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New Zealand Skateboard Group

August 27, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Shawn Henry via Unsplash.
Skateboarding in New Zealand has a culture all its own.

At a certain age, we start getting the same question at the beginning of every medical appointment: “Any falls?”

For a few years, that question seemed silly. Why would I have any falls? But after a while, it starts to make sense because we start to feel unsteady or because so many people we know have bad falls. A dear friend even died of one last year.

So I am in awe of people like those in today’s story who seem impervious to fear of falling: skateboarders.

Becki Moss and Lauren Bulbin write at the Washington Post, “If you venture past a skate park on any given day in the center of New Zealand’s capital, look for the skaters with neon hair. There’s a good chance they’re members of Wozer, an ever-evolving collective of young, diverse skaters, musicians and artists that has revolutionized the skate scene in Wellington in part by making it more welcoming to women and gender minorities.

“The group has blossomed in this city of approximately 200,000 residents, known for its abundance of native birds, must-visit coffee shops and notoriously strong winds. … Becki Moss, a photographer and artist based in New Zealand, followed the Wozer collective for two years, capturing their lives, their athleticism and their creativity.

“The first Wozer meeting was held in June 2022 by a group of friends who loved the sport, an effort to take their group chat offline and into the real world. Two years later, the collective has released two print magazines and become an increasingly visible force within the scene, teaching workshops at festivals and collaborating with clothing brands, including Converse.

“The point is to show skaters who feel left out of the sport’s cis-male-dominated spaces that there’s a hub for them, too. As the group writes in its 2022 zine: ‘Skating is infamous for its community, when you find a skate community you love, you become part of an instant family. Unfortunately, in amongst a battle of male egos, there wasn’t much room for us in our own local skate communities.’

“Clare Milne is a 23-year-old visual communications design student who moved from Gisborne to Wellington to study. She created the first version of Wozer magazine in May 2022 for a school assignment. Five months later, backed by a sponsorship from Kingsbeer Architecture, the first issue was officially released the same weekend as Bowlzilla, a national skateboard championship.

“ ‘It’s given a lot of people confidence in their identity,’ Milne said. ‘Just meeting like-minded people, it really made me feel comfortable in my own skin. I think the reason I’m so passionate about this is because I saw how these people influenced my life.’

“While the city-run Waitangi skate park features impressive bowls and ramps, Milne said enthusiasts might wish to venture out of the central business district and up a hill behind Wellington city hospital. There you’ll find ‘Hospital DIY’ — a skate park created by the skating community over the years. …

“Here, Gala Baumfield, 22, [who uses they/them] showed where the handprint of their mother, Pearl, is set in the concrete. Their hands are the same size. Pearl died in April 2023 after fighting lung cancer. The Wozer community supported Baumfield as a young caregiver and after their mother’s death continued as their found family, they said. …

“Wozer is continuing to grow. Initially, the group identified itself as a hub for women and gender minorities, but it has since expanded to include cis men. Baumfield says this was because it just felt really exclusionary to a lot of trans whanau’ — a Maori term for extended family or community — ‘especially if you’re not open about being trans, and you don’t really want to broadcast it to the whole world.’ “

Great photos at the Post, here.

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Your Brain Needs a Rest

August 26, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: David Matos via Unsplash.

I take naps pretty regularly. Not just because I am tired but because my brain needs a rest. And I’m a big believer in letting the sleeping, unconscious brain sort out things that have me going around in circles when awake. That’s why I was impressed with the presidential candidate who wanted to “sleep on it” before choosing a running mate. To me, that was really smart. Often when you “sleep on it,” vibes you have unconsciously picked up when awake become more clear to you.

Now let’s look at some research on letting your brain take rests.

Jamie Friedlander Serrano writes at the Washington Post, “Downtime is a necessary part of life. Science shows it helps us to be healthier, more focused, more productive and more creative. Yet, somehow, we often lose sight of this.

“ ‘Downtime is important for our health and our body, but also for our minds,’ says Elissa Epel, a professor in the psychiatry department at the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

“Epel and others acknowledge that many of us feel as though we’re wasting time if we aren’t getting things done, but research points to the costs of always being ‘on’ and the importance of giving our brains a break. Our brains aren’t built to handle constant activity.

“Even the briefest moments of idle time, or pauses, are important, says Robert Poynton, author of Do Pause: You Are Not a To-Do List.

“Short pauses — whether you take a few breaths before entering a room or walk through the woods for 10 minutes — can lead to necessary self-reflection.

“ ‘I think we feel that we need to be getting on with things,’ says Poynton, who is an associate fellow at the University of Oxford in England. But ‘if we’re always getting on with things, we haven’t taken any time to decide or examine whether what we’re getting on with is the most interesting, important, fruitful, delightful, pleasurable or healthy thing.’ …

“Well-established research has shown that low-level daily stress can create such intense wear and tear on our body’s physiological systems that we see accelerated aging in our cells, says Epel, who co-wrote the book The Telomere Effect. Epel added: ‘Mindfulness-based interventions can slow biological aging by interrupting chronic stress, giving us freedom to deal with difficult situations without the wear and tear — and giving our bodies a break.’ …

“One small study published in the journal Cognition found that those who took short breaks had better focus on a task when compared with those who didn’t take a break. [And a 2022 meta-analysis published in the journal PLOS One looked at how ‘micro-breaks’ can affect well-being. The review found that breaks as short as 10 minutes can boost vigor and reduce fatigue. …

“In 2021, when many Americans were working remotely all the time, Microsoft conducted a study that followed two groups of people: The first had back-to-back Zoom meetings, and the other group took 10-minute meditation breaks between meetings. Microsoft monitored brain activity of 14 participants in the study using an electroencephalogram (EEG).

“In the first group, ‘what you see is a brain that’s filled with cortisol and adrenaline,’ says Celeste Headlee, a journalist and author of Do Nothing: How to Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. ‘It’s tired, it’s stressed, it’s probably more irritable, and it’s probably less compassionate.’ The other group? ‘You can see in brilliant color what a difference [the breaks] make,’ she says. ‘Those are brains that are relaxed.’ …

“New research has begun showing the negative effects our cellphones can have on our health. Smartphone addiction (which [James Danckert, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and co-author of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom] says afflicts 4 to 8 percent of people) is becoming increasingly common worldwide.

“It has been linked to physical health problems, such as digital eyestrain and cervical disc degeneration, as well as anxiety and depression. Some recent research also suggests it can affect the structure of our brains: Two studies found smartphone addiction was correlated with lower white matter integrity and lower gray matter volume in the brain. …

“Most Americans think of downtime as something that is extra or indulgent — a treat that has to be earned only after we’ve done all of our productive tasks, says Amber Childs, a psychologist and associate professor at Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. But research would suggest the opposite: Downtime is a basic human need.”

More at the Post, here.

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Avoiding Plastics at the Beach

August 25, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Mikkel Rolighed.
A bucket set made from sugarcane is an improvement on bioplastics, though the ocean won’t thank you if this is lost at sea – it won’t safely biodegrade (ditto recycled plastic toys). 

Now that we know that plastics have been found in the human brain, are we motivated to fight harder or are we despairing? Michelle O, you know, exhorts us to “do something” and not give in to despair, so here’s a place to start: the beach.

Fleur Britten at the Guardian has put together an impressive list of plastic substitutes you might take to the beach.

She writes, “Pre-1950, we just didn’t take plastic to the beach. Now it’s virtually impossible not to, even if it’s just you and your swimmers.

” ‘If you’re looking for plastic-free nirvana, you may never find it,’ says Anne-Marie Soulsby, aka the Sustainable Lifecoach. Matters are improving – though there’s usually a premium to pay if you want to minus cheap plastic from the mix. So why not borrow the plastic that already exists from friends, family or your local Library of Things. And don’t forget your reusable cutlery and containers for eating and drinking à la plage. If you can’t track down beach essentials from these sources, these are the other best ways to avoid seaside plastic pollution.

“ ‘The most sustainable swimwear is what you already own,’ says Soulsby. If you’re in need of new togs, they’ll most likely contain plastic. However, some brands are minimizing that: Italian label Isole & Vulcani’s swimwear for women and kids uses 93% GOTS-certified organic cotton jersey, with 7% elastane (which is fossil fuel-derived). …

“Inflatables and body boards: ‘Inflatables are a nightmare,’ says Lucy Johnson, founder of the Green Salon consultancy. ‘There isn’t a solution.’ According to one study, UK holidaymakers abandoned around 3 million [pool floats] in 2018. Even the genius Inflatable Amnesty is at capacity and can’t accept any more broken pool toys (though you can still buy its upcycled accessories). So borrow, or look after what you have. … 

“If you do need new toys, she advises silicon: ‘You can squish it into your bag and it doesn’t go brittle or rust’ (Johnson recommends Liewood’s silicon beach set from Kidly). Bioplastic toys are an improvement on regular plastic – for example, Dantoy’s bucket set made from sugarcane.”

As for sun screens, “ ‘There is no perfect solution,’ says Jen Gale, author of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide. If you want to be absolutely plastic-free – including those pervasive nano-plastics – then your safest option is a zinc oxide-based formulation. …

“It is actually possible to find plastic-free eyewear, provided that you are one very careful person, because we’re talking glass lenses. The Marylebone-based brand Monc’s sunglasses feature wire and bio-acetate frames (made from wood pulp) and mineral glass lenses. …

“Flipflop pollution is real. Hardly surprising, given that about 3 billion are produced annually. According to the charity Ocean Sole, 90 tonnes of flipflops wash up annually on East Africa’s beaches alone. One alternative, suggests [Wendy Graham of the blog Moral Fibres], is Waves Flipflops, made from FSC-certified natural rubber. They also take back old Waves flipflops for recycling into, for example, children’s playground matting, and offer a free TerraCycle recycling programme for plastic flipflops from any brand.”

There’s lots more, including information on dry robes and wetsuits, at the Guardian, here. No paywall. Donations encouraged.

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India’s ‘Sword Granny’

August 24, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Nadja Wohlleben.
Meenakshi Raghavan at the school she runs in Vatakara, Kerala, India, teaching more than 200 students, mostly girls. 

Women have had to fight for every freedom they’ve gained, and they have to fight to keep those freedoms, too. Maybe not with swords, but as today’s story suggests, a little knowledge of martial arts wouldn’t hurt.

At the Guardian, Haziq Qadri reported recently on an elderly woman in India who teaches younger females how to protect themselves.

“Today the pupils are mostly schoolchildren, aged from seven up to teenagers. The teacher is an 82-year-old woman known to all as Sword Granny. Inside her martial arts school – a large hall with walls adorned with trophies and mementoes – in Vatakara, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the session begins with prayers and warmup exercises.

“Then Meenakshi Raghavan takes the class through the precise movements of Kalaripayattu, India’s oldest martial art, their bare feet padding across a floor of red dust mixed with medicinal herbs.

“Every day, this formidable women teaches Kalaripayattu to youngsters and the older men and women of the town alike.

“Raghavan has built a team of teachers who work alongside her at the Kadathanad Kalari Sangham school, but she has become especially renowned in this region not for her age, but for her focus and commitment to empowering the next generation of young women.

“Sword fighting is an essential part of Kalaripayattu, and the grandmother moves swiftly and with great grace when she swings her sword at the opponent.

“Kalaripayattu [was] banned by India’s British colonial rulers in 1804. But the art form survived underground, experiencing a resurgence in the early 20th century and gaining new life after India’s independence in 1947.

“Raghavan’s martial arts school was started by her late husband, Raghavan Gurukkal, in 1949. … ‘Anyone is welcome here, we do not charge anything to our students,’ she says.

“Raghavan began practising martial arts at seven, under the guidance of her father, who recognized the importance of self-defense in a society where women were often vulnerable. …

“ ‘When young girls and women look at me, they feel inspired that if I can do such a thing at this age, so can they at their age,’ she says.

“Raghavan says self-defense techniques are essential for young women in these times and martial arts is the best way to equip them.

“For her, the teachings of Kalaripayattu instill self-confidence and mental resilience, crucial in a society where women face systematic marginalization and violence. Crimes against women have been on the rise in the past decade, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau. Of nearly 6m crimes recorded by police in India in 2022, 445,256 involved crimes against women, a rise of more than 30% since 2016.

“ ‘Kalaripayattu plays an important role in building mental strength and self-confidence,’ she says. ‘Offering girls hope and empowerment.’ …

“The red-sand training ground – or kalari – of her school is filled with energy and determination as her students engage in their rigorous drills and intricate movements, mastering the techniques passed down through generations.

“ ‘When I train young girls and women, I keep in mind to teach them Kalaripayattu for its essence and their self-defense,’ she says.

“Raghavan is now connecting with people beyond Kerala too. ‘I also have special groups with people coming from different countries who seek one-on-one training,’ she says proudly.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Ugly Vegetables Finding Homes

August 23, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: No Waste Army.
Farmers are linking the climate crisis to wonky vegetables that may not meet modern standards of perfection but are perfectly good to eat. 

There used to be a delightful account on Twitter called Ugly Fruit and Veg (@UglyFruitAndVeg), and it posted wonderful, fun photos of misshapen produce that was still edible. Nowadays that person has turned to other topics on other platforms, but I thought of the account when I read today’s Guardian story by Senay Boztas in Amsterdam.

“When 31-year-old Dutch farmer Bastiaan Blok dug up his latest crop, the weather had taken a disastrous toll. His onions – 117,000 kilos of them – were the size of shallots.

“ ‘We had a very wet spring and a dry, warm summer, so the plants made very small roots,’ said Blok, who farms 90 hectares in Swifterbant, in the reclaimed province of Flevoland. … ‘It’s either far too wet and cold, or far too warm and dry, and there’s no normal growing period in between.’

“Blok is one of a number of farmers in Europe’s largest agricultural exporter linking the climate crisis to ever more ‘imperfect’ fruit and vegetables, rejected by a food system based on standardization and cosmetic appearance.

“Last month, a crowdfunding scheme to help him was launched by social business the No Waste Army, which runs a quarterly food box scheme, with soups, sauces, pasta, drinks and jams made from rescued fruit and veg. Thanks to its commission, public donations – some sending onions to food banks – and a pickling order from Amsterdam ‘Gherkin King’ Oos Kesbeke, Blok’s sheds are finally empty and a year’s work wasn’t wasted.

“But Thibaud van der Steen, co-founder of No Waste Army, said farmers are suffering from weather extremes, linked to the climate crisis, making it ever harder to meet modern standards of perfection.

“ ‘One of our founders, Stijn Markusse, was working for 12 years with farmers with a meal box concept, and was astonished that so many vegetables and fruit stayed in the ground or were thrown away because they didn’t fit a kind of beauty ideal,’ said Van der Steen. ‘The average consumer has got used to cucumbers as straight as candles. But anyone who has a vegetable patch knows that for every 10 cucumbers, two or three will be straight and all the others will have all kinds of shapes.’ …

“The wettest autumn, winter and spring on record have threatened the spinach and potato crops, leading to parliamentary questions and warnings from farming union LTO. Evelien Drenth, LTO agriculture specialist, said 61% of Dutch farmers report lost yields due to extreme weather, diseases are up and sowing is late or sometimes missed. ‘Consumers and supermarkets need to get used to empty shelves sometimes for short-season crops like spinach … and also irregular-sized Brussels sprouts and broccoli,’ she added.

“If the plants are stressed, so are the farmers, according to Jaap Fris, of the community-owned farm Erve Kiekebos, in Empe, Gelderland. ‘It is true that things are getting more difficult because of the climate,’ he said. ‘But sometimes I have to challenge my own perception that things have to be perfect, when I know that even if it looks less good, it is just as tasty.’ “

Meanwhile in the US, the Fioneers are consumers who value wonkiy vegetables. At their blog, they have reviewed businesses that make the odd shapes available to the cost conscious. They write, “Through some research, we realized that we spent more money on food than the USDA’s guidance for a (liberal spending) family of four.

“We have taken steps to improve. We’ve focused on not wasting food, meal planning based on what we already have, and buying in bulk. We have reduced our food spending quite a bit, but we felt like it was still high. …

“When I was doing research into this, I stumbled across ugly produce delivery services. I found these services appealing for two reasons. First, these services ship the produce directly to your house. CSAs typically require you to pick it up from a central location. The ugly veggie services also provide the option of customizing the size of the box you want and the products inside. CSA shares provide a lot of food, and I wasn’t sure that we could use it all.

“There are two options for ugly produce where we live: Misfits Market and Imperfect Foods. We decided to try them both, alternating weeks between the two. One week we’d get a Misfits Market box. The next week we’d receive an Imperfect Foods Box. …

“In the United States, approximately 40% of our food is wasted. It isn’t only consumers who are wasting food. Food is wasted for a variety of reasons and at different points along the supply chain. Farms, distributors, stores, and consumers are all guilty of too much food waste. …

“The National Resource Defense Council makes a number of recommendations to help solve this problem. One of their main recommendations is to ‘expand secondary markets for items that do not meet the highest cosmetic standards.’

“This is precisely what companies like Misfits Market and Imperfect Foods are doing. They are the secondary markets. They are buying the produce from farms when there is a surplus or when the produce doesn’t meet cosmetic requirements.” More from the Fioneers, here.

More at the Guardian, here.

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The Bookish World of Art Nouveau Posters

August 22, 2024 by suzannesmom

Art: Charles Arthur Cox, “Bearings” (1896), via Hyperallergic.
Art Nouveau posters often reflect both a love of books and young women enjoying more freedom.

Do you like the Art Nouveau, a style identified as roughly 1890 to 1910 in Europe? After reading about the literary posters of that time, my already considerable appreciation for it is has only increased.

Sarah Rose Sharp writes at Hyperallergic about a recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

“The literary poster occupies a special place at the intersection of American art history and literature. Advances in color printing technology at the end of the 19th century made way for a flood of colorful and intricately detailed materials, often in the form of handbills and posters, which were suddenly more affordable as a vehicle to advertise the latest books, magazines, periodicals, and other forms of literature.

“Accompanying an eponymous exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art of the Literary Poster: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection illuminates the expansive genre through several examples culled from the titular collection, accompanied by essays on the form by exhibition curator Allison Rudnick, scholar Jennifer A. Greenhill, paper conservator Rachel Mustalish, historian Shannon Vittoria, and Lauder himself. …

“Both historically astute and visually delightful, the book captures the influence of the Art Nouveau movement on printed materials at the turn of the century, as well as showcases the evolution of graphic design as innovations in multi-color plate printing that allowed text and imagery to come together in increasingly complex ways. Vittoria’s essay highlights the particular power of literary posters as a genre ‘by women, for women,’ noting that American illustration was one of the few professions young women were encouraged to pursue at the time.

” ‘As male artists and critics worked to defeminize illustration by minimizing women’s contributions to the field, female artists and advocates saw the potential of the visual arts, particularly printed media, to advance the campaign for women’s suffrage,’ Vittoria writes. ‘The art poster became a potent tool in this struggle.’

“Turn-of-the-century literary journals like Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine and Harper’s were some of the first publications to avail themselves of this new technology, with cover art featuring thoroughly modern Gibsonesque girls riding bikes, snuggling cats, and of course, reading. Though the magazine and visual digest Bradley, His Book was only published between 1896 and ’97, the cover works by Art Nouveau illustrator and film director William H. Bradley, its publisher, are dazzling examples of the intricacies made newly possible in literary art posters. …

“In her catalog essay, Rudnick examines a cover of the July 1896 issue of Lippincott’s as the essence of the burgeoning form. Created by Joseph J. Gould Jr., the image features a woman in a day suit equipped with the exaggerated sleeve caps and narrow skirt of the era, perched calmly on a bike with a straw hat on her head, which partially obscures the masthead’s bold red letters. She is biking out of a richly blue background, presumably off to enjoy the copy of Lippincott’s held against the handlebars in her right hand.  ‘The poster itself represented something new: an advertisement that looks and functions like a work of art,’ Rudnick writes, ‘an image made for public consumption in which commercialism and culture coalesce.’

“The distinctive print also captures the spirit of new possibilities for women, as a cavalcade of unbothered women on bikes became the visual heralds of the era’s first-wave feminism that paved the way for women’s movements of the following century. A 1911 ‘Votes for Women‘ poster by artist and educator Bertha Margaret Boyé, chosen as the winner of a poster competition held by the San Francisco College Equal Suffrage League, embodies this renewed sense of possibility as a woman in flowing yellow robes stands before a landscape displaying the titular banner. Behind her, the rising orange sun halos her head, giving the effect of saintliness while hinting at the dawning of new opportunities.

“Full of aplomb women on bikes with literary and political ambitions (and, of course, cats), The Art of the Literary Poster gathers inarguably beautiful printed materials that — even beyond their political and promotional implications — demonstrate the elegance, interests, and aesthetics of a pivotal moment in art history.”

Check out the gorgeous collection of posters at Hyperallergic, here. No firewall. Subscriptions encouraged. And for those interested in learning more about Art Nouveau in general, see at Wikipedia, here.

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Weaver and Shepherd

August 21, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: John Burcham.
Textile weaver and fiber artist Roy Kady.

Today’s story is about a man for whom work and art are inseparable: Navajo weaver Roy Kady.

Elaine Velie at Hyperallergic conducted the interview.

“Diné weaver and fiber artist Roy Kady sat down for a video interview wearing a shirt that read ‘Sheep is life.’ Kady is a shepherd and an artist, roles he sees as definitively intertwined. ‘I am first a shepherd, then art comes with it,’ he said.

“Kady’s decades-long career has been one of constant learning, and in recent years, teaching. He shares weaving techniques and Diné stories that he says are too often missing from younger generations. Kady spoke to Hyperallergic about Diné conceptions of gender, apprenticeship in his small Arizona town, and being accepted as a gay man in his community.

“Hyperallergic: What are your earliest memories of weaving, and how did your mother’s practice influence your own?

“Roy Kady: My sisters and I grew up in a single-parent household where my mother brought us up, so we were taught everything from building a house to repairing a roof to working under the hood of a vehicle, the sort of things the colonized world would call ‘man’s work.’ We learned inside, too. From washing dishes and getting the house tidied up to cooking and baking, we did what would be considered ‘women’s work.’ But for us, it’s not.

“I was taught about weaving at the young age of nine years old. I have some recollections before that of sitting by my grandmother, grandfather, and mother, who all also partook in fiber arts — weaving and processing the fiber. My mom gifted and shared weaving techniques with me: vegetable dyeing and some of the family designs that came with it. I was fortunate; I was given the tools she and our kin relations had, and that’s what inspired me to become an artist. We learned farming and goat and sheep herding, too. …

“Sheep provide you with sustainability, food, and the opportunity to learn how to maintain the land. We take care of them so that they can take care of us.

“As a shepherd, you know what they like to eat and what keeps them healthy. They also know that themselves, so they’ll take you on journeys to where particular plants exist. On those journeys, you’re able to be inspired by color and the environment, by the mesas. You start to see geometric forms that you can bring back to your weaving repertoire.

“That’s what traditional Navajo weaving is: an interpretation of your environment. A lot of my earlier pieces were designed with that in mind. They’re not necessarily just stripes; they represent rainbows. They’re not just step patterns; they’re mesas or clouds.

“There’s a whole opening of the universe that is represented. In order to understand and have that knowledge, you must have the knowledge of shepherding. But it’s a rarity now because there are not many shepherds. The sheep population has really declined. Navajo fiber artists and textile weavers create beautiful artistry, and while they may no longer have herds, they have memories from their grandparents or parents or maybe from within themselves around growing up with sheep. …

“My mother would sometimes say something like, ‘You’re at the age when you are going to learn about horsemanship.’ She was a horsewoman type. She would teach us, then she would want us to ask a neighbor or other kinfolks to learn other forms. I remember growing up and learning a lot from the neighboring kids. We would go to their houses and learn different types of fiber arts, traditional recipes, or plant foraging. …

“I would go spend a day, a weekend, or even a month in their home and helping them with their livestock. That’s how I would earn the opportunity to learn from them. They’ve always told me that this knowledge doesn’t just belong to one individual, saying, ‘It was gifted to me. It goes all the way back to the creation story.’ That’s how I model my apprenticeships now. …

“I don’t just use wool. I use anything that’s of natural origin, including tree bark and wild cotton, nettle, silk, you name it — whatever I can get my hands on. If I can find somebody who says, ‘I have a herd of bison,’ then I say, ‘What do you do with their wool?’

“H: Are there any works that you particularly love?

“RK: That would be the one titled ‘Shimá,’ meaning ‘my mother.’ I would wheel her into the sheep corral in her wheelchair, and the sheep knew who she was and come up and greet her. They knew the scent of her hands and how she cared for them. I took a beautiful picture of her making those interactions and decided to weave it. I broke ground for myself by incorporating all different types of techniques that I’ve learned along my weaving journey. At this point, that would be my favorite. …

“H: Are there any projects you’re working on now or that you’re excited to start in the future?

“RK: There’s an upcoming gallery exhibit near us in Cortez, Colorado, that I’m starting with my grandson, Tyrell Tapaha. He’s come back to learn about shepherding and be my apprentice. We’re doing a collaborative type of show. I will show what took place between the two of us, and it will include his interpretation of what I taught him about sheep, the landscape, or a particular plant.

“We are utilizing what we call barbed wire art. When you’re a sheepherder in this country, you have barbed wires lying around everywhere that are rusty, but we create these wonderful shapes and incorporate that into our textiles or fiber work. We’re excited to venture.”

Read more and see how the artist wove an image of a sheep at Hyperallergic, here. No firewall. Subscriptions encouraged.

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Radioactive Rhino Horns

August 20, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: University of the Witwatersrand.
To protect rhinos and scare off poachers, researchers add radioisotopes to a rhino horn at the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve in South Africa. 

Who would think of protecting endangered rhinos by injecting something radioactive into their horns? Researchers in Africa, that’s who.

YaleEnvironment360 reports that “South African researchers have inserted radioactive material into the horns of 20 live rhinos. Their goal: to track horns from rhinos that were hunted illegally.

“Researchers say radioisotopes added to horns would be picked up by radiation detectors at airports, harbors, and border crossings, and so would send up a red flag. There are more than 11,000 such detectors at ports of entry around the globe, part of a vast infrastructure aimed at stemming the flow of illicit nuclear material. And the thousands of security personnel devoted to operating these detectors far outnumber officials working to stem the illegal wildlife trade.

“ ‘Ultimately, the aim is to try to devalue rhinoceros horn in the eyes of the end users, while at the same time making the horns easier to detect as they are being smuggled across borders,’ said project lead James Larkin, of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

“ ‘Every 20 hours in South Africa a rhino dies for its horn. These poached horns are then trafficked across the world and used for traditional medicines, or as status symbols,’ Larkin said. ‘This has led to their horns currently being the most valuable false commodity in the black-market trade, with a higher value even than gold, platinum, diamonds, and cocaine.’ “

The University of the Witwatersrand website adds: “These radioisotopes will provide an affordable, safe and easily applicable method to create long-lasting and detectable horn markers that cause no harm to the animals and environment. At a later stage, the work will expand to elephants, pangolins and other fauna and flora. …

“Starting on Monday, 24 June 2004, Professor Larkin and his team carefully sedated the 20 rhinos  and drilled a small hole into each of their horns to insert the non-toxic radioisotopes. The rhinos were then released under the care of a highly qualified crew that will monitor the animals on a 24-hour basis for the next six months. ‘Each insertion was closely monitored by expert veterinarians and extreme care was taken to prevent any harm to the animals,’ says Larkin. ‘Over months of research and testing we have also ensured that the inserted radioisotopes hold no health or any other risk for the animals or those who care for them.’    

“The development and application of the Rhisotope Project nuclear technology has the capacity to help deter poaching, increase the detection capabilities of smuggled horns, increase prosecution success, reveal smuggling routes and deter end-user markets.

“Rhino poaching reached crisis levels since 2008 where close to 10 000 rhinos were lost to poaching in South Africa, with wildlife trafficking being the third biggest organized crime globally.

“Professor Lynn Morris, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits University says: ‘This is an example of how cross-disciplinary research and innovation makes a real difference. This novel approach pioneered by Prof Larkin and his colleagues has the potential to eradicate the threat of extinction our unique wild-life species, especially in South Africa and on the continent. This is one of many projects at Wits that demonstrates research with impact, and which helps to address some of the local and global challenges of the 21st Century.’

“The Rhisotope Project at Wits was set up by a small team of likeminded individuals as a South African-based conservation initiative in January 2021 with the intention of becoming a global leader in harnessing nuclear technology to protect threatened and endangered species of fauna and flora as well as communities of people.

“Aside from developing a solution to combat the illicit trade and trafficking of wildlife products, the Rhisotope Project seeks to provide education and social upliftment to empower people and local communities. A special focus is aimed at uplifting the girls and women of rural communities, who are often the backbone of these communities in the remote areas where endangered species are found and are the greatest components of success in changing the hearts and minds of local communities thereby creating rhino ambassadors and champions.”

More at Yale e360, here, and at the university’s website, here.

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To Sing Wearing Wild Boar Tusks

August 19, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: South China Morning Post composite/Zhihu.
“Teeth Playing” is one of China’s most terrifying, and difficult, forms of folk art. Performers manipulate up to 10 wild boar tusks at a time with their mouths. 

At Halloween in the US, children often think it’s fun to be vampires and go trick-or-treating with scary wax fangs in their mouths. But the fake dentures soon come out and go in a pocket because they are so uncomfortable.

In China, there’s a performance art that involves singing with actual boar tusks in the performer’s mouth. Talk about uncomfortable! At the South China Morning Post, you can see a photo of the damage that tusks are causing a young performer.

Zoey Zhang reports on the strange art of “teeth playing.”

“A performer with a fierce makeup conceals the tusks of several wild boars in their mouth, flipping them up and down with their tongue and teeth. Throughout this process, they need to sing, read and dance.

“It could well be the most terrifying, and most difficult, folk art in China. It is called shua ya, which literally means ‘teeth playing.’

“Shua ya is a stunt used in traditional Chinese opera designed to portray the dark, dangerous and complex psychology of villainous characters.

“The tusks of male wild boars that it uses are polished and disinfected and usually reach the length of an adult index finger.

Performers need to manipulate four to 10 tusks in their mouths, using their lips, teeth, and breath to make them move, conveying the emotions of characters.

“Lowering the tusks indicates relaxation and satisfaction, while shaking them vigorously indicates anger. …

“Shua ya has a history spanning over 400 years and is a distinctive feature of opera performances in Ninghai, a county located in Zhejiang province in eastern China.

“The most classic shua ya performance is Jinlian Slays Jiaolong. Jiaolong, or the Chinese water dragon, diverges from the auspicious portrayal of Chinese dragons, causing chaos and bringing misfortune to people. Artists portraying Jiaolong need to master shua ya to perform the part of a villain.

“The stunt is recognized by the government as an intangible piece of cultural heritage. Due to the arduous training process, the art form is on the brink of extinction. Its exponents must keep sharp tusks in their mouths at all times, except when eating or sleeping, until they can speak clearly. It typically takes over a decade of practice to fully master.

“Xue Qiaoping, 41, from Zhejiang province, is a sixth-generation inheritor of China’s shua ya art and one of its few female performers.

“She told China Central Television: ‘When training with eight tusks in my mouth because they are very hard, my entire gums were worn out. I couldn’t eat or drink for a week, only relying on intravenous drips for nutrition.’

“When she reached 10 tusks, Xue needed to use both hands to open her mouth wide enough to fit in all the teeth. Her mouth cracks after each performance.

“Meanwhile, Li Yi, 19, from Henan province in central China, is a shua ya artist with 1.4 million followers on Douyin. He has been practicing this stunt for eight years.

“ ‘My mouth has torn and ulcerated more than 70 times, my jaw muscles enlarged, my teeth were ground down and my appearance changed dramatically,’ Li said. ‘But I am willing to devote my youth entirely to traditional culture.’ “

More at South China Morning Post, here. No paywall.

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101-Year-Old Tomato Scientist

August 18, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: West Virginia University.
Mannon Gallegly, WVU plant pathology professor emeritus, has created four tomato varieties, including his last, “Mannon’s Majesty,” free to West Virginians.

For a short time in my childhood, I was a member of a 4-H club and won a $0.75 check for a tomato that my father really grew — a check I failed to cash before it expired!

I still love tomatoes. This is the time of year for gorgeous tomatoes. Ashley Stimpson writes at the Washington Post about the 101-year-old West Virginia professor who brought four special varieties into the world, including one he made free to West Virginians.

“You may not have heard of Mannon Gallegly, but chances are you’ve eaten one of his tomatoes, and perhaps even grown one in your garden. More than 60 years ago, Gallegly bred the first tomato that could stand up to Phytophthora infestans, otherwise known as tomato blight. The West Virginia ’63, sometimes called ‘the people’s tomato,’ is still a seed-catalogue superstar and beloved around the world, gracing gardens from Alabama to Africa.

“This year marks the first time since 1949 that Gallegly, who moved into a nursing home after falling ill in the spring, has missed the annual planting. … This morning’s planters are a mix of graduate students from WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture — where Gallegly worked for 38 years — and volunteers who have known the plant pathologist for decades. Gallegly developed three more hardy tomato varieties since 1963, each of which has claimed a spot in this year’s field, including his latest and likely his last.

“After the college publicized the release of the tomato, called Mannon’s Majesty, earlier this year — noting that it was free for any West Virginian who wanted seeds, per Gallegly’s insistence — WVU’s greenhouse manager Whitney Dudding came to work the next Monday morning to find 2,000 email orders waiting in her inbox, a number that far outstripped availability. …

“Until very recently, Dudding held out hope Gallegly might make it to the organic farm for the occasion. … ‘Every year, even last year, he’s been out there on the soft soil, out there in the heat, walking around, right there with us,’ she says. ‘I really don’t know how he does it.’

“The son of a carpenter and a school dietitian, Gallegly grew up in the rural southwest corner of Arkansas. ‘We were pretty poor people,’ he says. During the Great Depression, his parents grew cotton on rented land, where Gallegly logged the first of many hours spent walking between crop rows.

“A teacher from Future Farmers of America inspired Gallegly to attend college, and a Sears Roebuck scholarship made it financially feasible. After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in agriculture, Gallegly went to the University of Wisconsin to get his master’s in plant pathology, working on a rice disease called white tip.

“In June 1949, Gallegly arrived in Morgantown. … ‘That was my favorite month,’ he recalls. ‘I had a new job, I had a new wife, I had a new baby.’ He also had a new three-acre research farm on the grounds of the nearby medium-security prison, where he could conduct trials on plant diseases, including tomato blight.

“By the following summer, Gallegly’s fields swayed with potato and tomato plants of all different varieties. Then disaster struck. ‘The disease farmers and gardeners feared most’ arrived, he says: late blight. The pathogen leaves ugly brown bruises stretching across the leaves, stem and fruit until the plant looks like it’s been blasted with a blow torch.

“That year, Gallegly lost nearly his entire crop of tomatoes to late blight — except for a few wild varieties with tiny fruit that showed a curious resistance to the disease.

“In the 1950s, late blight was more than just an annoyance for the home gardener. In the right conditions, Phytophthora infestans, which is Greek for ‘plant destroyer,’ can wipe out entire food supplies, as it did during the 1840s, when about 1 million people starved during the Irish Potato Famine. …

“For 13 years, Gallegly worked on developing an indestructible tomato, crossing those initial wild varieties that showed genetic resistance to blight with popular commercial tomatoes. …

“Finally, he stumbled upon a variety that was both blight-resistant and delicious. ‘Good things happen sometimes,’ he says.

“Gallegly, who primarily views himself as a public servant, called his creation ‘the people’s tomato.’ When it was released to the public in 1963 as part of the state’s centennial celebration it was given a new name: the West Virginia ’63. …

“Gallegly retired in 1986, but that didn’t stop him from coming into work every day. …

“In addition to writing books and breeding tomatoes, Gallegly has mentored countless plant pathologists getting their start in Morgantown. Dudding, who has helped Gallegly with cultivating diseases (to test for resistance in plants) and crossbreeding, ‘because my hands were smaller and steadier than his,’ says the scientist ‘is never in a hurry. He has always had time to talk to me and teach me.’

“WVU graduate student Inty Hernández, who’s been working with Gallegly on breeding new tomatoes, agrees, saying: ‘He’s very supportive all the time. It has been very inspiring to work with him. Sometimes you feel tired, you know, and then you arrive to the greenhouse and there’s a 100-year-old man hard at work.’ ”

More at the Post, here. Is your garden producing tomatoes right now?

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A Plastic-Free Month

August 17, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Naja Bertolt Jensen/Unsplash.
Can we ever escape plastic?

When I think about all the plastic we have created and put into our landfills and oceans, I am close to despair about ever cleaning it up.

Still, there are always people willing to fight the odds. Consider the initiative called Plastic Free July. Jacob Fenston has the story at the Washington Post.

“The idea took root in Australia more than a decade ago, and in recent years it has been gaining popularity in the United States. It all began when Rebecca Prince-Ruiz visited her local recycling sorting center in Perth, Australia, in 2011. She had always thought of herself as being eco-conscious, but after looking around at the heavy machinery sorting an endless stream of bottles, tubs, jars, cans and boxes, she had an aha moment.

“ ‘I suddenly realized that filling my recycling bin each fortnight didn’t make me the great green citizen I thought I was,’ Prince-Ruiz says. ‘The most important thing I should be doing was actually reducing my waste in the first place.’

“She decided to try to avoid single-use plastic for an entire month. The next month happened to be July. So Plastic Free July was born.

“Since then, the idea has spread around the globe. According to the Plastic Free Foundation, the nonprofit that Prince-Ruiz founded, 89 million people in 190 countries pledged to reduce their plastic use during July last year. The countries with the most participants are China and India.

“Over the last five years, participants have avoided more than 1.5 million tons of plastic waste, according to the campaign. That’s enough to fill about 80,000 garbage trucks. …

“Sending anything to the landfill or incinerator has a negative impact on the environment. But plastic is particularly problematic, experts say.

“ ‘Plastics are one of the greatest threats facing our planet today,’ says Melissa Valliant, a spokesperson for Beyond Plastics, a plastic-pollution-fighting nonprofit. … ‘We are not going to recycle our way out of this problem,’ Valliant says.

“Plastic waste chokes oceans and the creatures who live there. And plastic production is a major contributor to climate change: The industry emits four times the planet-warming emissions as the airline industry, according to a recent U.S. Energy Department report.

“But from the beginning, the Plastic Free July campaign has focused on solutions rather than the problem. In fact, the campaign’s website contains almost nothing about the harms of plastic, other than its sea turtle logo — a reference to one of the animals most at risk from ocean plastic.

“The website offers ideas for plastic-free beginners — small changes like using reusable shopping bags. There are also suggestions for those further along the journey, including making your own toothpaste, sans plastic tube.

“Prince-Ruiz says that first plastic-free month was harder than she’d thought it would be. … Her best advice for newbies: Don’t try to quit plastic cold turkey. Instead, start with a quick inventory of your plastic use — go through your fridge and pantry and trash — and choose one or two places to work on eliminating or reducing your consumption. …

“Freweyni Asress, a D.C. resident who has written about living a zero-waste lifestyle, recommends finding a buddy or two to do the plastic-free challenge with.

“ ‘When there’s a community of people participating in something like Plastic Free July, it really reinvigorates you,’ Asress says. …

“Of course, going plastic-free can be more challenging depending on your circumstances. In the Midwest, for example, store clerks are not always receptive to the idea of skipping plastic bags, Harper says. On one shopping trip where he was only buying a few things and didn’t need a bag, the checker forced one on him, citing concerns about shoplifting.

“ ‘She would not let me leave without a bag,’ Harper says.

“When Asress started her zero-waste journey in 2016, she was working at a food co-op that had a large bulk section and many plastic-free products. But she found not all plastic-free products worked for her.

“ ‘A lot of the hair products that were sustainably packaged or provided in bulk bins were specifically for White people’s hair,’ says Asress, who is Black. … ‘It has to be practical, and we have to be able to figure out ways to be able to include everybody.’ …

“Valliant says the key is to move away from disposable containers and packages and go with materials that can be used over and over. Refundable deposit systems can make this economical.

“Travel to Latin America, Africa or Asia, for example, and you’ll find refillable soda and beer bottles are still common — each one can be filled, purchased and returned as many as 30 times before it breaks or is worn out.”

More at the Post, here.

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Mariachi in Schools

August 16, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Scott Ball / San Antonio Report.
The SWISD mariachi band performs during a school event at Stinson Field, San Antonio, Texas, in February. 

When education programs unite with family culture and community culture, a unique energy is born, and students are more likely to stay in school. That can be seen in this story from south Texas.

Nicholas Frank writes at the San Antonio Report, “In 1969, educator Belle Ortiz introduced mariachi to a ballet folklórico class at Lanier High School, which soon added a dedicated mariachi class. 

“Over the next decades, Ortiz’s pioneering effort would grow into dozens of mariachi education programs in middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities throughout the San Antonio area, now serving more than 2,000 students in 17 schools in the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) alone. …

“Musician Juan Ortiz met Belle Ortiz in that Lanier folklórico class, and the pair would emerge as changemakers establishing mariachi as an educational mainstay in the region, building off of deep Mexican American cultural roots throughout South Texas.

“Belle Ortiz spearheaded the first collegiate-level mariachi education program in 1974 at San Antonio College, and Juan Ortiz and musician Pete Moreno are widely credited with creating the first university mariachi program at Texas A&M University at Kingsville, a program that still flourishes today. 

“Northside ISD Director of Fine Arts James Miculka said he’s regarded as a person who could sell a tree off of an asphalt lot, but more than salesmanship helped him secure his district’s first mariachi education programs in the 1990s.

“Belle Ortiz served as Miculka’s primary research contact for his music education degree studies at UTSA because he ‘was working on a middle school band curriculum that had more cultural pieces and connected to the Hispanic population’ in a way that his knowledge of jazz and classical music did not.

“A professional trumpeter, Miculka had experience performing in salsa bands and developed a special appreciation for the art form of mariachi when he witnessed firsthand the professional mariachi ensemble assembled by Juan Ortiz for Fiesta Texas.

“Seeing and hearing the array of trumpets, violins, guitars and vihuelas, Miculka said his ‘jaw hit the floor. When I heard that I thought, “Holy cow, this is what a mariachi group should really sound like.” ‘ …

“Miculka hired Roland Sandoval as music director of the program established in 1990 at John Jay High School. Miculka then expanded to start a program at Holmes High School and created ‘feeder’ programs at middle schools in the district. …

Both Miculka and Sandoval credit parents in their districts with establishing the importance of formalized mariachi education programs.

“ ‘It’s such a visible part of our culture,’ and when parents realized their children could access the traditional music through formal education, ‘they started advocating for that,’ said Sandoval. …

“Cynthia Muñoz has been working to bring visibility to the art form of mariachi for decades, starting the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza competition in San Antonio in 1995.

“The annual competition invites high school mariachi groups from around the country to hone their skills toward winning recognition in the prestigious event, with groups from the Rio Grande Valley regularly winning top honors.  

“Muñoz credits Belle Ortiz with inspiring her own work to promote mariachi culture, having witnessed Ortiz’s first mariachi festival in San Antonio in 1979 featuring the world-renowned Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. 

“ ‘This had a significant impact on me as a young teenager as I realized that our culture, music and history was way deeper and more beautiful than I ever could have imagined,’ Muñoz wrote in a Facebook memorial post commemorating Ortiz’s influence. …

“Education programs need certified teachers. Miculka said that as mariachi learning evolved from being passed along through families to professional apprenticeships and public school programs, musician John Lopez saw the demand and led the effort to establish a mariachi-focused degree-level program at Texas State University in San Marcos. …

“Lopez said the Kingsville program ‘was like lighting a match,’ with students going on to create ensembles at schools in their home communities throughout the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas, many of which have been formalized as programs as those former students rose into the ranks of school administrations. …

“Despite overall growth in mariachi education programs, Poe Middle School mariachi director Augustine Ortiz nearly lost his program in February, with SAISD facing declining enrollment, budgetary tightening and school closures. But Poe principal Elizabeth Castro was able to save the program through a special allocation, in part because hundreds of students prioritized their mariachi studies.

“Studying mariachi not only creates enthusiasm for his students to come to school, Ortiz said, but helps them excel overall. ‘The standard of the students’ education is rising when they’re in programs like these,’ he said. ‘What helps is that it’s culturally relevant to them since we do have a huge Mexican American population in our school.’

“Ortiz said he has been open with his students about the challenges faced by the programs. ‘They need to learn that we need to advocate for ourselves,’ he said. ‘That way we can get the best education [for] our students, not just currently but in the future as well.’ …

“ ‘There’s a supply and demand now for mariachi teachers,’ he said. ‘If you’re gonna go into music education right now, the place to be is mariachi education.’ ”

More at San Antonio Report, here.

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Summer Jobs Make a Comeback

August 15, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/CSM Staff.
Jason Tackie’s summer job is at Parkway Community YMCA in Boston.

I was a day-camp counselor, my husband scooped ice cream back in the day and delivered newspapers, my sister checked out grocery-store items. Those were a few of the typical summer jobs people had.

Then came the years when it seemed like no one was taking those jobs anymore unless they were on a work-first-and-tour-America program from Eastern European or Turkish universities. US young people were taking internships at hedge funds and that sort of thing.

Now the Christian Science Monitor says summer jobs are back, at least according to a Northeastern University study of the Boston area.

Reporters Troy Aidan Sambajon and Oli Turner write, “Getting a summer job used to mean scooping ice cream at the mall or working the drive-thru at Burger King. Then came the Great Recession, followed by a rush for teens to spend their summers padding their college résumés with coding and language camps.

“That changed again when the world closed for COVID-19, and then reopened. Not all adults returned to their jobs. The virtual ones came and went. Enter the teenage worker. …

“The year before the pandemic, teens accounted for just over 2% of new hires, according to Gusto, a human resources and payroll company. In 2023, teens accounted for 20% of new hires. This summer, the share of teens working or looking for work hit a 14-year high – 38%, reversing a decades-long decline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

“ ‘Employers suddenly rediscovered teenagers as an important source of labor in the post-COVID economy, when adults realized they didn’t want to come back,’ says Alicia Sasser Modestino, associate professor at Northeastern University, who has been surveying Boston’s summer employment program for nearly a decade.

“The return of teens to lifeguard stations, grocery checkout lines, and summer camps has benefits beyond the paycheck, according to experts and the teens themselves. In addition to learning CPR or how to run a social media campaign, teens interviewed talk about learning financial literacy, planning for their future, and feeling part of a community. 

“Consider Jayden Orr, 16, who just started in July at ABCD SummerWorks in Boston. …

“ ‘The main thing that’s on my mind lately is my family,’ says Jayden, ‘because I got to help my family out. That’s how the family’s gonna eat.’

“Zariyah Witherspoon, 17, also helps out her family, giving her mother $100 from her paychecks, the bulk of which she’s saving for college. …

“Zariyah talks about growing up at the South Street Youth Center and finding her passion in the center’s boiler-room-turned-recording studio. As a 10-year-old, she helped replace the youth center’s floors and paint the walls a cheerful blue. She says the program and the mentorship she has received from her manager have helped her focus on her future. …

” ‘Nearly 70% of the young people in the summer jobs program are using some of their earnings to pay some kind of household bill. They’re helping pay rent, groceries, or utilities,’ [Modestino] says. ‘They’re paying for their own cellphone or their own clothes now.’ 

“Allison Vernerey has been handling hundreds of applications a day. As executive director of the city’s Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity, she has also been meeting with families to place their youths in the right job.

“The pandemic was especially tough for teens, says Ms. Vernerey. ‘I speak to a lot of the parents. … There’s really this eagerness to in some way catch up and make sure that the youth are set up for success in the future.’ …

“The benefits of a summer job can shape teens’ academic and social success in both the short and long term, according to a 10-year study conducted by Northeastern University on Boston’s teen summer employment programs. 

” ‘In the short term, young people increase their aspirations to go to college, have higher GPAs, and less absenteeism in school,’ says Dr. Modestino. …

“In the long term, the social-emotional skills developed on the job also reduce anxiety and conflict by training youths to deal with stressful situations. ‘We found that those soft skills – like managing emotions, resolving conflicts with a peer, and asking adults for help – those things are highly correlated with a reduction in criminal justice involvement. Young people in the program are 35% less likely to be involved in a violent crime and 29% less likely to be involved in a property crime,’ says Dr. Modestino. …

“ ‘What I see is that more kids are getting jobs because parents aren’t always going to be able to buy the stuff they want, so teens want to be more independent,’ says Jason Tackie. …

“Jason started working after his first year of high school to buy new shoes and basketball equipment. He didn’t expect to be learning new skills, gaining new mentors, or frankly, learning to have fun while working.  He says having a job has improved his time management in school, too. Jason wants to study nursing at a four-year college, something he said he has only realized recently. …

“ ‘There’s a lot of stuff that I learned on the job that I didn’t know that I was going to learn,’ he adds. ‘I feel like it motivates me every day to come here and make sure everyone’s having a good time. It’s helped me grow up a lot.’ ”

More at the Monitor, here. No paywall.

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Troubled Teens Honor the Dead

August 14, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Lane Turner/Boston Globe.
A numbered grave just outside the Rhode Island Training School Thomas C. Slater Youth Development Center in Cranston, Rhode Island. Teens incarcerated at the facility helped bring the paupers’ graveyard to light, writing obituaries for the forgotten.

Recently, I read a Victorian novel (The Three Clerks, Anthony Trollope) in which the notorious Dickens villain Bill Sykes was favorably compared to a villain who was born with every opportunity to live an upright life. Trollope’s point was that for a pauper raised in poverty with no access to education or higher things it might be considered understandable that he went bad and died in ignominy.

I’m thinking about this in connection with today’s story about how paupers’ graves raised the consciousness of some youths in trouble with the law today.

Amanda Milkovits wrote at the Boston Globe, “Sometimes, as they played basketball outside at the Rhode Island Training School, the teens would glance through the security fence to the woods and brush that shrouded rows of small stones.

“ ‘What are they?’ A 16-year-old boy incarcerated at the Training School remembered asking one of the staff members.

“Graves, he was told. The plain, numbered concrete headstones marked the burial sites of 1,049 people who died a century ago.

“Some had been residents of the state asylum. Some were teenagers who lived at the former Sockanosset Boys Training School. Some had spent their last years in the state poorhouse. Some were stillborn infants who were never given names, factory workers who fell on hard times, immigrants who sought a better life, only to die far from home.

“What they all had in common was poverty and no one to claim their bodies. From around 1915 until 1933, the state gave them a simple burial in this place, known as the State Farm Cemetery Annex, or Cranston Historical Cemetery No. 107. Prisoners made the concrete headstones, which were engraved with numbers instead of the names of those buried 6 feet below.

“ ‘I thought it was just a regular grave site, but I’d never seen a grave with a number before,’ another boy told the Globe. … ‘It’s sad. No one should just be a number.’

“For decades, the cemetery has been a lonely, quiet place, cut off from public access because it’s bordered by the state’s maximum security prison, Route 37, and the Training School. …

“John Scott, a senior community development training specialist at the Training School, had been interested in the cemetery since he first caught a glimpse of it in the 1990s. The teens’ curiosity made him wonder whether those on probation or who needed to perform community service could help restore the cemetery, even if only by clearing some of the brush.

“But Theresa Moore, president of T-Time Productions, saw potential for more. Her company designs educational curriculums with the goal of shining light on untold or little-known stories, and was already working with the Training School on its educational programs for incarcerated youths. …

“ ‘I’ve always looked for projects to enhance their lives,’ Moore said, ‘so when John mentioned it, I thought, “Why don’t we make it happen?” ‘

She called the project: ‘They Were More Than A Number.’

“Moore reached out to the leaders of the Rhode Island and Cranston historical cemeteries commissions, who were delighted to share their knowledge — they’d wanted to restore that cemetery for years, but could never get access. She contacted Secretary of State Gregg Amore, who assisted with resources at the state archives, giving the teens access to records from the state infirmary that include doctors’ notes, reports from the state institutions … and burial records. …

“The students started their research. Records and documents from the state archives, the drone footage, and other resources were used to help them put the history into context. Some materials, such as a video of Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum, explaining the ‘pencil genocide’ of Indigenous people, were scanned into a Google drive for about 50 students and their teachers. …

” ‘At first, I didn’t really care,’ admitted one 16-year-old boy, ‘but I wouldn’t like it if I was just a number.’ …

“A 16-year-old boy said he chose No. 500, and learned it was the grave of a man named John Holland, who died in 1915. When he wrote Holland’s obituary, ‘It made me feel bad that they didn’t have names,’ he said. …

“One day in late May, the teens and the adults involved with the cemetery project met in person along the security fence at the Training School. The view through the fence was clear now. Brush and saplings and debris had been hauled away, and there were two new signs, marking the site as a state and city historical cemetery. The cemetery was serene, shaded by the old silver maples.

“As the teens in their dark blue uniforms listened, accompanied by their teachers, Scott, Moore, and volunteers from the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission thanked them for their work and told them it had meaning.

“John Hill, chairman of the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission, had read some of the obituaries written by the students.

“ ‘You’re giving them their names back,’ Hill told them. ‘You are making them human beings again.’ …

“Scott knew why the teens incarcerated at the Training School could relate. ‘If anyone can understand what it means to be a number,’ he said, ‘it’s our students.’”

Read this long, beautiful article at the Globe, here.

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Nudging Kids toward Independence

August 13, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor.
Fifth graders at Dennis Ortwein Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, and their Let Grow posters.

Ultimately, you want your children to grow up able to take care of themselves. Love and convenience give parents plenty of temptation to do things for them beyond the point where the help is beneficial. That’s why a school in Nevada is lending a hand to kids and parents alike to so that fledglings may have a good chance to fledge.

Jackie Valley has the story at the Christian Science Monitor.

“Walking the dog. Wrapping a package. Cooking dinner.

“For adults, these activities often represent mundane to-do list tasks. But for fifth graders in Las Vegas, they offered something different this past school year – a taste of independence. 

“ ‘I can do things by myself more instead of having my dad or my mom do them,’ says Deven Doutis, who learned his dog goes a little nuts when he spots another canine out for a stroll.

The small steps toward greater – and lasting – independence came about in a very intentional way.

“Deven’s teacher, Amy Wolfe, sensed students were entering higher grades with more needs than in past years. Some couldn’t open a water bottle, for instance, or navigate minor conflicts with their peers. So when Ms. Wolfe heard about a program called Let Grow, she decided to pilot it within select classrooms at Dennis Ortwein Elementary School in Las Vegas.

“The program’s premise is simple: When children gain independence, they grow into more confident and capable people. …

“But what, exactly, are kids allowed to do by themselves nowadays? Terms such as ‘helicopter parent’ or ‘overparenting’ have become shorthand to describe adults who are overly involved, sometimes to the detriment of their child’s developmental growth. …

“A poll conducted last year for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan found that three-quarters of parents say they have their children do things for themselves; however, the percentage of parents who report their children do specific activities independently is lower. Only a third of parents, for example, allow their 9-to-11-year-old child to walk or bike to a friend’s house. A similar portion say they encourage their 5-to-8-year-olds to decide how to spend their own gift or allowance money.

“Safety concerns emerged as the top reason those same parents don’t allow their children more free rein. The results did not come as a surprise to Lenore Skenazy, president of Let Grow and author of Free-Range Kids. For years, she has been on a mission to unleash children in a society where they increasingly have little independence in the physical world. …

“She says the backlash stems from a pervasive, heightened sense of danger built by media narratives and litigious tendencies. …

“In a commentary piece published by the Journal of Pediatrics last year, researchers pointed to evidence showing a correlation between children’s dwindling independence and increasing mental health problems over several decades.

” ‘We are not suggesting that a decline in opportunities for independent activity is the sole cause of the decline in young people’s mental well-being over decades, only that it is a cause, possibly a major cause,’ the authors wrote. (The lead author, Peter Gray, is a research professor in psychology at Boston College and a founding member of Let Grow.)

“In Ms. Wolfe’s classroom each month, students chose an independent activity, loosely tied to a theme, and completed it by themselves. Then they reported back to their classmates and teacher about the experience. There were no grades or critiques. If Ms. Wolfe asked any probing questions, it was to suss out how her students felt after, say, baking a cake or pulling weeds. …

“ ‘It’s more about developing the conversations with students to where they see independence … as a value,’ she says. …

“For her first project, Giwan Istefan’s 11-year-old daughter, Aria, decided to make miniature lemon-and-blueberry cheesecakes. Ms. Istefan says it turned into an exercise in parental restraint as well.

“ ‘I was like, “Oh my gosh, I see the disaster happening,” ‘ she says. ‘But I had to step back. It was growth not just for her, but it was growth for also myself.’ “

More at the Monitor, here. What are some of the ways you have encouraged independence in children, not necessarily only as a parent?

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