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Fighting Parkinson’s Disease with Tango

May 18, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Magalí Druscovich.
Manuel Firmani, center left, is a professional tango dancer who leads the Parkinson’s tango workshops in Argentina, along with Veronica Litvak, center right.

Where I live now, a few residents have Parkinson’s Disease. It’s a rough diagnosis, but there is lots of physical therapy available from trained professionals. I’m going to check if they have ever used tango. As today’s article suggests, tango can work wonders with patients.

Pam Belluck writes at the New York Times, “Tango is the national dance of Argentina, known for its passion, precision and heart. In a hospital in Buenos Aires, it has another purpose: as a therapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Once a week, about a dozen patients come to Ramos Mejía Hospital to dance — a session that uses the movements of tango to help address issues of balance, stiffness and coordination. The goal is to give them approaches to movement that they can use in their daily lives, as well as a social and emotional boost from moving to music.

“The program began about 15 years ago, inspired by a patient who had danced tango since childhood and found it offered strategies that improved her mobility and gait problems, said Dr. Nélida Garretto, a neurologist who helped spearhead the sessions.

“Dr. Tomoko Arakaki, another neurologist leading the program, said Parkinson’s patients can struggle with the stop-and-start motions of walking and can benefit from practicing the slow, short steps’ and pauses of tango. Dr. Garretto said that because tango involves ‘multitasking with motor stimuli, visual stimuli and auditory stimuli,’ it can help patients execute the series of small movements in everyday activities.

“First, warm-up exercises, usually in a circle, ‘try to tune everyone in, to prepare the body, to awaken the body,’ said Manuel Firmani, a professional tango dancer leading the workshops. Some are done standing, some seated, depending on ‘the state people are in,’ he said. …

“After exercises focusing on posture, balance and other skills, dancing begins. Each patient is paired with a partner who doesn’t have Parkinson’s, often friends, relatives or volunteers.

“Dance therapy is used for other medical conditions, including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. Débora Rabinovich, a psychologist and researcher who helped create the Argentine program, said her research has found that ‘tango uses the same kind of movements that people with Parkinson’s disease tend to lose.’ …

“Some tango steps seem especially helpful. The sanguchito, or ‘sandwich,’ a classic move in which one dancer’s foot slides between the partner’s feet and pauses, offers Parkinson’s patients clear cues to guide their bodies, Dr. Rabinovich said.

“ ‘Another fundamental tango element is shifting weight from one foot to the other’ said Mr. Firmani, who encourages patients to use that move for activities like stepping up on curbs or entering doorways. He said that the sidestep in tango could help with opening a refrigerator, and that ‘torso rotation’ could apply to pivoting while washing dishes. …

“Sometimes, patients who came to class using canes gain such confidence that they leave without their canes.

“Liliana Garay, 59, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s two decades ago and started the program in 2011, with no tango-dancing experience. She said it has helped her stiffness and with weakness she feels when her medication’s effect ebbs. At home, when symptoms arise, she practices an eight-step tango movement, pivoting her feet to trace ‘the number eight on the floor, like the infinity symbol.’

“When she freezes and gets stuck while bending to pick up something, she will breathe and move her leg backward, sideways and forward, as they do in tango class. ‘That helps the stiffness pass, and I can walk again,’ she said. …

“There are other tango therapy programs for Parkinson’s patients, including in the United States. The Buenos Aires program, which has served about 100 patients, draws on the social and cultural significance of tango in Argentina, focusing on classic moves and music that resonates with the patients, Dr. Rabinovich said.

“That connection gives participants an emotional boost. ‘For people who have a sense that their bodies are kind of betraying them, it gives you the possibility to feel your body in a completely different way,’ she said. ‘You can be barely moving, but you feel like you danced.’

“For Ms. Garay, who travels a long distance on public transportation to get to the workshop, its benefits are so powerful that she has started tango parties, or milongas, in her town, Ciudadela. …

“The experience is transformative, she finds. ‘People come in wheelchairs, with crutches, and we all dance, and an amazing atmosphere is created,’ she said. When the class ends, she feels different.

“ ‘Tango, for me,’ she said, ‘is health.’ ”

More at the Times, here.

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Cuban Choreographer Perseveres

May 17, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP.
Choreographer Juan Miguel Mas leads an outdoor performance by his young dancers in a neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Saturday, May 9, 2026.

“Embrace Your Place.” That’s a saying Erik has on a sweatshirt from a New Shoreham nature fundraiser, but it’s a good piece of advice for anyone to cherish and protect where they live.

In Cuba, an internationally acclaimed choreographer is committed to the children of his Place although he could escape to anywhere in the world at this dark time for Cuba — and many others in his profession already have.

Andrea Rodríguez writes at AP, “For nearly three decades, performances by Cuba’s Danza Voluminosa regularly filled prestigious venues like the 2,000-seat National Theater. Directed by Juan Miguel Mas, the troupe pioneered a new movement by working exclusively with larger-bodied dancers — a creative process that was captured in a Canadian documentary.

“Today, the 60-year-old dancer and choreographer from Havana is far from the big stages where he once thrived and rehearsed alongside professional artists. Instead, he spends his days conducting dance workshops and classes for children and coordinating performances within his community.

“Like many Cubans navigating one of the island’s worst economic crises in decades, Mas’ daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.

“But for artists like him, the situation is a little worse, compounded by the cancellation of shows, a lack of production budgets and a mass exodus from the cultural sector. In fact, he was recently notified that his teaching contract with the National Theater of Cuba has been suspended.

” ‘The outlook for the arts is complex and bleak,’ said essayist and arts journalist Michel Hernández. He noted that Cuba’s cultural spaces — once affordable and state-run — have deteriorated significantly, leaving artists with few venues beyond a handful of expensive private spaces.

“Yet, Mas won’t give up.

“ ‘I am very interested in staying in Cuba,’ he told the Associated Press on a recent Saturday as he prepared for a rehearsal with children from a nearby community. ‘Were I to emigrate, I would lose contact with that “Cubanness” that exists here, with the audience, the people, the folks next door.’

“Born in Havana in 1965, Mas trained as a dancer and choreographer under the tutelage of Laura Alonso, a renowned ballerina, and Ramiro Guerra, the father of contemporary dance on the island. He also studied with the Cuban-American dancer and choreographer Lorna Burdsall, who encouraged him to persevere despite the discrimination he faced from dance schools because he weighed 160 kilograms (352 pounds).

“He made his debut in 1996 with his own company, Danza Voluminosa (or Voluminous Dance), which remained active until 2024 and provided a home for dancers whose bodies diverged significantly from the industry’s prevailing aesthetic norms. He also worked as an actor and in 2025 he starred in Cherri, a fictional film based on his own life experiences.

“These days, to supplement the modest income he makes working with children, Mas leases a small area of his home for business use and hosts weekend garage sales featuring curated recycled clothing, tableware and household goods.

“Since his sister and teenage nephew relocated to Spain last year, he has lived alone and managed his expenses by shopping at a local farmers’ market just two blocks away. Conveniently, he also accesses subsidized medications at a state-run pharmacy directly across the street.

“On a recent morning, water bottle in hand to ward off the heat, Mas walked six blocks to the lively Marianao district, where a crowd of 30 children and their mothers awaited his arrival.

“The group suddenly transformed a street corner into a stage and for a full 90 minutes, the air filled with music as the little ones performed their songs and showed off their dance moves dressed as bees and other colorful characters. …

“ ‘It’s about bringing the knowledge of art to these children and lifting them out of a reality defined by conflict,’ he said.”

More at AP, here.

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The History of “Hello”

May 16, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Kamal Alkhatib via Unsplash.
Saying hello.

Part of the fun of blogging, for me, is figuring out what photo should go with the featured article. Most of the time, I choose the one that comes with the article, but today, I decided to see what the website Unsplash had to offer. I like the “hello” picture above, and I like giving the photographer credit on social media.

The story, by Jonathan Wells at the BBC, tells us more than we ever imagined about the word “hello.”

“It’s been 200 years since the word ‘hello’ was first used in print – though its beginnings date back to the 15th Century. How has the language of greetings evolved around the world — and what does it tell us about ourselves?

“We use ‘hello’ dozens of times a day without thinking – during phone calls, emails and face-to-face encounters. We sing it along with Adele and Lionel Richie, and we have watched it spun into moments of screen gold in Jerry Maguire (‘You had me at hello’), and Scarface (‘Say hello to my little friend!’). It’s been used to sell everything from mobile phones (Motorola’s ‘Hello, Moto’) to lingerie (Wonderbra’s iconic ‘Hello boys’), and it has been borrowed to name computer programs and celebrity magazines. …

“Two centuries ago, on 18 January 1826, ‘hello’ made what is thought to be its earliest recorded appearance on the page, in a Connecticut newspaper called the Norwich Courier. …

“By the 1850s, it had crossed the Atlantic to Britain – appearing in publications such as the London Literary Gazette – and became increasingly common in print. Like the go-to greetings in other languages, ‘hello’ also says something about the English-speaking world – depending on which variation, abbreviation or inflection of the word we choose to use. …

“Whether due to dialect or accent influences, or the brevity demanded by online communication, which ‘hello’ you choose says a lot about you, and can indicate age, nationality, or even mood. According to linguists, elongated variations such as ‘heyyy’ could be construed as flirtatious, ‘hellaw’ might suggest you’re from the southern US, ‘howdy’ from western US, and the clipped ‘hi’ may indicate a curt disposition. …

” ‘These subtle intonational contours can change its meaning,’ says Alessandro Duranti, professor of linguistic anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. ‘For example, when someone says “hello” with a stretched final vowel, it can question what the other person just said, as in “Hello, are you paying attention?” or “Hello, you must be kidding.” ‘

“This capacity to convey nuance through tone and form is no modern invention; even in its first printed appearances, ‘hello’ was a patchwork of influences, derivations and applications drawn from several languages.

“The pre-printed origins of the word ‘hello’ are disputed. The most commonly cited etymology is the Old High German ‘halâ’ – a cry historically used to hail a ferryman. The Oxford English Dictionary also points to ‘halloo’ (a hunting call that urged hounds to run faster) as a possible linguistic root. It notes several early spellings, including ‘hullo,’ ‘hillo’ and ‘holla’ – the latter thought to have derived from the 15th-Century French ‘hol,’ an exclamation meaning ‘whoa!’ or ‘stop!’ In English sources, the OED lists the earliest form as the late-16th-Century ‘hollo.’

“Simon Horobin, professor of English language and literature at Magdelen College, Oxford, notes that such semantic shifts and spelling changes may also be explained by regional accents and differences in pronunciation. … ‘But for origins and early history,’ he adds, ‘we are dependent upon written evidence, which is patchy at the best of times. For a colloquial word like this, which would have appeared much earlier and more frequently in speech than in writing, it is especially tricky to establish a definite timeline.’ “

More at the BBC, here. And just for fun, read what British people mean by the word “sorry,” here.

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Long Covid Patients Learn from Opera

May 15, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: English National Opera [ENO].
Participants in an ENO Breathe live Zoom session.

An incurable disease from mouse droppings may be hogging the headlines right now, but don’t forget that we’re still figuring out how to treat Covid — especially “long Covid.” (See the Harvard Gazette on recent long Covid research, here.)

Today’s story shows how different fields can learn from one another. Just to go to work, opera singers, for example, needed to overcome Covid-generated breathing challenges. Today they are sharing what the’ve learned.

Hattie Fisk writes at the Stage, “English National Opera’s program to support people suffering from long-Covid continues to deliver clinically measurable improvements, according to a new study.

“ENO Breathe is a free, live six-week online course developed in collaboration with clinicians from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and uses singing techniques with a particular focus on lullabies from around the world. It was initially developed in 2020 to support people recovering from Covid-19.

“Supporting more than 4,829 participants since its launch in September 2020, the program has expanded to take referrals from 85 NHS partners nationally.

“Published in the Lancet Digital Health, a new study looked at 1,438 of these participants and found that 80% reported improved levels of breathlessness, with 61% having achieved clinically important improvements in breathlessness. 

“Of the participants, 87% said that it had a positive impact on their general well-being and 73% reported improved anxiety levels.

“These findings build on earlier data published in April 2022 from the program’s initial randomized controlled trial and provide evidence for potential further integration of the program in NHS services, the study said.

“Recent participant of ENO Breathe Janardhan Rao called the program ‘transformational.’

“He said: ‘As a doctor who contracted Covid-19 early on, in my line of work, the lasting effects of the disease have been devastating. I had to stop working as I had real difficulty catching my breath. I could not speak for any length of time and was continuously exhausted. … I was breathless all the time, but with the weekly program of mindful breathing exercises and simple lullabies, I found that I could speak in sentences again. As my breathing improved, I found that I had the energy to go back to work. I am so grateful for this program,’ he continued.

“Beth Warnock, ENO director of Engage, added: ‘Research such as this continues to show the powerful role the arts can play in healthcare, particularly when delivered in close partnership with clinicians. We are incredibly grateful to our partners at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust for their expertise and collaboration in both developing and rigorously evaluating ENO Breathe. Building on this evidence, we now look forward to expanding ENO Breathe further to support people living with COPD and asthma.’ “

More at the Stage, here.

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The Life of an Art Detective

May 14, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Rebecca Rosman for NPR.
For 20 years, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand has acted as an intermediary between the police and people who know where stolen artwork might be hidden.

Is there one thing that makes someone successful at recovering stolen art?

According to today’s article about Arthur Brand, the secret might be motive. You can’t get both police and thieves to trust you if you are in it for the money. Arthur Brand is in it to save art.

Rebecca Rosman reports from Amsterdam for National Public Radio (NPR), “In his modest IKEA-furnished apartment, Arthur Brand paces to distract himself.

” ‘I’m nervous,'”‘ he says, with the honesty of a man who has learned that bravado is useless in his line of work. He lights a cigarette, leans out the window, and scans the street below. ‘The waiting is the hardest part.’

“Brand, 56, has made a career out of waiting: for a phone call, a knock at the door, and, every once in a blue moon, a Picasso or a Van Gogh left discreetly on his doorstep.

” ‘Those are the moments you realize it’s worth it,’ he says. …

“In another life, Brand says, he’ll take his mother’s advice and ‘find a normal job.’ But in this one, he’s helped recover stolen art for two decades — often the cases police can’t solve alone. …

“He says he has recovered more than 150 stolen paintings and artifacts. His cases regularly make international headlines.

“There’s the stolen Van Gogh that showed up on his doorstep in 2023, stuffed into a blood-soaked pillow in a blue IKEA bag. The Salvador Dali painting he recovered in 2016. The Picasso he tracked down for a Saudi sheikh in 2019. …

” ‘You know, you cannot go to university and say, I want to become an art detective,’ Brand says. ‘This is a job created more or less out of lack of other opportunities.’

“He traces his entry point to Michel van Rijn, a notorious Dutch figure in the art underworld who introduced [him] to a shadowy ecosystem of smugglers, thieves and forgers — and law enforcement.

“After making a cold call to van Rijn’s office, Brand says he became his apprentice in London — which regularly involved sitting quietly in a corner while older men swapped stories. ‘Everybody thought — who is this idiot?’ he says.

“Van Rijn, Brand later discovered, was straddling two sides. In 2009, he walked away after learning his boss was working with police while still keeping ‘one leg’ in the criminal world.

“The experience left him with a simple rule for survival: In a world where people expect betrayal, being honest — and keeping your word — is its own form of power. …

” ‘The police don’t trust the informants. The informants don’t trust the police. So I want to form a bridge between them to see what can be done. And in most cases, it’s possible.’

“The bridge only holds if Brand is seen as independent. ‘I’m not hired by an insurance company,’ he says. ‘The police, of course, don’t pay me. So I do this work [at my own expense].’

“He supports himself by consulting for art galleries and helping Jewish families trace art looted during World War II. But the majority of his energy goes to the work he does on his own dime — acting as a go-between when someone wants to quietly unload a masterpiece they can’t keep.

“Stolen masterpieces, he says, are hard to enjoy and even harder to sell. ‘Who buys stolen art? You cannot show it to your friends. You cannot leave it to your children. ‘

“Dutch police say Brand’s motive matters. Richard Bronswijk, who heads the Dutch police art crime unit, says he’s seen private detectives create problems when money is the driver. … Brand, he points out, has always been driven by something else: the thrill of the chase. …

“Still, sometimes Brand’s trust isn’t enough on its own. When an informant is deciding whether to return stolen art, Brand says fear can take over … of the police, of retaliation, of being tricked.

“That’s when he calls in his ace — Octave Durham.

“In 2002, Durham, already a seasoned bank robber, stole two Van Gogh paintings from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. … ‘I’m a born burglar,’ adding he doesn’t steal anymore but ‘still can.’

“Today, he works with Brand to recover stolen art.”

At NPR, here, you can read how that partnership led to the moment Brand “opened his door and found a blue IKEA bag on his doorstep” with a pillow soaked in blood and a missing Van Gogh.

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Conservation Helps Butterflies

May 13, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Marco Ugarte/AP.
Every fall, millions of the butterflies travel nearly 3,000 miles from Canada, across the US and finally to western Mexico. :

Can I give up avocados? Will it make a dent in the loss of butterfly habitat in Mexico?

Well, I have cut back of what I buy in the supermarket, but so far, if you buy it, I’ll eat it. Not much of an activist, am I?

Oscar Lopez at the Guardian explains what’s happening in Mexico.

“The population of monarch butterflies in Mexico increased 64% this winter, compared with the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect considered at risk of extinction.

“The figures, released [in March] by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, showed that the area occupied by monarchs expanded to 2.93 hectares (7.24 acres) of forest from 1.79 hectares (4.42 acres) the previous winter, the largest coverage since 2018.

“ ‘The monarch butterfly is the symbol of the trilateral relationship between Mexico, the United States and Canada,’ Mexican environment minister Alicia Bárcena Ibarra said at a news conference. … ‘Its conservation is a collective commitment we must maintain for the future.’

“Every fall, tens of millions of the butterflies travel nearly 3,000 miles from Canada, across the US and finally to the forests of western Mexico. There, the orange insects cover entire trees and flutter through the air in spectacular fashion.

“But a combination of habitat loss from deforestation, climate crisis and the use of herbicides has seen their numbers plummet over the last 30 years.

“In the US, the increasing use of herbicides like glyphosate and dicamba has seen the amount of milkweed, the only plant that monarch caterpillars can eat, drop considerably, with butterfly numbers also plummeting as a result. …

“In Mexico, the spread of avocado farming in the state of Michoacán has seen vast swaths of forest lost to illegal logging, driven partly by organized crime groups who have infiltrated the highly profitable avocado trade.

“Compared with a peak of nearly 18.21 hectares (45 acres) in the winter of 1995, the area covered by monarchs in Mexico today is just a sliver, and well below the 6.07 hectares (15 acres) that scientists say are necessary for the species’ survival.

“The involvement of cartels in logging has at times become deadly: in 2020, Homero Gómez González, one of the best-known monarch butterfly conservators in Mexico, was found dead, with his family suspecting he was murdered by organized crime groups intent on clearing the monarch’s habitat.

“Still, conservation efforts have slowed logging in recent years: from a peak of nearly 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of forest in 2003-2004, just 2.55 hectares (6.3 acres) between February 2024 and February 2025 were affected.

“ ‘One of the greatest achievements of this work is that illegal logging in the core zone of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve has been virtually eradicated since 2008,’ María José Villanueva, WWF Mexico’s director, told reporters. ‘This means that the forests that represent the fundamental habitat for the monarch butterfly’s hibernation are being protected and conserved.’ ” More at the Guardian, here.

You know, in terms of making a dent, one thing that seems to have changed for good, at least in my area, is property owners’ hostility to milkweed. I know this didn’t happen overnight, but it really seems like overnight milkweed is actually featured in flower gardens and front-yard landscaping.

Anther hopeful example of a lot individuals doing a little.

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Indigenous Hoop Dancing

May 12, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican.
Josiah Enriquez, three-time world champion hoop dancer, dances during one of his weekly practice sessions in Pojoaque.

I heard of hoop dancing in the past but didn’t know much about it. Today’s article helps fill that gap for me. At least I now know hoop dancing is nothing like the hula hoop craze. It’s more about healing.

Cormac Dodd writes at the New Mexican, “Josiah Enriquez’s moccasins etched rapid, intricate patterns in the sand as he danced at the end of a dirt road, a portable speaker offering up powwow songs amid the juniper.

“Although he stirs crowds around the U.S. with peerless performances of contemporary hoop dancing, this rural arena has long been the spot where Enriquez, 23, toils and trains with a devotion not unlike that of a professional athlete. He is seen now as the nation’s foremost hoop dancer.

“His face revealed utter absorption on a recent day as he controlled a red hoop rapidly circling his arm.

“ ‘It’s a beautiful dance,’ he said, almost breathless after a long dance. ‘I don’t know where I would be without it.’

“Enriquez (Pojoaque and Isleta pueblos, Navajo Nation) has been distinguishing himself on what is widely considered to be the most prominent stage in competitive hoop dancing — the Heard Museum’s annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Phoenix — winning his third consecutive world title in February. This marked a major career moment.

“Hoop dances have long been part of traditional Indigenous healing ceremonies, featuring quick, complex footwork as the dancer forms various shapes, many mimicking the movements of animals, using hoops. Tony White Cloud of Jemez Pueblo is credited with starting modern hoop dancing in the 1930s.

“Enriquez is the lead instructor at the local Lightning Boy Foundation in Pojoaque, a community organization that stages the Youth Hoop Dance Championship in Santa Fe and instructs about 75 students, according to its website. …

“Already considering next year’s World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, Enriquez knows he would be the first dancer to win four world championships in a row in the competition’s 36 years if he triumphs again.

“At this year’s event, he told the story of the Chicken Dance — mimicking a hunter stalking his prey as he capered in front of a crowd.

” ‘Growing up, I’ve always had the rhythm, the love for the dance,’ he said.

“ ‘In the last three years, there’s no question: He’s the best dancer,’ said George Rivera, a decorated Northern New Mexico artist, president of the Lightning Boy Foundation and former governor of Pojoaque Pueblo. ‘We’re just so proud of what he does. He’s such a good role model and he gives back to everyone.’ …

“Born and raised in Pojoaque Pueblo and a graduate of Pojoaque Valley High School, Enriquez began competing in hoop dancing events about a decade ago. It took him years, he said, to mature.

“He now speaks with a maturity beyond his years, noting he views hoop dancing as medicine for the people. He has moved people to tears. He has been told he is ‘good medicine.’ …

“A spiritual leader at the pueblo, he is also proud of the work he does as an instructor with the Lighting Boy Foundation, finding fulfillment in teaching and mentoring the next generation of dancers — aware of the positive role hoop dancing, and the dedication it requires, can play in a young person’s life. …

“Enriquez is not the only dancer associated with the organization that found success at the Heard Museum’s competition in February: Mateo Ulibarrí (Pojoaque and Santa Clara pueblos) finished first in the teen division for the fourth consecutive time, and JaiPo Harvier (Pojoaque, Santa Clara and Taos pueblos, Tohono O’odham Nation) finished second.

“Enriquez sweated through a set Thursday afternoon in the throes of a full-body dance, ending with one hand gripping a large sphere, representing Earth, shaped from the hoops. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains towered in the distance.

“He said growing up in Pojoaque Pueblo and participating in traditional dances shaped his outlook on dance, recalling how he was always told soreness after a dance means you have taken away the audience’s pain. Enriquez thinks about this in his approach to contemporary hoop dance, too.

“ ‘When you’re dancing, you pray for the people because it’s important that they feel it and it’s important that they get the life that you’re giving from your dance,’ he said.

“ ‘When you’re dancing for our feast days,’ Enriquez added, ‘they tell us if you’re sore the next day, it’s because you’re taking all the soreness from the people that can’t dance or people that are sick, you take it and you fill it. It’s a sacrifice that our people make for the better of our village.’ ”

More at the Santa Fe New Mexican, here.

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The Demanding Art of Trompe l’Oeil

May 11, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Felix Bazalgette.
Federico Piccolo at work at the Van der Kelen. 

I’ve always been fascinated by trompe l’oeil art (fool the eye) — pillars that aren’t there, window vistas that are solid walls.

Today, I’m learning from Felix Bazalgette at the Guardian that a painting school in Belgium is the place to learn how to do that. But the school is rigorous.

“One morning last February, in a chilly studio in Brussels,” writes Bazalgette, “28 people in white coats gathered to watch Sylvie Van der Kelen paint the sky. ‘The first touch of the brush is generally the best,’ said Van der Kelen as light, pink-tinged clouds began to appear. ‘It is preferable not to make revisions.’

“For a few days this winter I was allowed to sit in on classes at the École Van der Kelen-Logelain, a mythologized painting school in Brussels that is unlike any other arts education institution in the world. Run by the same family since it was founded in 1892, the Van der Kelen course takes place every winter. …

“Students must arrive by 9am, otherwise they will be shut out until lunchtime; they must not bring phones or cameras into the school’s workspace; they must wear white lab coats while they work; and they must work in silence. They also must be able to stand the cold: the studio is ineffectually heated by an ancient single wood-fired stove. …

“If students can tolerate these strictures, by the end of the six-month course they will possess a number of specialized skills, from sign painting and lettering to the application of gold and silver leaf, and manipulation of textural finishes. The core of the course, though – what the school is most famous for – is its trompe l’oeil painting techniques. …

“Trompe l’oeil refers to a genre of illusionistic painting with a history stretching back to the time of the ancient Egyptians, in which artists use textures, shading and tricks of perspective in order to create three-dimensional illusions. At the Van der Kelen, students learn to conjure fake relief sculptures and architectural details out of flat surfaces; create copies, in oil paints, of 28 different types of wood grain and 33 different types of marble; and, like Sylvie, paint a perfect trompe l’oeil sky. …

“The passion for decorative painting among the wealthy upper middle class has evaporated, and fussy-seeming trompe l’oeil has fallen out of style in interior decoration and high art. Student numbers have correspondingly dropped to dangerously low levels.

“And yet, every winter, the family continue to oversee a course that has barely changed since 1892, and students still arrive from across the world to put themselves through a bizarre and sometimes punishing routine (‘There is roughly one breakdown every week,’ a student told me). …

“Everybody is in search for something special here,” Sylvie tells me after her demonstration that morning as the students quietly set to work. “Everyone is here for a reason.”

“This year marks the first time that Sylvie, 52, has taken over the running of the school from her mother Denise – the ‘Coco Chanel of fake marble’ – who herself has been in charge since 1995. …

“Every morning a new technique is demonstrated by one of the Van der Kelens (the school invites outside teachers to teach extra classes, but only members of the family teach the core trompe l’oeil course). The students observe and make notes, before producing an exact copy themselves on a large sheet of paper; this piece of work is known as a ‘panel.’

“No panel, however, can be finished in a single day, because each requires multiple ‘operations’: different stages of work, separated by a day or more to allow the drying of paints and varnishes. As a result, students end up with a dizzying number of panels in progress at any one time, with more added every morning. Even after the workshop closes at 6pm, everyone has homework, sometimes until midnight. ‘It’s brutal,’ one student, a British painter, told me. …

“Why would anyone put themselves through this? Talking to this year’s cohort, I hear a number of reasons. There’s a small but significant contingent of people from various professions – architects, graphic designers, interior designers – who have become dissatisfied with the computer-based nature of their industry and are looking for something more hands-on. After graduating, students might hope to find work as painting assistants for established artists, painting interiors for wealthy clients, working on film or theatre sets, or working for European fashion houses periodically drawn to the trompe l’oeil aesthetic for runway shows and boutiques.

“Every student from an arts background that I speak to, however, cites the work of another painter, Lucy McKenzie, who has arguably done more to revive the school’s fortunes than any other person of late. The young Glaswegian artist was browsing in a secondhand bookshop in Brussels in 2007 when she came across a mention of the school in a book of interiors and – amazed that such a place still existed – immediately enrolled. At that time, McKenzie was almost a decade into an already accomplished arts career, but she signed on because she found the school’s illusionistic techniques fascinating. …

“By the mid-oos, the school was in crisis. … That is until McKenzie used the school’s techniques to create thrilling large-scale paintings, such as the vertigo-inducing Untitled (2010), and, along with a book she published about her time at the school, it is works such as these – exhibited at London’s Tate Britain, Amsterdam’s Stedelijk and the Art Institute of Chicago – that have caused a steadily increasing stream of students to arrive at the Van der Kelen’s imposing wooden doors. ‘Lucy McKenzie has a lot to answer for,’ one student told me cheerfully.”

More at the Guardian, here. No firewall.

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Adoption in the Animal Kingdom

May 10, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images.
Baby sea otter Sunny, left, and Rey, her adoptive mother, eat at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. 

I was very near the site of today’s story in late April but didn’t know about it at the time. In any case, my trip to California was short and focused on my brother and his health.

In other circumstance, I know I would have enjoyed meeting the sea otters in today’s article, an orphaned pup called Sunny and her adoptive mother, Rey.

Happy Mother’s Day, Rey!

“Before last month, a young southern sea otter named Rey would never have imagined she would be a mother. That changed when she met Sunny, a pup – about two weeks old – found orphaned and alone on Asilomar state beach on the central coast of California in February. The pairing went off without a hitch.

“The two otters now live as mother and daughter at the Aquarium of the Pacific. They arrived at the facility last month, paired together as part of the facility’s surrogacy program that it runs alongside the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The program, created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the 1990s, was launched in Long Beach in 2024. It pairs maternal-age female otters with young, motherless pups who would otherwise not survive on their own in the wild. …

“The aquarium can handle 11 otters at a time, with up to seven in the main tank with rehabilitation pools that can each house two otters. The facility currently has five otters, including two other females that are preparing for surrogate motherhood.

“But Sunny and Rey cannot be released into the wild. Experts say both are already too used to being around people and lack the survival instincts to make it on their own in the ocean. … For Rey, Sunny will be the first pup she raises into adulthood. It’s a full-circle moment for her: about two and a half years old, Rey herself was found stranded. She spent a couple of years at another facility before moving to Long Beach.

“ ‘Ray has far surpassed my expectations of what I thought was gonna happen,’ [Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager] said. … As a surrogate mom, she is teaching her adopted baby everything she needs to know to fend for herself, regardless of her inability to return to the wild.

“The two were seen manipulating an imitation crab shell and foraging for food. Young otters, because of the thickness and buoyancy of their fur, don’t have the strength to get their furry bodies to the bottom of the water tank. Otters have the thickest coat of any mammal, with as many as a million hairs per square inch. The hairs trap air, which acts as insulation and helps keep the otters buoyant.

“In time, she may teach the pup how to use tools. Sea otters are known to be crafty creatures, able to use rocks to crack clamshells, take nuts off bolts and open doors on their own.

“When it’s time to calm down, she will groom the pup, and when it’s time for a nap, Rey will pull Sunny to her chest and roll on to her back. … Experts say this quick-forming connection, between that of surrogate-raised otters and their wild-born offspring, has played a significant role in growing the population found along California’s central coast.

“The animals, which once boasted a population of more than 300,000 along the northern Pacific Rim from Japan to Baja California, were prized for their fur and hunted down to about 2,000 by the early 19th century. Officials say they were thought to have been exterminated until a colony of otters was discovered nearly a decade later.

“Now a federally threatened species, California’s southern sea otter population has rebounded to about 3,000. Despite efforts to aid their comeback, the species faces a low survival rate for pups and constant threats of parasites, shark attacks and human-caused catastrophes.

“This makes the work of every mothering otter like Rey all the more important, as she is tasked with not only providing pups the childhood she never had but ensuring the preservation of her species. And while Sunny may never see the ocean again, aquarium staff hope she can grow into a mom herself, giving the next generation of young pups another shot at life.”

More at AP via the Guardian, here.

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Support for New Mothers

May 9, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Jonathan Borba/Unsplash.

Tragedies in the news in recent years have highlighted how strung out some mothers get after giving birth and going home. Most women don’t reach crisis levels, but medical professionals have long recommended support for everyone to ease the transition. Now the states doing that are seeing the benefits.

Adria R Walker writes at the Guardian that a New Orleans nonprofit called Family Connects “provides crucial postpartum support to mothers through home-based nurse visits.

“About three months ago,” she says, “Amber Leduff, gave birth to her daughter, Autumn. … Anyone who gives birth at Ochsner Baptist or Touro hospital in New Orleans and is an Orleans Parish resident – regardless of insurance status or income – is eligible for Family Connects New Orleans (FCNO). The best part about the program? The visits are free.

“Four weeks after Autumn was born, Leduff scheduled their first visit. The nurse assigned to her arrived with her own weight table – a relief to Leduff who wanted to ensure, between pediatric visits, that Autumn was gaining enough weight.

“ ‘She checked on the baby, talked to me and my husband about our specific needs and how I’m actually doing,’ Leduff told the Guardian. … ‘She was very engaging in conversation with us, making sure that we were OK and had all the necessities that we needed.’

“Family Connects is a national program that offers a glimpse into how state and local governments can support families in meaningful ways during the difficult, and potentially dangerous, postpartum period. In 2021, 43.3% of pregnancy-related deaths occurred in the six weeks following delivery – this program, designed to be universal, works to fill in the gap period between birth and the first postnatal appointment through home-based nurse visits. …

“Leduff’s nurse also informed her about additional services provided by the city that she didn’t realize existed. That had a positive cascading effect: Leduff was able to pass the information along to cousins and friends who had also recently had babies.

“The visit provided security and reassurance that, as first-time parents, was needed for both Leduff and her husband. ‘The benefit of it is giving moms, whether you’re first time or not, whether it’s your second or third child – you always get that peace of mind when someone comes and just answers any questions you have,’ she said. ‘Every question I had, she took with ease and answered thoroughly.’

“While Louisiana has made strides in clinically treating conditions that can kill mothers, such as hypertension and hemorrhage, the highest risk is in the early postpartum period.

“ ‘You go, you have your delivery, you’re in the hospital and everything is there. You go home, there’s a bit of a honeymoon period, and then, for many women, you fall off a cliff,’ said Jennifer Avegno, deputy mayor of health and human services. …

“While programs such as WIC or Healthy Start help with young children and nutrition, there was nothing for the critical period shortly after birth. FCNO fills that void. Avengo noted that most developed countries have multiple postpartum home visits and significantly better birth outcomes.

“The nurses not only provide clinical evaluations of the mother and baby – things that can be particularly important for hypertensive moms and low birth weight babies – but also provide comprehensive social service evaluations of the entire home. For some families, such as those without insurance, the visits may be the only health services they receive.

“Additionally, the nurses can screen for postpartum depression, provide breastfeeding support, help with other aspects of adjusting to a newborn and also connect families with resources in the community. FCNO is also now offering maternal support groups once a month, during which moms can commiserate and build relationships during a period that can feel isolating.

” ‘If grandma lives in the home, what’s going on with grandma? If there’s a three-year-old in the home, what do they need? It is a very active, warm handoff and confirmation that you’re getting the help you need,’ Avegno said. … ‘This is not long-term; we’re not going to be with you forever. But it is to get you through that hump.’

“Before FCNO, families would attend the prenatal appointments and ‘they would be good patients,’ Meshawn Siddiq, director of family health and wellbeing, said. ‘They wouldn’t tell the provider that they couldn’t afford the medications, so you have very sick patients going to their prenatal appointment and not getting the support that they need.’ …

“Nurses are able to encourage patients to still take the medications they have been prescribed even if they are currently feeling fine. But they can also connect families to resources – social workers, counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists – that they don’t realize they need. Many mothers, program evaluations have found, don’t realize they need the support, or that their ‘postpartum blues’ are actually at a level that necessitates treatment. …

“ ‘We know that maternal mental health is a major risk factor for maternal morbidity and mortality, in the postpartum period, specifically,’ [Melissa Goldin Evans, an assistant professor at Tulane’s School of Public Health told the Guardian.] ‘Having someone ease those early days worries just can go a really long way for someone’s mental and behavioral wellbeing.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Valuable Family History

May 8, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff.
Roxbury resident and subway operator Aaron Haynes was cleaning his house when he found his ancestor’s freedom paper, issued in the 1830s. Few of these have survived.

I found this story about a young man who discovered his ancestor’s freedom paper very moving. There are few such documents in existence because, prior to nationwide emancipation, free black men and women needed to carry papers all the time to protect themselves from unlawful arrest. It made me think of others we know of who suddenly had to start carrying their papers everywhere.

Claire Thornton reports the Boston story at the Boston Globe. “Aaron Haynes gets choked up when he thinks about what the faded piece of parchment represents: a lineage spanning centuries, and most importantly, his ancestor’s freedom from enslavement.

“Haynes, who works as a operator on the MBTA’s Green Line, began exploring his family genealogy this winter after finding an original freedom paper belonging to one of his ancestors. The documents were proof that an African American person was free in the years before slavery was abolished. Without the papers, individuals risked being kidnapped and unlawfully sold into slavery.

‘We got so excited, because we were like, “That definitely looks real.” ‘

“Haynes’s ancestor’s document, issued in 1834, was passed down through generations to his grandmother, and stored in a hutch in his mother’s Roxbury home. He stumbled across it while cleaning, as he was dusting the contents of the old cabinet.

“Issued nearly 200 years ago to 21-year-old Samuel Jones in Baltimore County, Maryland, the document identifies Jones based on his physical features.

“It was signed by a court official certifying that Jones was ‘born free,’ the document says. …

“ ‘I’m getting choked up, the fact that we have this and it’s tangible. … I feel like I’m in an ancestral plane, at arm’s length from imagining what Samuel Jones looked like, what he sounded like,’ said Haynes, 34.

“In the early 1800s, African Americans — including many like Jones who were born free — carried their freedom papers on their person to protect against being captured and sold into slavery, according to historians. Original freedom documents are exceedingly rare, experts said.

” ‘I’ve never held an original freedom paper in my hand before — I‘ve only seen them digitized,’ said Lindsay Fulton, chief research officer at American Ancestors, a family history nonprofit in the Back Bay.

“Archives at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and an exhibit at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh house two of the largest collections of freedom papers, Fulton said. The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., also has freedom papers on display.

“Samuel Jones would have stored his freedom paper somewhere safe after receiving it in 1834, Fulton said. When it was passed down to Haynes’s mother, it was in a smaller leather folder, and it’s been remarkably well-preserved.

“ ‘The reason these documents were so critical, and in many cases saved and passed down through generations, was because they are the key to avoiding enslavement or re-enslavement right after freedom,’ said Kendra Field, chief historian of American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names project cataloguing identities of people enslaved in the US.

“At first, Haynes said, he didn’t know where he could take the document to learn more about it. … In January, Haynes saw the American Ancestors building when he was on Newbury Street. When he showed researchers there the document, they immediately knew it was an stunning piece of history.

“ ‘We got so excited, because we were like, “That definitely looks real,” ‘ Fulton said.

“Field said the document is what historians call a certificate of freedom, because it was issued by a court. … Samuel Jones’s certificate of freedom says he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, he had a ‘light complexion’ and ‘a small scar on his left hand.’

“A Baltimore County Court wax seal dating from 1817 was stamped on the bottom left corner. The document isn’t made of paper, but rather parchment, which is more durable. The document says Jones was ‘born free’ in Anne Arundel County, which includes state capital Annapolis.

“Because the document was issued in Baltimore County, it’s possible Jones got his freedom papers after moving away from his hometown to seek work at age 21, Fulton said. It’s also possible Jones sought the document because he was in a new place with fewer relatives and connections, she said.

“Haynes and other family members are researching their ancestry further after the discovery, tracing their lineage south of the Mason-Dixon line, which they didn’t know much about before.

“ ‘I’m proud that my son didn’t worry about what he might learn,’ said Haynes’s mother, Michelle Kendrick. ‘Every family has a history, and he stepped into wanting to know his history and that’s a big step for anyone to take.’

“Kendrick, 58, has lived in Roxbury her whole life, she said. The home of her grandmother, also in Roxbury, caught fire when Kendrick was a child and many family heirlooms were destroyed, she said. Jones’s certificate of freedom was salvaged.”

More at the Globe, here.

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Pioneering Film Unearthed

May 7, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Shawn Miller. National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.
This print of Gugusse and the Automaton (the first known movie about robots) was a duplicate at least three times removed from the original print and was in extremely delicate condition when it arrived at the Library of Congress.

Reading today’s story, I can’t help thinking that if any of us has items from our great grandfathers (or -mothers), we should make an effort to discover if those things should belong to the world at large. At any rate, it would be interesting to know if any of them have an unexpected value. You still may want to keep handing the treasures down, but I’m sure the great grandson in this article was relieved to offload the responsibility.

The San Francisco Chronicle‘s G. Allen Johnson (via Yahoo) reports that a 19th century movie about robots has just been found.

“The first movie to feature what might be called a robot, not seen in more than a century, has been found,” he writes.

“A copy of Gugusse and the Automaton, an 1897 short made by legendary film pioneer George Méliès, was discovered by a man in Grand Rapids, Mich., in a box of films that had been owned by his great-grandfather. The Library of Congress revealed the find on its blog ‘Timeless: Stories from the Library of Congress, on Thursday, Feb. 26.

” ‘This is one of the collections that makes you realize why you do this,’ said Courtney Holschuh, the archive technician who unraveled the film.

“Méliès (1861-1938) was a French filmmaker whose most famous work, A Trip to the Moon (1902), featured an iconic shot of a space capsule landing in the Moon’s ‘eye.’ Martin Scorsese paid tribute to Méliès in his family film Hugo (2011).

“Gugusse and the Automaton, which lasts 45 seconds, is a slapstick comedy that depicts a magician cranking up an automaton – a mechanical contraption – dressed as a clown. Using a large mallet, the magician hammers the automaton (which is played by an actor) into smaller and smaller sizes.

“Because of Méliès’ reputation and its historic significance, Gugusse and the Automaton has long held a fascination with science fiction fans, even though it was considered lost.

“Years after inheriting the box of about 10 films, Bill McFarland drove from Grand Rapids to the Library’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Va., in September to donate the collection.

“His great-grandfather, William Delisle Frisbee, was a western Pennsylvania potato farmer and schoolteacher who moonlighted as a traveling showman, commuting by horse and buggy from town to town to screen some of the world’s first movies.

“After Frisbee died in 1937, the films and his old projectors, as well as his diaries and other papers, were passed down through the generations.

” ‘He talks about full houses, and rowdy houses, and canceled shows, and he went all the way to the Pennsylvania-Maryland line, and I think into Ohio as well,’ McFarland said. ‘He made as much as $20 bucks a night, I see in his records, and sometimes he made $1.35 for the night.’

“Méliès made some 500 short films, but only about 300 survive. Like many lost silent movies, negatives for most of his films were melted down for silver and celluloid during World War I.

“Scorsese’s Film Foundation estimates that more than 90% of films made before 1929 have been lost forever, most due to intentional destruction: In the early days of cinema, film prints were deemed of little value past their original theatrical run. Also, the era’s prints were made of nitrate, which was both perishable and highly flammable.

“Gugusse and the Automaton can be viewed in 4K on the Library of Congress’ website.”

More at the San Francisco Chronicle, here. See also a blog the Library of Congress blog, here.

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Irreplaceable Iranian Culture

May 6, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Nicola Forenza/Alamy.
Iran’s Golestan Palace photographed in 2016. This Unesco World Heritage site has been damaged in the latest war.

I once read a wonderful book by Jason Elliot about his travels in Iran, highlighting the country’s art and architecture. So it makes me sad to read today’s story. How do you protect beauty in wartime?

Julian Borger and Deepa Parent are reporting at the Guardian that Golestan Palace, a world heritage site in Tehran, has been damaged in the new war despite Unesco sending coordinates. A palace in Isfahan also suffered.

“The most serious confirmed damage to date has been to Tehran’s Golestan Palace, dating to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan. Judging from videos and public statements, neither historic building was hit by a missile directly but the shock wave from nearby blasts and possibly some missile debris shattered glass and brought down tiles and masonry.

“Video from the scene showed that Golestan Palace’s celebrated hall of mirrors had been shattered, with shards of intricate mirrorwork scattered across its floor.

“The palace is a world heritage site under the protection of the UN’s cultural body, Unesco, which issued a statement of concern after it was damaged on 2 March. …

“Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, criticised Unesco for not being more vociferous. …

“One of the damaged sites was Falak-ol-Aflak Castle in the city of Khorramabad, in Lorestan province. According to the head of the province’s heritage department, Ata Hassanpour, a strike hit the castle’s perimeter on Sunday, destroying his department’s offices as well as adjacent archaeological and anthropological museums, and injuring five members of staff.

“ ‘Fortunately, the main structure of Falak-ol-Aflak Castle was not damaged,’ Hassanpour said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging platform.

“Cultural treasures in Kurdistan province in north-west Iran were also affected, according to local media. In Sanandaj, the country’s second biggest Kurdish city, reports said the 19th-century Salar Saeed and Asef Vaziri mansions, which serve as Kurdish museums and heritage sites, had suffered damage to their doors and intricate stained-glass windows.

“In the past few days, there have been major explosions in the centre of Isfahan, Iran’s capital in three historical eras, where much of the architecture dates back to the Safavid dynasty era, from the 16th to 18th centuries.

“Chehel Sotoon suffered the worst impact but broken windows and doors, as well as dislodged tilework, have been reported in the Ali Qapu Palace and several mosques around the vast Naqsh-e Jahan Square. Videos filmed by residents from inside the square showed plumes of smoke rising from nearby airstrikes.

“The Isfahan governor, Mehdi Jamalinejad, said the damage had been inflicted even after coordinates of the historic sites had been circulated among the warring parties and after blue shield signs – denoting historical treasures under the 1954 Hague convention for the protection of cultural objects in war – had been put on the roofs of important buildings.

“ ‘Isfahan is not an ordinary city, it’s a museum without a roof,’ Jamalinejad said in a speech posted on social media. ‘In none of the previous eras, not in the Afghan wars, not in the Moghul conquest, not even during [the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war] was this ever done.’ …

“An Iranian geologist who worked in Isfahan for many years said in a message forwarded to the Guardian that the ancient capital was particularly vulnerable. ‘Isfahan has long been attacked from below, by land subsidence that is destroying the Safavid-era structures, and now from the above, by the Americans,’ the geologist said. ‘Isfahan seems to have fewer friends than ever today.’

“The US Committee of the Blue Shield, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to upholding the Hague convention, issued a statement saying that Iran’s historic sites ‘belong not only to the Iranian people, but to all of humanity.’ The organization said it was ‘disturbed’ by the US defense secretary’s declaration on the third day of the war that there would be no ‘stupid’ rules of engagement.”

Man, who even talks like that? It’s embarrassing.

More at the Guardian, here.

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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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