railroad rails that stitched together the American West.

“Joliet drew immigrant workers in successive waves: first, the Irish who dug the Illinois and Michigan Canal in the 1840s; then Poles, Lithuanians, and Eastern Europeans; then African Americans and Mexican migrants during the First World War. Joliet became, in the language of the era, a city of stone and steel – proud of its grit and defined by its labor, built on the conviction that hard work in a hard place was its own kind of American story.

“Then, the steel left. By the early 1980s, the mill was gone, and the unemployment rate in Joliet climbed to 26% – among the highest of any city in the United States at the time. The limestone ruins of the ironworks sat empty along the river for decades, overgrown with vegetation, before the Forest Preserve District turned them into a heritage trail. A wound, converted in time into a park.

“ ‘We were known for being a hardscrabble place,’ Mr. Herron says. ‘Because of the prisons and the steel industry and a lot of working-class people. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s also led to a real competitive area – a lot of great athletes have come from here, a lot of people who’ve gone on to do remarkable things.’ ”

More at the Monitor, here. No firewall. Consider an inexpensive subscription.

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Reducing Urban Air Pollution

May 2, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters.
Cycle lanes such as these in London are among the interventions that have helped reduce levels of particulate pollution and nitrogen dioxide by more than 20% since 2010, according to a new analysis.  

Cyclists have really led the way, haven’t they, in making cities more livable. Whatever their personal motivations for demanding more bike lanes — for exercise or saving money or whatever — they have benefited us all with cleaner cities. Electric cars are playing a role, too.

A recent analysis featured at the Guardian shows how cleaner ways to get around have affected health.

Ajit Niranjan writes, “London, San Francisco and Beijing are among 19 global cities that have achieved ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution, analysis has found, having slashed levels of two airway-aggravating pollutants by more than 20% since 2010.

“The analysis found interventions such as cycle lanes, uptake of electric cars and restrictions on polluting vehicles had helped to drive the improvements.

“Beijing and Warsaw topped the ranking for cleaning up fine particulate pollution (PM2.5), reducing levels by more than 45%, while Amsterdam and Rotterdam saw the greatest improvement in nitrogen dioxide (NO2), with cuts of more than 40%.

“San Francisco was the only US city that cut levels of both pollutants by more than 20%, according to the analysis [by BreatheCities.org and others] of nearly 100 cities around the world. China and Hong Kong are home to nine of the 19 cities, with European cities making up the rest.

” ‘This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45% in a little over a decade,’ said Cecilia Vaca Jones, executive director of Breathe Cities, one of the organizations behind the report. …

“Burning fossil fuels releases toxic gas and harmful particles that are among the biggest threats to human health. …

“The report, shared exclusively with the Guardian, looked at air quality in cities in the C40 and Breathe Cities networks – mostly large cities, but also some smaller ones such as Heidelberg in Germany – and found ‘substantial reductions’ can be achieved within 15 years through deliberate action.

“It highlighted examples of action that had helped to clean the air, such as China’s rapid switch from combustion engine cars to electric ones, the expansion of cycle lanes in dense European cities, London’s restrictions on dirty vehicles and Warsaw’s shift away from coal and wood home heating. It did not explore the causal chain to distinguish between air quality improvements from local policies versus national ones. …

“Last year, a report found nearly every country on Earth has dirtier air than doctors recommend breathing. Just seven countries that met the World Health Organization’s guidelines for PM2.5 last year, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company. There are no safe levels of PM2.5, but doctors estimate millions of lives could be saved each year by following their guidelines.

“Breathing polluted air affects our health through every stage of our lives, said [Dr Gary Fuller, an air pollution scientist at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the report] ‘from low birth weight babies and asthma in children to cancer and heart problems in adult life.

“ ‘In the last 10 years, we have learned that air pollution is linked to cognitive decline and dementia in old age,’ he added. ‘All of these illnesses exert a massive toll on families, hamper our economies – as people are off work ill or looking after others – and exert a direct cost on our health services. All of these illnesses are preventable.’ ”

Yesterday I read that the war-related gas prices are pushing more people to use trains. I hope they catch on. I always preferred to commute to work by train. More at the Guardian, here.

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Photos Easter to May Day

May 1, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photos: John and Suzanne’s Mom.
Alumnae from my college left a May Day basket at my retirement place. So nice!

Here’s another round-up of recent photos, including Easter and May Day. The one above represents a classic May 1 tradition that even florists seem to have forgotten. Women’s colleges keep May Day alive in the US.

The next two are of Easter at Suzanne’s. We were glad to be able to celebrate a holiday with both John’s family and Suzanne’s again. Hers recently got back from five months in Sweden. Her daughter designed the brownie cupcakes topped with Peeps.

The next picture shows one of the earliest signs of spring in Massachusetts, a spring “ephemeral” called bloodroot.

The next two are from my recent California trip. Mitsuwa Marketplace was in walking distance from my brother’s assisted living and a big hit gastronomically. The Mexican bush sage with its purple flowers was one of many plants that felt exotic to this Easterner.

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Death Valley Comes Back Singing

April 30, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: David Becker/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock.
A field of blooming desert sunflowers or desert gold wildflowers are seen as the sun sets on rugged mountains inside Death Valley national park. 

Having recently recently returned to Massachusetts from California, dazzled by the exotic flora there, I find that today’s story about a superbloom in the desert is just what I need to keep feeding my sense of wonder.

According to Wikipedia, “Death Valley [is] in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. The World Meteorological Organization lists Death Valley as the site of the hottest surface temperature recorded on Earth.

“Death Valley’s Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. … On the afternoon hours of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a temperature of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, which stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded on the surface of the Earth. However, this reading and several others taken in that period are disputed by some modern experts.

“Lying mostly in Inyo County, California, near the border of California and Nevada, in the Great Basin, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Death Valley constitutes much of Death Valley National Park and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. It runs from north to south between the Amargosa Range on the east and the Panamint Range on the west. The Grapevine Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries, respectively. …

“Death Valley is home to the Timbisha tribe of Native Americans, formerly known as the Panamint Shoshone. They have inhabited the valley for at least the past millennium. Their name for Death Valley is Tümpisa, meaning ‘rock paint.’ This refers to the presence of red ochre in the valley.

“The valley got the name Death Valley in the winter of 1849–1850 when a group of American pioneers were traveling through on their way to the California gold rush. The Death Valley 49ers got lost in the valley and feared that they would all perish there. They did eventually make their way out after suffering the loss of just one of the group.”

Now that I’ve filled you with dread, let me turn to the story by Sara Braun at the Guardian about the rare and thrilling superbloom in Death Valley this year.

“After a winter of record rainfall, a superbloom has erupted in Death Valley, covering the famously arid desert in a blanket of vibrant pink, purple and yellow flowers. As travelers from around the world make their way to the desert, they can expect to be greeted by fragrant air and a quilt of delicate hues.

“While there is no official definition for a superbloom, the National Park Service uses the term to ‘describe conditions when so many flowers are present that they appear as swaths of color across the landscape, rather than isolated plants, especially striking at low elevations where the ground is typically sand, gravel and rock.’

“The park last experienced a superbloom in 2016, which can only occur in ‘perfect conditions,’ with ‘well-spaced rainfall’ and mild temperatures.

“The National Park Service said that low-elevation flowers would continue blooming until mid- to late March, depending on the weather.

Higher elevations will experience blooms in April through June.

“Time is of the essence to catch a glimpse of the superbloom, so if tourists can get there in time, they should keep an eye out for some of the most commonly occurring (and eye-catching) flowers: desert gold, brown-eyed evening primrose, golden evening primrose, phacelia and mojave poppy, to name a few.”

More at the Guardian, here. See also Wikipedia, here.

Somehow, the idea that a barren desert can turn lush and fragrant after a ten-year dry spell makes me feel encouraged about the possibility of change in other realms.

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Mexico’s Magnificent Wooden Masks

April 29, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Harmon Li for the Texas Observer.
Austin’s Willy Baltazar is a man of many masks. From Veracruz to Texas, he keeps a centuries-old tradition alive.

I’m back from California and doing my best to adjust to the time change and life in the East. Having enjoyed the influence of Mexico for the past few days — especially the great Mexican food — I thought I would take a look at a beautiful Mexican art.

Barbara Campos writes at the Texas Observer, “On the back porch of his Southeast Austin home, Willy Baltazar displays a vibrant Día de los Muertos-style altar that honors more than just ancestors.

“Lined up are portraits of legends who have shaped Mexican culture and beyond: Vicente Fernández, Paquita la del Barrio, Frida Kahlo, Bob Marley, and Michael Jackson. Each icon is paired with a matching hand-carved wooden mask laid nearby — a living extension of Xantolo, a centuries-old spiritual festival from Veracruz’s La Huasteca region in coastal Mexico.

“This pop culture mash-up serves as a bridge between his Austin life and the native custom that still defines him.

“Baltazar was raised in Tantoyuca, Veracruz, known as the Pearl of the Huastecas, an area famous for preserving Nahua heritage and a main keeper of Xantolo. The three-day sacred festivity — with the liveliness of a carnival — starts in late October and blends Huastec rituals with Catholic practices to honor the dead. During what’s widely regarded as the region’s own version of Día de los Muertos, every home sets up an altar adorned with cempasúchil [marigold flowers], veladoras de santos [saint-etched candles], and ofrendas [food offerings]. The streets fill with the smell of incense and the sounds of  string instruments. Dancers in ceremonial masks parade through Tantoyuca to guide lost loved ones back to the world of the living.

“ ‘It’s not something you miss,’ Baltazar proudly recounts. ‘It completely transforms the town and runs through our blood.’

“Baltazar vividly remembers cuadrillas [dancing troupes] parading in brightly colored costumes with masks looming large as they moved rhythmically through every neighborhood. He was always captivated by la embarazada [the pregnant woman], el diablo [the devil], and el vaquero [the cowboy]. The three symbolic figures represent the fundamental cycle of human existence: birth, mortality, and the enduring human spirit. Troupe members embody this essence while maintaining a vow of anonymity. ‘You must never know who is behind the mask,’ Baltazar warns. 

“At the festival’s close, the entire town makes its way to the cemetery, where dancers honor those who have performed before them and undergo the destape, a public unmasking that reveals their identity.

“Children are encouraged to join the cuadrillas as early as age 3. Baltazar dreamed of participating, or at least owning a mask, but the elaborate costume regalia was beyond what his family could afford. Instead, he watched from the sidelines and promised himself that one day he’d be a part of it. When Baltazar moved to Texas more than 20 years ago, his priority shifted to starting a family and finding his footing in a city where he didn’t yet speak the language.

“Meanwhile, in Veracruz, rehearsals start as soon as the festival ends and continue year-round. Joining a cuadrilla comes with a seven-year cycle of mandatory dancing during Xantolo — otherwise attracting bad luck. Unable to commit to that rhythm from afar, he returned each October as an observer. ‘I felt like I was looking in from the outside,’ he recalls.

“That outsider’s view transformed in 2021. Determined to weave his Mexican customs with Austin’s cultural scene, he placed his first order of masks with an artisan in Veracruz. The two figures were not conventional subjects: Freddie Mercury and John Lennon, his two musical icons and the ultimate bridge to his heritage. …

“A mask can be made in a day, but high demand delayed the process for weeks. Baltazar drove 13 hours to his hometown to pick them up once they were ready — a 700-mile journey that was a turning point in his life. 

“Holding the finished creations, he realized he could keep expanding his collection beyond traditional designs. For a long time, he wasn’t sure if they would become an exhibition, a personal display, or something else entirely. Regardless, he collected them. Since, he’s picked them up in batches of five to 10 — now holding more than 70 pieces depicting Prince, Marilyn Monroe, Ray Charles, and Elvis Presley.

“Between trips, Baltazar calls his car a ‘mobile gallery.’ As a full-time Uber driver, he keeps a few masks displayed. ‘It always starts a conversation,’ he says. …

“Riders often take photos with the pieces, impressed by the lifelike detail, and have started requesting personalized ones of their loved ones who’ve passed away. ‘It’s like the tradition is adapting. Maybe they don’t know much about Xantolo, but honoring our ancestors is universal,’ he says. 

“The constant travel eventually led to investing in a dedicated van for his three to four annual trips. ‘Flying out would be easier, but they’re too fragile and I can’t risk them getting damaged in cargo,’ he notes. ‘It’s a sacrifice, but this is part of the preservation.’ ”

More at the Texas Observer, here.

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Museum Leader, 77, Slays with Gen Z Slang

April 28, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: National Gallery of Art.
Alison Luchs in a video posted to the National Gallery of Art’s Instagram page on Jan. 13. Her use of contemporary slang is bringing delight and welcome attention to the art collection.

Here’s something cute I’m reading as I fly home from California.

It goes without saying that if you want to draw in new audiences, it helps to speak their language. And if you’re a mature person speaking the language of youth, you may amuse and refresh old audiences at the same time.

Kyle Melnick reports at the Washington Post about the National Gallery of Art’s deputy head of sculpture success adding Gen Z slang to the many language she already speaks.

On Instagram in January, stepping behind a 16th-century urn, she began to describe it to the camera like this.

“ ‘Chat, I’m about to buss it down Roman Empire style,’ said Alison Luchs, 77. … ‘Haters will say this urn is mid, but they don’t know we’ve clocked its tea.’

“Luchs called the urn’s stone material ‘GOATED’ — meaning the greatest of all time — saying the urn was ‘high-key valuable’ and its colors ‘screamed big drip’ — meaning it was stylish. …

“Luchs’s videos — she made another one in December with a 16th-century plate — have worked. The videos have received a combined 8.7 million views on Instagram and thousands of comments from people who find Luchs’s descriptions funny, informative and relatable.

“ ‘From here on out this is the only way I’ll listen to guided tours,’ someone commented. ‘I’m coming to the museum just to meet her,’ another person wrote. ‘Honestly, she ate,’ a third person commented about Luchs, a Gen Z way to give high praise.

“The timing coincides with a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Gen Z comedian Marcello Hernández translates slang for Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost, a millennial. …

“Luchs, who has worked at the National Gallery of Art for 47 years, agreed to make the videos because she wanted to raise interest in the museum’s art. She never expected to slay. And based on the reaction to her videos, she has not ‘unalived‘ Gen Z slang like Jost did.

“ ‘She just has an effortless swag,’ said Sydni Myers, the museum’s senior manager of social media.

“Some highlights of Luchs’s career include helping set up exhibits for Italian Renaissance artists and writing a book about 15th-century Venice artwork of sea creatures. But over the summer, the museum’s social media team brainstormed an assignment for her.

“Myers, 31, wanted to reach young audiences while still offering insight into the gallery’s art. When she first asked her colleagues about a baby boomer describing art with Gen Z lingo, she said, they worried the video would be cringe.

As Myers thought about who could pull the video off with confidence, she said, Luchs came to mind. …. Myers caught Luchs as she was leaving a staff meeting and asked if she would record a video.

“ ‘Fine, as long as it brings attention to the collection,’ Myers recalled Luchs responding. Reflecting on that moment recently, Luchs said: ‘I’m not sure I knew what I was doing yet.’

“The social media team asked Luchs which artworks she found most fascinating. They then followed up with more questions — when the pieces were made, how they were made, who created them, what people used them for and how valuable they were.

“They landed on making a video about a 16th-century tin-glazed plate created by Italian ceramicist Orazio Pompei and used at lavish dinner parties. … When Luchs got the script, she searched the words’ definitions on the internet. She learned that a ‘rizzler‘ is someone who has charisma, ‘money-maxing sigmas’ refers to successful and rich people, and ‘aura points’ quantifies coolness.

“Luchs speaks five languages: English, French, Italian, and some German and Russian. She approached grasping Gen Z parlance like she was learning another language. [Mary King, the museum’s social media copywriter] coached Luchs in pronouncing the words.

“ ‘When I started at the National Gallery, I cannot say I anticipated that there would be a day where I’m sitting with a Word doc open in the office and I’m writing “rizzler,” ‘ said King, 25.

“Sitting beside King, Luchs laughed and added: ‘I love that word.’

“Luchs read the script over and over until she memorized it. Then last month, she stepped onto an 8-inch platform behind the plate with the help of a colleague who held her hand. A phone recorded her.

“ ‘Look how bro glazed it,’ Luchs said, pointing to the plate. ‘He went goblin mode with all these colors,’ referring to a behavior that is unapologetically self-indulgent.

“A few seconds later, Luchs described the woman on the plate: ‘Girly over here is freshly “yesified.” Off-camera, a colleague corrected her pronunciation. Luchs corrected herself a moment later: ‘Yassified’ — meaning to look very glamorous after a makeover. …

“On her first try, Luchs nailed the speech, finishing by saying: ‘Chat, would you bring this dish to the function, or is it chopped? Either way, “girly pop” is the moment, and she’s living rent-free in our heads and in the National Gallery of Art.’ …

“Luchs now weaves her new language into her daily life, her colleagues said, explaining that she recently sent an email to them saying she would be late because she was on ‘the chopped Metro’ — meaning it was not moving fast.”

More at the Post, here.

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California Is Different

April 27, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photos: John and Suzanne’s Mom.
I wish my bird-of-paradise house plant looked like this, but I know there’s no chance!

It’s not that I haven’t been to California before — quite a few times, in fact. For weddings, work conferences, friends. But now, visiting the brother who’s been dealing with some health challenges, I’m astonished all over again by how exotic and foreign it feels to this East Coast person. How amazing that both Massachusetts and California are part of the same country!

I’m not here for sightseeing and haven’t been taking walks in any of California’s beautiful parks, but I’m astonished by the loved and cared-for plants in all the parking lots around here. My plant-identification app is getting a workout.

Seriously. Imagine an otherwise ordinary parking lot that smells as sweet as the star jasmine below, perfuming the Trader Joe’s shopping center where we ate too much at a Mexican restaurant last night!

One thing I’m still hoping to photograph is something my sister-in-law mentioned — the flurry of little green parrots she often sees at dusk. Parrots! Really? Where I live, you could maybe see one lonely parrot if it had escaped from a cage.

Climbing beside the entrance to my hotel, is a charming fuzzy thing that my app tells me is a brush cherry. Who knew?

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An Excursion

April 26, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photos: Suzanne and John’s Mom.
My California brother and sister-in-law moved recently to a gorgeous apartment at Westmont assisted living in Cypress, California.

We don’t travel much these days. There are always going to be hassles, and if you don’t have to do it, why would you? Suzanne’s son makes persuasive arguments about why getting someplace cool is worth the hassles, but we remained unpersuaded even when his family spent five months in Stockholm, sending us frequent invitations.

But there are exceptions to everything.

My California brother has been having a rum time the last six months or so — a series of falls followed by two brain operations. Having not seen him in person for several years, I decided FaceTime was not enough. So here I am.

Suzanne, the veteran traveler, dealt with the logistics, and so far I have been almost hassle free.

Of course, there would have to be one technical thing, but I do try to embrace the occasional technical thing as a cognitive challenge for the aging brain. I managed to convince my fraud-anxious bank lady, despite all the background racket at Logan airport, that I had indeed reserved an Uber in distant California. I talked her down before the flight left Boston, so fortunately there was a car waiting when I got to Los Angeles. (The long flight with no real food was made bearable thanks to a nice Icelandic murder mystery.)

Although I don’t normally use a wheelchair, Suzanne made sure I got one in both airports. It’s a great way to travel as you skip a lot of lines and, even better, the attendants actually know where you’re supposed to go next. I’m sure I’d still be looking for my Uber at LAX if not for the wheelchair lady. Although I do walk fine, I am indeed an old gal who is known to get dizzy — and I look it.

So you may be hearing a bit about Southern California the next few days, where I’m having a lovely time and feeling dazzled by all the exotic foliage. Fingers crossed that my luck holds vis-à-vis hassles. I did forget to bring something, but I do that at home, too, so it doesn’t count.

The app says that this long hedge along a busy highway is cape honeysuckle.

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A Job Requiring a Great Sense of Smell

April 25, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Giorgio Peripoli/Shutterstock.
Brendola is in Italy’s Po River valley, an industrial area where residents frequently complain about the smell of pollution.

There was a period in my life when I traveled regularly from the Philadelphia area to Fire Island in New York State.

If I took anyone with me, somewhere around the crossover from New Jersey to New York, they would suddenly gasp and say, “Wow, what is that terrible smell?”

The answer was Elizabeth, New Jersey; the smell was courtesy of oil refineries. I used to keep a small bottle of perfume in the glove compartment for emergencies.

I mention this story today as I’m thinking about the array of jobs in the world for people with sensitive noses: perfumers, sommeliers, tea tasters, and flavor scientists, to name a few.

Now an Italian city plagued by air pollution is offering to pay people with sensitive noses for their assistance.

Angela Giuffrida writes at the Guardian, “An Italian town is seeking a crew of sniffers to identify bad smells in its quest to improve air quality.

“Bruno Beltrame, the mayor of Brendola, a small town in the northern province of Vicenza, said he began the recruitment campaign for six ‘odor evaluators’ after complaints about ‘unpleasant smells’ from people living in neighborhoods close to industrial zones.

“The main prerequisite for the role is not to suffer from allergies or respiratory diseases such as asthma. The recruits must have a car and a smartphone, which will be used to record the odor data on a dedicated app.

“Led by a firm specialising in odor measurement, they will be trained in how to distinguish between smells, for example, those typically emitted from factories or which originate from industrial waste or sewage.

“They will then be given the task of going to targeted areas to carry out sensory assessments. If an unsavoury smell is detected, they will spend time sniffing the air before recording their perceptions on the app. The ultimate goal of the initiative, which is expected to last six months, is to trace the origin of the odors.

“ ‘We did a similar investigation about five years ago in an industrial area close to where the bad smells are coming from now,’ said Beltrame. ‘From that, we were able to identify the companies emitting the odors.’ “

More at the Guardian, here. I can imagine college students who find this part-time gig amusing might end up in one of those unusual careers one occasionally reads about.

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Army Veteran, 100, Donates Liver

April 24, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo Live On Nebraska.
If your liver is healthy, it is suited for organ donation no matter how old. Dale Steele’s was donated when he died at 100.

Are you signed up for organ donation on your driver’s license? Although I’ve been registered practically since I learned to drive, I was surprised to learn that my liver could be used even now that I’m pretty old. Apparently that has to do with the way a normal healthy liver keeps renewing itself.

Ramon Antonio Vargas wrote recently at the Guardian about a man who, after a life of service to the country, was considered a suitable donor even when he died at age 100.

“After spending some of his prime years aiding German concentration camp survivors and guarding Nazi leaders tried for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg, a US second world war veteran is now believed to have become his country’s oldest known organ donor.

“The story of 100-year-old Dale Steele, who died in February after a head injury led to his being placed on life support, demonstrates how donors’ health is a more important consideration than how old they are, according to Live On Nebraska, an organ-procurement organization in his home state.

“ ‘Mr Steele … is a powerful reminder that generosity has no age limit,’ Live On Nebraska’s president and CEO, Kyle Herber, said in a statement.

“As Herber’s organization put it, after graduating high school and being selected in the military draft, Steele served in France, Germany, Belgium and Czechoslovakia toward the conclusion of the second world war. His duties involved seeking out remnants of the Nazi army and helping survivors of German concentration camps return home.

“Live On Nebraska detailed how Steele subsequently earned a promotion to staff sergeant and was assigned to guard imprisoned defendants at the Nuremberg trials. …

“He eventually went home to Bassett, Nebraska. … Steele supported his family raising cattle at their ranch, managing a farming cooperative and then selling equipment for irrigation and handling grain.

‘Your liver is about three years old; my liver is about three years old.’

“Steele sustained a head injury in February and ended up on life support, his son, Roger, told the Nebraska broadcast news outlet KMTV. Roger Steele described how Live On Nebraska at that point called him and said: ‘We’d like your dad to donate his liver.’

“Roger Steele said he was shocked at the request and replied: ‘He’s over 100 years old.’ But Dr Lee Morrow, Live On Nebraska’s chief medical officer, explained to KMTV that donors’ livers – no matter their age – are in essence only a few years old if healthy because that particular organ has the unique ability to renew its cells throughout a lifetime. …

“Roger Steele credited his father’s longevity and health to the physical labor he performed throughout his life, KMTV noted. He added that a staple of Dale Steele’s diet was vegetables from his own garden. …

“The Nebraska Medicine – Nebraska Medical Center recovered Dale Steele’s liver. It was successfully transplanted a day later, with Live On Nebraska saying that procedure had provided ‘new life to a grateful recipient.’ …

” ‘Dale was always very helpful and considerate of everyone around him – friends and strangers alike,’ Scott Steele’s statement said. ‘We believe he would do just about anything he could for someone in need.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Writing with Light

April 23, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Karim Jabbari.
Karim Jabbari uses long-exposure photography to capture words written with handheld lights. 

There’s an amazing kind of calligraphy that involves writing with light. For Karim Jabbari, it started as a way to connect with his heritage.

Alissa Greenberg reports at the Nova Newsletter (PBS), “Karim Jabbari still remembers how painful it was to walk down the street with his family as a child and see his neighbors turn away. ‘No one was willing to talk to us in public,’ he says. Jabbari’s father was a political prisoner, an activist and ‘public enemy’ of the dictatorship that then ruled Tunisia. …

“Ten-year-old Jabbari, lonely and missing his father, looked for other ways to fill his time. What he found was his father’s trove of 400-year-old religious texts, inherited from an ancestor who had been a renowned scholar of Islam. The books were written in an old form of North African calligraphy known as Maghrebi script. ‘It’s an art form that speaks to your soul, even if you don’t understand the message. … I saw my father, his smile.’

“Before long, he was obsessed, copying what he saw in the books over and over until the arcs and lines settled into his muscles. That obsession only grew once he left his hometown of Kasserine to go to boarding school, and his new skill attracted friends—the one thing he’d never had.

“Today, Jabbari, now 42, is a full-time artist based in Canada and the U.S., using murals, graffiti, and specialized technology to bring traditional Arabic calligraphy to an international audience. He worries that a craft that prizes meditative concentration and lengthy training will be lost in an era so focused on agility and speed. …

“Calligraphy—and calligraphers—have resisted new technologies for centuries. For starters, Arabic and its sibling, Persian, used non-Latin alphabets that made them difficult to adapt for use in printing technology developed in the West, says Behrooz Parhami, an engineer who has studied how Arabic and Persian scripts have evolved alongside technology. Physical typefaces built for Persian and Arabic’s connected letters are more fragile, prone to chipping and cracking. And if they aren’t perfectly made, white spaces appear between letters that shouldn’t be there.

“The scripts also included letters with elements stacked on top of neighboring letters, which was impossible to recreate using the separate blocks of moveable type. And they varied in height and width much more than Latin characters, meaning that the common printing practice of adjusting typefaces to make letters about the same size would render words illegible. …

“It therefore makes sense that in Persia and the Arab world, words simply remained handwritten for centuries longer than in Europe, Parhami says. … Still, Parhami attributes this delay not just to the technical challenges but also to the hallowed role of the written word in these societies. In the Arab world, calligraphy provided an intimate connection to God through handwritten copying of the Quran and other religious texts. …

” ‘You can be a beautiful, amazing, well-known, traditional calligraphy artist, but your art isn’t speaking to the younger generations,’ [Jabbari] says. Refusing to try new things or embrace new technology leaves young people out, he argues, and puts the entire tradition at risk. ‘ “Your art is dying with you,” I said to them. I have nothing but respect for you, but I’m taking calligraphy to the streets.’

“Although Jabbari also paints murals that incorporate written elements, ‘taking calligraphy to the streets’ usually means light painting: a combination of long-exposure photography and perfectly calibrated movements of a handheld light that captures the loops and swirls of Maghrebi Arabic in thin air. In 2011, after Jabbari’s uncle was shot and killed along with 28 other young men during the beginning of the Arab Spring, he returned to Kasserine to do just such a performance piece. ‘I wanted to write his name in light painting, the same place where he died,’ he says. After he finished honoring his uncle, he gave other families in the area the opportunity to do the same, allowing them to write their loved ones’ names in space—a fleeting memorial fixed on film.

“Light calligraphy is a challenging medium. ‘You need to know the limits of the camera, what space it’s covering,’ he says. ‘You have all of that space to explore, so you end up using your body as reference: making a line at chest level, or one at hip level.’ …

“Jabbari has collaborated with dancers and musicians. … He recently hired two software developers to create a program that projects his movements in short near-real-time loops onto skyscrapers, a kind of ephemeral graffiti. …

“Calligraphy has taught him that ‘we are the sum of all the knowledge our ancestors transmitted to one another,’ he says. That’s how the art of calligraphy has been passed down—from master to student, who then becomes the next master—and also what calligraphy was for: recording history and wisdom to be shared with the next generation.

“Jabbari hopes his work will inspire the traditionalists to try out something new and the modernists to remember the value of tradition, reminding them what writing can be: a form of escape, an adventure in memory.”

More at PBS, here. Gorgeous photos.

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A Joyous Clown Convention in Boston

April 22, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: John Tlumacki/Globe Staff.
Pencilito the Clown, aka Luis Myorga from Guatemala (right), leads a group of clowns as they romp around the lobby at Boston’s Revere Hotel.

Today’s story about a clown convention has made me think how many different roles clowns have served through the ages. There have been court jesters who entertained kings by making them laugh or knocking them down a peg with impunity. There have been clowns that served religious purposes. In fact, I have a brother who worked as a clown at his church for many years.

From an early March Boston Globe feature by Claire Thornton we learn that professional clowns from around the world recently “gathered for the World Clown Association’s annual convention, dubbed the ‘greatest clown confab on Earth.’

“More than 150 professional clowns converged Wednesday at the Revere Hotel on Stuart Street, where they attended workshops on everything from balloon art to puppeteering to make-up application. While the lectures were invariably interrupted by the sounds of clucking rubber chickens, honking horns, and guffaws, the gathering was no laughing matter.

“The five-day convention, which continues through Friday, has drawn attendees from around New England and the world. Renowned instructors and performers, including former Ringling Bros. circus clowns, have put the focus on traditional comedic and circus clowning.

“ ‘Our goal is to put smiles on people’s faces,’ said 79-year-old incoming WCA president Louise Carnesale, a former New York state government administrator who performs as ‘Lulu the Clown’ in Alabama and Florida.

“Though some circuses have struggled in recent years (Ringling Bros. folded up its tent in 2017 before restarting in 2023), groups like the WCA continue to find new avenues for clowning, attendees said. But whether they work under a big top or not, conference attendees said they remain inspired by clowning greats like Charlie Chaplin, not to mention memorable characters from The Carol Burnett Show and elsewhere back in the 1970s.

“Many attendees had backgrounds in nursing, social work, or the military. Their prior jobs, which often required tackling tough issues in staid professional settings, led them to clowning, because the craft allows them to spread joy, they said.

“ ‘I really found a need for it,’ said Carnesale, who was working at the Twin Towers in New York when the Sept. 11 terror attacks happened in 2001. …

“During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Carnesale focused on performing for families who were struggling while separated from loved ones. …

“Not all clowns are beloved, of course. Pennywise, the terrifying killer clown in Stephen King’s It, Twisty from American Horror Story … have left more than one viewer with a paralyzing fear of clowns. (There’s even a name for the condition: Coulrophobia.)

“But people’s negative feelings don’t stem from traditional, comedic clowning, which takes place at parades and in hospital settings where patients benefit from the humor, said Bridgit Bruce, of New Bedford. … Bruce attended her first WCA conference this week, arriving via commuter rail in full costume, including oversized shoes. …

“Bruce was inspired to attend the convention after taking a clowning course with Elaine ‘Daisy D. Dots’ Vercellone, who has performed in a Disney World parade and studied with New York City’s Big Apple Circus clowns.

“Vercellone grew up writing and performing marionette shows for her family and at school.

“In 1987, when her 6-year-old son was undergoing monthslong treatment for leukemia, he asked his mom to dress up as a clown for the hospital’s Halloween party. After buying her first clown costume from Sears for $20, she’s been clowning, and teaching others, ever since, she said.

“ ‘It’s really important to me, not only for the kid patients, but for the families,’ Vercellone said. ‘You take their mind off the hospital for a few minutes.’ …

“Attendees described their role as roving theatrical performers, and said they thrive on connecting with impromptu audiences and seeing people’s reactions to skits. …

“Competitors traveled from as far away as Malaysia, Japan, Guatemala, and Mexico, according to Carnesale.

“In the Boston-area clown community, many professionals perform for patients at Shriners Children’s hospital, and their nonprofit clowning group is a hub for teaching, said 55-year-old Jami Schultz. Professional clowns go through background checks and other safety precautions before performing for children, she said.

“ ‘Charity clowning, you’re not doing it to make money, you’re just doing it for the love of the kids,’ said Schultz, who lives in Natick and works in wealth management.”

More at the Globe, here, with photos that will make you smile.

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Ice Dancer Gets Inside the Music

April 21, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Doug Mills/New York Times.
Champion figure skater Alysa Liu says, “I know every beat, I know every lyric. My body feels it.”

Imagine retiring at 16! That is what champion US figure skater Alysa Liu did, realizing the training had eaten up her childhood. Then she discovered there were things she had loved about it all and decided to compete again but speak up about changes that need to be made.

Gia Kourlas dance critic of the New York Times, interviewed her in Milan.

“Alysa Liu, the effervescent figure skater who won gold at the 2026 Olympic Games, moves like a dancer,” writes Kourlas. “She’s studied many forms of dance over the years — flamenco, tutting, ballroom, contemporary, modern contemporary, ballet and, her favorite, hip-hop, for which she still takes classes at an Oakland studio with her friends. ‘Hip-hop style doesn’t really go on the ice, funny enough.’ …

“But Liu’s full-body approach to skating, rooted in a plush, pliant plié, isn’t such a stretch from that expressive, highly rhythmic dance form. While many skaters glide on top of the music, she lives inside of it, showing — in her spontaneous, joyful way — a deeper sense of inner life.

“That much was clear during her performances at the Milan-Cortina Games. Liu, 20, who had retired at 16 before returning to the sport two years later, entered a flow state in her electrifying free skate set to the disco of Donna Summer; the audience was pin-drop silent during her soulfully quiet short program to Laufey’s pop-inflected jazz; and she leaned into the hyperpop of PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson in an exhibition performance. Liu becomes, for each, an extension of their voices.

“ ‘The music allows me to get there, which is why it’s so important I skate to music I like,’ she said. …

“She talked about her approach to performing, the role of music and modernizing the sport. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Gia Kourlas
“What did you tell yourself before you started your free skate?

Alysa Liu
“I visualize my entire program multiple times before I do it, but I also visualize the patterns of my breathing. I practice my breath while envisioning the program. … We really value musicality. We’ll edit the music to match the jump sometimes. If I don’t have enough time to get from point A to point B — to land a jump on the crash or something, we will add in more music just so that I can. I think all my jumps have a timing for all of it. I don’t miss a step. For me, the music carries my body. It tells me what to do. Even though it’s all planned, it’s just so natural. Like I wouldn’t be moving any other way.

Kourlas
“Do you think of skating as dancing on the ice?

Liu
“Yeah. Although, I will say figure skating does not artistically satisfy me. I’m really big into photography because that does satisfy my creative. And then I have to keep dancing off ice because there’s some things on ice you can’t do when you’re wearing your skates. So it’s not enough for me, artistically. Athletically, it is enough. Like I can really push myself. Dance, I can do anything and everything. …

Kourlas
“Do you think about how you will influence skating?

Liu
“You know, it’s actually been a really deep struggle in whether I want skating to be big or not. … I’m glad for it. I wouldn’t change my childhood at all. But I feel like no child should go through that. Figure skating can be so hard and the parents that put their kids into skating — sometimes they get so into it. Sometimes it’s not toxic, but it usually is — especially at the top. Most skaters have had bad experiences.

Kourlas
“There’s so much discussion around body image in dance. How did you deal with yours as a skater?

Liu
“Took a long time, actually. Years. I got a sports psychologist. I had it bad from when I was a little kid until when I quit skating — not even. It took another year. I would say 17 or 18. … The work culture, the training culture. It was crazy. I had not a day off. I would not want any kid to not have a day off. … Things gotta change, 100 percent. I think the whole system’s got to scrap it and start over. The competition system and the setup just isn’t fit for consumption, honestly, because the competitions are too long, no one can sit through and watch all that. …

Kourlas
“You retired from skating at 16, and it was after a skiing trip — your first time — that you decided you wanted to return. Did you figure out that you missed the glide?

Liu
“That’s what it was! It’s the glide. You can’t get that anywhere. Roller coasters, you go fast and they’re smooth, but that’s not glide. I love gliding. Ah! … It’s because you’re on a blade that’s so thin. It feels so whimsical and ethereal. When I went skiing, I felt it. I glided for the first time since I quit, and I was like whoa. … I disliked a lot of things in my life, but that gave me clarity. I was grateful because I realized, well, I really don’t like [parts of skating]. I don’t like being away from my family for years. I hate feeling lonely, and I don’t like not being with my friends. [Nowadays] there are so many new ways I can express myself. …

“I really love the feeling of fight and I think for me, I don’t want life to be [flat]. I want ups and downs. I want to experience all the emotions, and sport is so intense. You can feel such extreme emotions, and I think that’s beautiful. It’s hard to find that in your life.”

More at the Times, here.

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