Lance Wyman, designer, Mexico ’68 logo, 1968 BY LUIS M. CASTAÑEDAAssistant professor of art history at Syracuse University A recent analysis of financial data provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) attempted to quantify how much the Olympic brand is worth today. The analysis, in many ways a problematic one, found it to be worth … More The continuing influence of the Mexico ’68 Olympics brand
Ralph Waldo Emerson ca. 1857. Photograph: George Eastman House Photography Collection BY MARTHA SCHOOLMANAssistant professor of English at Florida International University I. Toward a New New Abolitionism Abolitionism, the movement formulated in the United States north to bring about an immediate end to slavery in the US south, was, in its moment, the watchword for … More Ethical Geography: How abolitionists used spatial practice to reject their own authority
What if the movement for climate change joined forceswith the movement for a nuclear-free planet?Image via Flickr/public domain license. BY SHAMPA BISWASPaul Garrett Professor of Political Science at Whitman College A recent opinion piece in the New York Times made an interesting observation by juxtaposing two prominent social movements of our times. The piece pointed … More A sustainable planet is a nuclear-free planet.
When the Edison phonograph was first made in the 1890s, people used it torecord their own voices. It later became one of the first commercially producedmachines when it was used to play music. It worked by vibrating the stylus up and downwhile moving across the wax cylinder (Hill & Dale method).Image credit: Museum of Technology. … More Where do cultures go when they die? The story of Codfish, the Indian, and the phonograph.
BY RYAN R. THORESON In October 1994, a group of U.S. activists led by Rodney Wilson, a teacher in Missouri, created LGBT History Month. Adopting a strategy pioneered with Black History Month in the 1970s and Women’s History Month in the 1980s, the activists launched the project as a way to ensure the varied and … More LGBT History Month: A look at behind-the-scenes groundwork that leads to the headline-grabbing victories.
The bustling corner of Superior Street at 5th Avenue West.Images: Minnesota Streetcar Museum/Aaron Isaacs. BY AARON ISAACSAuthor and editor of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums magazine Initially, I wasn’t intending to give Duluth-Superior the same treatment as the Twin Cities in Twin Cities by Trolley. That all changed in 2009 during a trip to Duluth … More The making of the book: Behind Twin Ports by Trolley
In the opening prologue to her latest novel, Best to Laugh, Lorna Landvik writes: A black cocktail dress, decorated with a smattering of sequins across the neckline, hangs like an art piece on my bedroom wall. Although the integrity of the seams might be compromised, I could probably still squeeze into it, but for me the … More Extras: Best to Laugh excerpt, trailer series, and discussion guide
BY MARK ALLISTERProfessor of English, environmental studies, and American studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota Teenage rebellion takes many forms, but teens rejecting their parents’ music is a less likely expression of that rebellion than it once was. When I was growing up, my mom and dad listened to opera, to their scratchy old … More Teenage rebellion by music? Not so prevalent anymore.
BY GILDA L. OCHOAProfessor of sociology and Chicana/o-Latina/o studies at Pomona College Recently, much has been made about census reports that highlight how white students are no longer the numeric majority in U.S. public schools. Awareness of these changes is important, but statistics on students’ racial demographics tell only part of the story. These demographic … More Despite that white students are no longer the numerical majority in U.S. schools, racial inequality persists.
BY LORNA LANDVIKStand-up and improvisational comedian, public speaker, and best-selling author —–This is the fourth post in a weekly series by Lorna Landvik.#1: On destiny.#2: Why I wrote Best to Laugh, Part 1. #3: Why I wrote Best to Laugh, Part 2.—– Far more than her list of favorite designers, I’d love to read a … More Lorna Landvik: Life lessons from Joan Rivers.
