Christine Blasey Ford Honored in ACLU LA As Handmaids Protest Kavanaugh at Federalist Society
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Christine Blasey Ford speaks at the ACLU of Southern California's Annual Bill of Rights Dinner in Beverly Hills on Nov. 17, 2019.Richard Shotwell / via NBC News
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, made a surprise and rare public appearance Sunday night at an event with the ACLU of Southern California in Beverly Hills.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was greeted by protesters dressed as the reproductive slaves in the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" while Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's Senate testimony was played on a large video screen outside the Federalist society venue. via Jennifer Bendery Twitter.
Ford, who famously accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of having sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, accepted the Rodger Baldwin Courage Award, saying that she had a responsibility to the nation to speak out about the alleged assault during a small party of teenagers in suburban Maryland in 1982. Ford explained that her knowledge of Anita Hill’s testimony against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas helped persuade her that she must step forward during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
"When I came forward last September, I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen," she said. “I was simply doing my duty as a citizen, providing information to the Senate that I believed would be relevant to the Supreme Court nomination process. I thought anyone in my position, of course, would do the same thing.”
Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh has kept a low profile since his confirmation, rarely appearing in public. The judge addressed the Federalist Society, a conservative legal foundation, in Washington DC on Friday November 15. Kavanaugh was greeted by protesters dressed as the reproductive slaves in the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" while Ford's Senate testimony was played on a large video screen outside the venue.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was greeted by protesters dressed as the reproductive slaves in the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" while Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's Senate testimony was played on a large video screen outside the Federalist society venue. via Jennifer Bendery Twitter.
Baltimore Museum Will Acquire Work Only By Women Artists in 2020
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Georgia O’Keeffe's "Pink Tulip" is on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of its 2020 Vision initiative,which will be a year-long series of exhibitions and programs focused solely on female artists. (The Baltimore Museum of Art)
Women artists received a tough love message in a recent survey of art acquisitions by America’s museums. Only 11 percent of art acquired by 26 of America’s top museums for their permanent collections from 2008 to 2018, is the work of women artists.
The Baltimore Museum of Art announced a new drive for women artists, announcing that in 2020, the museum will only acquire work for its permanent collection that is produced by women.
The decision is an attempt by the museum to “truly be radical and emphasize to the arts communities that we are taking this initiative quite seriously,” and “re-correcting the canon,” chief curator Asma Naeem said.
The initiative comes as many museums in Washington and across America prepare to celebrate women artists in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment and women’s right to vote. It’s also expected that the newly Democratic state government of Virginia will ratify the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) early in 2020, pushing the amendment across the finish line with state ratifications. The time is beyond the original ratification dates, and the issue will surely be moved into the federal court system.
Celebrating women artists is great, but just as American women have learned with achieving the ERA, progress is very painful and slow.
“Curators say they struggle to convince their acquisition committees to pay up for work, particularly by older, overlooked female artists, who frequently lack an auction history that might be used to validate the asking price,” the investigative report on museum acquisitions stated.
AOC discovered a perfect example of this reality in our recent post about 99-year-old artist Luchita Hurtado.
“If you think about the word ‘artist,’ there’s a tacit assumption that it’s a male genius who is in fact the artist,” Naeem said. “That can be seen in the fact that we even call these ‘women artists.’ They’re not women artists. They’re artists.”
Artist Emma Kohlmann by Mariya Pepelanova for Eurowoman December 2019
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Artist Emma Kohlmann by Mariya Pepelanova for Eurowoman December 2019
Artist Emma Kohlmann @meiow_mix is lensed by Mariya Pepelanova for the December 2019 issue of Eurowoman Denmark. Fashion editor Frederikke Raun styles Emma, who was interviewed in Amadeus Magazine in 2018.
Multimedia artist Emma Kohlmann exists in three different worlds: her quaint, quiet life in Northampton, Massachusetts; her social, gallery-hopping life in New York City and Los Angeles; and the indefinable otherworldly life she has created through her colorful and abstract watercolors. Each world is a telling reflection of Emma’s multifaceted personality and the disparate needs she has in order to fuel her creativity.
Emma’s watercolor world is playful and somewhat naive. It’s balanced, yet completely off-balanced. It’s intrinsically political, unwittingly powerful, and aesthetically stunning. It’s a way for the Massachusetts-based artist to retreat into a figurative world that doesn’t define an ideal form. Fascinated by the idea of constructing things that are beautiful, but are not attached to certain forms of identity, Emma sees the body as political. There are aspects that are visible and others that are hidden. There are parts that are celebrated and others that are obliterated, and she wants all of them to be acknowledged. Driven by her desire to deconstruct what is learned, her lively figures aren’t confined to traditional gender norms, and who or what these figures are is irrelevant. What’s most crucial for Emma is branching out of the typical male canon of nudity, transgressing the image, and remaining absolutely limitless in her presentation of such.
Meet the Powerhouse Talent Team Behind 'Harriet' Movie: Erivo, Lemmons, Martin-Chase
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Essence Magazine interviews Tony-Award winner Cynthia Erivo about her starring role as the fearless abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the highly-anticipated biopic ‘Harriet’. I recall seeing Erivo in her powerhouse performance as Celie in the Broadway presentation of ‘The Color Purple’.
The film, which opened Friday and is discussed in depth in AOC’s The True Story Behind the Harriet Tubman Movie -- An Epic Tale of Fearless Heroism tells the story of a determined 5’1” abolitionist who freed more than hundreds of slaves, including herself. A union spy during the Civil War, Tubman was the first woman to lead a military expedition of its kind in America, when she led soldiers with Colonel James Montgomery to raid rice plantations along the Combahee Rover in South Carolina.
THE FILM BRIEFLY DEPICTS THE CIVIL WAR MILITARY EXPEDITION THAT FREED AROUND 750 ENSLAVED PEOPLE AND WAS THE FIRST OF ITS KIND TO BE LED BY A WOMAN. (GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES)
The film is directed by Kasi Lemmons, whose pedigree includes directing the critically acclaimed and award-winning Southern Gothic film ‘Eve's Bayou’ and her 2007 biopic ‘Talk To Me’ about legendary radio DJ Petey Green. She was described by film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon as "an ongoing testament to the creative possibilities of film".
Producer Debra Martin-Chase. is affiliated with Universal Television, a division of NBC Universal Television Group. It was affiliated with the Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016. How refreshing to read Martin-Chase’s comments on BlackEnterprise.com, addressing head-on some commentary of the film from black critics, who are “slave fatigued”.
“This is NOT a slave movie,” Debra Martin Chase declares, her passion for her latest production, Harriet, crackling through the phone. “This is a movie about freedom and empowerment. This is a movie that says we cannot control the circumstances into which we are born, but we can control what we do once we get here.”
“A lot of us are waking up every day feeling hopeless and helpless, and this film is a reminder to all of us that we can each make a difference, in our families, in our churches, our communities, our countries, our world,” she says. “Harriet saved herself, members of her family, and countless others. She changed people’s lives, she changed the course of history. This is an action hero origin story. She was a badass!”
AOC is tracking commentary around the film in our long piece from Smithsonian Magazine, anchor for the National Museum of African American History and Culture — including the responses of women writers vs male writers. And for the record, white people should learn from the complex discussion and keep our mouths shut. ~ Anne
The True Story Behind the Harriet Tubman Movie -- An Epic Tale of Fearless Heroism AOC GlamTribal Blog
The ‘Harriet’ trailer gives you an idea of what’s to come from this hyper-talented cast of black women creatives and business executives.
'Decade of Fire' Reframes Facts of Relentless New York '70s South Bronx Fires
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Co-directors Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran join forces with producer Julia Steele Allen in reframing the 1970s story of New York’s South Bronx on fire. Their new documentary ‘Decade of Fire’ airs on PBS Independent Lens November 4.
Co-director Vázquez Irizarry sits at center of the film, retracing her Bronx childhood as one of living among burning apartment buildings and determined people undaunted by catastrophic events. Fire is front and center in American minds this week, with California burning. The national consciousness was never focused on the Bronx, once the scene of a classic American “movin’ on up” story.
The three women are all activists. Hollywood and Women interviewed Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran in April 2019, providing a consciousness-raising backdrop of the history and evolution of the documentary. Vázquez Irizarry explains:
The concept for this film began in 2002 as a curriculum for students at a South Bronx high school, where Julia and Vivian worked together. They noticed how young people in the Bronx carried its stigma, but had little access to its true history. This curriculum was rejected for being “too radical,” but began a dialogue which Vivian and Julia invited me to join, which began a 10-year journey of uncovering and shaping Vivian’s lived history into a compelling story that could reach a broad audience who have never had a chance to glimpse behind the stereotypes that have defined the South Bronx for the last 40 years.
Artist Micol Hebron's Instagram Account Suspended Shortly After FB Censorship Meeting
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Digital collage by Micol Hebron (all photos courtesy of Micol Hebron)
A group of about 20 artists, curators, and activists met Monday afternoon at Facebook and Instagram’s New York City office. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss Instagram’s treatment of artists and its impact on their art and livelihoods.
Interdisciplinary artist, curator, and associate professor at Chapman University in Southern California, Micol Hebron has an extensive history of campaigning to free womens’ nipples. Fellow artist Joann Leah was in attendance as an essential bridge between Facebook and artists, having established long-standing relationships with the organization over its censorship of artwork, writes Hyperallergic.
To Hebron, the policy — and perhaps Facebook’s overall approach to gender — lacks nuance.
“The policies that Facebook enacts are essentially policing the bodies and the identities of the users — and are a particular problem who people who are queer or trans … that is my primary concern from the beginning. How does an algorithm know what someone’s gender is? How does a person know what gender someone is by looking at their nipples?”
“Artists that are working with the nude, who censor their own works on Instagram in order to meet their community standards, can be deleted with no recourse because of a lack of a proper appeals system,” Spencer Tunick told Hyperallergic. “The deletion of an artist’s account is like throwing someone’s address book and portfolio into a fire.”
In a note of irony, three hours after the Facebook meeting ended, Hebron’s Instagram account was suspended for posting the image of her and Tunick below, as they prepared to enter the meeting. Being connected at Instagram, Hebron was able to solve her suspension in short order.
For relatively unknown and unconnected artists, the process is far more complicated and potentially career-defining in today’s Insta-world, Hebron acknowledged.
Emmett Till Bullet-Proof Memorial with Surveillance Cameras Opens in Mississippi
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The sordid, scarred American story of Emmett Till’s lynching in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi opened a new chapter on Saturday, with the installation of a bullet-proof memorial for the civil rights martyr. Members of Till’s family gathered at Graball Landing, the spot where the pummeled and brutalized, horrifically-disfigured body of the 14-year-old Chicago boy was pulled from the Tallahatchie River after his murder in 1955.
The staggeringly-brutal attack was the result of Till allegedly offending a white woman Carolyn Bryant in her family’s grocery store. Decades later, Bryant disclosed that she had fabricated part of the testimony regarding her interaction with Till, specifically the portion where she accused Till of grabbing her waist and uttering obscenities; "that part's not true.”
Till’s murderers led by Roy Bryant, husband to Carolyn Bryant, and J.W. Milam were absolved of all crimes by what can only be described as a kangaroo court, adding fuel to the historic event largely seen as the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.
From left to right, Ole Miss students Ben LeClere, John Howe, and Howell Logan posing with guns by the bullet-ridden plaque marking the place where the body of murdered civil rights icon Emmett Till was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. The photo was posted to LeClere’s Instagram account in March.
Related Articles about Emmett Till
Melinda Gates' $1 Billion To Advance American Women | Trump Voters Want Women at Home
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Philanthropist Melinda Gates is not sleeping well in Trumplandia. After a decade of watching the erosion of women’s rights and women’s progress in America, Gates has decided to do a very public reality check on the state of American women.
Reality is that 50 years after the second wave of the women’s movement ignited, only one CEO on the list of people running Fortune 500 companies is a woman of color. Gates cites the sobering fact that in 2018, there were more men names James running Fortune 500 companies than women.
Her action plan involves $1 billion spent towards expanding women’s power and influence in America. “There is no reason to believe this moment will last forever,” Gates, founder of investment and incubation company Pivotal Ventures, wrote in a Time.com opinion piece about the women’s marches, #MeToo movement, and the political activism and elections to office for American women.
“Too many people - women and men - have worked too hard to get us this far,” she wrote. “There are too many possible solutions we haven’t tried yet.”
Goals include dismantling barriers to women’s job advancement such as care-giving obligations and sexual harassment and fast-tracking women in influential job sectors such as technology, media and public office. Gates doesn’t
I, too, lie awake at night worrying about this possibility -- and have for a decade. The arrival of the Republican Tea Party in 2010 signaled an awesome erosion of women’s rights that have exploded since Trump became president.
One night I actually had a terrifying nightmare related to women’s access to contraception in America, and this was several years before the dystopian Handmaid Tale became a Hulu hit.
There is no doubt that Republicans are determined to take US women back to the 50s, eliminate all child care support, even public education in an effort to get American women having babies and even home schooling them with the Biblical good book.
I worry that America is increasingly becoming an Arab country -- and I don't mean too many Muslims. I mean too many Republicans wanting a theocracy where a Christian God runs the country, just as Allah and his men culturally and politically run the Muslim countries. The vast majority (over 70% of Trump's women voters and 58% of men) support this vision for America, as evidenced by extensive research done on Trump voters by Baylor Christian University in Waco, Texas. ~ Anne
THE SACRED VALUES OF “TRUMPISM”
Core Values
Researchers looked at how religious values, behaviors and beliefs predicted political support for Trump, finding that the majority of those who voted for him tend to:
Say they are “very religious”
Are members of white Evangelical Protestant churches
View the United States as a Christian nation
Believe in an authoritative God who is actively engaged in world affairs
See Muslims as threats to America
Value gender traditionalism, feeling that men are better suited for politics and should earn more than women; women should provide primary child care; and working women are deficient as mothers
Oppose lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (such as legal marriage)
NYC Restaurateur Camilla Marcus Partners with Vivvi for Employer Subsidized Childcare
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Camilla Marcus’ Westbourne cafe in New York Soho has partnered with Vivvi, to offer flexible hours, employer-subsidized, education-based healthcare for her New York workers.
Worker-conscious restauranteur Camilla Marcus, the founder of Soho’s vegetarian cafe Westbourne, faced head-on the challenges her employees endured to find affordable and flexible hours childcare in New York. Formerly director of business development for Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group and the cofounder of TechTable, Marcus clearly has a “let’s get-it-done” mentality.
At first Marcus assumed research on finding affordable, flexible healthcare for her workers was primarily a “connecting the dots” job of finding realistic alternatives to the average $16,000 annual cost of having a family in New York as a working parent. Surely the mayor’s office could point Marcus in the right direction.
Frustrated and at the end of the road in her search for a worker-friendly childcare solution, Marcus was sent to Charles Bonello and Ben Newton, entrepreneurs who also saw the problem. Their checklist included a more affordable and accessible option that includes flexible hours, a robust early education curriculum, and back-up care options for those whose existing childcare is unavailable on short notice, writes Vogue US.
Vivvi, which is now open, partners with local employers to subsidize up to 100 percent of the cost of regular full-time care and backup care for working parents of infants, toddlers, and pre-school-age children. Thanks to Camilla, Vivvi's backup childcare is equipped to meet the needs of hospitality workers, with hours ranging from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and weekends.
"There are just not that many industries left where you don't need to have a certain degree," says Marcus. "You don't need to have a certain background and you can rise to a six-figure salary. We need to keep those pathways open and this [lack of accessible childcare] is a big barrier to that being possible."
For Camilla Marcus, she's leveraging her new partnership with Vivvi, now offering backup care to all of her employees at no cost. It's the beginning of a much-needed equalizing force in an industry that has long undervalued its workers.
"It isn't just a banker or a lawyer who is able to have access to this world class program," said Bonello. "It's also hospitality workers whose entire livelihood is tied up with being able to get to work and being able to get there during the times when it makes the most sense and it's most valuable. So it's empowering for us because our entire mission is honor the potential of work and families."
God's Man, Donald Trump, Played Golf as Hevrin Khalaf Was Stoned to Death
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After giving the go-ahead to Turkey’s assault on the Kurds in Northern Syria, disgraced US President Donald Trump played golf on Saturday. As the bullet-riddled SUV of Secretary-General of the pro-Kurdish Future Syria Party and Hevrin Khalaf herself was shot and stoned to death, along with others in her convoy, Trump had a mighty good golf game. The Republicans scream “liar, liar, pants on fire”, but this fact is the truth, the image is real. Trump has nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. The US president has totally disgraced America’s military and American values in support of the Kurds. His self-serving, Putin’s-puppet actions repulse us, and we grieve for the Kurdish people. Trump playing golf via.
God's man in America, Donald Trump, played golf on Saturday, while the bullet-riddled SUV of Secretary-General of the pro-Kurdish Future Syria Party and Hevrin Khalaf herself was shot and stoned to death, articulated Monday by MSNBC on the ground in Syria.
I couldn't second-source the method of killing her on Sunday and refused to spread a false rumor. Has Trump even mentioned her being stoned to death? Has he evoked any sense of horror over what he has unleashed in northern Syria? Not an ounce of concern. NOTHING!!!! Trump played golf through the entire Syrian violence.
Khalaf probably deserved such a horrific death in Trump's misogynist playbook, but she was a great defender of Christians.
I do not believe in revenge, but I pray that the spirit of Hevrin Khalaf emerges quickly into the universe, where she is needed. And I pray that she comes to sit on the shoulder of Donald Trump, connected to him in an inescapable constant presence of what Trump has done to her, to the Kurdish people, and to the total balance of power in the region.
Perhaps she could use her new powers in a way that doesn't harm him physically. We want Trump to live with his actions. Personally, I wouldn't mind if Trump Tower Istanbul went up in smoke.
A Prayer for Hevrin Khalaf’s Return
I want the goddess status of Hevrin Khalaf to appear to Trump, when he's chowing down his cheeseburgers in bed at the White House. I want him to see constant apparitions of her everywhere. I want Khalaf to help us rid America of this corrupt, sinful man and his corrupt posse who surround their every horrific action with God's name.
I want the last vision Donald Trump has of life to be Hevrin Khalaf being stoned to death. If I must live with her vision that is grieving me so painfully, so must Trump -- the heartless, gutless, corrupt golf-playing, sinner man who has duped an entire political party and sanctioned the death of by all accounts, one of the most important women promoting peace and positive action for the Kurdish people.
My last action around stoning was almost single-handedly saving a woman from being stoned to death in Sudan. Within 48 hrs. of my getting involved, it stopped with Khartoum saying "not her again (meaning me)." It gave me some solace in all this violence that my action stopped a horrific death. Now Trump has taken even that small memory of good action from me, because everything happened so quickly to the Kurds.
I don't know if Khalaf was traveling with a poison pill or not. Obviously, events happened so quickly, swallowing one was not an option for her, and all reports are that her death was agonizing.
May the original goddesses of the universe greet and bask in warmth and love the spirit of Hevrin Khalaf. And when her tears have stopped flowing for her beloved Kurdish people, let the goddesses send her on her way to Washington, DC where she sits on the shoulder of this decadent, despicable man.
The Republicans constantly call strong women with democratic values 'witches'. Let them understand the power of a true goddess in their presence, as they plot their ugly assassination of American greatness right under our disbelieving eyes.
As for the Kurdish women soldiers and Hevrin Khalaf, I prostrate myself on the ground and grieve for the horror that Trump and America have unleashed on you. I am so, so, so sorry for this animalistic, subhuman atrocity that EVERY SEASONED MILITARY OFFICIAL TOLD TRUMP WOULD HAPPEN.
Still, Trump powered on — because he is Putin’s Puppet and Erdogan’s, too. Trump has killed the full promise of a great experiment in democracy; you are dead, and chaos reigns in Syria. But then, Donald Trump does not believe in democracy for the Kurds or for America. ~ Anne
Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism?
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Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism?
By Joshua Conrad Jackson, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michele Gelfand, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland. First published on The Conversation.
Two trends have defined the past decade and both have been on display at this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly.
One has been the escalating effects of climate change, which were the focus of the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit. Forest fires, floods and hurricanes are all rising in their frequency and severity. Eight of the last 10 years have been the warmest on record. Marine biologists warned that coral reefs in the U.S. could disappear entirely by the 2040s.
The other trend has been the surge of right-wing nationalist politics across Western nations, which includes Donald Trump’s election in the U.S., and the rise of nationalist political parties around the world.
Indeed, the first four speeches of the United Nations general debate were given by Brazilian right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, Trump, Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and far-right Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
Nancy Pelosi to Speak Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival, As Trump Impeachment Looms
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the keynote speaker, with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith as moderator, at The Texas Tribune Festival this Saturday.. Image via Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune.
By Chase Karacostas. First published on The Texas Tribune
Just a few days after declaring that the U.S. House of Representatives will begin a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will appear in Austin as the keynote speaker Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival.
This is Pelosi's third time to speak at the festival, and it's one of her first major public appearances after Tuesday's impeachment investigation announcement. The California Democrat's interview, moderated by Tribune CEO Evan Smith, will be from 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theater.
Impeachment is sure to be a major topic of discussion, as is Trump's July phone call with the Ukrainian president requesting an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Before this week, Pelosi had fended off demands from members of her caucus to pursue impeachment, even after a long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller was released. Much of her hesitation lay with the desire to protect her party's hard-won majority in the House. However, her tune changed this week after reports that the call with the Ukrainian president was the reason for an "urgent and credible" whistleblower complaint filed last month.
On Wednesday, the White House released a record of the call showing Trump implored newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden's son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company that Ukrainian authorities have investigated. While Biden was vice president, he urged Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, though the country's investigation into the company was reportedly dormant at the time.
Trump put nearly $400 million of Congress-approved security assistance on hold in the days before the call, leading some to accuse him of implicitly dangling the revocation of aid if Ukraine did not investigate Biden.
Pelosi's panel will be streamed live on the Tribune's website.
Supermodel Iman Joins CARE CEO Michelle Nunn As First Global Advocate for Girls + Women
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Iman and CARE CEO Michelle Nunn
Supermodel, entrepreneur, former Somali refugee, activist and Mrs. David Bowie, Iman officially became anti-poverty and humanitarian organization CARE’s first-ever global advocate. The role was created specifically for Iman by the esteemed CARE organization, founded in 1945.
The beauty entrepreneur’s new activist focus will be aiding refugee girls both domestically and internationally, including women and girls currently locked in detention centers at the US-Mexico border. The supermodel has a long history working with organizations like Keep a Child Alive, Save the Children and the Children's Defense Fund.
"This is the work that moves me. I have been involved with quite a lot of charities, but what moves my heart is women and girls. Since I was a refugee myself and because I've known the plight of women and girls myself, through my own journey in life, I was aware of what CARE does and I was aware of their long history," Iman tells The Hollywood Reporter of the agency, which originated the "care package" in 1946 during post-World War II relief efforts. "So, we came up with the global advocate role, where it's about finding out what really impacts women and girls around the world and here at home in America."
She adds, "We have to think of refugees collectively as humans. They're not nameless, they're not faceless, they're not just people who come from far away. These are people who are at the U.S.-Mexico border right now. I am one of them. People usually don't understand who a refugee is. I am the face of a refugee."
Iman will make her first public appearance as CARE's global advocate Wednesday at Advertising Week New York during an onstage discussion with Nunn. The talk will focus on the power of storytelling in the face of international crises.
In 2018, CARE worked in 95 countries, touching the lives of 56 million people globally.
Yang Gang + Swing State Dems Challenge Justice Democrats As Voices of the People
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The Justice Democrats may have a new competitor -- the Yang Gang. I don't have all the differences worked out in my mind, but I know I like the Yang Gang because I like Andrew Yang as a political candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Note, I have no candidate that AOC is endorsing, but Yang has definitely enjoyed far more success in his candidacy than anyone thought possible.
Jonathan Herzog, a 25-year-old former Yang staffer, announced his intentions to primary House Head of the Judiciary committee Jerry Nadler, entering an increasingly crowded Democratic race for the 10th Congressional District seat in New York
Jonathan Herzog, like his former boss, is running on a platform advocating for a $1,000 a month universal basic income (UBI), which he and Yang have both referred to as the "Freedom Dividend."
“My first priority will be to pass the Freedom Dividend,” Herzog said in a video Tuesday announcing his campaign launch.
AOC is so disgusted with Nadler's incompetency and ineffectual judiciary hearings, that I think the country would be better off with new and younger blood. NADLER CANNOT LEAD AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY.
Don't think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't juggling that hot potato as well, but we seem to be headed toward a special impeachment committee or commission, where Nadler is only one of the key members. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, head of the House Intelligence Committee, should head the effort, as far as I'm concerned.
The moderate swing-state Dems, who came out Tuesday night for impeachment and ALL legal means possible in the matter of Trump’s actions against Ukraine, tipped the balance in the matter of making Donald Trump the third president impeached in US history.
Unlike the squad, who is always calling Trump out (we will impeach the m#therf#cker), the swing state Dem women don't even mention Trump's name. These women — also first-term members of the House of Representatives — are all about protecting the Constitution, not seeking revenge on Trump. They are not involved in a Twitter war with Trump supporters, like members of the squad. It's very interesting to listen to the swing-state women Dems take a totally different approach. Yes, the fact that they have commanded navy war ships and large real-life squads of military men inspires my confidence in them.
The contrasts among these women: Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan just emphasizes the wide range of women in the Democratic party. All are important, but I am happy to see the swing district women (and a few men) begin to move in unison in their own squad. Progressive media is obsessed with the squad, as if they represent the entirely of the Democratic party, when they do not.
This is another reason why AOC is learning as much as we can about the Yang Gang, as an emerging balance to the as far left as they can go Justice Democrats, who want to blow up everything. Their voices are important but the equally innovative Yang Gang can be an important addition to the political mix among our young people.
Back to Nadler, who is ineffectual toast in my playbook, the Congressman has multiple challengers for his very important House seat. Besides Herzog,
Herzog joins a race in which Nadler has already attracted three women primary challengers. They are Amanda Pearl Frankel, Holly Lynch and Lindsey Boylan, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Boylan’s campaign so far is considered to be the more formidable, writes The New York Post.
The former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised $264,657 during the first quarter that she was in the race.
“I welcome all candidates,” she told The Post, responding to Herzog’s entry. “A healthy democracy needs more, not fewer candidates.”
Ghana’s Copyright Law for Folklore Hampers Cultural Growth
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Ghana’s Copyright Law for Folklore Hampers Cultural Growth
Ghana has a rich folkloric tradition that includes Adinkra symbols, Kente cloth, traditional festivals, music and storytelling. Perhaps one of Ghana’s best known folk characters is Ananse, the spider god and trickster, after whom the Ghanaian storytelling tradition Anansesem is named.
Ghana also has some of the world’s most restrictive laws on the use of its folklore. The country’s 2005 Copyright Act defines folklore as “the literary, artistic and scientific expressions belonging to the cultural heritage of Ghana which are created, preserved and developed by ethnic communities of Ghana or by an unidentified Ghanaian author”.
This suggests that the legislation, which is an update of a 1985 law, applies equally to traditional works where the author is unknown and new works derived from folklore where the author is known.
The rights in these works are “vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people of the republic”. These rights are also deemed to exist in perpetuity. This means that works which qualify as folkloric will never fall into the public domain – and will never be free to use.
The 1985 Act only restricted use of Ghana’s folklore by foreigners. The 2005 Act extended this to Ghanaian nationals. In principle, this means that a Ghanaian artist wishing to use Ananse stories, or a musician who wants to rework old folk songs or musical rhythms must first seek approval from the National Folklore Board and pay an undisclosed fee.
This is deeply problematic.
Joy Comes With Justice As Bland, Mallory and Sarsour Step Down From The Women's March
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The January 21, 2017 Women’s March was the largest single-day march in US history, coming the day after Trump’s inauguration.
Justice has come to The Women’s March, an organization launched with the unified, anti-Trump passions of millions of women and men worldwide on January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration . The Women’s March was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.
After that breathtaking launch, The Women’s March devolved into recriminations against Jewish women, in particular, and white women generally. The Women’s Marches scheduled in many cities for 2019 were either cancelled or were held after public rejections of the Women’s March National Board led by original march organizers Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist; Tamika Mallory, an African-American gun control activist; Bob Bland, a white fashion designer, and Carmen Perez-Jordan.
The pervasive attitude that The Women’s March team was focused — not on building a large network of pro-women’s rights women and men nationwide — but their own New York activists short list of priorities that prioritized racial, Palestinian and sexual minority issues over women’s issues was wide-spread. White women, in particular, had little place in The Women’s March group as it evolved.
Women's March Co-Chairs Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory speak during the Power to the Polls voter-registration tour last year in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The organizers preferred to remind Hillary supporters and Democratic women that the majority of America’s white women voted for Trump, as Tamika Mallory did during the Power to the Polls voter-registration tour last year in Las Vegas. It was staggeringly depressing in the time of Trump to listen to Mallory use her platform not to rally the Hillary supporters, but denounce white women as pro-Trump.
College-educated white women voted for Hillary, but they were shunned and charged with not being true feminists, especially as Jewish women not being willing to denounce Israel over the Palestinian conflict.
Mallory, in particular, refused to criticize Nation of Islam black nationalist Louis Farrakhan, who made incendiary remarks about Jews, at an event in which she sat in the front row. Mallory is passionate in her support for Farrakhan, calling him a GOAT. Sarsour also refused to criticize Farakhan for his virulently anti-Semitic comments.
Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Bob Bland and Carmen Perez. Perez will stay on with The Women’s March group.
On Monday, The Women’s March announced that co-Chairs Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour stepped down from the board July 15, though the organization has been slow to announce their departures. ,reports The Washington Post.
A diverse cast of 16 new board members that includes three Jewish women, a transgender woman, a former legislator, two religious leaders and a member of the Oglala tribe of the Lakota nation will inherit an organization recovering from a failed attempt to trademark the Women’s March name and fractured relationships with local activist groups and the Jewish community.
A new operating structure will be put in place shortly, which is a good thing because in its totally destructive state, the national Women March leadership was a total threat in telling white suburban women — an important voting block in the success of Democrats in the 2018 midterms — to go to hell. After Mallory’s speech in Las Vegas, I simply can’t imagine what she would have said to white women in the presidential election campaign. .
The three members who have resigned — Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour — are avid Bernie Sanders supporters, which is a key reason why they refused to allow Hillary Clinton to be one of about 20 women honored at the maiden Women’s March launch on January 21, 2019. Despite their protestations to the contrary, the founders never sought unity with Hillary supporters, all but accusing us of electing Trump.
Words do not express my job at seeing these three women — especially Mallory and Sarsour — step down from The Women’s March organization. Now — let us rise in unity! We’ll cover the responses to this news in a followup article. Few will be as candid as my commentary, but these women totally crushed the Trumped-down spirits of so many women all over America .~ Anne
Nicolas Valois Snaps Military Fashion As Madame Figaro France Inspires Delayed 9/11 Reflections
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Nicolas Valois Snaps Military Fashion As Madame Figaro France Inspires Delayed 9/11 Reflections
Model Loane Normand suits up in utilitarian military looks so fancied in Europe. Cecile Martin styles Normand in images by Nicolas Valois for Madame Figaro France August 31, 2019.
Speaking of taking a fancy to bad-ass military women, it’s Madame Figaro France who just introduced me to the new Valerie Plame Campaign video. Plame is a well-known CIA agent who was outed in the Bush administration and had to leave the service. She’s now running for Congress (the House of Representatives) as a Democrat from New Mexico. We have multiple new military and CIA women in Congress elected in November 2018 — and I love them.
Now that Madame Figaro has set up this nod to America’s women , let me share more of my favs. Next up, Amy McGrath running in Kentucky to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Amy narrowly lost her House election in November 2018.
Dutch Museum Faces Protest Over Exhibition on Nazi Design
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A picture taken on September 8, 2019 shows a Swastika formed with red carpets by artist Ralph Posset during the opening of an exhibition entitled "Design of the Third Reich" at the Design Museum Den Bosch, in 's-Hertogenbosch, central Netherlands. - The exhibition will show the contribution of design to the development of the Nazi ideology. (ROB ENGELAAR/AFP/Getty Images for Smithsonian.com)
The show focuses on how design furthered the ‘development of the evil Nazi ideology,’ but critics worry the show glorifies Nazi aesthetics.
By Brigit Katz. First published on Smithsonian.com.
Swastikas hang from the walls. Nazi propaganda films play across the gallery. Photos display the imposing choreography of Hitler’s rallies. They’re all part of a new show in the Netherlands seeking to place Nazi design under scrutiny. The exhibition at the Design Museum in Den Bosch explores how aesthetics fueled “the development of the evil Nazi ideology,” as the museum puts it. But the show, which was met with protests on its opening day, also shows the challenges of presenting Nazi iconography within a museum setting.
As Daniel Boffey of the Guardian reports, “Design of the Third Reich” includes a 1943 Volkswagen Beetle, images from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, films by the Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl and a piece by Arno Breker, reported to be Hitler’s favorite sculptor. The exhibition uses the artifacts to explore the contradictions of Nazism’s grandiose, romantic aesthetics, which sought to convey an image of prosperity and “purity” while its adherents were carrying out the most heinous of crimes.
Museum officials have taken steps to ensure that the exhibition’s artifacts are not taken out of context and glorified. Photography is prohibited in the gallery, so visitors are unable to post pictures of themselves with sensitive materials, and the museum has hired extra security to patrol the exhibition spaces, as Dutch News reports. The museum has also recruited people to monitor what is being said about the show on social media. Additionally, a spokesperson tells Catherine Hickley of the Art Newspaper that museum staff held a “very fruitful conversation” with members of the local Communist Youth Movement, which had requested demonstration permits before the show’s opening, to explain the purpose of the exhibition.
But that did not stop communist activists from protesting near the entrance of the museum on Sunday. The Association of Dutch Anti-Fascists has condemned the show as “provocative” and called on authorities to shut it down.
Timo de Rijk, director of the Museum of Design, is sensitive to criticisms of the new exhibition. “They are concerned that maybe we are glorifying it all,” he said of the protestors. “I would not be doing this if I thought we were, but I can understand that they are aware of that kind of evil in history.”
The museum insists that it is important to take a critical look not only at the “good side of culture,” but also its more sordid chapters. “The Nazis were masters in using design to achieve their goal, to both convince and destroy huge numbers of people,” the museum states. “If you wholeheartedly want to be able to say ... ‘[N]ever again,’ you must take time to analyse how the influencing processes worked at the time.”
Hanna Luden, director of the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel in The Hague, seems to agree. She tells Stefan Dege of Deutsche Welle that the Museum of Design is walking a “tightrope act” with its displays of Nazi paraphernalia—but that ultimately, exposing the terrible, manipulating power of Third Reich propaganda is "fundamentally good."
Vogue Italia September Has Gorgeous Adut Akech + Vilma Sjöberg Covers | Farneti's Words Confuse
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Vogue Italia September Has Gorgeous Adut Akech + Vilma Sjölberg Covers | Farneti's Words Confuse
The September 2019 issue of Vogue Italia brings two covers into the world of fashion speak and imagination. "Peace" is the guiding idea of Mert & Marcus’s image of Vilma Sjölberg, while “Couture” inspires Paolo Roversi in his Adut Akech cover.
Also read the texts by Michael Cunningham for the September covers of Vogue Italia signed by Mert & Marcus and Paolo Roversi. Note that this text is taken directly from the Vogue Italia . AOC finds it a tad confusing, as international translation always struggles with s(he) pronouns in Google translator. Reality is that this issue of Vogue Italia is focused on the importance of words, adding a note of irony to this modern word editorial focus. Always looking for the good in a situation, I first attributed the excessive use of ‘he’ to Google translator.
Reading the Vogue Italia website translation of Farneti’s editor’s letter, it seems that the extensive use of ‘he’ is intended., that the male pronoun is dominant, in which case AOC is pretty pissed off. After all, the history of Rome is even worse than the fall of women’s influence and power under the Greeks. Italy put the nail in the proverbial women’s rights coffin.
