Bridget R. Cooks. (Photo by Evelina Pentchev.)
This article is part of a series of conversations with scholars engaged with Black art for Black History Month. See also Folasade Ologundudu’s interviews with Richard J. Powell, Darby English, and Sarah Lewis.
In her much-discussed 2011 book,
Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum, Cooks looked at the ways that museums have perpetuated racial inequity through the presentation and curation of African American and African diaspora artists. Her account started with the very first show in America featuring African American artists, at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1927, and continued into the 21st century with the reception of figures including the Gee’s Bend quilters.
Spring Striper and Shad Fishing in Philadelphia
Fish within the city limits of Philadelphia to catch spring stripers and shad at the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.
Shad and Stripers in the City of Brotherly Love
Philadelphia’s fishing roots began before William Penn laid out his grid of streets between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. The Lenape, an Algonquin-speaking people, built weirs along the rivers seeking some of the millions of anadromous fish that entered the Delaware watershed each spring to spawn. Blooms on the aptly-named shadbush heralded the start of their fishing season. While English and Swedish settlers adopted the Lenape’s style of roasting whole shad on wooden planks displayed around a fire, they employed large haul seines to catch shad by the thousands. In fact, Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood earned its name from the German-American fishing families who inhabited it in the 18th and early 19th centuries. John McPhee’s popular book, The Founding
Gina Christian
By Gina Christian • Posted February 19, 2021
“Lent is meant to turn us inside out,” said one of my parish priests during his Ash Wednesday homily and by the end of that day, I felt as if the Lord had gotten a head start on me.
Fasting had left me cranky, my to-do list had doubled, and a few meetings and calls had taken longer than expected. After work, two last-minute errands had further delayed me. Coming out of a store with an armful of groceries, I’d watched helplessly as a fellow shopper backed her sports car right into my front fender.
January 22, 2021 at 5:00pm
Arts consultant and curator Laura Domencic has been appointed executive director of the Erie Art Museum, Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh native will assume her new role on February 8, replacing interim director Pam Masi, who had occupied the post since March, following the hasty January exit of executive director Joshua Helmer. Helmer had been with the institution for less than two years before allegations that he had behaved inappropriately toward female colleagues at the museum and at the Philadelphia Art Museum, where he had previously worked as an associate curator, caught up with him, forcing his departure.
“It is an honor for me to be invited to be a part of the Erie Art Museum,” said Domencic in a statement. “I look forward to working with the staff and board to deepen the connection of the museum within community life and to grow its financial resources. The museum has the potential to build dynamic programs that lift up
100 Greatest Movie Songs From 100 Years of Film
By Chris Compendio, Stacker News
On 1/16/21 at 11:00 AM EST
While visuals are a huge part of what ultimately defines movies, it is the combination of imagery and sound that completes the full cinematic experience. Even before the advent of talking pictures in the late 1920s, musical scores accompanied films in one way or another, whether it was through live accompaniment from a performer or a synchronized gramophone record system.
As the film industry became more mainstream and commercialized, the use of popular songs and music generally increased. Now, soundtracks and scores are an integral part of the moviegoing experience. Sometimes, filmmakers and producers are hoping to capture a zeitgeist by tying a film s release to a popular hit. Older songs might be chosen to invoke a certain period of time.