Daily Archives: August 28, 2021

In 1609, English sea explorer Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, reached present-day Delaware Bay.

In 1941, Japans ambassador to the US, Kichisaburo Nomura, presented a note to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Japans prime minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, expressing a desire for improved relations.

In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teen from Chicago, was abducted from his uncles home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he was found brutally slain three days later.

In 1963, more than 200,000 people listened as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 1964, two days of race-related rioting erupted in North Philadelphia over a false rumor that white police officers had beaten to death a pregnant Black woman.

In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.

In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian stunt planes collided during an air show at the US Air Base in Ramstein, West Germany.

In 1996, the troubled 15-year marriage of Britains Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially ended with the issuing of a divorce decree.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered everyone in the city to evacuate after Hurricane Katrina grew to a monster storm.

In 2009, the Los Angeles County coroners office announced that Michael Jacksons death was a homicide caused primarily by the powerful anesthetic propofol and another sedative, lorazepam.

In 2011, a suicide bomber struck inside Baghdads largest Sunni mosque, killing 29 people during prayers. California returned the Little League World Series title to the United States with a 2-1 victory over Hamamatsu City, Japan. Katy Perry won three MTV Video Music Awards, including video of the year for the inspirational clip Firework.

In 2013, a military jury sentenced Major Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives. On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial, President Barack Obama stood on the same steps as he challenged new generations to seize the cause of racial equality.

In 2016, six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a dome in near isolation on a Mauna Loa mountain. Ryan Harlost led Endwell, New York, to the Little League World Series title, striking out eight and limiting South Korea to five hits in six innings in a 2-1 victory. Beyonce received eight honors at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Juan Gabriel, a superstar Mexican songwriter and singer who was an icon in the Latin music world, died at his home in California at age 66.

In 2017, floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes as Hurricane Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day; thousands of people had been rescued from the flooding.

In 2018, a white former police officer, Roy Oliver, was convicted of murder for fatally shooting a Black 15-year-old boy, Jordan Edwards, while firing into a car packed with teenagers in suburban Dallas; Oliver was sentenced the following day to 15 years in prison.

In 2020, Actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Black icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown as well as the regal Black Panther on screen, died at the age of 43 after a four-year battle with colon cancer. On Jackie Robinson Day across the major leagues, the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics jointly walked off the field following a moment of silence, draping a Black Lives Matter T-shirt across home plate as they chose not to play. (Other major league clubs had joined teams in the NBA, WNBA, and MLS earlier in the week in calling off games while protesting social injustice.) The University of Alabama reported that an additional 481 students had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to more than 1,000 infections since students returned to campus for the fall. Nevada officials reported what may have been the first documented case of coronavirus reinfection in the United States. Japans longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said he was stepping down because a chronic illness had resurfaced.

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Today in History - The Boston Globe

When you lift the manholes in New Yorks Meatpacking District, you may hear the trickle of the historic Minetta Stream, a now underground waterway whose adjacent footpath was once called the old negroes causeway as it marked a trail worn by partially freed African Americans in the 1600s, those who owned the nearby farms but were required to pay a fee. Down the road was the Black National Theater, the first free schoolhouse for African Americans and a cluster of Black and Tan saloons serving up booze and community for people of color. Theres a rich history of Blackness in the neighborhood that has carried over to an inner sanctum of Black creatives gathering at social club Soho House, building their careers. Now, seven of those talentsNadia Nascimento, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Carolyn CC Concepcion, Isis Arias, Melle Hock, Jane Aiello and Danny Baezhave founded new collective ARTNOIR to center artists of color, narratives that highlight the Black perspective and forgotten Black histories.

Artnoir began in 2013 as a group of New York friends attending exhibits and art events together. This month, in partnership with Meatpacking BID, the collective launched with a variety of exhibitions, happenings and installations centering the rich Black history rooted in New Yorks Meatpacking District.

Francheska Alcantara in front of her work for The Meeting Point.

Inspired by the relationship between geography and lineage, ARTNOIRs five part production, From a Place, of a Place, channels the absolute truth that Black lives have always, do and will matter. Playing with the concept of placemaking, the cultural launch spans visual performances to community programming and launched August 12. The Meatpacking District has always been buzzing with Black energy. But those stories must be reclaimed, says Nascimento. We hold the past in equal recognition as we create a Black Future.

ARTNOIR kicked off their launch at the collectives 2 Gansevoort gallery with a show of 20 emerging Black artistsfour of whom were selected through public submissioncurated by Danny Bez of REGULARNORMAL. Aptly called The Meeting Point, the pieces in the exhibition are conceptually synonymous with what Bez coins the spirit of a ciphera reference to the freestyle circle of hip hop culture. From Daphne Arthurs smoke on paper footprints that seem to juxtapose resilience and confinement to the checkerboard literary collages of Kevin Claiborne, the work of these artists stands on its own while informing a larger story around Black liberation, mindful gathering and permanence.

Kevin Claibornes piece for The Meeting Point.

The exhibit speaks to the productions overall theme: the interplay between geography and identity is where the Black community holds its unique power, Nascimento explains. As part of Bezs curation, he selected two The Meeting Point artists for a five week residency that includes ARTNOIR council and a financial stipend. The first selected artist, Drew Weech, was recently announced.

In tandem, Nigerian artist and architect Olalekan Jeyifous has erected a large-scale sculpture, WHENEVER/WHEREVER, curated by Oshun Layne. Jeyifous built his piece with a focus on specific spaces where Black folks gather. Marrying the physicality of stoops, stairwells and porches with colors linked to traditional African and African American textiles, Jeyifous hopes his work can be a landing place for joy. Its very presence, Nascimento shares, asks us to look closer at the ground we are standing on and opens a world of possibilities on how and why we gather.

Bassist Endea Owens.

Thus far it has been a platform for musicians and dancers and will be the setting of a series of live performances in the coming weeks called Visions in Motion. Focused on the history of sound through a Black lens, the series was produced by Dario Calmese, the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of Vanity Fair, capturing Viola Davis.

For perhaps the most intimate part of the installation, ARTNOIR pieced together interviews of longtime Meatpacking residents in partnership with nonprofit Hudson Guild and Westbeth Artist Housing so that those meandering through Gansevoort Plaza can physically listen to the areas history by snapping any QR code nearby. These untold stories will serve as an official neighborhood guide that will eventually manifest as a zine alongside stunning portraits of these residents by Black-led creative studio Paper Monday.

What is most beautiful about ARTNOIRs creation is its celebration of Black joy by Black people. The self-prescribed family is working on their 100-year planraising their children in a community that intersects identity, happiness and art through the Black lens, and, ultimately, ensuring their Minetta Streams dont get paved over. As Nascimento proudly asserts, Were always going to fucking be here.

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Artnoir Reclaims the Black History of New York's Meatpacking District - Cultured Magazine

Kat Martin calls herself one of Charlottes unicorns, someone who was born and raised and grew up in the city. People like her are rare in this city of transplants, she knows. But the theatrical artist left town for grad school, and when she returned eight years later, she found herself getting lost in neighborhoods she once knew like the back of her hand.

So much had changed, and she wasnt sure she liked or understood it. What had happened to the restaurants and grocery stores she knew and loved? Why does the wedge of prosperous neighborhoods and the crescent of poorer ones in Charlotte still exist? What are food deserts and why are they found in places she frequented?

I saw all this, quote-unquote progress, she said, but then the porches that I was sitting on and the people that I knew didn't reflect the gleaming progress that I saw in other parts of Charlotte.

Courtesy FixaPlate

Martin felt drawn to telling Charlottes story its real story and not in a surface-level way. What she and Mixed Metaphors Productions came up with is FixaPlate, an immersive theatrical experience that aims to tell the history of Charlotte through food.

I feel like the answers to those questions have been around the table and on these porches rather than in boardrooms and in funding meetings, she said.

At FixaPlate, which takes place Sept. 17-19 and Oct. 23 and 24, attendees will sit down at Grandma Millies atop blankets in an open field so everyone is distanced during these COVID-19 times and learn about her memories through an old recipe box that is found. Handwritten cards and passed-down recipes reveal the history of the home and family while challenging and correcting the public narrative of Charlottes progress.

By using theater and installation art and food, we want to take something that we all know and ignore, and put it in our bodies through art and through celebration and through genuine talking to each other, Martin said.

In practice that means a theatrical scene, followed by a visit to an art installation. Another scene, and another art viewing. That continues until the conclusion which is a meal provided by the restaurant Grinning Mule.

Recipes of the food that will be served come from virtual potluck events shes held since the start of this year, and include everything from chicken and dumplings to collard greens and everything in between.

Courtesy FixaPlate

When we're working in the ensemble, we always say it's juicy contradictions. So, we're looking for complexity within that narrative, she said. So, yeah, there's a biscuit. And then there's also a pigeon, peas and rice dish that came from Charlotteans and it's really representative of their history."

But its not just food. FixaPlate aims to be a full-sensory experience. And that means the theater performance and art installations created through the help of 15 local artists. In one immersive art experience, artist Claudio Ortiz creates a soundscape using samples of sound hes gathered of people talking about recipes, about restaurants, of different neighborhoods, and even of Prices Chicken Coop on the final day it was open.

People come into a room and play each of those samples in whatever order they devise, creating a unique mix.

It's adding that layer of what food is, like the sounds of the kitchen, Martin said. So, we think that the installation pieces are going to make sure that we're tapping into every single sense that surrounds food.

In the end, Martin hopes, people will leave with a new sense of what created the Charlotte that exists today with all its sparkling uptown buildings, gentrified neighborhoods, food deserts and prosperous shops. That is to say, the real Charlotte.

We see how it shows up on our plate there, Martin said. And the project, itself, reframes that instead of kind of ignoring the systemic factors food desert makes it sound like it just naturally occurred like a desert -- instead, we want to show the way that Charlotte's history at large impacts the plate and the kitchen table, and how the kitchen table can impact Charlotte's history at large.

All that in a single immersive theatrical experience.

Excerpt from:

'FixaPlate' And Gather 'Round To Learn About Charlotte's History Through Food - WFAE

In this screengrab, JoJo Siwa speaks during Instagram and Facebook's Creator Week on June 8, in Los Angeles. Siwa will be dancing with a female pro on this season's Dancing with the Stars. Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Instagram and Facebook hide caption

In this screengrab, JoJo Siwa speaks during Instagram and Facebook's Creator Week on June 8, in Los Angeles. Siwa will be dancing with a female pro on this season's Dancing with the Stars.

Before stepping on the dance floor, actress and YouTube personality JoJo Siwa is already making history as the first Dancing with the Stars contestant to be matched with a same-sex partner.

"I am so excited to be a part of 'Dancing With the Stars,' Season 30, and to be dancing with a girl," Siwa said in a tweet. "I think it's so cool."

Siwa's partner will be introduced on the season premiere airing on Sept. 20.

"I think it's cool. I think it breaks a wall that's never been done before," Siwa said during this year's Television Critics Association virtual summer press tour.

"I think it's really special that I get to share with the world that you can love who you love, but now you can dance with who you want to dance with," she said.

Siwa, 18, opened up about her sexuality this January over a series of posts on TikTok and Instagram, saying she's "happy that the world gets to see this side of [her] life."

Siwa has over 60.5 million followers across her social media pages and over 3.6 billion views on YouTube. Last year, Siwa was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People.

The remaining 13 celebrities for Dancing With The Stars will be announced on Sept. 8 on ABC's Good Morning America.

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JoJo Siwa Will Make History In The 1st Same-Sex Pairing On 'Dancing With The Stars' - NPR

Singer Tina Turner was the main draw at the opening ceremony in San Francisco for the first Gay Games in 1982, but city supervisor Doris Ward may have received the biggest reaction from the crowd. She said, Id like to invite you all to the first-ever Gay Olympics, remembers Jim Hahn, one of roughly 1.300 competitors in the inaugural event. And the place just went nuts.

But Gay Games I, which ran from August 28-September 5, 1982, faced many challenges, including the U.S. Olympic Committee's lawsuit barring the event from using the name "Gay Olympics." The legal action was a microcosm of the discrimination dealt with by the LGBT community, which still was carving out a place for openly queer people in American society.

There were Rat Olympics, there were Xerox Olympics, there were Police Olympics. You could have an Olympics for anything, says Shamey Cramer, a swimmer who co-led Team Los Angeles in the first Games, but heaven forbid you should be gay or lesbian.

The U.S.O.C. succeeded in blocking the official use of the term "Olympic," but the lawsuit galvanized support for the Games, especially among the gay community.

Participants in the inaugural event today recall Gay Games I as a watershed moment for gay athletes around the world."When I walk into the [Gay Games] opening ceremonies," says Hahn, "I always get that sense of history coming back.

Dr. Tom Waddell, a former U.S. Olympian, was one of the lead organizers of the first Gay Games. A two-sport athlete in college, Waddellwho died from AIDS in 1987was still closeted in 1968, when he placed sixth in the decathlon at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Waddell advised American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith there on their public statements about their Black Power salute, one of the more notable protests in sports history.

Like many other LGBT athletes, Waddell wanted to make a similar, powerful statement with an event for gay athletes.

READ MORE: 8 Memorable Protests by American Athletes

You were either a drag queen or in the leather communitythose were the stereotypes that were presented to the public at that time, says Rick Thoman, a track and field athlete who competed in the first Gay Games. They never thought that we were able to be athletic and be gay at the same time.

A number of gay and lesbian sports leagues emerged in the 1970s, as the LGBT community gradually announced itself to mainstream society. Still, many outlets for gay athletes, namely bowling and billiards leagues, were still tied to the bars that had served as safe harbors for decades.

The Games offer another place to come out besides a dark bar, Jill Ramsay, the chair of swimming and diving at the first Games, told the Bay Area Reporter, one of the nation's first gay newspapers,in 1982.

READ MORE: Harvey Milk, icon in the gay community

Like the campaigns of gay politician Harvey Milk, a well-known community organizer, the first Gay Games were a grassroots project. Ahead of the Games, a volunteer group of lesbians fixed up Kezar Stadium, one of the chief venues and former home of the San Francisco 49ers. Waddell used an ironing boardas a makeshift sign-up table for the Games on a street corner in the Castro,a hub of San Francisco's gay community. Waddell said the first Gay Games were put on with a modest budget: $220,000.

Shamey Cramer was instrumental in organizing Gay Games following the inaugural event in 1982.

Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

At Gay Games I, teams were organized by city, each designing their own uniforms. Age groups were not standardized, and squads for relays and other team sports were often organized on an ad hoc basis.

Future games would be more organized, but those competitions retained several crucial elements of the first Games: Athletes of all skill levels and orientations are welcome, and winning is not considered as important as setting a personal best. Participants ranged from elite athletes to novices.

Charlie Carson, a swimmer who traveled to from New York for Gay Games I in 1982, recalls meeting a young swimmer from Australia who had never competed against others. While warming up, Carson and others gave him tips on the finer points of each stroke to ensure he would not get disqualified.

READ MORE: Explore history of the LGBTQ movement in America

In addition to boxing, basketball, swimming and a number of other traditional Olympic sports, the Gay Games featured billiards, bowling and a physique competition held at the historic Castro Theater. For two weeks, venues around San Francisco were hubs of activity, with restaurants, stores and nightclubs in the Castro district offering special deals for athletes.

Attendance was mediocre at first, participants say, but rose as the Games went on. About 10,000 spectators attended the opening ceremony at Kezar Stadium. One participant estimates that between 6,000 and 7,000 fans attended the closing ceremony.Extensive coverage of the first Games was found only in the Bay Area Reporter.

Greg Louganis, one of the best divers in Olympic history, publicly revealed he was gay at the Gay Games in 1994.

Pascal Rondeau/ALLSPORT

Thanks to the efforts of Cramer, Hahn, Carson, Thoman and many others, the Gay Games have taken place every four years since 1982, with recent editions drawing comparable numbers of athletes to the Olympics and Paralympics. Carson remains proud of the impact of the Gay Games on the Olympics and broader sporting world.

We weren't oblivious to the fact that what we were doing at the first Games was groundbreaking, he says.

Six years after the first Gay Games, equestrian Robert Dover became the first openly gay athlete to compete in the modern Olympics. Olympic gold medalist Bruce Hayes came out publicly while competing at Gay Games III in 1990. Four years later, diver Greg Louganis came out as part of the opening ceremony of Gay Games IV. According to Outsports, there were at least 185 openly LGBT athletes at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The Games also led to a boom in the formation of gay sports clubs across America. People went back to their communities, and gay sports just came out of the woodwork, says Thoman, who is still a member of a track club that formed in the wake of the Games.

[The Games] gave me confidence to be who I really was, he adds. To be able to be an athlete and be gay, it was just a huge burst of pride.

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Why the First Gay Olympics Was a Watershed Moment in Sports - History

DETROIT -- Austin Bryant has played only 10 games in the two seasons since the Detroit Lions took him in the fourth round, struggling to get or stay on the field, failing to make much of a lasting impact.

The versatile defender has always been an interesting mix of athleticism and length off the edge, switching to outside linebacker in first-year defensive coordinator Aaron Glenns scheme. Bryant had two tackles in Detroits preseason finale against the Indianapolis Colts, breaking into the backfield and pocket on a couple of occasions. He nearly had a sack on third down in the loss, saying he beat his guy with a clean move in the trenches and that next time I just have to make it.

Bryant spent time on injured reserve for pectoral injuries in each of his two seasons, missing additional time with a thigh ailment in 2020. Hes missed 22 games while playing only 10, putting him in an interesting situation with a staff and front office that didnt draft him, all while trying to adjust to a new scheme. The Lions have to be at 53 players by Aug. 31, down from their current standing of 80.

I just wanted to get better, Bryant said. You all know my story, a battle with injuries. Just really grateful and blessed to be healthy right now and being able to have a chance to help this team under a new staff. Im just excited, and hopefully I just got a little bit better today and to continue that for the rest of the year.

Bryant has been back on the practice field most of the last month, showing signs of progress along the way. He had a couple of sessions with multiple sacks, doing his best to carve a role in a room of edge defenders featuring Trey Flowers, Romeo Okwara, Julian Okwara and Charles Harris. While his numbers through the preseason wont blow anyone away, Bryant was relentless with his effort through those opportunities, truly looking like someone starved of football at times.

Bryant played 35 defensive snaps in Pittsburgh after logging 18 in the opener against Buffalo. He had two tackles against the Colts, adding another pair in Pittsburgh and two tackles against the Bills. The final tally from Fridays finale isnt available yet, but Bryant was out there for a fair amount of time, drawing reps with the first-team defense.

I got a chance to holistically get better, from the weight room to the field, without having to worry about a rehab process or anything like that, Bryant previously said. Thats been awesome for me. Been able to dedicate a lot of time to perfecting my craft and being the player that I want to be. So now that I finally get to showcase it and show people what I already know about myself, thats been the most fulfilling thing.

Lions coach Dan Campbell was recently asked about any players that were different than he expected when he was first hired. He pointed to fullback Jason Cabinda, safety C.J. Moore and Bryant as those to impress or change his first impressions.

I think Austin Bryant, now he was hurt last year, but I know this, this guy was all out, all of the time the plays that he did play, but to watch him being here and get his feet back under him and get the reps, get the load, hes been pretty impressive, Campbell said. I think this guys really got a high ceiling and can continue to grow. I think hes even twitchier than I thought he was. Those would be three pretty good examples.

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Lions Austin Bryant ready to put injury history in the past after strong finish to preseason - MLive.com