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☆ Showcase for Antebellum Homes Displays Their Finery. But What About the History?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( Rick Rojas | Kate Medley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WHY WE’RE HEREWe’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In Mississippi, a tradition of house tours is about more than architecture. It’s a window into how a city sees its past and its ambitions for the future. It was also a highlight of the longstanding tradition known as Pilgrimage. Every spring, the city’s finest antebellum homes are opened to the public for a few weeks, inviting people in to marvel at the craftsmanship and the opulence.

Organizations: . Homeowners Locations: Mississippi, Riverview, Southern, Columbus, Alabama

☆ Sara Zewde Sows, and Dia Beacon Reaps
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Hilarie M. Sheets | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When it is introduced this year, the new and varied terrain of Dia Beacon, with its sculptural landforms, meadowlands and pathways, may surprise and delight. Sara Zewde, the landscape architect who received the high-profile commission in 2021 to reimagine the museum’s eight back acres, says the goal wasn’t just dressing up Dia’s buildings with attractive plants. She sees her profession as a field “that has the skill set to take ecology, to take culture, to take people and tap into something bigger.”Her conviction that shaping land can illuminate, rather than merely beautify, places and their stories lies at the heart of Studio Zewde, the landscape and urban design firm she founded in Harlem in 2018. Since then she has taught at Harvard University and is writing a book about her profession’s founding father, Frederick Law Olmsted, linking his vision of urban parks as critical to the future of democracy with his earlier travels through the antebellum South as a journalist and abolitionist.

Persons: Dia Beacon, Sara Zewde, Frederick Law Olmsted Organizations: Harvard University Locations: Dia, Harlem

☆ Opinion | ‘If Destruction Be Our Lot, We Must Ourselves Be Its Author and Finisher’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I spent the bulk of my Friday column summarizing early Republic and antebellum debates on the nature of the American Republic. The arguments run from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the 1790s to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s. Speaking of Lincoln, researching that column gave me an excuse to read through a few of his most famous speeches and addresses. They organized speeches, debates, lectures and dramatic performances and brought in notable persons to participate. Some of these were tied to a particular town or city; others were operations that moved from place to place.

Persons: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, —, Lincoln, Illinois Legislature —, Francis McIntosh, Louis Organizations: Lincoln, Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois Legislature Locations: Republic, American Republic, Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield , Ill, ”, United States, Illinois, Springfield, New Salem, St, Mississippi

For instance, the U.S. has blocked shipments of cotton coming from China, a top manufacturer of popular clothing brands, because it was produced by forced or prison labor. While prison labor seeps into the supply chains of some companies through third-party suppliers without them knowing, others buy direct. Cargill acknowledged buying goods from prison farms in Tennessee, Arkansas and Ohio, saying they constituted only a small fraction of the company’s overall volume. For instance, about a dozen state prison farms, including operations in Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and Montana, have sold more than $60 million worth of cattle since 2018. “What for?”FOLLOWING THE MONEYThe business of prison labor is so vast and convoluted that tracing the money can be challenging.

Persons: it’s, Willie Ingram, “ They’d, billy clubs, they’d, ”, Ingram, didn’t, they’re, don’t, Andrea Armstrong, Frank Dwayne Ellington, Ellington, Koch, “ It’s, it’s somebody’s, Alishia Powell, Clark, “, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer Daniels, Cargill, ” McDonald’s, Mills, ” Bunge, Burger, Jermaine Hudson, ” Hudson, Calvin Thomas, Thomas, Ken Pastorick, Pastorick, Jennifer Turner, Faye Jacobs, Jacobs, ’ ” David Farabough, they’ve, Joshua Sbicca, Cliff Johnson, Jimmy Dean, Sara Lee, Tyson, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, that’s, ” Ivey, “ They’re, ’ ”, William “ Buck ” Saunders, Hickman’s, Brooke Counts, Counts, John’s, Jack Strain, Tammany Parish, Russell Stover, Curtis Davis, Robert Bumsted, Cody Jackson, Columbia University’s Ira A, Lipman Organizations: Louisiana State Penitentiary, The Associated Press, Walmart, Cargill, U.S, Kroger, Target, Aldi, Corrections, Loyola University New Orleans, Koch Foods, Occupational Safety, Health Administration, Washington, Archer Daniels Midland, Consolidated, AP, Foods, Dairy Farmers of, Big, Sam’s, Tyson Foods, U.S ., Civilian, OSHA, Fair Labor, American Civil Liberties, Colorado State University, MacArthur Justice Center, University of Mississippi, PepsiCo, Brevard County Sheriff, Arizona . Companies, Costco, Correctional, Prisons, Nut, Maine Foods, Taylor Farms, Transitional, Associated Press, Public Welfare Foundation, Columbia, Lipman Center for Journalism, Arnold Ventures Locations: ANGOLA, La, Southern, Louisiana, Texas, In Louisiana, Angola, United States, “, Ashland, U.S, China, Tennessee , Arkansas, Ohio, Dairy Farmers of America, Texas , Virginia, Kentucky, Montana, Baton Rouge, Mississippi, Manhattan, America, Alabama, American, Arkansas , Texas, Florida , Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, In Alabama, Florida, Brevard County, Arizona, Wisconsin, California, Colorado, state’s St, Tammany, Idaho, In Kansas, Cal, St, Francisville , Louisiana, Feliciana, Investigative@ap.org

That sort of approach resonated in conservative strongholds like Alabama long before Trump. Alabama Democrats, especially, cite deep historical roots involving racism, class and urban-rural divides when explaining Wallace, Trump and the decades between them. Moderate to progressive “national Democrats” were concentrated in north Alabama, Baxley explained, while reactionary “states-rights Dixiecrats” cohered in south Alabama. Wallace won four Deep South states as an independent in 1968. Wallace won his fourth term as governor in 1982 after disavowing segregation and winning over enough Black voters.

Persons: George Wallace, Wallace, Donald Trump, Trump, “ Alabamians, ”, Terry Lathan, ” Trump, Barack Obama, Brent Buchanan, Wayne Flynt, “, Lathan, Ron DeSantis, Reagan, Trump's, ” Wallace, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Baxley, Baxley, Lincoln ”, ” Baxley, Franklin Roosevelt’s, “ Wallace, Johnson, Barry Goldwater, Flynt, Alabama “, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Wallace’s, Jimmy Carter, Carter, Alabama's, Democratic pollster Zac McCrary, Hillary Clinton’s, Joe Biden’s, ” McCrary, Sen, Richard Shelby's, Shelby, Newt Gingrich, Dan Carter, Jeff Sessions, Trump’s, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Tommy Tuberville, Katie Britt, dealmaker, Britt, Buchanan, Republican pollster, Donald Trump’s, Kim Chandler Organizations: ATLANTA, — Republican, University of Alabama, Civil Rights Movement, Republicans, Party of Lincoln, Party of Trump, Trump, America, GOP, Alabama Republicans, Democratic, Alabama Democrats, “ Party, Democrats ”, Politics, National Democrats, Franklin Roosevelt’s New, Civil, Act, Republican, Reconstruction, Klux Klan, Birmingham's, Baptist Church, Washington, Democrat, “, Democrats, U.S, Senate, Sessions, Alabama, Alabama Legislature, Southern Democrats, Capitol, Shelby, Associated Press Locations: Tuscaloosa, Washington, Alabama, lockstep, Florida, Southern, U.S, Texas, New York, Trump, Jan, Montgomery , Alabama

☆ If Santos is expelled, it'll be more punishment than an 1850s lawmaker got for nearly beating a rival to death with a cane
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

By comparison, a lawmaker who attacked a rival in a racist frenzy in 1856 was not kicked out. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Perhaps the most striking examples of a lawmaker who faced expulsion and survived was a 19th-century Congressman who nearly killed a rival in the Senate chamber. Since then, only two lawmakers have been expelled from Congress — one for taking bribes and another after being convicted on federal corruption charges. According to the damning House Ethics Committee's report on Santos, he spent campaign cash on designer clothes, OnlyFans, and Botox.

Persons: George Santos, —, Preston Brooks, Charles Sumner, Brooks, Sumner, Santos Organizations: Service, Republican, Economist Locations: South Carolina

☆ In Jesmyn Ward’s New Novel, Slavery Is Hell and Dante Is Our Guide
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Jennifer Wilson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Annis’s mother takes her into the woods at night to train her in hand-to-hand combat. Her mother’s mother, nicknamed “Mama Aza,” had been a Dahomey warrior, but was sold into slavery by her husband, the king — as punishment for falling in love with a soldier. “Annis?” her mother calls from the hallway, trying to prevent her daughter from repeating her own fate. “We done.” This brief expression of maternal protectiveness gets her mother sold, led away by a “Georgia Man” who takes her south to Louisiana. (This moment marks the end of any deep engagement with same-sex desire in the novel, making its brief appearance feel likes tokenism.)

Persons: Annis’s, “ Mama Aza, ”, Ward, Annis, “ Annis, protectiveness, Safi, Mama Aza, “, huff, ” Annis Locations: Dahomey, Georgia, Louisiana, New Orleans, ” New Orleans

☆ How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-13 | by ( Imani Perry | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Ward is classically beautiful — delicate and golden-skinned with her hair hanging in long curls. The town is important to Ward for another reason, though: Her great-grandfather Harry was the son of a white mother, Edna. Ward borrowed her family’s complex racial history in writing “Sing, Unburied, Sing.” That family history tells us something about how Ward thinks about history and its relationship to her fiction. The contours of Ward’s life were formed by two hurricanes. In 1969, Hurricane Camille struck, marking a terrible watershed in Black life on the Gulf Coast.

Persons: Ward, Black, wilder, ”, Brett Favre, Harry, Edna, Regina N, Bradley, She’s, Annis, Mitchell S, Jackson, Eddie S, Glaude Jr, Reagan, Hurricane Camille, Martin Luther King Jr, Camille Organizations: Hall of Fame, Gulf Coast, Bay Area Locations: Ward’s, Hurricane, Gulf, Oakland, Calif, Los Angeles, Bay

☆ What Bama Rush Reveals About the South - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Tressie Mcmillan Cottom | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Sorority rush is a tradition at many colleges. But in the South, rush inspires the same passionate zeal as collegiate football. Thanks to TikTok, the University of Alabama’s incarnation of that tradition — peak neo-antebellum white Southern culture on display — is now a global phenomenon. Since it entered the zeitgeist in 2021, millions of people have followed Bama Rush, as if they’re royal watching through Mason-jar-tinted glasses. When a small phalanx of white coeds in Tuscaloosa self-organizes under the Bama Rush banner to promote their sorority, they are battling for ritual supremacy.

Persons: Bama Rush, ’ Organizations: University of Alabama’s, Bama Locations: Mason, Tuscaloosa

☆ Opinion | What Frederick Douglass Knew That Trump and DeSantis Don’t
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Here, it is worth taking a brief tour of the history of birthright citizenship in the United States. Although the idea of birthright citizenship was present in English common law at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the Constitution as ratified said nothing about acquiring citizenship by either birth or naturalization. To the extent that citizenship came with rights, the scope of those rights was a question of state laws and state constitutions. But there were always proponents of a broader, more expansive and rights-bearing birthright citizenship. “Our common country is the United States,” Delany wrote.

Persons: ”, Martin Delany, ” Delany, Martha S, Jones Organizations: Colored People, Rights, Antebellum, Convention Locations: United States, Union, Antebellum America, America, Rochester , New York

☆ More than 100 U.S. political elites have family links to slavery
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +46 min

Then the war came, and according to the family history, Union soldiers plundered Sessions’ 27-room house. About 48 years old at the time, he did not stand a chance to succeed without slavery, the family history suggests. ‘A Better Nation’Some historians and genealogists say there is a valuable reason for white leaders – and other white Americans – to explore their links to slavery. Nicka Sewell-Smith, a professional genealogist with the family history website Ancestry.com, said people frequently ask her what to do with such documents. The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Meeks said in an interview that he has spent years trying to trace his family history back before 1870.

Persons: Black, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, James Lankford, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Joe Biden, –, Donald Trump –, Jimmy Carter, George W, Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Trump’s, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch –, Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, James Clyburn, Henry McMaster, ”, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Gates, ” “, ” Gates, enslavers, Tony Burroughs, Biden, Obama, McConnell, Burroughs, Joseph Maddox, Maddox, Sela, Rubin, James, Sal, Sam ”, Graham, Graham didn’t, Nancy Mace, Drucilla, Drucilla Mace, John Mace, Hector Godbolt, John Mace’s, Godbolt, “, ” Nancy Mace, Henry Coe, Duckworth, Coe, Margaret, Isaac, Warner, George …, Isaac Franklin –, “ There’s, ” Duckworth, George Floyd, Donald Trump, ” Biden, ‘, ’, Ben Affleck, ” Affleck, Independent Angus King, Mo Brooks, ” Brooks, Sean Kelley, Kelley, White, don’t, wasn’t, Richard Sessions, Pete Sessions, Richard’s, William Sessions, John Cowger, Tom Cotton of, ” Cotton’s, Cowger, Cotton, Archibald Crawford, Juneteenth, Shaheen, Pocahontas, Edmond Dillehay, Peter ”, Milly, Lankford, ” Lankford, Joe Wilson, Stephen H, Wilson, Boineau, General David Addison Weisiger, Wilson –, Addison Graves Wilson –, Weisiger “, ” Wilson, Daniel Weisiger, Daniel Weisiger’s, Samuel, Samuel Weisiger, Daniel, Julia Brownley, Jesse Brownley, Brownley, ” Brownley, Thomas Ferguson, Brooks, Manumission, Marie Jenkins Schwartz, ” “ It’s, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, Harvard’s Gates, Sherman, Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, Nicka Sewell, Smith, Ancestry.com, ” Sewell, LaBrenda Garrett, Nelson, Garrett, Rick Larsen, John Wiggins, Larsen, – Gilbura, George, Agg –, ” Larsen, Gilbura, Agg, Gregory Meeks, Meeks, Jim Crow South, – Meeks, – “, ” Meeks, “ I’m, I’m, Tom Bergin, Makini Brice, Nicholas P, Brown, Donna Bryson, Lawrence Delevingne, Brad Heath, Andrea Januta, Gui Qing Koh, Tom Lasseter, Grant Smith, Maurice Tamman, Catherine Tai Design, John Emerson, Jane Ross, Emma Jehle, Jeremy Schultz, Blake Morrison Organizations: Reuters, Republicans, U.S, Supreme, Republican, Harvard University, PBS, United States Congress, Representative, WikiLeaks, Sony, Facebook, White, FedEx, National Museum of, 117th, Independent, University of Essex, Geographic, American Economic, Pete Sessions, Sessions, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jeanne Shaheen U.S, CNN, Biden, Trump, ” Reuters, South, South Carolina General Assembly, Confederate, statehouse, Congressional, Chesterfield County, Mount Vernon College, George Washington University, Mo Brooks Former U.S, “, New York Times, United, Federal Government, Union, Black, Southern, Democrat, House Foreign Affairs, Klux Klan Locations: U.S, America, Confederate States, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Carolina, Congress, Black, Northern, Southern, Illinois, Virginia, Frederick County , Virginia, United States, Minnesota, ”, Mo Brooks of Alabama, American, Texas, Mississippi, Chicot County , Arkansas, Chicot County, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Yell County, Yell County , Arkansas, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Frankfurt, Germany, Chesterfield County , Virginia, California, Portsmouth , Virginia, Alabama, Haywood County , North Carolina, Antebellum, United States of America, Washington, Nicholas County , Kentucky, Queens , New York, New York, York County, Mende, Sierra Leone, Africa, Bunce

They include eight chief executives of the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America, which seceded and waged war to preserve slavery. Although white people enslaved Black people in Northern states in early America, by the eve of the Civil War, slavery was almost entirely a Southern enterprise. South Carolina, where the Civil War began, illustrates the familial ties between lawmakers and the nation’s history of slavery. Each of the seven white lawmakers who served in the 117th Congress is a direct descendant of a slaveholder, Reuters found. In researching America’s political elite, Reuters found names – almost always just a first name – of 712 people enslaved by the ancestors of the political elite.

Persons: Black, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen, Joe Biden, –, Donald Trump –, Jimmy Carter, George W, Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch –, Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, James Clyburn, Henry McMaster, ”, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Gates, ” “, ” Gates, enslavers, Tony Burroughs, Biden, Obama, McConnell, “ it’s, ” Burroughs, LINDSEY GRAHAM, Joseph Maddox, Maddox, Sela, Rubin, James, Sal, Sam ”, Graham, Graham didn’t, NANCY MACE, Nancy Mace, Drucilla Mace, John Mace, Hector Godbolt, John Mace’s, Godbolt, “, ” Nancy Mace, TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Duckworth, Henry Coe, Coe, Margaret, Isaac, Warner, George …, Isaac Franklin –, “ There’s, ” Duckworth, Tom Bergin, Makini Brice, Nicholas P, Brown, Donna Bryson, Lawrence Delevingne, Brad Heath, Andrea Januta, Gui Qing Koh, Tom Lasseter, Grant Smith, Maurice Tamman, Blake Morrison Organizations: U.S, Reuters, Republicans, Supreme, Republican, Harvard University, PBS, United States Congress, Geographic, Journalists, Black, Thomson Locations: America, U.S, Confederate States, Arkansas, North Dakota, Black, Northern, Southern, South Carolina, Congress, New Hampshire , Maine, Massachusetts, United States, Illinois, Virginia, Frederick County , Virginia

☆ Analysis: As the nation celebrates Juneteenth, it's time to get rid of these three myths about slavery
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

It marks the moment in June of 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas to inform enslaved African Americans that they were free by executive decree. Though it commemorates a moment when enslaved African Americans were freed, the US is still held captive by several myths about slavery and people like Cummins. 1: African Americans were ‘freed’ after the Civil War endedThere is a popular conception that the formerly enslaved were freed after the Civil War ended. It is what historians call a “Slave Bible.” It is a copy of a Bible that was used by British missionaries to convert enslaved African Americans. Kin Cheung/APThe historical record shows that enslaved African Americans revitalized Christianity in other ways, historians say.

Persons: Tempie ” Cummins stoically, Cummins, “, ‘, ’ ” Cummins, gainst, Tempie Cummins, Congress Juneteenth, ” Abraham Lincoln, ” “ There’s, ”, Tobin Miller Shearer, ” Albert J, Raboteau, ’, Clint Smith, ” Smith, Smith, Susan Merritt, …, ” Merritt, Frederick Dielman, Douglas A, Caleb McDaniel, Leslie Wilson, Wilson, ” Wilson, Bunny, Uncle Remus, Joel C, Harris, Albert Murray, ” White, ” Murray, Leon Harris, ” Malcolm X, Nat Turner, Martin Luther King Jr, ” Harris, Kin Cheung, God, ” Raboteau, Juneteenth, White, John Blake Organizations: CNN, New, Library, Congress, African American Studies, University of Montana, New York Times, Former Confederate, Rusk, District of Columbia, Colored People, Montclair State University, Getty, Museum, Biola University Locations: Jasper , Texas, eavesdrop, Texas, Antebellum, Whites, Rusk Country , Texas, Sabine, District, Washington, America, New Jersey, Southern, West Africa, United States, Washington , DC, California, Lambeth, London, Israel

☆ 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love New Orleans Jazz
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Giovanni Russonello | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Over the past few months, The New York Times has asked experts to answer the question, What would you play a friend to make them fall in love with jazz? The United States is full of cities with their own rich jazz histories, but none goes back as far as New Orleans. To really discover the beauty of New Orleans jazz, the in-person experience is key. But unless you’re about to book a trip, why not take five minutes to read and listen, and see if you get hooked? In the 100-plus years since then, New Orleans has remained something of a cultural anomaly in the United States: rooted in its own traditions, and fortified against broader commercial trends.

Persons: banjos, Joseph’s, Louis Armstrong — Organizations: New York Times, New, Mardi Locations: United States, New Orleans, Congo, Orleans

☆ Casting a Bright Light on the Supreme Court’s ‘Shadow Docket’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jennifer Szalai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The boy had been asking, “Why?” about a perceived injustice — an order to leave the playground before he was ready. But merits decisions turn out to be “only a small sliver” of the Supreme Court’s output, Vladeck writes. All the soaring rhetoric and painstaking legal analysis amount to little more than 1 percent of the court’s decrees. The shadow docket doesn’t just serve as a neutral realm of routine case management; instead, “the court’s new conservative majority has used obscure procedural orders to shift American jurisprudence to the right.”Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and an analyst at CNN, chronicles how the shadow docket came to be. But it was capital punishment, he says, that really gave rise to the shadow docket as we know it.

New York CNN —Disneyland has removed the “zip-a-dee-doo-dah” lyric played during its park parades because it comes from a movie that has been criticized for racist portrayals of Black Americans. The lyric initially appeared in the “Magic Happens” parade when it debuted in March 2020. The song “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” originated in the 1946 film “Song of the South” that has long been criticized for stereotypes of “spiritual” Black men and its seemingly nostalgic view of the antebellum South. Disneyland officials told the OC Register in 2020 that the removal of the “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” song from the theme park resort is part of a continuous process to deliver an environment that features stories that are relevant and inclusive. “Song of the South” is so controversial that Disney has locked it away for decades and even kept it off the extensive library of Disney+.

But the perceived spectacle means that not only will Murdaugh be on display — so will the county seat of Walterboro, population 5,460. “We didn’t want this, but it’s happening, and it’s here,” Scott Grooms, Walterboro’s director of tourism and downtown development, said last week. A portrait of Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., Alex Murdaugh's late grandfather, was removed from the Colleton County Courthouse ahead of Alex Murdaugh's trial. From left, Paul, Margaret and Alex Murdaugh. While he didn’t know Alex Murdaugh personally, he said few with longstanding ties in the area had not been touched by the Murdaughs’ orbit in one way or another.

WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Republican Kevin McCarthy's perilous quest to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives entered the fourth day on Friday, with a scale of congressional dysfunction not seen since before the U.S. Civil War. This week's 11 failed votes marked the highest number of ballots for the speakership since the late 1850s. But the holdouts want a deal that would make it easier to oust the speaker and give them greater influence within the House Republican caucus and on congressional committees. Some Republicans believed the agreement under discussion might give McCarthy as many as 10 additional votes. Some of McCarthy's opponents showed no sign of yielding.

☆ ‘Kindred’ Review: Living America’s Original Sin
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

There, in 1815, she is presumed to be property. But, per Butler, matters are not that simple either. As every narrative corner reveals another electrifying twist, “Kindred” has to be addressed in broad terms, lest spoilers come back to haunt the reviewer. Suffice to say that “Kindred” the book has been included in high-school and college curricula and was made into a graphic novel of 2017. The playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has done the new adaptation and serves as showrunner ( Janicza Bravo of “Lemon” and “Zola” directed the arresting pilot), and a few tweaks have been made to the original story.

☆ 'Kindred' review: Hulu adapts Octavia E. Butler's novel into another time-travel tale that takes its sweet time
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —After starting out well, “Kindred” gets lost in a maze of its own making, adapting Octavia E. Butler’s time-traveling novel into an eight-part Hulu series that spends far too much time spinning its wheels. The series does begin promisingly enough, as Dana (Mallori Johnson) moves into a new house in Los Angeles and begins to experience a series of eerie visions. Mallori Johnson (left) in the Hulu series "Kindred." Brace yourself, in other words, for a lengthier commitment to glean greater insight into how all of this works. “Kindred” premieres December 13 on Hulu.

☆ The Visions of Octavia Butler
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Lynell George | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +27 min

As a science fiction writer, Butler forged a new path and envisioned bold possibilities. Mural with a portrait of Octavia Butler and her name, composed of dots of various densities in 3-D space. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant. “‘Kindred’ was a story of ordinary people trapped in fantastic circumstances,” Butler wrote in a 1988 notebook. Her point of view was one not traditionally found in science fiction and, simply by writing, she demanded a larger world.

☆ Slavery rejected in some, not all, states where on ballot
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Voters in three states approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, while those in a fourth state rejected the move. The measures approved Tuesday curtail the use of prison labor in Alabama, Tennessee and Vermont. In Louisiana, a former slave-holding state, voters rejected a ballot question known as Amendment 7 that asked whether they supported a constitutional amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude in the criminal justice system. After Tuesday’s vote, more than a dozen states still have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude for prisoners. Several other states have no constitutional language for or against the use of forced prison labor.

☆ How the filmmakers behind ‘Till’ depicted Black trauma without showing violence
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Harmeet Kaur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The problem with ‘Black trauma porn’“Black trauma porn” – much like “disaster porn” or “poverty porn” – generally refers to graphic depictions of violence against Black people that are intended to elicit strong emotional responses. The implication is that these images can be needlessly traumatizing to Black viewers for whom violence is an inescapable fact of life. “There’s a difference between telling a story of Black trauma and telling a story that is ‘Black trauma porn.’”How Till avoids the trap of ‘trauma porn’What, then, is the line between a story of Black trauma and “Black trauma porn?”For Young, the distinguishing factor is context. Put bluntly, is that depiction of Black trauma intended to appeal to the sympathies of White people? It’s notable that many of the recent projects deemed to be “Black trauma porn” have been the work of Black creatives – an obvious reminder that Black people are not a monolith.

☆ 50 of the world’s best breads
▼ + stars: | 2019-10-15 | by ( Jen Rose Smith | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +33 min

In alphabetical order by location, here are 50 of the world’s most wonderful breads. Roti gambang, IndonesiaShutterstockPalm sugar and cinnamon lend a light, aromatic sweetness to roti gambang, a tender wheat bread that’s an old-fashioned favorite at Jakarta bakeries. This is where locals bring rounds of tender wheat dough ready to bake into khobz kesra, one of the country’s homiest breads. Gyeran-ppang, South KoreaShutterstockThere’s buried treasure within every loaf of gyeran-ppang, individually sized wheat breads with a whole egg baked inside. To make malawach, bakers roll wheat dough into a delicate sheet and fold it over a slick of melted butter.

Persons: William Rubel, ”, Afghanistan Johannes Eisele, lavash, it’s, de, whirl, Egypt Jen Rose Smith, El Salvador Lane Turner, you’ll, Joya de Cerén, injera, France Enrico Spanu, You’re, munch, Jim Chevallier, Emmanuel Macron, Pai bao, confections, snacking, Dökkt, rúgbrauð, India Stuart Freedman, Roti, Iran Behrouz Mehri, sangak –, crumb, Italy Bruce Bisping, Arnaldo Cavallari, Kare, ” Karepanman, Jordan Shutterstock, canai, sourdough, “, Mexico Lisa Cherkasky, Morocco Bartosz, Luke E, Rēwena parāoa, haven’t, Broa, South Korea Shutterstock, kisra, Balep, Lama, United States Dixie, Lily, White Lily, –, Uzbekistan Shutterstock Flatbreads, they’re, Areperos Organizations: CNN, Getty, UNESCO Intangible Heritage, Montreal bagels, Fairmount, Boston Globe, pats, UNESCO, le, swabbing, National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation, Jerusalem, Star Tribune, The Washington Post, Amsterdam’s, Vikings, Sri, Brewers, Turkey VW, Biscuits, United, Washington Post, Uzbekistan Shutterstock Locations: Germany’s Westphalia, Afghanistan, AFP, Lavash, Armenia, Australia, Luchi, Bangladesh, Dhaka, de queijo, Brazil, Montreal, Canada, Marraqueta, Chile, Chilean, el brazo, ” Shaobing, China, Sichuan, Cubano, Cuba, Cuban, Havana, Miami, Florida, Libba, Egypt, El Salvador, San Salvador, Joya, Injera, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, injera, Baguette, France, Paris, Khachapuri, Georgia, Pumpernickel, Germany, Soest that’s, Hong Kong, Dökkt rúgbrauð, Iceland, Laugarvatn, Paratha, India, Roti gambang, Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesian, Gouda, Edam, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Tel Aviv, you’ll, United States, Ciabatta, Italy, Jamaica, South America, Caribbean, Japan, panko, Amman, canai, Malaysia, Malta, Maltese, Mexico, kesra, Morocco, Moroccan medina, ferran, Navajo, Arizona, New Mexican, powwows, Netherlands, San Francisco, New Zealand, Lefse, Norway, Europe, Norwegian, Podplomyk, Poland, milho, Portugal, Americas, Karavai, Russia, Sardinia, of Piedmont, there’s, Proja, Serbia, Serbian, South Korea, Seoul, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Kisra, Sudan, South Sudan, Sweden, Sweden’s, Balep korkun, Tibet, Simit, Turkey, Istanbul, United Kingdom, British, Uzbekistan, Arepa, Venezuela, Venezuelan, Malawach, Yemen

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