Celebrating Our Differences
On the first day of my Ethnic Costume Design class, my students said, “Ms. H., I can sorta’ tell the influences of different cultures in fashion design, but how do we really know?” After discussion, the students and I came up with four criteria to identify…
Star Elder by Dr. Yaoundé Olu Loved Ones! Welcome to the fall of the year and the rise of Culture – culture at war, in art, appreciated, subbed, diverse, and a part of the global fiber that makes us what we are to the planet. Whew! We…
Camille Bennett, Founder, Executive Director, Project Say Something Project Say Something is in the throes of protesting a monument standing in front of the Lauderdale County Courthouse in Florence, AL. We are blessed to have several photographers document our journey. However, Audrey Matthews finds that her new…
Culture, my own, and everyone else’s, I want to learn, share, and celebrate it! -Adriana Peeples A topic I have been a bit infatuated with for some time now. Growing up as a young child, it was the strum of Mariachi Music and Linda Ronstadt singing in…
Dr. Maguerite Mariama Dear Friends, Our ancestors knew how to plan for difficult moments such as these – as their lives were filled with them. We’ll get through this just as they did, with cultural inclusion, strategic planning, and communal LOVE. Yes, we must strike a balance…
Estranged Fruit In my motherland, gay people are worth a pile of dry leaves. Their heads are cracked open like watermelons and their hair thrown everywhere like streamers and confetti. Their voices are drowned by the crows that pluck their eyes out for breakfast while good people do…
“My yard sign finally arrived.” Wanda Gail Campbell Since the mid-2010s, the term “cancel culture” has slipped into media prominence. Now many, including this author, seem to be pondering what, exactly, does use of the term even mean? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as the act of canceling or the removal “of support for public figures…
By Susan D. Peters Caste: a system of rigid social stratification characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law, or religion. Merriam Webster’s dictionary If ever a book turns the accepted definition of the “race problem” on its head, CASTE: The Origins of Our…
Painting by Carol Landry What does it mean to appropriate the culture of another? How is it different than appreciating or imitating? As a person of white European descent, this is a complex, confusing issue. A Facebook friend asked if she was appropriating a Black woman writer’s…
In August 2020, I received a call that an ambulance was transporting my mother from her nursing home to the nearest hospital. Her vital signs were trending downward; she was not eating, and she was nonresponsive. After she arrived, the hospital’s attending physician called to give my sister…
