Daily Archives: January 25, 2020

Portland police said Friday that there have been five deaths among 11 drug overdoses reported in the city so far this month, another sign that the opioid crisis still rages in Maine.

This is a concerning spike we felt necessary to advise the public about so that users and families know what resources and help are available to them, Police Chief Frank Clark said in a statement. We will continue to work with our law enforcement, public health, and prevention partners in hopes of turning the tide on this epidemic.

The recent victims were: a 49-year-old woman, a 22-year-old man, a 24-year-old man, a 35-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man. One of the deaths was an intentional overdose, police said, and all are still under investigation. Police said opioids are the suspected cause in at least two of the five fatalities, and methamphetamine and synthetic marijuana, or spice, were also involved.

On Thursday, state officials released new data that showed a slight increase in overdose deaths in Maine for the first nine months of 2019, reversing a 15 percent decline from 2017 to 2018. From January through September of last year, 277 people died from drug overdoses, putting the state on track for 369 fatal overdoses for the entire year. That would be a 4 percent increase over 2018.

Gordon Smith, the states first director of opioid response, said the statewide numbers are disheartening but many efforts to provide broader access to naloxone and expand needle exchange programs are only now getting underway. He also pointed to gaps in Maines response to the crisis, including a lack of recovery coaches and recovery houses to complement the availability of medication-assisted treatment.

Although few communities have been spared from the opioid crisis, Portland has carried a heavy burden 318 overdose deaths from 2008 through 2018.

Portland police said they are working to identify traffickers and highlighted a recent arrest that involved the seizure of 375 grams of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has supplanted heroin as the most lethal drug.

Police also noted that the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, sometimes called Narcan, is available without a prescription at pharmacies. Portland Public Health also offers no-cost Narcan, as well as overdose recognition and response training. A community training and Narcan distribution event will be held Wednesday, starting at 4:30 p.m. at 103 India St. The training is free and open to the public.

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Five overdose deaths so far this month have Portland on alert - Press Herald

On Monday, the nation honored the towering legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But the progress he demanded remains unfinished, and nowhere more than in the deeply segregated neighborhoods many of us call home. Dr. King understood that where a person lives determines so many of their opportunities, including access to good jobs, schools, health care, food and safety. Barely a week after Dr. Kings assassination, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act with overwhelming bipartisan support in recognition of this truth.

In the more than 50 years since its passage, the Fair Housing Act has helped fight discrimination in mortgage lending, zoning restrictions that prevent people from being able to choose where to live, and local landlord abuses. In 1973, the United States government used it to charge Fred Trump and his son, our current president, with housing discrimination. Rather than fight those charges, the Trumps signed a consent decree requiring changes to the way they managed their properties. The Fair Housing Act was the only backstop for the people the Trump family discriminated against, and now the Trump administration is seeking to gut its protections.

Key to those protections are two principles established by Congress and enforced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where I was secretary under President Barack Obama. The first is disparate impact, which makes clear that policies or practices that discriminate against people of color or other protected groups are illegal even without proof they are intentional. For example, if white couples are regularly approved for mortgages but black couples with the same qualifications are rejected, the bank must fix their loan process, even if its employees didnt have racist intentions. Under disparate impact, its the results that matter.

The second is a mandate that communities affirmatively further fair housing, which requires government to promote greater opportunity and integration as well as fight discrimination. For example, if a citys affordable housing is all located in black neighborhoods with failing schools, limited transportation, and poor health care, that city must make an effort to fix the problems in those neighborhoods and build new affordable housing in other neighborhoods, in addition to ensuring theres no racial discrimination when any of the individual apartments are rented out.

Both of these principles come from the Fair Housing Acts recognition that outlawing intentional discrimination is not enough for people of color to overcome the consequences of centuries of oppression. This is especially true because the Federal Housing Administration and other federal agencies deeply embedded racial segregation into our neighborhoods through government-mandated redlining and other practices. Given this history, eliminating overt instances of intentional discrimination, while necessary, isnt enough.

At HUD, I codified and strengthened these principles. In 2013, the agency issued a formal disparate impact regulation based on decades of unanimous judicial consensus. And in the most important civil rights decision involving housing in a generation, the Supreme Court upheld the disparate impact principle in 2015, recognizing it as consistent with the central purpose of the Fair Housing Act. I also began improving HUDs approach to affirmatively furthering fair housing and my successor, Julin Castro, completed it with a regulation in 2015.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration is now taking steps to dismantle this progress. Last year, the administration issued a proposed regulation that would gut the disparate impact standard. The proposal imposes nearly impossible requirements on those who would bring a disparate impact claim, and insulates the insurance industry and other businesses that rely on technological algorithms in their decision-making, even when they generate bias.

And this month, HUD issued a proposed rule that would fundamentally undermine the affirmatively furthering standard. The proposal would largely strip away the expectation that communities provide housing that fights segregation and increases opportunity, weaken penalties and reinstate a discredited enforcement process. In addition to the obvious conflict of interest for a president who was prosecuted under the Fair Housing Act and stands to benefit personally from these proposed rules, they are reckless and wrong for three key reasons:

First, housing plays a key role in advancing economic opportunity and closing the wealth gap between people of color and white Americans. African-Americans and Latinos have less than one-tenth and one-eighth, respectively, of the household wealth of white Americans, and homeownership remains the largest source of wealth-building for most families. Moreover, where a family lives determines access to jobs, schools, and a healthy environment. If we believe our childrens futures shouldnt be determined by the ZIP code where they grow up, we need the disparate impact and affirmatively furthering standards to weed out and replace unjustifiable policies that limit opportunity.

Second, how we rent or buy a home is changing, as technology upends the traditional way we figure out where to live. From real estate apps to the hidden algorithmic box that determines credit scores and access to mortgages, our housing choices are increasingly driven by online tools and digital determinations. This makes it harder to understand if the creators of the algorithms intended to discriminate, even as research shows that bias is often built into them. By enabling us to test whether they lead to different outcomes, the disparate impact standard serves as a critical check to ensure that technological tools advance legitimate business and consumer interests without discriminating. The affirmatively furthering principle complements this protection by requiring that we go further than minimizing harm, by actively working to level the playing field and build more equitable communities.

Third, untested new rules that will no doubt be litigated for years can create chaos in our housing markets. The decades-long consensus on the disparate impact standard means that everyone with a stake in housing from residents and local governments, to real estate developers and the finance industry should know what to expect and how to conduct their business. And HUDs retreat from a focus on racial segregation in affirmatively furthering raises serious doubts about whether the new rule meets the basic mandate of Congress.

The Fair Housing Act was enacted with bipartisan support and championed by Democrats and Republicans alike over five decades because it aligns with fundamental American values: fairness, freedom of choice and opportunity for all. Instead of undermining these values, the Trump administration should honor Martin Luther King by withdrawing its proposed rules.

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The Trump Administration Is Clearing the Way for Housing Discrimination - The New York Times

Two years after the #TimesUp movement began, major film festivals are making a move to break into the majority white male ranks of Hollywoods gatekeepers.

The Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, Tribeca, Bentonville, Athena, ATX Television Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will reserve a portion of their credentials for members of the Time's Up Critical database, according to an exclusive report from Variety. The opt-in database is comprised of entertainment journalists and critics from underrepresented groups.

By encouraging industry leaders to be more intentional about who gets invited to their press junkets, screenings, red carpets, and other events, this database is one way they can work to dismantle the systemic barriers for critics of color and other underrepresented individuals, Tina Tchen, president and CEO of the Times Up Foundation, told Variety. Together, we can ensure these voices are represented and heard.

In a review of critics of the top 300 grossing films between 2015 and 2017, The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that 83 percent of them were white and 79 percent were male. Women of color made up the smallest demographic of critics at 4 percent.

The Time's Up Critical initiative seeks to increase the number of female and underrepresented critics and reporters in the entertainment industry by linking publicists directly with them. Started two weeks ago, the database has amassed about 400 listings, according to Variety.

Over the past two years, we have ramped up TIFFs efforts to invite new voices from underrepresented communities into the festival conversation as accredited journalists, Cameron Bailey, TIFF co-head and artistic director, told Variety. We stand with Times Up Critical in working towards a world where the people who interpret and assess our films reflect the diversity of the films themselves and the audiences who greet them.

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Sundance, SXSW and other major film festivals agree #TimesUp - The Hill

Streaming service: Apple TV+

When you can watch it: Jan. 17, 2020

Following the success of The Morning Show, which earned two Golden Globe nominations and Critics' Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Apple TV+ continues its slate of original programming with Little America. The eight-part anthology series tells the stories of immigrants living in the United States and was already renewed for a second season in December before the show had even started streaming. The episodes are based on a collection of true stories published in Epic Magazine.

While Little America details the lives of immigrants, including a Nigerian college student in Oklahoma and a gay man from Syria living with his husband in Idaho, there is no explicit mention of Donald Trump and the show doesnt address anything overtly political.

We want these stories to stand on their own, executive producer Kumail Nanjiani told the Washington Post. We dont want this to be a medicine show, a message show. It seems like immigrations a big topic now, but obviously immigrations always been a big topic.

According to Nanjiani, this was an intentional decision from everyone involved in creating the series, including Nanjianis wife, Emily V. Gordon, Master of None co-creator Alan Yang, and The Offices Lee Eisenberg. Its 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes shows that Little America is resonating with people by telling real stories about immigrants experiences living in America.

We didnt conceive of this show as a brick through anyones window, Yang also told the Washington Post. The show is an observed portrait of eight people. The narrative of human experience is not as different as you might think.

Streaming service: Hulu

When you can watch it: Feb. 14, 2020

Hulus adaptation of High Fidelity, which was originally supposed to stream on Disney+, is a departure from Nick Hornbys 1995 novel and the 2000 film adaptation that starred John Cusack. The new 10-episode series, which starts streaming on Valentines Day, is flipping the gender of the storys main character Rob Brooks is now played by a woman: the one and only Zoe Kravitz.

Co-creator Veronica West told television reporters last Friday at a Television Critics Association (TCA) panel that she didnt want to retell the story for television without making this change.

We have so much respect for the book and the film and I think they are perfect iterations of that story. But to say that, like, its weird, we watch a lot of romantic comedies with female leads and the problem always seems to be, you cant find the right man, or youre desperate to get married, or youre self-destructive in some ways, West said. And when a man gets to be the lead, the problems are internal. And it was interesting for us to put that in a womans point of view and let her issues with romance really just be about learning how to figure out herself and not finding Mr. Right. You know, theres lots of Mr. Rights in the show, which is part of what makes it so much fun.

Kravitz plays a record store owner in Crown Heights, a gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, who thinks back on her past relationships through music while also attempting to get past her one true love.

I lived in New York for a long time and Ive seen a lot of neighborhoods change. In terms of creating Rob in her environment, I drew upon my own experience, Kravitz said.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph also stars in the series as Robs friend Cherise, akin to Jack Blacks character in the 2000 film.

Two black women get to tell this story, Randolph said. There are many different variants within the black culture. I feel like whats so beautiful is that we got to represent the other side of that girl that you havent seen.

Streaming service: Netflix

When you can watch it: Feb. 21, 2020

America Ferrera and Wilmer Valderrama are executive producing the new Netflix series Gentefied about three Mexican American cousins living in Los Angeles who are trying to balance chasing their own dreams while staying true to the traditions of their neighborhood, including their immigrant grandfather and the local taco shop their families own.

Creators Marvin Lemus and Linda Yvette Chvez are adapting Gentefied from its original iteration as a short film, which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017.

Ferrera and Valderrama will guest-star in the dramatic comedy series, and Ferrera directed two of the half-hour episodes.

As a producer, its a thrilling opportunity to support incredible talents like Linda Yvette Chvez and Marvin Lemus. As a Latinx millennial its a rare treat to see our lives, families, and neighborhoods depicted with such humor, heart and style, Ferrera told BuzzFeed News in a statement.

Described as a love letter to the Latinx and Boyle Heights communities, Gentefied stars Joaqun Coso, Karrie Martin, JJ Soria, and Carlos Santos. The bilingual series also explores intergenerational and cross-cultural family dynamics, like the younger characters needing to translate memes for their parents, and other themes like class and identity.

In Gentefied, we get to peek through the lens of bold Latinx storytellers as they celebrate the lives of a Latinx community navigating self-identity, class, and culture, Ferrera said. Were so proud of the show, and hope you enjoy!

Streaming service: Amazon

When you can watch it: Feb. 21, 2020

Oscar-winning actor Al Pacnio, who was most recently nominated for his ninth Academy Award for his role in Netflixs The Irishman, stars in yet another streaming project with Amazons Hunters.

The new show, created by David Weil and produced by Jordan Peeles Monkeypaw Productions, is about a group of justice-seeking Nazi hunters in 1977 New York City who have learned that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials live among everyday citizens and are planning another uprising. The Hunters, played by Pacino and Logan Lerman, set out to stop the Nazis by any means necessary.

During a TCA panel in Pasadena, California, Weil told reporters he had been inspired to create Hunters because of his familys history as Holocaust suvivors, calling the TV show a love letter to my grandmother.

My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and she told me about her experiences during the war, Weil said. Hearing this felt like the stuff of comics books and superheroes.

Weil also said the show speaks to the [current] rise of anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

The purpose of the show is an allegorical tale to draw the parallels between the 30s and 40s in Europe, the 70s in New York, and what were seeing today, Weil said. This show is really a question: What do you do? For this group of vigilantes, the question it poses: If you hunt monsters, do you become monsters yourself?

Pacino said what appealed to him when he first read the script of the series, which he referred to as a 10-hour film, is the fact that things are not what they seem.

Theres an originality in this show. Its somewhat eccentric, Pacino said. Youll see it from certain angles where its not a dry thing. Theyll catch you off guard, and you really cant believe it you never know when a joke is going to come.

Streaming service: Netflix

When you can watch it: Feb. 26, 2020

The producers of the popular original series Stranger Things and the director and executive producer of the hit series The End of the F***ing World are bringing a brand-new coming-of-age series to Netflix: I Am Not Okay With This.

Originally based on the Charles Forsman graphic novel of the same name, Sophia Lillis stars as high schooler Sydney, whos grappling with complicated family dynamics and her sexuality, all while discovering she has mysterious superpowers. Lillis is known for her past roles in Sharp Objects, the It franchise, and Gretel & Hansel.

I Am Not Okay With This executive producer Jonathan Entwistle told BuzzFeed News in a statement that hes particularly excited about this new Netflix series compared to other shows hes worked on because of its supernatural element.

Yes, there is adventure, heartbreak, high school and everything in between along the way, but what this story has that is different to my other shows is that magic, Entwistle said. Oh, and some EPIC dance moves!

The YA series will consist of seven 30-minute episodes and also stars Wyatt Oleff from the It and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises as Stanley, Sofia Bryant from The Good Wife as Dina, Kathleen Rose Perkins from Episodes and Youre The Worst as Maggie, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong from The Mission and Falling Water as Liam, and Richard Ellis as Brad Lewis.

I want viewers to come away from I Am Not Okay With This absolutely in love with the characters, Entwistle said. And maybe the thought that things that feel impossible to overcome when you are 17 do get easier.

Streaming service: Hulu

When you can watch it: March 6, 2020

Hillary Clinton is the subject of a four-part documentary series coming to Hulu this March, following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 25. The Hillary docuseries follows Clinton along the 2016 presidential campaign, when she lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump but still won the popular vote.

At a TCA panel, Clinton told reporters she sat down for about 35 hours of interviews to make the docuseries and that nothing was off limits.

Its really hard watching yourself for four hours. Thank god it was only four hours, Clinton said.

The project was directed and executive produced by Nanette Burstein, who said the documentarys original focus was Clintons campaign, but because of the outcome of the election, it became about the history of womens rights and how Clinton has been the tip of the spear in various ways.

More than anything, I wanted people to understand that this is a historical figure who is incredibly polarizing and why, Burstein said. When you actually get to know her and really understand the intimate moments of her life you realize how misguided we can be in the way that we understand history and media. That is the beauty of documentary filmmaking: that you get to know the personal and the intimate and the details, and that sort of washes all of this other stuff away.

The docuseries includes unprecedented access to Clinton and footage from the 2016 campaign thats never been seen before, as well as interviews with her husband, her daughter, her friends, and journalists.

Clinton also noted that the series starts streaming three days after Super Tuesday in the middle of the primary elections.

This is an election that will have such a profound impact, she said. I want people to take their vote really seriously. Lord knows what well do if we dont retire the current president and his henchmen.

Streaming service: Hulu

When you can watch it: March 17, 2020

Based on the 2017 novel by Celeste Ng, an eight-episode adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere is coming to Hulu from Hollywood royalty: Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. The actors are costarring as two mothers in Shaker Heights, Ohio, whose lives and families become intertwined through secrets, and also serving as executive producers.

At a TCA panel discussion, Witherspoon said shes especially happy to be able to adapt this story because she doesnt think it wouldve been possible eight years ago.

I wasnt happy with the choices that were being made for me, and I didnt see a place to exist within the industry that we had. There just wasnt a spectrum of storytelling for women that was reflective of the world that we walked through, Witherspoon said.

Washington said her character in the series adds an important element of race to the story in a way that the book doesnt address.

The book really does delve into class and sociopolitical differences and cultural differences, so I think adding the level of race to that really enriches the storytelling, Washington said. We are stepping away from this binary idea we have of race in this country, of black and white, because were also dealing with Asian American identity and immigrant identity.

In the first trailer for Little Fires Everywhere, an urgent Mia Warren (Washington) tells Elena Richardson (Witherspoon), You didnt make good choices. You had good choices.

Showrunner Liz Tigelaar said the line was written by Attica Locke and explained this was why it was important to have a well-rounded, diverse writers room for the series.

Everybody had these multiple connectivity points for the show. I cant necessarily write Mias character because that wasnt my experience, Tigelaar said. And the parts I couldnt write to, what was so great was I got to bring in seven other people who could write to those parts and then write to parts I didnt even know.

Streaming service: Amazon

When you can watch it: March 27, 2020

After hosting Project Runway together for 16 years and then announcing theyd be leaving the show in 2018, television hosts and fashion icons Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are following the shows 18-season legacy with a brand-new fashion competition show, Making the Cut. The unscripted Amazon series will air two episodes weekly for five weeks starting on March 27.

Klum and Gunn explained why they left Project Runway and took their talents to Amazon during a TCA panel, saying they wanted to grow and evolve beyond the limits that were set for them by Bravo and Lifetime.

"Our imagination was bigger than what we were allowed to do," Klum said. "Everything kind of fell apart."

Amazons sizable budget provides for even more creative freedom, and viewers will be able to shop for the fashion pieces that are featured on each episode.

"We couldnt break out of it because there was a fear, Gunn said. Not among us were the ones who were thinking creatively and innovatively about what we wanted to do."

When it comes to body positivity and including a range of sizes on the new iteration of their show, Klum said, For us, its not really a thing anymore.

Gunn echoed Klums sentiments, saying plus-size models are an important part of inclusivity on the new show, following the legacy of Project Runway which also included a variety of sizes.

"Its the real world. Its fully integrated into Making the Cut, as its fully integrated into a good deal of the fashion industry because its the way things should be, he said.

While Making the Cut has big shoes to fill, Klum and Gunns expertise and longevity on Project Runway not to mention their built-in viewership and fanbase shows promise.

"Project Runway is the undergraduate program and Making the Cut is the graduate and PhD program," Gunn said.

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Here Are 8 New Streaming Shows You Should Check Out This Winter - BuzzFeed News

Jan. 27 marks the 75thanniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Between 1941 and 1945, an estimated 1.1 million people were murdered there, mostly European Jews but also prisoners of war, gay people, and Roma. When the Soviet Red Army rolled into the camp, only about 7,000 prisoners remained. The German Schutzstaffel (SS) guards had forced most of the camps population of about 60,000 on death marches in the weeks before, as the Soviets approached.

Sometimes I am asked if I know the response to Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel wrote in the introduction to a translation of Night, his memoir. I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I dont even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.

Penn Today asked scholars and experts on the Holocaust to share their thoughts on the anniversary, in light of the recent rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and elsewhere.

Berg is currently working on a book about the connections between waste management and genocide in the Third Reich, entitled Empire of Rags and Bones: Waste and War in Nazi Germany.

I spend most of my days researching and teaching the history of Nazi Germany. As I am sitting here, trying to commit to the page some reflections in light of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I am staring at a report in The New York Times about three suspected neo-Nazis arrested in Richmond, Virginia, just days before a pro-gun rally planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Some of those rallying to protect their rights to carry semi-automatic rifles to school merely call for peaceful ethnic cleansing, others advocate full-on race war. Anti-Semitism, white-nationalism, anti-black racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia have been on the rise for some time, but they have certainly experienced a jolt in the United States since the current administration moved into the White House.

Perhaps, many of us would like to look back at the millions murdered by the Nazi regime, at the pain and suffering of the victims of the Nazi race war, at the courage and resilience of those who survived these horrors and feel some hope. Yet, at a moment when white supremacists target Jews, Muslims, blacks, people of color, Latinx, and LGTBQ people; when democracies build walls, leave refugees stranded, place them in cages and separate them from their kin; when precision-strike regimes tip the geopolitical scales; when human rights violations are perpetrated in the name of democracyat such a moment I am not hopeful. Im angry.

Remembrance, as important as it is, cannot inculcate against racial hatred and unmake racist policies. So, I would like to use this anniversary as a call to action, to vote with our minds, our hands, our feet, our pens, our drums, our beats in our homes, our schools, our communities, our streets. Because the world in which we can credibly affirm never again needs yet to be built.

Filreis hastaught the undergraduate courseRepresentations of the Holocaust for 35 years.

Survivor testimony presents its great challenges, but it is a subjectivity so intensely collective that it makes for a new kind of objectivity. One survivors testimony I intensely admire includes the urgent observation that Auschwitz cannot be described, which is to say, of course, that an organizational machinery mass producing human death cannot be adequately put into words we will recognize from among existing human vocabularies.

When we mark an occasion pertaining to Auschwitz we should do so by reminding ourselves, first and foremost, of that inadequacy. It is the humility from which we might begin. The survivor whom I admire, by the way, to be a little more specific, said this (close paraphrase): There are not words that have been invented to say what Auschwitz was. And then a bit later in the same testimony: At Auschwitz, you got up and looked at the sky and the sun was not the sun. Our sun, our common human view looking up, a thing humans share, the least invented thing in the world we can imagine, is an apprehended invention like everything else. The survivor was not invoking myth, nor metaphor, nor even affective hyperbolenor engaging in a likening of any kind. She meant what she said.

If we wish to pay respects to what Auschwitz was, we must learn this literality, unlearn metaphor and myth, and join that new objectivity. Most of all, too, we must believe the words of the witness telling us of the words that cannot be summoned. Thus, we are summoned.

Goldhas been teaching a course called Holocaust in Israeli Culture since 2005.

The Nazi Beast could come out of any kind of animal if it got the right care and nourishment, says Bella, a character in Israeli author David Grossmans 1989 novel See Under Love. Hearing this, Momik, Bellas precocious 9-year-old neighbor and son of Holocaust survivors, thinks he understands what the adults have tried to hide from him. Armed with this knowledge, he decides to raise a Nazi Beast in his buildings cellar. When the Beast is big enough, he intends to tame it and force it to release its grip on his haunted parents.

Grossmans concrete characterization of evil came to my mind when I was asked to put my thoughts on paper regarding the rise of anti-Semitism as we mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Yet we must draw a clear distinction between anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Although the horrors inAuschwitz could not have happened were it not for the bedrock of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust stands alone as a momentous event that ought not be likened to anything else. Outbursts of anti-Semitism here and abroad as well as other expressions of ethnic and racist hatred are of grave concern but are not synonymous with the Holocaust or Auschwitz. They can and must be nipped in the bud in order to prevent them from growing into a Nazi Beast. It is upon us to stand guard.

Weissberg is also aprofessor of German and comparative literature in theDepartment of Germanic Languages and Literatures. In 2015, the USC Shoah Foundationawarded Weissberg theRutman Teaching Fellowship, presented annually to a Penn faculty member to teach about the Holocaust.

On Jan. 27, 1945, Soviet troops entered the most extensive Nazi concentration camp complex near Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, liberating surviving inmates. Before that date, Auschwitz was known as a small provincial town with a once-flourishing Jewish population; from then on, the name has come to stand for the entire intricate system of concentration and death camps built first in Germany, and soon in Eastern European lands. My father could miraculously escape one of Auschwitzs satellite camps; for my grandparents and aunts, the liberation came far too late.

For many of my students, these camps are located in a distant place and time. I view it as my task to tell them how present this history is for us today. Auschwitz has marked Germanys postwar efforts to become a liberal democracy and its current attempts to come to terms with its past; it has defined the history of Israel and the self-understanding of diaspora Jews. Auschwitz is a specter that haunts our current discourse on race, technology, and ethics and urges us to insist on the value of every human life and demand human rights for all.

This said, I do not think that the terms Auschwitz or Holocaust should be used too liberally. People are still persecuted because of their political or beliefs or ethnic origin; there is a rise of anti-Semitic incidents today, both in Europe and the United States. But the contexts are different, and we will have to analyze them carefully. There are also no competing Holocausts, neither in the past nor in the present. The horror of Auschwitz is not less because it was unique.

Wenger is the Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor of History. One of her regular seminars is "Rereading the Holocaust."

The 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz presents an opportunity for complex reflections about the past and present. First and foremost, this is a time to remember lives lost in the most devastating and deliberate genocide in human history. Auschwitz stands as a symbol of the potential for human evil and destruction. It also provides a lens on perpetrators, victims, and bystanders whose everyday actions defy neat platitudes or simple lessons.

In recent years, Auschwitz has become a rhetorical tool mobilized for all sorts of partisan purposes. In a time of rising anti-Semitism, it is more crucial than ever to interpret Auschwitz in its time and place and not distort its meanings through casual comparisons. The past never repeats itself. This is a time for sober contemplation about the not-too-distant and tragic legacy of Auschwitz, even as we confront the vicissitudes of our current historical moment filled with its own manifestations of fear and hate.

A former journalist, Zelizer is known for her work on culture, memory, and images, particularly in times of crisis. Among the books shes written is Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory Through the Camera's Eye(Chicago, 1998). She was the 2017 USC Shoah Foundations Rutman Teaching Fellow.

Does the current rise in anti-Semitism affect remembering the anniversary of Auschwitz? It shouldnt, but it does.

It shouldnt because memory should already be a natural part of how we craft our connections with others. Remembering distant events of the past, especially those with an emblematic link to intentional and catastrophic systems of human destruction, could play an important role in reminding us why our civic consciousness matters. If the history of the Holocaustlike that of every other intentional system of genocide, mass killing, slavery, crime against humanity, or other act of social injusticefades in importance, we lose the value of learning from historical parallel. This isnt only about entrenching the idea of never again, but its about keeping alive a collective that proactively takes action most if not all of the time in consultation with human regard, inclusiveness, equity, decency, and a respect for difference.

But that is not the case. Because learning from the past does not regularly inform our conduct with each other, we need external and often artificial reminders to remind us of its value. The current rise in anti-Semitism sends us scurrying in an explosion of frenzied activity that will fade as soon as the perception of threat subsides. Instead of proactively charting action that readily recognizes the pasts repeatability and incorporates its lessons, we instead embrace reactive and short-lived cues for collective engagement.

Were events like the anniversary of Auschwitz a more integrated part of our civic consciousness, todays rise in anti-Semitism might not look as it does. The past provides an instrumentally valuable guide for present codes of conduct. We just need to remember to look there.

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Remembering Auschwitz, with eyes on the present - Penn: Office of University Communications

ALBANY An end to most cash bail in New York has led to an exodus of inmates in county jails.

The state's largest counties said they have released roughly 25% of their jail populations leading up to the new law taking effect Jan. 1 and since then, a review by the USA TODAY Network New York found.

"We lost 25% of our population," said Monroe County Capt. James McGowan, who oversees the security at the county's prison.

The drop off began in November when judges began ordering the release of inmates held on bail ahead of the law's enactment.

And the numbers have continued to drop since then, county officials said.

"I've watched the trends go up and down," McGowan said of jail populations over decades. "This is not a trend; this is a rapid off-the-cliff dive."

Counties estimated last month about 3,800 inmates would be released as they await the adjudication of their cases, rather than stay in jail because they couldn't post bail.

The law ends cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. So two things have been happening: Inmates previously held on cash bail are being released if their cases qualify and new arrestees are being released without bail.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are considering ways to modify the law amid an outcry from police and prosecutors that the measure is leading to dangerous people being released back into communities.

"Reform is an ongoing process. It's not that you reform a system once and then you walk away," Cuomo said in his budget address Tuesday.

"You make a change in the system. It has consequences, and you have to understand those consequences. We need to respond to the facts, but not the politics."

The impact of ending cash bail across New York

Sheriffs said it is hard to say how many cases would have had cash bail that are now being disposed of without any bail, but the proof is partially in the numbers: Their jail populations have significantly dropped in recent months.

Dutchess County Col. Michael Walters said the county had 277 inmates at the beginning of December, but now are down to 190, a 31% decrease in seven weeks.

As of mid-January, Orange County had about 450 people housed in the county jail, down 118 or about 21% from the beginning of December.

It really takes away the discretion of the judges," Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois, himself a former village and town judge, said of the law. "You cannot arraign a prisoner who is down in Orange County from behind a desk in Albany.

The drop across counties is having a fiscal impact. Dutchess has 15 openings for jail guards that wont be filled, Walters said, and plans for a new jail are being scaled back from 600 beds to about 330.

He said he thinks the jail population could grow if lawmakers make changes to the bail laws this year.

Other counties reported similar or even greater declines in the number of occupied beds.

Steuben County, a mostly rural community in the Southern Tier, had been implementing the bail reforms for months in advance of the law.

The county didn't want to be "caught at the end of December with a mass exodus," said James Allard, the county's sheriff.

The jail has 265 beds spread throughout seven housing units 205 of which were filled this time last year, Allard said. Just 117 beds were filled earlier this month, a 43% decline, he said.

Meanwhile, he said, warrants issued in the county have increased 15% as more people are not showing up for their court dates after being released, Allard said.

Proponents of the reforms have argued that jails shouldn't be a pathway to recovery or treatment or as money-makers for governments. Nor should people be held in jail just because they do not have enough money to be released, they said.

Advocates said having people in prison leads to more problems for their recovery rather than being freed and returning to their families and jobs.

The Legal Aid Society said the law has freed "thousands of presumed innocent New Yorkers who could not buy their freedom from pretrial detention."

And any effort to repeal parts of the law "because of fear mongering and falsehoods from law enforcement and other critics" would a "direct affront to New Yorks progressive promise," the group said.

Counties respond to bail reform impact on jailsAllard said he understands the need for bail reform, but worried that those arrested will be deprived of social services like addiction treatment.

"I wish I had a nickel for every time I talked to a recovering addict that said if they didn't go to jail after being arrested they never would have changed," Allard said.

In Westchester, its jail population was at 469 last week, down from 653 on Dec. 2, a 28% decrease. In Rockland, the population fell 22%.

Broome County has released 100 inmates, dropping its count 22% to 350 prisoners in its jail, officials said. In Oneida County, 25% of its population has been released.

Some Westchester lawmakers recently questioned whether staffing levels at the jail could be lowered to save money, which drew a sharp rebuke from Neil Pellone, the president of the Westchester Correction Officers Benevolent Association.

In an op-ed to The Journal News/lohud.com, he said it is unknown the long-term impact of bail reform and "a potential increase in the population of sentenced inmates" could occur when cases are adjudicated.

"There is no question that current staffing levels are necessary," he wrote.

New York City couldn't specify how many inmates were released due to bail reform. But on Dec. 2, the inmate population was 6,811 and on Jan. 2, the number was down to 5,724, a 16% drop.

While the population is now dropping at a faster rate, it is continuing the trend weve had throughout this entire administration," said Peter Thorne, spokesman for the city Department of Corrections.

"Since 2013, weve seen a historic 49% percent drop in the population in our jails, driven by intentional efforts to end unnecessary arrests and focus on alternative to incarceration programs like supervised release.

Long Island jails also had large declines in their prison populations in recent months: about 300 fewer inmates each in Nassau and Suffolk counties, local officials said.

That's a roughly 30% decline in Suffolk and 25% drop in Nassau.

"We began releasing inmates under the provisions of the new bail reform law in the last two weeks of November," said Suffolk County Sgt. Paul Spinella.

"From that time until January 1st, we released 301 inmates to comply with the law."

What happens next with bail reform in New York?The bail reform continues to draw criticism from law enforcement amid a series of cases where people were arrested, released without bail and then apprehended soon after for another alleged crime.

A New Paltz man this week, police said, was charged in a domestic dispute, released and then arrested again 20 minutes after leaving court.

In New Rochelle, a man who pleaded guilty to a New York City bank robbery was released as he awaited sentencing. A day later he allegedly attacked and robbed a shop owner.

More: Ending bail reform: Why some NY Republicans lawmakers want the law tossed

Some Democratic lawmakers and police want to change New York law so judges have more discretion to set bail, as is the case in New Jersey after it ended most cash bail cases.

"Now these low-levels offenders may never have a chance to get clean and healthy" because judges can't set bail so the offenders can get help in jail, said Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, a Democrat, said.

The maelstrom has impacted public opinion. By a 49% to 37% margin, New York voters said the new law is bad for New York, a Siena College poll released Tuesday found.

Last April, a Siena poll found voters supported the law 55% to 38%

While small majorities of suburban and upstate voters had thought the law would be good, today, 56% of upstaters and 64% of downstate suburbanites think the law is bad,'" said Siena College poll spokesman Steve Greenberg.

Legislative leaders and Cuomo, a Democrat, are expected to discuss potential changes during budget negotiations for the fiscal year that starts April 1. Democrats run the state Legislature.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, said any changes should not be the result of "fear mongering," saying incarceration should not be based on an ability to pay bail. She met with law-enforcement officials this week at the state Capitol.

'We want to look at the facts, and we want to make sure we are meeting the intended objective, and we want to continue to talk to our stakeholders thats the people on the front line as well as the communities that have rightfully advocated for change to this system," she said Tuesday.

See the article here:

Bail reform results in hundreds of empty jail cells - Times Herald-Record

by Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya

The New York art scene is famous for its alternative, underground character. But the city is also home to various initiatives aimed at making art accessible as an entertainment form and as an activity to a wider proportion of the public. I met up with two New York artists changing the role of art through such projects to discuss their respective projects structures, experiences of participation, and the social significance of their art within the gritty realities of New York life.

Collage artist Sally Gil meets me in a small Brooklyn coffee shop, a warm escape from the slapping December snow outside. Huddled at a corner table, we chat about her contribution to the subway art project, MTA Arts & Design, overseen by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA). It involved the commissioning and installation of mosaics by various artists on subway station platforms a more official answer to earlier subway artists such as Keith Haring, conveying equally important social messages. In a climate of rapid gentrification, Sallys work is a timely celebration of the city as a melting pot of immigrant communities, in a form universally accessible to users of its famous subway.

She explains that the space-like vibe is intentional but as an external observer, I didnt recognise the work as also deeply homely for local viewers, I say. Sally nods. Yeah. Its for them.

Installed at the N-Line station Avenue U in Brooklyns Gravesend area (assigned Sally by the project), the work named Edges of a South Brooklyn Sky depicts various cultural signifiers specific to the neighbourhood, against a part-black, part-blue backdrop evocative of outer space. I went to see the artwork before our meeting, and whilst struck by its vibrance, I failed to see beyond this space-cartoon aesthetic. But when I show Sally the photo of the work, she points out its very Earth-based references representing the various local communities, including a Chinese custard cookie, an indigenous wigwam, an Islamic centre, a Mexican dahlia, and the station itself. So if youre somewhere and you see these symbols, you think: wait, what did I just see? Going through these objects with Sally changes my perspective. She explains that the space-like vibe is intentional but as an external observer, I didnt recognise the work as also deeply homely for local viewers, I say. Sally nods. Yeah. Its for them.I love the idea that you can recognise yourself in art you walk by things a million times not really seeing them, and then suddenly you see yourself. Sally explains the spatial symbolism underlying the inversion of her pieces on each platform: When youre going to work, the sky is blue, its daytime and when youre coming home its the night sky. Some of the objects are placed between Earth and sky: Were perched between day and night, living our lives, but theres so much more outside, thats what the paintings are about. Life is so much bigger than your daily life.

Photo credit: Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya

Subway art is much more financially accessible than art in galleries or museums, I remark. Sally agrees: You can make art for a museum and a tiny proportion of the population will actually see it. But on the subway, anyone can see it.

And is that how art should be? Yeah, keeping people company. I wanted to give people something to look at while waiting.

The artwork was created by a Mexican company which Sally chose, sticking closely to her clearly envisioned design. I was much more involved than most peopleI was very particular about colour, sheen, tile size. I went to Mexico for three days, then conferred via WhatsApp. They sent images; I made alterations. My time there made for an essential working rapport.

Did she have a sketch? I made original artworks for each niche, which they used to make the mosaics theyre total experts. We were back and forth on the computer. I could see it as it went along. Sally shows me pictures of the tiles being put together. It was made in a giant glass factory. Then they shipped it in a truck, and installed it with an aluminium backing, bolted to a fiberglass shell fronting the cement walls.

Sally assures me that most of the companys workers had worked there for years and seemed happy, which I find refreshing given the often extreme exploitation of workers in poorer countries by outsourcing companies. Do the companies get any credit? Yeah. The plaque on the platform says the company name [as fabricator]. But its the artists ideaits really a collaboration.

How did she feel seeing the final product? Really happy. The first time I saw it [in Mexico] I criedI was very moved. It was what Id hoped for and more.

I ask about the projects application process. You apply, and the finalists make proposalsthen they choose five or six people. You make three boards showing your ideas, in the form they requireyou get paid for it; its a very long process. I went out to the neighbourhood about five times taking pictures in winter. Sally shows me photographs of her collages featuring similar objects to the mosaics, including the custard cookie and some drawers from a Chinese apothecary store.

with activist artyoure often preaching to the choir. [Whereas] Im acting locally. If Im gonna help the world, I want to help people in my local realm.

She has riskier experience with public art: painting a mural on the construction wall near her studio, which she felt was calling to be painted. The police came and told me to stop a couple times. Id say okay and carry on after they left. And that was there for yearsI did it slowly. There was a halfway house of people in the neighbourhood [that may have been drunk] and would come and talk to me.

Does Sally consider her art a form of activism? New York [has always had] activist artists. I met one artist helping the environment by hiring people to put art on trees, so the tree is an artwork and you cant chop it down, which I really liked. But with activist artyoure often preaching to the choir. [Whereas] Im acting locally. If Im gonna help the world, I want to help people in my local realm. And those people may not hold progressive views, but art might give them a new perspective, I say. Sally agrees: Yes. It might make them curious, think, maybe just brighten their day.

Find out more about Sally and her work on her website. (currently incomplete)

More information about MTA Arts & Design can be found on the MTA website.

Featured image: Ananya Wilson Bhattacharya

The Norwich Radical is non-profit and run by volunteers. All funds raised help cover the maintenance costs of our website, as well as contributing towards future projects and events.Please consider making a small contribution to fund a better media future.

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EDGES OF A SOUTH BROOKLYN SKY INTERVIEW WITH SALLY GIL - Norwich Radical

Take it from the experts: our future is bright! Here are six reasons for optimism.

To hear it from the prime time newscasters, our world is in dire shape. Our digital privacy? Nonexistent. Our citizens? An aging economic burden. Dont get us started on the climate.

And yet.

And yet when we asked alumni and faculty experts in those exact fields about the future they saw, they shared a more nuanced view.

Behind all of those bad headlines were sparks of promising change, heartening trends, and, yes, even a few reasons for optimism.

Heres what makes St. Olaf experts look ahead with hope.

Some call it a silver tsunami. Others call it a demographic time bomb. The reality is that our population as a whole is getting older. Were living longer, and were not having as many kids as we did in the past.

While economists fret about the implications of this shift on everything from Social Security to Medicare, Beth Truesdale 97, a sociologist and research associate for the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, says the bleak headlines sidestep a larger and far more important truth. We overlook what a monumental accomplishment aging societies actually are, she says. We overlook how very fortunate all of us are to be living right now.

American babies born in 1880, for example, had an average lifespan of 40 years. A baby born today, by contrast, will likely live to nearly 80. What does she credit for this doubling? Truesdale says we can look to the way public and private systems have worked together to make vast strides in areas such as public health, nutrition, and education.

At the same time, birthrates have plummeted. As late as the 1950s, the number of children being born per woman in the United States was about three. Today, that number hovers below two. Whats the cause? Truesdale notes that birthrates tend to fall in tandem with infant mortality rates. People think, My children are more likely to grow up to become adults. And then they start having fewer babies.

While theres no question that there are costs to an aging society, Truesdale says the advantages are enormous, and were just beginning to harness them. People are able to contribute economically if theyre able to work longer, but also theyre able to contribute to their communities as volunteers and as citizens for a longer time, she says. Often people have terrific skills that they are bringing as a result of lifelong experience. Thats an enormous resource for communities and for the United States as a whole to be able to tap.

For years, Associate Professor of Practice in Biology Diane Angell felt like she was fighting an unwinnable battle. She had spent decades teaching her students about climate change, but the lessons she was sharing in the classroom werent ones that seemed to resonate much beyond it.

We would look at the statistics of people in the United States who believed that the climate was changing, and that number didnt really budge for about 15 years, she says.

And then, suddenly, it did. Over the past four or five years as people began experiencing extreme weather events, from hurricanes to fires to Minnesotas increasingly soggy seasons Angell saw that scientists messages were finally sinking in. According to Climate Change in the American Mind (Yale University and George Mason University: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication), today 73 percent of people believe climate change is happening, significantly higher than the 57 percent who believed the same in 2010.

That shift in public opinion is essential, says Angell, because you cant fix a problem that you dont believe you have. The science was done a long time ago, but I think scientists understand now that we cant do our research in isolation anymore. We need to bring it into the public realm and have real conversations with our communities.

Megan Behnke 16, a biogeochemist and Ph.D. candidate at Florida State University, adds that this shift in public opinion has carried with it a level of activism she finds inspiring. Many states are working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in ways consistent with the Paris Agreement, for example. In her hometown of Juneau, Alaska, a group of concerned citizens started Renewable Juneau, a grassroots organization that seeks to reduce fossil fuel emissions by 80 percent and has created a local carbon offset program

There are hundreds of examples of ordinary people saying, Im going to start fixing this myself, Behnke says. And grassroots change like that is the most effective way to change how our society interacts with its environment.

Such work is important because, despite public proclamations to the contrary, its never too late to make real change. While there are some important thresholds that scientists worry about for example, when we reach certain levels of carbon dioxide emissions, the result may be less like walking down the climate hill and more like falling off of a climate cliff Behnke says that shouldnt stop us from taking action. Even if you fall off a cliff, you wind your way back. You find a ladder, and you work your way back to the top of the cliff.

Climate change has often felt like nothing but bad news, but Behnke says the shifts she sees are worth being optimistic about. Yes, climate change can be scary. But as a society, I think were finally starting to ask, What are we going to do about it?

We live in the age of streaming services: first Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon; now Disney+ and Apple+, and Peacock. With so much incredible programming available to us for the price of a couple coffees (and no further away than our laptops), is live theater still relevant?

The numbers resoundingly confirm theaters abiding popularity and the Jungle Theaters artistic director, Sarah Rasmussen 01, says attendees increasing sophistication about the mediums possibilities make her as optimistic as shes ever been. People do engage in a meditative space here. They turn off their phones. Theyre together, in community with each other. It feels ancient in a way, and its also hopeful.

The Jungle is doing a booming business these days, a trend that mirrors the industry as a whole: a study published in 2018 by the National Endowment for the Arts found that the share of adults who attended visual or performing arts activities had climbed 3.6 percentage points since 2012; last year, Broadways attendance was up 9.5 percent from the previous season.

Rasmussen says attendees understand the value of being in the same space as the performers and other audience members, which leads to a fundamentally different experience from watching a screen by yourself. Do I laugh at something I see at home alone on my laptop? Sometimes, Rasmussen says. But being in an audience, someone will start laughing, and that will make me laugh. Theres a different energy, a different sense of listening.

That laughter is empathy in action and theater can evoke it in larger ways: When theater brings up something challenging or uncomfortable, audience members cant just turn away. Not only must they engage with an idea, but they experience others in the room doing the same. You listen with a sense of curiosity: what is the person next to you thinking about this? That sense of community is more than mental. Research led by the UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences has shown that during a live performance, audience members heartbeats actually start to beat together.

In what can feel like an increasingly divided world, developing that sense of connection, even with those who are very different from us, is a worthy pursuit. Theatergoers understand that. And its why those rising numbers are valuable well beyond the dollars and cents.

Being intentional about spaces where we can come together, where we can be surprised, and where we can both connect more deeply to ourselves and each other, thats important, says Rasmussen. I think its more necessary than ever.

Plenty of hackers have found the path to our personal information: Yahoo, Equifax, and Target have all been breached in recent years, spilling our confidential information to just about anyone who wants it. So it may come as a surprise to some that there is someone worth trusting these days: yourself.

St. Olafs information security officer, Kendall George, says that a combination of better education about the importance of security and perhaps some hard-won experience has made us all a little savvier. People understand now that they need a stronger password. Theyve adapted to two-factor authentication [a combination of a password and additional personal verification, such as a fingerprint or a one-time PIN], says George. I dont really hear grumbling about it.

Even more than that, people are getting smarter about suspicious emails. According to the highly regarded Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, click-through rates on phishing simulations plunged from 24 percent to 3 percent in just 7 years.

Its not just that were no longer being duped by the story of the Nigerian prince who promises a big payoff. Its that were bringing a more appropriate level of skepticism to unexpected emails in our inbox. People are less likely to click [links] or open attachments when something looks phishy, George says. Theyre not falling for messages that look suspicious.

So, while the bad guys might never give up, we can at least know that these days, were not our own worst enemy. Education efforts are working, says Kendall. And thats why that trend is moving in the right direction.

You dont have to tell Oles that choral music has the power to unite communities and change lives an appreciation for music might as well be inscribed in Oles DNA. In a world thats becoming more open to the ideas and music from diverse populations, musics powerful influence is as strong as ever. Yet plenty of people are beginning to wonder where, exactly, the music typically found within the context of the traditional choral canon fits in.

For Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, visiting instructor in music and conductor of the St. Olaf Chapel Choir and Viking Chorus, the answer is right alongside some of the most current works by groundbreaking composers. Since arriving at St. Olaf in 2018, hes been pulling together musical selections that are part of the traditional canon and contrasting them with current pieces that challenge those existing norms.

Recently, for example, the Viking Chorus performed the world premiere of the conversation-starting composition No Color, with lyrics including:

No color

No color can come between us

No shade to be thrown

No turn to be taken to demean us

No hue of hate to be shown

In conjunction with the performance, the pieces nationally renowned composers, Shawn Kirchner and Stacey V. Gibbs, traveled to campus to participate in open dialogue with the Viking Chorus on how they conceptualized the composition. The composers shared with the students that while some people who hear the words No Color or colorblind find it to be a positive attribute, the opposite is also true. It was an entry point, says Wondemagegnehu, into what can often be a difficult conversation.

This gave us an opportunity during our rehearsals to jump into dialogue and hear how each of us define the word colorblind. We began to process what it means to see somebody elses race and differences while acknowledging our own, says Wondemagegnehu. Because of these conversations and experiences, we grew as an ensemble. Singing the African American spiritual Steal Away music I consider to be a major part of the choral canon with new eyes and hearts created a such a rich experience for all of us. And to top it off, we even got to collaborate on Steal Away with the Twin Cities Gay Mens Chorus. So many beautiful intersections, all introduced by beginning the conversation.

For 2020, Wondemagegnehu hopes to include an excerpt of Randall Thompsons Testament of Freedom, a choral piece written in 1943 using Thomas Jeffersons words. The Thomas Jefferson we know today is a profound and problematic character, he says. So how do we program that piece in context with broader social justice initiatives? Thats where the innovation can take place.

In the end, Wondemagegnehu says, the goal is to have an ongoing conversation with older works to understand what they can continue to offer in a world that looks vastly different from the one in which they were created. We can have different conversations about these pieces of music now, he says. And thats something that allows them to live even longer.

No matter how you slice it, video games are big business. In 2018 alone, global video game revenue topped $43 billion, surpassing the total global box office for the film industry by a cool $2 billion.

But video games are still fighting plenty of negative stereotypes: that theyre misogynistic, violent, and focused on grim storylines that center on dominating, destroying, and stealing.

Associate Professor of English Rebecca Richards says theres plenty to be concerned about but there are also remarkably encouraging changes within the larger videogame landscape. Today we have more game developers who are creating games that are challenging that dominant narrative of what a video game is.

Part of the reason for this shift is the non-intuitive demographics of video games: a full 48 percent of gamers are women.

While youll find them playing all the big-budget games that are making headlines Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat, for example theyre also very well represented in puzzle games (think Monument Valley) and digital collectible card games (such as Hearthstone).

Those eye-popping numbers are attracting a wider range of video game developers to the field itself and giving those developers all the incentive they need to develop games that flip the dominant narrative of violent games on its head.

Take, for instance, the game Flower. There are no words and no people in the game, Richards says. You play as the wind, going through different landscapes and picking up flower petals. As you pick up more flower petals, you regenerate the land and bring it back from decay.

The game is meditative, beautiful, and musically gorgeous. No one dies. And no one gets hurt.

Flower may not (yet) be a billion-dollar behemoth, but it represents just one of the many ways that the widening video game audience and community of developers is helping make the entire industry more vibrant.

For a long time, it was the same people making similar games over and over, says Richards. Now there are more of us more people, more perspectives. People are saying, I dont want to play a game where I continually die. I want to play a game where I feel peaceful, and Im working with others instead of against others. More ideas are welcome, and thats something to be optimistic about.

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Everything's Going To Be Okay - St. Olaf College News

Family conversations can be awkward, even downright difficult, according to Vivian Lasley-Bibbs, Director of the Office of Health Equity for Kentuckys Department for Public Health. Despite the discomfort, honest discussions are crucial, she remarked at the kick-off of a lively interactive session on health equity last week in Louisville, at the offices of Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The purposes of this unique family gathering were to assess the factors contributing to health equity (and inequity) in Kentucky; examine the Foundations mission in regard to unmet needs, and begin to chart a path to the future using a process of meetings and workshops that will present a final report and action plan in November.

To establish common ground for meaningful communication, Ms. Lasley-Bibbs assured the group, This is a safe space. You can ask questions with no judgment.

In an environment that welcomed candor, she encouraged participants to share their lived experiences, so even uncomfortable exchanges akin to Grandma, no more fruitcake were welcome.

Sometimes listening is all you need to do, Ms. Lasley-Bibbs continued. Whats important is that you leave here enlightened.

For the next four hours, about sixty Foundation leadership, staff and board members, Advisory Board members, and health care leaders and advocates from throughout Kentucky explored the meaning of health equity. They itemized causes of health disparities, the differences between equality and equity in terms of health, and underlying issues that affect the health of individuals and communities.

A close look at the Foundations mission To address the unmet needs of Kentuckians by developing and influencing policy, improving access to care, reducing health risks and disparities, and promoting health equity zeroed in on the significance of every word.

Follow-up discussion explored the challenges associated with transforming words into meaningful policies. To do that, We need to have people who have lived the reality, remarked Fran Feltner, Director of University of Kentuckys Center of Excellence in Rural Health.

Dr. Feltner is well acquainted with reality. She started her career as a Licensed Practical Nurse but went back to school when she realized that Registered Nurses earned better pay. Struggling successfully with school and working two jobs was possible because of encouragement from her family.

So many kids dont have the You can do it behind them, she said. Because she did, she understood its role in helping her overcome barriers.

I went on and got my Ph. D. just to show my kids they could do it, she quipped.

Foundation board member, Carlos Martin, Assistant Dean of Community and Cultural Engagement at UKs College of Medicine, talked about his own experiences related to equity. What do you think is the most-asked question I get? he said.

The answer: Where are you from?

A native of southwest Texas, Mr. Martin has been in Kentucky forty years, but his name alone raises questions, based on faulty assumptions. He pointed out that Kentuckys population is changing, along with the rest of the country. Multi-cultural communities are not confined to the cities; rural areas are becoming more diverse too.

To engage the audience in small group discussions, Carlos Martin introduced a case study about a little boy named Bobby, a resident of West Oakland, California, who had asthma.

What are the factors that contribute to Bobbys health? Carlos asked.

Discussion was animated and responses varied as each group of four reached agreement on the most important factors affecting Bobbys health. Most groups identified socio-economic issues, including possible health hazards in the boys physical environment. Some discussion also considered the role of local political leadership in ensuring health equity.

With all the pressures on budget and crumbling infrastructure in rural counties, community health is not on the priority list of most County Judge Executives, one participant remarked.

Over the next eight-to-ten months, the insights and ideas generated from the days activities will forge ahead and provide input into strategies that address unmet health needs of all Kentuckians.

We need to be more intentional and talk about these issues more, declared Ben Chandler, the Foundations Executive Director.

Board president Dr. Brent Wright, a family physician from Glasgow, challenged the assembled group to stay involved as the process evolves, so the Foundation can become the health conscience of Kentucky.Dr. Wright stressed comprehensive feedback as a key factor in making an impact. Embrace this opportunity to drive this state forward, he concluded.

Information about the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is available at the website. Offices are located in Louisville, 1640 Lyndon Farm Court, Suite 100. Phone is 502-326-2583.

Constance Alexander is a columnist, award-winning poet and playwright, and President of INTEXCommunications in Murray. She can be reached at calexander9@murraystate.edu. Or visit http://www.constancealexander.com.

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Constance Alexander: When addressing health equity issues, having the difficult conversations is often key - User-generated content

Earlier this month, a tweet from @agenderbird began circulating around Twitter: If youre dating a tenderqueer ur single to me. wtf is oliver gonna do? hold space for me? The tweet quickly picked up nearly 8000 likes. And while a lot of people in the replies simply repeated, Wtf is a tenderqueer?, for a lot of others the sentiment resonated. And that's because the queer community has its softbois too.

For years, since the early 2010s, posts on Tumblr referenced an early iteration of the tenderqueer, which has changed slightly. Now, they're hard to define, but easy to recognise. If you date women and non binary people, youve probably come across one. Or maybe you are one yourself. Theyre the sober ones at the DIY show and/or spoken word night wearing primary colours and dungarees, alongside their multiple partners, who are also in primary colours and dungarees. Theyre more likely to be at the queer fingerprinting workshop / full moon in Scorpio ritual than at the club. And theyre probably having baths with their platonic lovers right now while someone with a baby pink bowl cut stick n pokes the words radical softness across their right knee.

The tenderqueer has no problem getting laid. Their laidback attitude and ability to look genuinely stylish in clothes usually reserved for nursery school children is like a magnet for fellow queers hanging around basements in Peckham and Deptford. Their aptitude for giving home haircuts with any nearby implements, or their propensity for gifting you with a vegan wax candle they made during a poetry residence in France makes you want to just be near them. But dont be fooled: the tenderqueer cannot be pinned down. Theyre harmless enough, but if you genuinely believe that said tenderqueer hasnt given at least three other people that very same candle, then you are sorely mistaken.

Tenderqueers are especially adept at using the watery language of therapy as a means to get out of most things. Theyll ghost you for three weeks then, when you call them out on it, will reply something like, Your negative energy is affecting my ability to heal from past life trauma. Theyll cheat on you with your best mate in your own bed then somehow spin it around like: I value your willingness to be open and vulnerable with me during our journey together but feel we are at different life chapters when it comes to the ownership of one anothers bodies. Everything is about space and holding and healing and intimacy and if theyre not replying to your WhatsApps with an essay including these words, theyre probably just replying haha :3 five days after leaving you on read.

To be clear: there is absolutely nothing wrong with using the aforementioned type of language far from it. When queer people are more likely to have experienced violence and abuse, it is radical to cultivate and encourage a culture of softness and positivity within our community and modes of interaction. But this isnt about that. It's more about wearing that type of language as an aesthetic. In other words: just like the straight softboi who uses performative sensitivity to get away with being a little shit sometimes, so does the tenderqueer. Twitter user @mirin_doja summed it up nicely when they said, tenderqueer generally refers to a trope in queer communities of a queer who presents themselves online or irl as being sensitive, hyper vocal of their feelings, sometimes thought of as prioritising feelings and hyper intentional language over their harm and privilege.

Im sure the tenderqueer isnt a new thing. Theyve probably been around since the beginning of time. They were probably crocheting rucksacks at free love communes in the 1970s, and they were probably there in, like, the 17th century, rearing a family of cows and seducing milk maids. But something about the internet and the language and culture propagated by the internet has made these tenderqueers suddenly more present than seemed before. Make a quick scroll through any queer woman / non binary person's Instagram feed and you'll spot them: sage and crystals, candid crying selfies with lengthy paragraphs about their feelings during this retrograde, friends in pastel corduroys, shaved heads, some abstract paintings that they did literally just now.

People always like to make out as if subcultures are dead or, rather, that they all just live on TikTok now. But style tribes are everywhere: they've just become a little more complicated. And now, finally, maybe you've got a word for that person you met with the tiny round glasses at the 'Zines Against Anxiety' event who gave you their annotated copy of The Argonauts then never spoke to you again.

@daisythejones / @esmerelduh

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Introducing: The Tenderqueer, the Softboi of the Queer Community - VICE UK