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Deaf Dancers Feel the Vibe

October 3, 2023 by suzannesmom


Photo: Lanna Apisukh for NPR.
Concertgoers dancing at the Silent Disco dance party at Lincoln Center, New York City, on Saturday, July 1, 2023. “Haptic” suits designed for the deaf community were provided by Music: Not Impossible.

Of the many interesting kinds of jobs in the world, I bet you never heard of this one: “Chief Vibrational officer”! Jennifer Vanasco explains at National Public Radio (NPR).

“When Daniel Belquer was first asked to join a team to make a better live music experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, he was struck by how they had developed work-arounds to enjoy concerts.

” ‘What they were doing at the time was holding balloons to feel the vibrations through their fingers, or go barefoot and flip the speakers facing the floor,’ Belquer said.

“He thought the team could make something to help hard-of-hearing people enjoy live music even more with the technology now available. …

“Belquer, who is also a musician and theater artist, is now the ‘Chief Vibrational Officer’ of Music: Not Impossible, an off-shoot of Not Impossible Labs, which uses new technology to address social issues like poverty and disability access. …

“His team started by strapping vibrating cell phone motors to bodies, but that didn’t quite work. The vibrations were all the same. Eventually, they worked with engineers at the electronic components company Avnet to develop a light haptic [3D touch] suit with a total of 24 actuators, or vibrating plates. There’s 20 of them studded on a vest that fits tightly around the body like a hiking backpack, plus an actuator that straps onto each wrist and ankle.

“When you wear the suit, it’s surprising how much texture the sensations have. It can feel like raindrops on your shoulders, a tickle across the ribs, a thump against the lower back.

It doesn’t replicate the music — it’s not as simple as regular taps to the beat. It plays waves of sensation on your skin in a way that’s complementary to the music.

“The vibrations are mixed by a haptic DJ who controls the location, frequency and intensity of feeling across the suits, just as a music DJ mixes sounds in an artful way.

“The evening’s haptic DJ was Paddy Hanlon, co-founder of Music: Not Impossible. ‘What we’re doing is taking the feed from the DJ, and we can select and mix what we want and send it to different parts of the body,’ he said. ‘So, I’ll kind of hone in on, like, the bass element and I’ll send that out, and then the high hats and the snare.’

“The haptic suits were just one component of the event, which was celebrating Disability Pride Month as part of Lincoln Center’s annual Summer for the City festival. There were American Sign Language interpreters; the music was captioned on a screen on the stage; there was audio description for those who were blind, and there were chairs to sit in. There’s also a chill-out space with noise-reducing headphones, earplugs and fidgets for those who feel overstimulated. Because it’s a silent disco — meaning you can only hear the music through headphones — attendees could adjust the sound. …

“The suits are the star attraction. Lily Lipman, who has auditory processing disorder, glowed when asked about her experience.

” ‘It’s cool, because I’m never quite sure if I’m hearing what other people are hearing, so it’s amazing to get those subtleties in my body.’

“Said Kevin Gotkin, one of the evening’s DJs and the curator of disability artistry events at Lincoln Center, ‘This is a chance for us to be together and experience access that’s integrated into a party artistically and not as, like, a compliance thing. … Disability is the center of the party.’ “

More at NPR, here. No paywall.

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Obscure Musical Instruments

October 2, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: chrisstockphoto/Alamy.
Traditional west African instrument, the balafon. 

Having fun today learning about unusual musical instruments, whose fans, though small in number, are nevertheless as devoted as those who love the sound of a French horn or steel drum.

Kevin LeGendre reports at the Guardian, “In the 2022 film Alice, the titular heroine – a slave living on a 19th-century-style plantation in Georgia – discovers that she is really living in the 1970s. The soundtrack reflects the latter period … with interludes that feature an instrument that was first heard in the days of plantations: the contrabass clarinet.

“The instrument is played by James Carter, a 54-year-old musician from Detroit who has been a significant figure in jazz since the early 90s. ‘I just loved the “muddy earth” sound it has,’ he says.

‘All that air flowing through it made you feel like you’re the lord of the underground. The contrabass clarinet has such expressive range; it reminds me of bullfrogs in the night, yet it is also a kind of wise old sage, it’s so commanding.’

“You can hear what he’s talking about on his 2003 album, ‘Gardenias for Lady Day,’ a tribute to the vocal great Billie Holiday. On Strange Fruit, Holiday’s anti-lynching anthem, Carter draws from the contrabass clarinet a series of primeval, haunting wails that entirely suit the subject matter. The low-end horn is like an engulfing darkness. …

“For those who play the sorts of instruments that are rarely seen in orchestras and jazz bands, there are practical hurdles to overcome, such as honing posture and technique to successfully negotiate the shape, size and structure of these uncommon inventions. Not to mention the cost and complexity of servicing and maintaining such devices. …

“First used in 19th-century classical orchestras and military bands, the contrabass clarinet is one of the more obscure members of the woodwind family. It has long held an appeal for jazz musicians intent on creating a wide tonal spectrum in their work. One of Carter’s major sources of inspiration, Anthony Braxton, an innovative Chicago-born composer-improviser, raised the profile of the instrument when he used it at prestigious international festivals in Montreux and Berlin back in the mid 70s.

“ ‘He was way ahead of his time,’ says Carter, whose arsenal of reed instruments also includes F-mezzo, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones. ‘When he hits a low C, it takes you to another dimension. I wanted to experience the same thing when I played it myself.’

‘With its broad, upright frame, like a giant paperclip, the contrabass clarinet requires its players to have physical strength as well as technique. … Says Carter, “You have to make your lungs work a little bit harder with it, but that’s also the beauty. You feel everything you put into it.’

“As much as Carter, who has worked with jazz and rock stars such as Herbie Hancock and Ginger Baker, hails the wonders of the contrabass clarinet, he is keen to acknowledge the role that specialist woodwind makers such as Benedikt Eppelsheim have played in its evolution. The renowned German instrument maker, who died earlier this year, fitted it with trill keys – small levers that facilitate the shaking and warbling of notes – and additional octaves that ‘let the instrument sing more.’

“[Most] exciting are those custom-made devices that were never put into mass production. Such is the case of a one-off low-register beast played by Paul Rogers that straddles eras, genres and cultures. A hybrid of the baroque-period viola da gamba, double bass and Indian sitar, this unnamed instrument has seven rather than four playing strings, as well as 14 ‘sympathetic strings’ – non‑playing strings tucked under the playing strings to produce greater resonance.

“ ‘It’s a weird combination of many things,’ says Rogers. ‘I told a French luthier, Antoine Leducq, what I wanted and he took about a year and a half to make it. The shape of the instrument is like a small canoe. It’s like a medieval thing, really. But I listen to all sorts of music – medieval classical, Asian and African music – and with this instrument I can really find some of those sounds. …

“Yahael Camara Onono [loves] the balafon. It is one of many traditional west African instruments featured in Balimaya Project, the ensemble he leads that has built a sizeable audience in Britain in the past few years through its blend of Mandé rhythms, jazz, funk and spoken word. Similar in appearance to a xylophone, the balafon has keys made of strips of wood that resonate through small calabashes (gourds) tied underneath. The instrument must be handled with care.

“ ‘You have to be in the right atmospheric conditions because it’s quite fragile,’ says 31-year-old Onono, a percussionist and historian of west African instruments. ‘Heat and humidity affect every part of the instrument, so traveling from one continent to another is tricky.’ “

“When the Dust Settles by Balimaya Project is out now on New Soil/Jazz Re:Freshed.” If you are in London on the 17th of this month, check them out at the Barbican.

More at the Guardian, here. No paywall. Contributions encouraged.

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The World’s Cycling City

October 1, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Modacity.
“To understand how Groningen got to where it is today, one must look back nearly 50 years, to a young, idealistic politician who bravely decided to go against conventional wisdom,” says the Daily Hive.

I haven’t been to Ocean Beach on Fire Island in decades, so I don’t know if it is still entirely free of cars, but it definitely was in my childhood summers, and it’s hard to convey just how radically that changes the quality of life for the better. Car-free in the Netherlands sounds heavenly, too.

Chris and Melissa Bruntlett write at the Daily Hive, “When we initially selected the five Dutch cities we would explore over the course of our #CyclingAbroad adventure, many of our friends had no idea where Groningen was, let alone why we would want to visit there. But among our colleagues in the transportation and urbanism world, a pilgrimage to this once-fortressed college town, 200 km northeast of Utrecht – famously declared ‘The World’s Cycling City’ by Streetfilms’ short documentary  – was an absolute must.

“With a population of around 200,000, a quarter of whom are students at the two local universities, Groningen has accomplished a feat many emerging cycling cities could only dream of: a bicycle mode share that eclipses the established powerhouses of Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Recent figures indicate a staggering 61% of trips in the city are made by bicycle. That’s almost nine times larger than Vancouver’s celebrated mode share. …

“To understand how Groningen got to where it is today, one must look back nearly 50 years, to a young, idealistic politician who bravely decided to go against conventional wisdom.

“In the mid-1970s, as cities across the country were scrambling to create the ideal conditions for mass motoring (including, most notably, Amsterdam), a left-leaning Groningen council recognized the inherent flaws in rebuilding their city around the private automobile. Max Van den Berg, then just 24 years old, and the councillor responsible for traffic and urban development, resolved to take his city in the opposite direction. Under Van den Berg’s advice, in 1977, council all but banished motor vehicles from the city centre, making it a far more pleasant place for people on foot and bicycle.

“For Lior Steinberg, an urban planner born and raised in Tel Aviv, the resulting lively cityscape is what drew him to relocate to Groningen, after a study tour while completing his master’s degree. ‘Groningen is a vibrant city, and there is a great cultural life. It’s a real hidden gem,’ he claims. …

“Steinberg credits Van den Berg’s Traffic Circulation Plan as central to Groningen’s successes: ‘The circulation plan divided the city centre to four parts, forbidding cars to cross between those quarters,’ he explains. ‘This made the city centre practically impenetrable with a car, and made cycling and walking the best way to get around.’

“While the plan didn’t completely remove motor vehicles from the equation (public buses and delivery vans still access certain parts of the city centre), we pedalled practically everywhere with our children over the course of a week, feeling completely at ease with our surroundings. Bicycles definitely rule the road in Groningen, with thousands of cyclists rolling along virtually every one of its cobblestone streets, from dawn until long after dusk. …

“Other Dutch cities began replicating their winning formula, and – having discovered that improving cycling conditions serves as an inexpensive and effective way to remain competitive – quickly started catching up.

“At the same time, many of the city’s cycle routes were experiencing problematic congestion, particularly on corridors leading to the university campus. The need to deal with an ever-increasing volume of people on bikes, along with the desire to retain their title of ‘The World’s Cycling City,’ are what provided the impetus for the Groningen Cycling City strategy.

“ ‘Cycling is in our DNA. We are proud of it and definitely aim to keep it that way,’ reads the preface of the 48-page plan. This is as clear of a mission statement as it gets. …

“Many the projects contained in this ‘bicycle first’ strategy are rather ambitious and innovative. Most notably, as a northern city, Groningen’s temperatures often hover around freezing during winter months, creating frosty conditions unsafe for road users, especially those on the narrow wheels of a bike. Within the next decade, officials hope to use geothermal energy (from the earth) and wastewater thermal energy (from the sewers) to heat the cycle tracks, keeping them clear of frost and snow, and allowing for safe, year-round, two-wheeled travel.

“Other measures include a series of ‘smart routes‘: direct, convenient cycle paths designed to get students and staff to school in 15 minutes, without having to make a single stop.

Groningen is also one of the first cities to attempt to ‘solve traffic situations with eye contact,’ first piloting, then expanding, a counterintuitive, but highly effective four-way green light for cyclists at 29 different intersections.

“With as many as 20,000 cyclists traveling certain corridors on a given day, planners are being forced to ‘think outside the lane,’ and experiment with the notion of handing entire streets – known as fietsstraten (Dutch for ‘bike streets’) – over to the bicycle as the dominant mode of transportation.

“The plan also includes a long-overdue expansion of their central train and bus station. Already overflowing from its above and below-ground parking lots – capable of holding 10,000 bikes – the strategy aims to expand that availability by another 5,000 bikes. The City also hopes to improve connectivity from the station to the existing cycling network by building a bicycle tunnel under the bus depot, reducing conflicts between these two popular modes. …

“In every Dutch city we toured, moving by bike was simple and intuitive, even for our seven-year-old son. But traveling on foot was much less desirable, and Groningen was no exception. Sidewalks are narrow, and teeming with bikes parked anywhere their owners could find a space. In fact, shops along the busier routes in Groningen now roll out red carpets to their front doors; not to make their patrons feel like royalty, but to discourage the parking of bicycles, and maintain access for their customers.

“Steinberg feels addressing people on foot is of utmost importance: ‘To be frank, the biggest concern at City Hall today shouldn’t be cycling, but walkability. Many of the city’s sidewalks are not accessible to elderly or physically-challenged people.’ ”

More at the Daily Hive, here. Because the Hive article is from 2016, I recommend that biking enthusiasts check out this update from 2022.

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Maybe Sammy the Seal Is Real

September 30, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: JShadab1/Twitter.
Says the NY Post, “A sea lion enjoyed a brief taste of freedom as she hitched a ride on floodwaters and swam out of her Central Park Zoo pool enclosure on Friday.”

Once upon a time, I was a kid who shared a crowded bedroom with two younger brothers. As the oldest, I was often relied on to help out — for example, by keeping the younger ones from wandering when they were supposed to go to sleep. And I did like telling them stories.

My series about a seal called Sammy who left the zoo at night for adventures but always came back in the morning must have meant something important to me because there were many episodes.

Sammy’s escape was different from Sally the Sea Lion’s in today’s story because Sammy had a secret place in the bottom of the tank where he went in and out, and he stayed away all night. Sally, on the other hand, merely took advantage of yesterday’s flooding to swim out the top of her enclosure for a brief look around and then go home.

I guess she was used to hanging out with the other sea lions there, her friends. I know what my hairdresser would think about this. She has almost convinced me that zoos are wrong. I think Tracie would let all the animals out if there were a way to do it safely.

Claire Fahy reports at the New York Times, “A female sea lion, known as Sally, escaped from her enclosure at the Central Park Zoo briefly on Friday, swimming out of the pool where she is kept when the heavy rains lashing New York City flooded the zoo grounds.

“Workers monitored Sally’s movements as she explored the area around the enclosure before rejoining the zoo’s other two sea lions in the pool, said Jim Breheny of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Zoos and Aquarium, which oversees four zoos and the city’s aquarium.

“By 3 p.m., the water at the zoo had receded, and all animals were contained in their enclosures, Mr. Breheny said. No staff members were in danger during the storm, and the city’s four zoos were closed so that employees could focus on keeping animals safe.

“For Karen Dugan and her colleagues at the city’s parks department, the roving sea lion made for a rare sight from their third-floor offices in the agency’s headquarters at the Arsenal, a building inside the park that overlooks the zoo.” More at the Times, here.

What does an animal escaping the zoo mean to you?

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Growing Her Own Paints

September 29, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Lakshmi Rivera Amin/Hyperallergic.
Page spread from Feral Hues, a book by Ellie Irons on making your own paints.

Artistic types are going back to nature for pigments these days. My friend Ann grows special weeds and flowers to make dyes for her beautiful textiles. In today’s Hyperallergic interview by Lakshmi Rivera Amin, we learn about an artist making her own paints.

“Taking the concept of a ‘green thumb’ several steps further, artist Ellie Irons approaches plants as a literal source of color: She creates her watery paintings with pigments tinted by organic hues found in the natural world. These works … record, honor, and reorient our relationship to the vegetation around us, specifically in current-day New York State’s Hudson area.

“I picked Irons’s brain about the process of creating her own paints through harvesting on the occasion of her recent book, Feral Hues: A guide to painting with weeds (Publication Studio Hudson). This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

“Hyperallergic: What is the most joyful part of making your own pigments?
“Ellie Irons: There are many joys, which is why I’ve been entranced by the process for so many years: an ever-deepening and shifting connection to urban ecosystems and the land that supports them that emerges through careful, considered harvesting practices; the smells, colors, and textures that reveal themselves when plant parts are processed by hand in the studio; the joy of sharing the process with other humans who also become entranced by the relatively simple act of lovingly harvesting often overlooked weedy plants and creating paint with them; the process of attuning to the cycles of vegetal life sprouting, growing, blossoming, fruiting, [dying] across the seasons and years — there is always something to delight in and harvest, in any habitat, even in deep winter. …

“H: How has your practice evolved over the past several years?
“Irons: I would say recently, since maybe 2019, my work has become more locally rooted and grounded. In the decade before that, I found myself investigating plants across urban habitats in a global sense — comparing pokeweed and honeysuckle growing in a parking lot in Taipei with the same species sprouting from a concrete river in current-day Los Angeles, for example.

“I’m still fascinated by those global connections, and find them resonant and relevant, but in recent years my focus and my daily practice have shifted to be more bioregional — I take the Mahicanituck/Hudson River Watershed as a salient range in which to work, connecting with human and plant populations up and down the river from New York City to the Adirondacks. …

“This shifting focus is based on a range of factors, from my increasing discomfort with energy-intensive travel to my new(ish) status as a mother to my day job with a community science and art organization that focuses on hyper-local environmental justice issues, to of course, the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. There are other ways it has changed, of course — writing has become increasingly important to me, as has enduring land-based work (a result of living in a shrinking upstate city where access to soil and open earth is simpler than in New York City, where I started working with plants more than a decade ago).

“H: What are your favorite plants to work and be in relation with, and why?
“Irons: Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have many favorites, and feel fortunate regularly meet plants who are new to me — my loves change by the season, and across contexts. Right now, in early August, each morning I’m greeted by innumerable, intensely blue Asiatic dayflower … blossoms lining the border of my neighbors’ chainlink fence where it meets the sidewalk.

“The blossoms only last until noon or so, depending on the weather and the intensity of the sun. I take 20 to 30 blossoms most mornings, and store them in a small cup in the freezer, accumulating them until I’m ready to process them into a range of shades of blue.

“I love dayflowers for the way they become unmissable once they catch your eye, and draw you in. They have an unassuming stature, foliage that’s easy to overlook, but when they burst into flower for several hours each morning, the proliferation of electric blue petals — almost sparkling if you look closely — can feel like tiny jewels sprinkled along the sidewalk. …

“Having migrated to the American continent, they live well in cities, where they are sometimes appreciated as a ‘wildflower,’ and are gaining notoriety as a super weed in round-up ready soybean fields, where they’ve demonstrated resistance to the herbicide glyphosate. And in their native China they are being studied as a hyperaccumulator due to their ability to thrive on the polluted soils of old copper mines, absorbing large amounts of heavy metals. …

“H: What do you hope anyone interested in approaching plants as material sources for art will first consider and reflect upon?
“Irons: I hope people will keep in mind processes of gratitude and respect — of mutual exchange, rather than of taking to satisfy a material need. This can look many ways. Maybe even just asking yourself a few questions before harvesting: Who else might be in relation with this plant, human or more-than-human? What is the plant doing here and why? How long has this plant been here, will they be here tomorrow, or in 100 years?” 

More at Hyperallergic, here. No paywall, but subscriptions are encouraged.

Photo: Ermell/Wikimedia Commons.
Asiatic Dayflower, or Commelina communis.

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Florida’s Ghost Reefs

September 28, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Coral Restoration Foundation.
Severe bleaching and mortality in the Middle Florida Keys. Photo taken on July 24th.

One doesn’t always think of television news as going deep on a serious and complex problem, but I have to give credit to Florida’s WFLA for taking on dying ocean reefs. The sad tale makes me think we humans are like lobsters who don’t notice the water is boiling until it’s too late.

“Once colorful coral cities overflowing with marine life, transforming into ghost towns, or better stated, ‘Ghost reefs’ seemingly overnight.

“ ‘We are surprised by the pace. It is unprecedented what we have seen,’ said Scott Atwell the communications and outreach manager for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

“Atwell told WFLA Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Tuesday: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this. Some are not even bleaching, they are going straight to dead.’

“ ‘Straight to dead’ illustrates just how extreme the marine heatwave is and how quickly it’s evolving. When under stress, typically coral bleach first, expelling their symbiotic algae partners which give them their vibrant hues, and turn white. Then sometime later, if the heat persists, the coral can succumb and die.

“But right now in the Florida Keys, there are reports of rapid mortality. Coral is dropping like dominoes across much of the reef tract from Key Largo to Key West – the third largest tract in the world and the only shallow water reef system in the U.S. mainland.

“About 25% of marine life depends on coral reefs during some stage of their life. If coral reefs vanish it will have cascading consequences across ocean ecosystems and the life that it supports. …

“Mission: Iconic Reefs, a large-scale NOAA-led coral restoration initiative reports that the most recent seafloor temperature at Sombrero Key (off Marathon) is 93.4F and at Looe Key (off Big Pine Key) is 89.6F. According to Mission: Iconic Reefs the ‘optimal’ temperature for reef-building corals maxes out at 84 degrees.

“Although tropical corals live in warm water, they are very sensitive to just a couple of degrees Fahrenheit spike in sea surface temperatures, especially if it lasts for too long. NOAA Coral Reef Watch says at four weeks, coral can begin to show signs of stress. If the heat last eight weeks, a bleaching event becomes likely. [In July, we passed] the eight-week mark. …

“Bill Precht is a coral reef scientist in South Florida. In his 45 years studying coral, he’s never been so concerned about the Keys’ iconic reefs, ‘If things progress as they have started … the likelihood of catastrophic levels of mortality are high.’

“As a result of this unprecedented event, NOAA Mission: Iconic Reefs and their partner organizations are racing against the clock to rescue coral from the reefs and bring specimens into the lab where they can buy some time until the ocean cools back down.

“So the natural question is, when the coral die, can they recover? Dr. Katey Lesneski, the Coordinator of NOAA Mission: Iconic Reefs was asked that question by PBS News Hour and here’s what she said, ‘Once they die there are other reef organisms that will settle on that skeleton, take up space, and the coral tissue cannot grow back, unfortunately.’

“So the teams are taking drastic measures to gene bank two fragments from each unique genetic individual of staghorn and elkhorn corals, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In other words, they are preserving the genetic material so that if much of the coral is lost, there is a way to restore it.”

More at WFLA, here. Startling graphs. No firewall.

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Campus Archaeologists Get a Surprise

September 27, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Michigan State University Archives via the Smithsonian.
Michigan State University’s first observatory, circa 1888. 

Sometimes it’s just luck that starts someone on a rewarding career — or generates a lifetime of memories. Today’s story is about the trajectory of budding archaeologists.

Daniel Wu writes at the Washington Post, “Morgan Manuszak had to travel thousands of miles from her East Lansing, Mich., campus in 2022 to get some much-needed work experience. The Michigan State University senior, who studies archaeology as part of a minor in anthropology, said she was able to do archaeological fieldwork for the first time only in Isthmia, Greece, where the university hosts a field school.

“Not every budding archaeologist at Michigan State is so fortunate, students and researchers said. Opportunities for students to complete archaeological fieldwork are competitive and often require expensive overseas travel. Many students were also unable to access such trips during the pandemic, when travel was restricted.

“But soon, a new archaeological site will be waiting for the university’s undergraduates just a short walk from their dorms.

“Students working with Michigan State’s Campus Archaeology Program this summer unearthed part of the cobblestone foundation of a 142-year-old observatory in a clearing near a student residence hall, the university announced [in August]. The site of the building — Michigan State’s first observatory for astronomy, dating back to 1881 — will become a dig site next summer for the university’s undergraduates and local residents to practice archaeological techniques right on campus.

“The unlikely discovery happened this summer when construction workers attempted to install hammock poles near a student residence hall on the north end of campus, said Stacey Camp, director of the Campus Archaeology Program. They contacted the program after hitting a hard surface while trying to drive the poles into the ground.

“Researchers consulted school records and noticed that the unassuming site — a lawn shaded by leafy trees near picnic benches and a basketball court — was near the location of a century-old facility built during a key period of change for the university. Michigan State, originally an agricultural college, was slowly branching out into other fields when a professor built the observatory in 1881. …

“The observatory housed a telescope and some of the university’s early astronomy classes and was probably demolished in the 1920s, said Ben Akey, a PhD student and campus archaeologist at Michigan State.

“Akey and a team of students, including Manuszak, conducted an initial survey at the location in June, digging a grid of small holes to try to find remnants of the observatory. They dug for weeks without luck in the area where the construction crew had been working until, on the last scheduled day of searching, a shovel finally struck a small stretch of cobblestone and mortar.

“ ‘It’s a weird common occurrence in archaeology,’ Akey said. ‘Just as you’re about to move on from a site, you end up finding something that sticks you there for another few weeks.’

“Further excavation confirmed that the rock border was the foundation of the old observatory, to the excitement of Akey, Manuszak and the rest of the team. …

“ ‘It was really, really fulfilling,’ Manuszak said. …

“The Campus Archaeology Project has conducted additional research on the site since June, including a scan using ground-penetrating radar, but the bulk of the work is being saved for the university’s undergraduates.

“Some of those students have been starved for an opportunity like this, Akey and Manuszak said. The Campus Archaeology Project has conducted digs and partial excavations at other locations on campus, but the observatory will be one of the university’s oldest excavation sites. That makes a difference in a competitive field where job opportunities hinge on hands-on experience, Akey said. …

“ ‘You can sit in a classroom and learn the steps of how you’re going to lay out your grid and how you need to take note of your stratigraphy as you’re digging down for your excavation unit,’ Manuszak said. ‘But you don’t really get a feel for it until you’re doing it.’ “

More about getting hands-on experience at the Post, here. Also at the Smithsonian, where there is no paywall.

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Those Ballroom Gowns

September 26, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Bonfire Visuals/Greenville Journal.
Beautiful gowns are part of the competitive ballroom-dancing experience.

Do you ever watch ballroom competitions on television and wonder where the women get their amazing gowns? At the Washington Post, Cathy Alter provides an answer — for those who can afford it. The gowns are pretty expensive.

“It could be any house in suburban Annandale, Va.,” writes Alter, “among the split-level Colonials with manicured boxwood shrubs — except, around back, past the statue of the red fox and down some steppingstones, there’s a sign on the basement door to greet visitors: ‘You’re about to enter a sparkle splash zone. Twirling encouraged.’

“Inside, Julie Wilson runs a business here in the family home, known by those who need to know as Encore Ballroom Couture. It’s considered the ballroom dance industry’s leading consignment and consignment-rental dress company. Competitive dancers come here from far and wide, as do the frocks. The abiding aesthetic is more is more: feathers, sequins, fringe, crystals. …

” ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is scheduled to return to ABC’s prime-time schedule with its 32nd season this fall (after a sidestep to Disney Plus for a season); Bravo, in its endless hunt for reality-based drama and conflict among ambitious women and certain men, concluded its first season this summer of ‘Dancing Queens.’ …

“Fans of these shows, or just of the scene itself, may wonder where the gowns come from, or where they go after they’ve been worn. A good place to start is here in Wilson’s basement empire.

“Wilson danced competitively for 20 years, which included a decade as an instructor. She was a pageant queen, too. (Ms. Virginia; Ms. Ireland USA.) The years went by, and her closets bulged with the glimmering evidence of moments in the spotlight. There was no place for the family to keep winter coats. Wilson remembers when her mother, Brenda, had enough: ‘She said, “Julie, you need to do something about this.” ‘

“Wilson, 44, says it was hard to part with her girls. (Gowns, in this community, are all female.) ‘I didn’t trust eBay to take care of my dresses,’ she says. Plus, the resale space for competitive ballroom dancing dresses was ‘a black hole.’

“Brenda Wilson, a retired OB/GYN nurse, and Julie, a government contractor, decided to open Encore, transforming the basement of the home they shared with husband and dad Walter into a dance destination. Chandeliers simulate the lighting of competition dance floors, white ostrich feathers are arranged in vases and a small refurbishing station stands ready for dresses that need a bit of first aid. Instead of nails and screws, small drawers contain a color spectrum of crystals.

“At first, Julie sold her own dresses. Then she sold her friends’ dresses. Fourteen years later, Encore has an inventory of around 450 dresses, consigned by dancers who retired, overhauled their image or whose closets needed some breathing room. Consignors get 60 percent of the sale price, which can be quite considerable; dresses here start around $4,000. Dress rentals begin at $300.

“One of the first girls Wilson resold that wasn’t her own belonged to Rose-Ann Lynch, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. … When Mike prepared to retire in 2005, Rose-Ann handed him a honey-do list, which included dance lessons. ‘I told him, “I don’t want you to lead if you don’t know where you’re going,” she says.

“The duo competed for the first time that same year and are currently the 23-time USA Dance Senior Amateur national champions, a category for people ages 55-64. Tight as drums, Mike and Rose-Ann make a compelling case that the fountain of youth can be found on the dance floor. A logistician by training, Mike possesses rational, chess-like strategies that come in handy on the dance floor. With multiple couples whirling and twirling at the same time, avoiding a collision is vital when the judges determine their final scores.

“Today, the Lynches have come to Encore Ballroom Couture in search of an American Smooth dress for Rose-Ann. A primer, for those who need one: Competitive ballroom dancing includes both American and International categories. American style includes Smooth (waltz, tango, fox trot, Viennese waltz) and Rhythm (cha-cha, rumba, swing, bolero, mambo); International is separated into Standard (waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, slow fox trot, quickstep) and Latin (cha-cha, samba, rumba, paso doble, jive).

“American Smooth and International Standard styles call for dresses with floats (think fluttery silks that move behind the dancer like wisps of steam), and Rhythm and Latin necessitate something shorter and sexier.

“In American Smooth, partners separate and dance side by side, a la Fred and Ginger, so dresses must look good both coming and going. In International Standard, the couples dance closely, so dresses need look amazing only from the back.

“If Rose-Ann finds a dress today, it will appear in one of the most important dance competitions of the year: the Amateur National Championship, next March in Pittsburgh. ‘I always like to be prepared for Nationals,’ she explains.” 

Yesterday I peeked in at a ballroom refresher class for folks in my retirement community. The couples looked pretty sedate. And there certainly weren’t any swirling gowns.

Nice photos and more than you ever wanted to know on this topic at the Post, here.

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Ten Books a Year, Each One a Lion

September 25, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Joel Goodman/The Guardian.
Kevin Duffy has built a publishing business in his home that focuses on ten books a year, many of them prize contenders.

Do you know the Aesop fable in which animal mothers brag about the number of their children? According to MIT Classics, “A controversy prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the greatest number of whelps at a birth. They rushed clamorously into the presence of the Lioness and demanded of her the settlement of the dispute. ‘And you,’ they said, ‘how many sons have you at a birth?’ ”

And the Lioness said, “I have only one. But that one is a lion.”

That is my introduction to a story about a publisher who publishes only ten books a year.

Helen Pidd, North of England editor of the Guardian, writes, “The two-up, two-down terraced house on a cobbled Hebden Bridge street does not look like the headquarters of a multi award-winning publishing house.

“There is no gleaming edifice, no sign and certainly no reception desk. The green front door leads straight into Kevin Duffy’s living room, the nerve centre of Bluemoose books, his independent literary hit factory.

“It is at a cluttered table in the corner that Duffy has built a business with a success rate that billion-pound publishers regard with envy. Each year, Bluemoose puts out no more than 10 titles, but a remarkable number end up in contention for major literary prizes.

“Each author is handpicked by Duffy, 62, a self-confessed ‘control freak’ from Stockport, Greater Manchester, who spent years as a salesperson for big publishers before remortgaging his house to start Bluemoose in 2006. …

“It was Duffy who published Benjamin Myers’ The Gallows Pole, which has been made into a BBC series that was given five stars by the Guardian. …

“In March, Bluemoose won best northern publisher at the Small Press of the Year awards. In April, a Bluemoose title – I Am Not Your Eve, the debut novel by Devika Ponnambalam, which tells the story of Paul Gauguin’s child bride and muse, Teha’amana – was shortlisted for the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction. …

“Bluemoose’s current bestselling author is Rónán Hession, a former musician who balances his writing career with being the assistant general secretary of the department of social protection in the Irish government.

“Hession’s 2019 debut Leonard and Hungry Paul, a funny and tender story about kindness, has sold more than 125,000 copies worldwide. A bestseller in Germany, it has also attracted fans in Hollywood – Duffy recalls receiving an email from someone claiming to be Julia Roberts’s agent. …

“ ‘Then her PR person got in touch saying she wanted to get in touch with Rónán because she loved the book. … How wonderful is that? She just wanted to say thank you,’ he said. …

“Another Bluemoose success story with a day job is Stuart Hennigan, a librarian from Leeds. Ghost Signs, an eyewitness account of the impact of the early days of the pandemic on those living in poverty, made the shortlist of the Parliamentary Book awards.

“Duffy shares an anarchic streak with Hennigan, finding it hilarious when he turned up to the Tory-packed ceremony in a T-shirt that said: ‘Still hate Thatcher.’ …

“Duffy remains Bluemoose’s only employee, drawing a ‘tiny’ salary, working with five freelance editors, including his lawyer wife, Hetha.

“He is happy that way. ‘I don’t want to be the next Penguin. I don’t want to be a huge business. I just want to publish eight to 10 books a year, make a bit of a profit and invest it all back into the business to find new writers,’ Duffy said.

“Running Bluemoose is a seven-day-a-week vocation. On an average day, Duffy receives 10-20 unsolicited pitches, usually the first three chapters of a new book, all of which, he insists, he reads. Perhaps four in a month will grab his attention enough for him to ask for the full manuscript.

“Duffy insists that there remains a ‘class ceiling‘ in the publishing of literary fiction. LGBTQ+ writers are being given deals, as well as people of color, he says, but working-class writers are not being heard. …

“ ‘The people making those publishing decisions, because of their educational background and their life background, are not reading books about people in the rest of the country. You know, 93% of the people in this country don’t go to private school. There’s a reading public out there that wants books about themselves and the areas they live in.’

“Myers, he notes, originally signed with Picador, which would not publish Pig Iron, his third novel about a Traveling community in the north-east. ‘Because, they said, “who would be interested in a working-class character from a small northern town?” That small northern town was Durham, theological capital of Europe for 2,500 years.

“ ‘Pig Iron went on to win the inaugural Gordon Burn prize. Ben’s next book, Beastings, won the £10,000 Portico prize. Then The Gallows Pole won the world’s leading prize for historical fiction. Then all the agents were interested,’ he said.”

As a reader who turns to Dickens whenever in doubt, I am surprised to find that I actually have read (and liked) one of these: Leonard and Hungry Paul. That’s because Wendy Greenberg, a prolific UK reader on Goodreads, wrote about it.

More at the Guardian, here.

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Saving Indonesia on TikTok

September 24, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: The Guardian.
Resti Khairunnisa, 22, is a follower of Pandawara on TikTok. She joins other followers in collecting plastic waste from the Bandung dam in Indonesia. 

The young people will save us all. They certainly shouldn’t have to, but it restores our faith in humanity when we see them taking “arms against a sea of troubles” and not wasting time blaming those of us who deserve blame.

What is the secret of their strength? Perhaps not knowing what’s “impossible” enables people to do it anyway.

Guardian reporter Ardila Syakriah has this story from Indonesia.

“They started as flood victims, now they are touted as local heroes for cleaning up the rivers and beaches of Indonesia’s third largest city, Bandung in West Java, amassing over 9 million followers on TikTok and Instagram in the process and influencing others across the country to join the fight against pollution.

“The Pandawara group is five men in their early twenties and was formed in 2022 after flooding caused by rivers clogged with rubbish damaged their homes. … On TikTok, their profile – @pandawaragroup – contains over 100 short videos of their river and beach clean ups, earning them millions of views and totalling over 100 million likes.

“ ‘We have a team of river hunters who identifies rivers with urgent trash issues, where flooding can happen after rainfall,’ Pandawara member Gilang Rahma told the Guardian.

“The Greater Bandung area where they live produces 2,000 tons of waste each day, 10 to 20% of which doesn’t make it to landfill and often ends up in rivers. The vast mountain of waste produced in the region has exceeded landfill capacity by 800%, according to West Java official Prima Mayaningtyas. …

“Pandawara began modestly in 2022, cleaning up rivers around their neighborhood, protected by rubber hand gloves and boots. As they became full-time online celebrities-slash-activists, they were invited to meet government officials and receive partnership deals. As their popularity grew, so did their cleanups, which spread to other islands in Indonesia. 

TikTok went as far as to deem some videos as sensitive content because the sight of decaying rubbish might be considered disturbing by some viewers. …

“ ‘Sometimes when we call for volunteers, thousands would sign up but we could only select dozens due to limited space. At other times we don’t limit the number. These are for when we can’t clean up by ourselves,’ Gilang said, adding that the group hoped to use the social media platform to raise gen Z’s awareness of pollution.

“Pandawara’s latest call saw 600 people, including local government staff and officials, join the clean up of 17 tons of waste from the Bugel dam in Bandung regency, which is connected to West Java’s longest river, on 27 July.

“One of them was 22-year-old Resti Khairunnisa, who went straight to volunteering after finishing a night shift. Resti, who lives nearby the dam, said she had been inspired by Pandawara’s videos and would not hesitate to jump in even with limited protective gear.

“ ‘I haven’t slept at all. I’ve been concerned about waste pollution, but this is my first time taking action,’ she said after three hours of cleaning up, her sandals fully covered by mud.

“Another volunteer, 21-year-old university student Imam Ahmad Fadhil, himself a victim of floods, said he had been following Pandawara since before they became famous and lauded the group’s consistency. But he maintained that community-based initiatives were not enough.

“ ‘Some people know littering is wrong, but there is no waste facility in their village, nor do they have the tools to transport the waste, so they are left with no other options,’ he said.

“West Java official Prima Mayaningtyas acknowledged the need to improve waste management and people’s behaviors amid growing waste volumes, as the government looks to complete the construction of its estimated [$265 million] waste to energy plants by 2030.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Drought-Resistant Vineyards

September 23, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Tablas Creek.
Sheep and alpaca graze among dormant vines in the Tablas Creek vineyard, Paso Robles, California.

Contemporary consciousness has come to a supremely traditional way of life: winemaking.

Patrick Schmitt writes at the Drinks Business, “Moët Hennessy, Jackson Family Wines and Torres are adopting a ‘regenerative’ approach to viticulture – but what does it involve, and why are these famous producers making the move?

“[The] the main aim of regenerative viticulture is to increase the amount of carbon held in the ground, and to do this, farmers must ditch the tilling, because the best way to destroy carbon in the soil is to turn it.

“In short, disturbing the ground exposes it to UV light, which is an oxidizing force, and breaks down the organic matter in the soil. And a soil with less organic matter is less sponge-like, and less able to absorb and hold water and nutrients. … Tilling the soil also disrupts the soil microbiome, killing the good microbes and insects that help fight pests and diseases. …

“For Justin Howard-Sneyd MW, who, heads up courses on Sustainable and Regenerative Viticulture at the UK’s Dartington Trust, a regenerative approach is vital to reverse the damage done to agricultural soils, and make viticulture sustainable, without detrimental effects on grape quality.

“Speaking last month at the IMW Symposium in Wiesbaden, he told more than 500 attendees at the three-day event that the world has … ‘just 60 harvests left,’ should current rates of soil erosion continue.

“[He said] that the origin of the regenerative movement was the Dust Bowl of the 1930s in the US, where deep ploughing and drought saw the destruction of virgin topsoil in the Great Plains of central North America, forcing tens of thousands to abandon the land. …

“For Justin, a regenerative approach to viticulture carries additional advantages of being applicable to any farming philosophy, with no strict practices, while being ‘science-led.’

‘It is about trying as much as possible to create a complex, balanced, diverse ecosystem of life in the vineyard by working with natural forces.’ …

” ‘If you are organic but plough a lot and use a lot of copper, then you can actually have fairly unhealthy soil.’

“To promote the techniques and benefits of regenerative approaches to wine production, a little over 18 months ago the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation was established. …

“[Justin] mentioned at the symposium that Jackson Family Wines had committed to converting all its vineyards to regenerative techniques by 2030, while Torres was moving towards the approach on more than 500 hectares of organic vineyards, and Moët Hennessy was also adopting the philosophy, most notably at its Provençal property, Château Galoupet. … Concha y Toro is experimenting with regenerative approaches in Chile. …

“The approach can improve soil health, reduce the need for increasingly expensive inputs, be they organic or synthetic fertilizers, as well as create a vineyard that is more resistant to weather extremes – particularly periods of heat and drought. …

“Mimi Casteel [said] that permanent ground cover in her vineyards had kept her soils wetter and therefore cooler during a recent period of extreme heat in Oregon. … Antoine Lespès – who heads up R&D at [Domaine Lafage in Roussillon] – told the Drinks Business in December last year, ‘Because we have a low amount of rainfall, every drop that falls from the sky needs to be cultivated.’

“To ensure this, Lespès said that a permanent ground cover was key for increased infiltration, and a high-level of organic matter was important to retain the moisture. He also said that the ground cover, which can be rolled or mulched, prevents water loss by shading and protecting the soil.

“Other techniques are necessary too, however, from planting to follow the contours on sloping ground to prevent run-off during heavy rainfall, to the use of agroforestry for shade, along with biochar for increased water infiltration and retention, and, finally, a good combination of rootstock and grape variety. …

“But it was also an emphasis on applying regenerative viticulture to large-scale production that was stressed at the IMW Symposium, and particularly by Jamie Goode, who, as the author of Regenerative Viticulture, also spoke on the farming philosophy. …

“ ‘If this approach to farming is going to make big impact, then it’s not just something we want rich people to do on a small vineyard for wines selling for $100 a bottle – it’s also for big farms selling wine at €1 per litre.’ [And it’s] important that wine producers ‘say goodbye to herbicides. … Clear earth is a major problem, not so much the chemicals. It’s the same problem with organic herbicides: nothing is growing there.’

“However, should one leave a permanent ground cover, and ditch the tilling, the plants that sprout in the vineyard do need to be kept in check. … California’s Tablas Creek, which is a pioneer in regenerative viticulture, has a herd of 250 sheep that it successfully uses to keep weeds at bay in its vineyards.”

More at the Drinks Business, here. No paywall.

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Students Tackle City Heat Islands

September 22, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Emily Piper-Vallillo/WBUR.
Program mentor Meshell Whyte with students who participated in the 2023 UMass Boston Summer Program in Urban Planning.

Today’s story is not only about addressing troubling effects of climate change in cities but also about encouraging young people in the communities most affected to be part of finding solutions.

Emily Piper-Vallillo reports at WBUR, “Boston students recently wrapped up a month-long study of extreme heat in Roxbury, exploring ways to mitigate the crisis and its impact on residents through the field of urban planning.

“Nearly 30 high school students participated in the University of Massachusetts Boston Summer Program in Urban Planning, which concluded [in July] with a presentation at Roxbury Community College. …

“The program introduces students of color from environmental justice communities like Roxbury and Dorchester to careers in urban planning and design. It’s part of a larger effort to diversify the field of urban planning, which remains overwhelmingly white.

“ ‘Only 5.2% of Boston’s planners are non-white, in a city where just in the city alone, 28% of our population is African American,’ said Ken Reardon, co-founder of the program and chair of UMass Boston’s Department of Urban Planning and Community Development. …

“Built as a working class community at a time when extreme heat was not as common as it is today, Roxbury has densely packed buildings with few trees, according to the students’ presentation. Many spaces are exposed to direct sun. Slides and swings in neighborhood playgrounds were constructed with heat-absorbing materials, making them unusable when temperatures rise.

“In fact, the students found that air temperatures in Roxbury are, on average, 10 degrees warmer than at Boston’s Logan Airport.

“They made this discovery by collecting 135 temperature readings across 38 Roxbury locations to identify the hottest spaces. Readings ranged from 83 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit, with the highest temperatures collected on sidewalks and at bus stops.

“Collecting data was grueling, said Blue Hills Regional Technical student Aidan Luciano. He and his peers hit the streets with remote sensors recording the humidity and heat index during the month of July — when temperatures sometimes rose above 100 degrees.

“ ‘[But] it’s going to pay off in the end because we are going to be helping other people,’ Luciano said. ,,,

“One group designed a new cooling children’s playground on RCC’s campus. Scheduled to open in 2025, the playground will replace a parking lot near the historic Dudley House site. After further community input, the final design will incorporate many ideas from the students themselves, said Ruben Flores, special projects manager at Roxbury Community College.

“Flores was particularly impressed by the inclusion of splash pads and water misters to reduce the temperature of the playground.

“Participating students received college credit from UMass Boston and were paid around $15 an hour.

“Paying students was an important part of making this opportunity accessible to low-income students of color who are less likely to be able to afford unpaid internships, Reardon said.

“Beyond collecting temperature data, students sought to understand how Roxbury residents experience extreme heat, said TechBoston student Neicka Mathias.

“Over the course of July, students interviewed nearly 100 Roxbury residents about coping with rising temperatures. The most common suggestion for improvement they heard was to increase the number of water sources throughout the neighborhood.

“Students also worked with residents to identify public spaces in Roxbury where heat mitigation solutions are most needed. These include areas where  people frequently wait for public transit or line up outside favorite local restaurants. …

“ ‘Give a chance to these communities of color that are outside the spaces where decisions have been made and they will show you great work,’ Flores said.”

More at WBUR, here. No firewall.

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Reviving an Ancestral Food

September 21, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Crops for the Future via Wikimedia.
Cañihua, a native grain of the Andes of southern Peru and Bolivia, is supremely adapted to high altitudes, according to Crops for the Future.

We have yet to figure out how to feed the whole planet, but here and there, investigators are finding that little known sources of nutrition used by small populations may offer hope in a warming climate.

Tibisay Zea has an example at the Public Radio International (PRI) program The World.

“Trigidia Jiménez was born in an Indigenous village in the Andean mountains of Bolivia at 14,000 feet above sea level. She grew up in a family of farmers, and she loved working the land. 

“But like many others in her town, she moved to the Bolivian capital in search of new opportunities and eventually became an agricultural engineer. She worked and got married, but after 15 years of being in the city, she realized she wanted to return to the mountains. 

“ ‘I needed to be in touch with the sun, fresh air and work our land,’ Jiménez told The World over Zoom. 

“Back in the Andes, she started thinking about an ancestral green that was almost extinct — cañahua. It’s similar to the quinoa plant and virtually unknown outside of Bolivia and Peru. 

“ ‘That’s what our ancestors used to eat every day. A cup of cañahua for breakfast,’ Jiménez said. ‘We make it like oatmeal.’

“Cañahua is ‘nutritious, high in protein, amino acids and iron.’ It has also proven to be very adaptable to climate change, according to Jiménez. …

“Jiménez started small, with about an acre of land, producing enough grain for just one family. Two decades later, cañahua is being produced on approximately 5,000 acres. 

“Bolivia’s government offers subsidies to low-income families to buy cañahua, and that’s helped build the market. …

“ ‘We realized that we’ve been reliant on too few food crops,’ Jeff Maughan, a professor of molecular genetics at Brigham Young University in Utah, told The World. …

“Twenty years ago, Maughan and other researchers at BYU got interested in quinoa as a higher protein crop for subsistence farmers in the Andean region. Today, quinoa is everywhere — from your favorite supermarket to fancy restaurants. Maughan and his team have successfully introduced the South American grain in Morocco, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia. …

“Trigidia Jiménez earned international recognition for helping to revive cañahua cultivation. ‘Cañahua made me a stronger woman,’ she said. ‘Powerful and happy.’

“It’s also helped sustain the local communities where it’s produced. Jiménez is now looking at ways to expand her business and export the ancient grain to the United States.” More at PRI, here.

Now, you may have heard as I did that the newfound popularity of quinoa has made it to expensive for the Peruvians it came from to afford it. I did an online search to see what I could find.

According to a study described at National Public Radio, poor Peruvians have actually benefitted from the demand for quinoa, especially farmers who grow it. The real concern is that “export demand has focused on very few of the 3,000 or so different varieties of quinoa, prompting farmers to abandon many of those varieties.

” ‘Those varieties, created by Andean farmers, are the future of quinoa, to adapt to things like climate change,’ says Stefano Padulosi, a [Bioversity International] specialist in underused crops. … He would like to see some sort of global mechanism to reward Andean farmers for their role in creating and maintaining quinoa diversity.’ ” More here.

That insight may be something for promoters of cañahua to think about, too.

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Snoop Dog Helps Out

September 20, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: WJCL via CNN.
The home of Josephine Wright, 93, on Hilton Head Island, where resort development has encroached on the rights of Gullah Geechee people for generations.

We often read about how in “the old days” the powerful usurped the rights of minorities and paid expensive lawyers to take their land. Alas, it’s still going on.

Nicquel Terry Ellis reports at CNN, “Josephine Wright and her late husband, Samuel Wright Sr., moved from New York to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, nearly 30 years ago to seek peace and relaxation on a family-owned property.

“The 1.8-acre parcel of land had been in her husband’s family since the Civil War and it was there that they carried on family traditions, hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, planted trees and bushes and built a porch, Wright said.

“Wright, who is 93, acquired the deed to the land in 2012 after her husband died in 1998, her granddaughter, Tracey Love Graves, said. Now, Wright’s beloved land is at the center of a legal battle with a property developer looking to build a residential development next door. According to the Post and Courier, Georgia-based Bailey Point Investment, LLC is planning to construct 147 homes.

“Graves said Bailey Point had previously showed up at her grandmother’s house and offered $30,000 for Wright’s land, which she declined.

“The developer later filed a lawsuit in February 2023 against Wright claiming that her satellite dish, shed, and screened-in porch were encroaching on the developer’s land and delaying the construction of new homes.

“The lawsuit asked for the removal of the structures and sought ‘just and adequate compensation for its loss of the use and enjoyment’ of their property, and expenses related to delays in development.

“Wright and Graves said they have since removed the shed and satellite dish and were preparing to downsize the screened porch when Wright decided to file a counterclaim. …

“Wright’s counterclaim, filed April 25 and amended in June, accused Bailey Point of a ‘constant barrage of tactics of intimidation, harassment, trespass, to include this litigation in an effort to force her to sell her property.’

“The counterclaim also accused the developer of ‘trashing her property, going onto her property cutting brush and shrubs, littering, causing dirt and debris to cover her automobile, house and contents.’ The claim said Wright had been ‘deprived of the peaceful enjoyment of her property.’ …

“The legal battle is drawing renewed attention to the historic expropriation of Black-owned land. Wright told CNN she is concerned the developer is using well-known pressure tactics to get her to give in and sell her land. …

“Bakari Sellers, a civil rights attorney and CNN political commentator who is advocating for Wright, said land battles with developers have historically been an issue for the Gullah Geechee people – descendants of Africans who were enslaved along the lower Atlantic coast and forced to work on rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations. Wright’s late husband was Gullah Geechee.

“ ‘Their land is so valuable,’ Sellers said. ‘They (developers) have been doing this for years. This is not new.’

“Wright says she hopes that her fight will inspire other Black landowners in Hilton Head Island to defend their property. …

“Wright’s land fight has garnered the attention of celebrities, including NBA star Kyrie Irving who donated $40,000 to a GoFundMe created to raise money for her legal fees. Filmmaker Tyler Perry also shared Wright’s story on Instagram saying, ‘Please tell where to show up and what you need to help you fight.’ “

Rebecca Carballo and Amanda Holpuch add at the New York Times, “Ms. Wright’s granddaughter Charise Graves, who lives on the property, said that loud construction has sometimes begun around 6:30 a.m. and that she and other family members have often dealt with noise and construction workers. An aunt who had also been living there, and is a defendant in the lawsuit, moved to Florida in February because she couldn’t handle the noise and stress of the situation, Ms. Graves said.

“Ms. Graves estimated that she has spent $6,000 to cover the costs of responding to the developer’s complaints and to hire a lawyer. The family created a GoFundMe to help pay for the legal battle and property taxes. Snoop Dogg donated $10,000 to the fund-raiser. …

“Ms. Graves said she planned to use some of the more than $300,000 raised so far to create a foundation in her grandmother’s name that aims to support other families who are trying to keep their property.”

More at CNN, here, and at the Times, here.

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UK’s Oldest Button Store

September 19, 2023 by suzannesmom

Photo: Taylors Buttons.
The Taylors Button Shop has been established in London over 100 years.

A long time ago, a parent family at the Elwanger-Barry Nursery School in Rochester, New York, closed down their button business and donated a lifetime supply of buttons to the school. Poured into an indoor sandbox, the buttons became one of the two favorite play centers of three-year-old Suzanne. The fuzzy box and the button box.

That’s one reason I’m interested in button stories. And when an editor from last year’s Ukraine social-media project (see this post) wrote on Facebook about a 100-year-old button store in London she visited, I had to learn more.

The Gentle Author at Spitalfields Life interviewed Maureen Rose of Taylors Buttons for a bookshop’s blog:

“Taylors Buttons is the only independent button shop in the West End. It’s more than 100 years old and it’s only been owned by two families in that time. It was founded by the original Mr Taylor; then there was Mr Taylor’s son, who retired in his late eighties when he sold it to my husband,” Maureen Rose said.

“I was a war baby. My mother was from Whitechapel and she opened her own millinery business in Fulham at nineteen. She got married when she was twenty-one and ran her business all through the war. As a child, I used to sit in the corner and watch her make hats, but I didn’t take up millinery – something I regret now, as she was very talented and she could have taught me.

“I helped my mother for a while: I did a lot of buying for her in Great Marlborough Street, where there were many millinery wholesalers. There was a big fashion industry in the West End: I used to go to see the collections from houses like Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell. It was so glamorous. Now it’s all gone.

“My late husband, Leon Rose, first involved me in this business. He started his career in a button factory learning how to make buttons. Then his uncle, who had a factory in Birmingham, got in touch to say, ‘There’s a gentleman in town who’s retiring and you should think about taking over his business.’ So he did.

“My mother went in to help when he needed someone for a couple of hours a day, and then – of course – there was me! I’ve been working here for more than 40 years now and since my husband died in 2007 it has been a one-woman show.

“Every button tells a story and I have no idea how many there are in the shop. Some are more than 100 years old, but most I make to order. You send me the fabric – velvet, leather or whatever – and I’ll make you whatever you want. We used to do only small orders for tailors: two fronts and eight cuff buttons for a suit. Nowadays I do them by the hundred. I don’t think Leon ever believed that was possible.

“Anybody can walk into my shop and order buttons, but I get a lot of orders for theatre, television, film, fashion houses and weddings. I get gentlemen who buy expensive suits that come with cheap buttons: they come here to buy proper horn buttons to replace them.

“My friends ask me why I have not retired, but I enjoy working here. What would I do at home? I’ve seen what happens to my friends who have retired: they lose the plot. I meet nice people in the shop and it’s interesting. I’ll keep going for as long as I can.”

Interview originally published on the Spitalfields Life blog by The Gentle Author. 

More here. And there’s detailed button information at the Taylors Buttons website, here, where you can also learn that Dickens lived in the building once. Hat tip: Ro.

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