Monthly Archives: June 2022

Another busy weekend is coming up in southwest Minnesota, with community events celebrating freedom, flight, and lots of fun.

Events for Canbys Hat Daze and Lake Bentons Saddle Horse Holiday are kicking off today. The Ray Fagen Memorial Air Show, featuring World War II aircraft from the Pacific theater, is Saturday at the Granite Falls airport. And on Sunday, Marshall community members will be celebrating Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.

Hat Daze/Fathers Day Air Show

A weekend of fun kicks off in Canby this afternoon, with a pork supper and kids events, followed by a full day of activities on Saturday. Canbys Hat Daze festival includes everything from a downtown sidewalk art gallery, to a fun run with inflatable obstacles, a parade and other family-friendly events.

On Sunday, the free Fathers Day Air Show will bring a variety of aerobatic and formation fliers to the Canby airport, said airport manager Matt Wagner.

Its a great family outing for Fathers Day, Wagner said. Over the past 16 years, he said, Weve had a very loyal following.

In addition to the air show, Wagner said there will be a performance by the Neon Gypsy band, and bounce houses for the kids. Some bounce houses will have a water feature, to help beat the heat forecast for Sunday, he said.

Lake Benton Saddle Horse Holiday

Trail riders will be returning to the Lake Benton area this weekend, but theres also lots to do even if you dont have a horse. Saddle Horse Holiday events start today, with the announcement of the Lake Benton Citizen of the Year, kids events, and a fireworks display at dusk.

Family fun events continue on Saturday, plus a 5K walk/run, a car cruise-in and more. A talent contest will be held at the Lake Benton Opera House on Saturday night, followed by a dance featuring Hicktown Mafia at the Lake Benton Fire Hall.

The Dakota-Minnesota Trail Ride will be held Sunday morning, followed by the 76th annual Saddle Horse Holiday Parade, and Dakota-Minnesota saddle horse riding events.

Ray Fagen Memorial

Air Show

Saturday will be a big day for fans of historic airplanes as the Ray Fagen Memorial Air Show starts at the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum near Granite Falls. The theme for this years show is Pride of the Pacific, and the show will include former Navy aircraft from the Fagen Fightersas well as guest warbirds and air show performers Tora, Tora, Tora and Younkin Airshows.

The show begins at 3 p.m., but theres a lot more on the schedule, including a panel discussion featuring World War II veterans, and a parachute demonstration. Later in the evening, there will be a concert by Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry.

Juneteenth comes

to Marshall

Area residents are welcome to enjoy a day of food, music and community during Juneteenth celebrations at Independence Park Sunday.

Its going to be great, said Joyce Tofte, one of the organizers of Sundays event.

Juneteenth is also known as Black Freedom Day, Tofte said. Although the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the U.S. in 1863, it couldnt be enforced in parts of the country that were still under Confederate control. It wasnt until June 19, 1865, when troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to announce that enslaved Black people in the state were now free.

Traditionally, Juneteenth is the kind of holiday celebrated with food like barbecue, music and community get-togethers, Tofte said. We wanted to honor that, she said.

Juneteenth celebrations will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Independence Park. There will be food vendors, live music including a performance by Titambe West African Dance Ensemble of Minnesota, and a red velvet cake competition judged by Mainstay Cafe.

Were excited for the amount of partnership, with community members and businesses, she said.

Canby Hat Daze

Events at Central Park unless otherwise specified.

Friday

1 p.m. Lancer Open 9-hole golf scramble

3-6 p.m. Free bowling for kids at Lancer Lanes

4 p.m. Kids read aloud and art project

5-7 p.m. Pork supper

6 p.m. Kids pedal pull

Saturday

8 a.m. Disc golf tournament at Swimming Pool Park

8-10 a.m. Pancake and sausage breakfast at Canby Depot

9 a.m. Noon Independent Oil Hat Daze Golf Scramble

9 a.m. 1 p.m. Free gnome painting

9 a.m. Fun run with inflatables

9 a.m. Vendor fair at Central Park

10:30 a.m. Free movie showing of Clifford at Canby Theater

11 .m. Co-ed volleyball tournament

Noon Beanbag tournament at Heroes Sports Bar & Grill

3 p.m. Hat Daze Parade

4-6 p.m. Beef supper

5:30 p.m. Canby Fire Department water fights

9 p.m. 1 a.m. Uncle Chunk live band at Heroes Sports Bar & Grill

Sunday

Free Fathers Day Air Show at Canby airport. Pancakes and waffles will be served from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.. Burger feed from 11-2. Airshow begins at 1 p.m.

Lake Benton Saddle Horse Holiday

Lake Benton Saddle Horse Holiday

Friday

11 a.m. 1 p.m. First Security Bank hot dog feed

11:30 a.m. 2022 Citizen of the Year and Organization of the Year presentation

1 p.m. Iron Man Jr. competition at School Park

2 p.m. Kids Party at School Park

5-7 p.m. American Legion baked chicken/pork chop fundraiser

6-9 p.m. Softball tournament

Fireworks display at dusk

Saturday

Softball tournament all day

8:30 a.m. Kids 1-mile walk/run at Hole-In-the-Mountain Park

9 a.m. 5K walk/run

9 a.m. Youth 3-on-3 basketball tournament

10 a.m. 1 p.m. Family Fun Day activities at School Park

12-3 p.m. Car Cruise-In at Lake Benton Resort

Noon Relay For Life beanbag tournament

1-3 p.m. Opera House ice cream social

2-3:30 p.m. Legion bingo

4-6:30 p.m. Live band, music by Rockin Woody at Lake Benton resort

7 p.m. Talent Contest at Lake Benton Opera House

9 p.m. Firemens dance featuring Hicktown Mafia

Sunday

10 a.m. Dakota-Minnesota trail ride

Noon Saddle Horse Holiday parade

1 p.m. Dakota-Minnesota Saddle Horse Events on Horse Hill, and kids saddle horse events

Ray Fagen Memorial Air Show

10:30 a.m. Gates open

12:30 p.m. WWII veterans panel discussion, featuring Navy ace Donald M. McPherson, P-38 pilot Jim Tyler, and Lt. Col. Huie Lamb, with moderator retired Brig. Gen. Edward McIlhenny.

1:55 p.m. 101 Airborne Reenactor Group parachute demonstration

2:05 p.m. Vehicle parade

2:25 p.m. Chord-Ayres choral group, presentation of colors, opening prayer

3 p.m. Air show begins

7 p.m. Concert featuring Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry. Night air show featuring Younkin Airshows after the concert.

Juneteenth celebrations

at Independence Park

10 a.m. 2 p.m. Food vendors and music, story walk

11 a.m. Red Velvet Cake competition

1 p.m. Story hour by the Marshall-Lyon County Library

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Freedom, flights and fun lined up this weekend - Marshall Independent

By McKell Park and Andrea Zapata

BYUs Religious Freedom Annual Review addressed attendees on multiple religious topics under this years theme of Living Peaceably: Religious Freedom as a Foundation for Civic Harmony on June 16 at the BYU Conference Center.

Keynote speakers and moderators included Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-say Saints, executive vice president of The New York Board of Rabbis Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, writer for The Atlantic Yair Rosenberg and associate director of the BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies Elizabeth A. Clark.

During the conference, panelists and keynote speakers talked on religious freedom and its importance today, as well as shared their experiences on coming from different backgrounds and religious upbringings.

Our hope is that you leave more empowered, more positive about the ways we can live as peacemakers, said Brett G. Scharffs, the director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. Listen carefully and lean from people with whom you disagree, because we believe religious freedom can actually bring us together and it can become a foundation for civic harmony.

Building bridges with LGBTQ groups, religion and criminal justice

Panelists discussed how religious freedom unites people and how it can be used to give a sense of belonging to others. Speakers such as Long Island University professor Dalia Fahmy talked about the dangers of islamophobia and racial profiling and shared her personal experience dealing with it.

The Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen tailed about how she did not come out as gay until she was 40 years old and already had a full career as a member of the clergy. She emphasized how these two parts of her identity are compatible and said her hopes are to make the LGBTQ community feel welcome when it comes to religion.

It is not because I am clergy that I am passionate about religious freedom, it is because I am LGBTQ and an advocate for LGBT youth, the Rev. Edmonds-Allen said. I believe that religious freedom is the very best hope for the world and for people like me, who are LGBT.

In a breakout session, speakers including Elder Jeremy R. Jaggi of the Quorum of the Seventy, discussed the positive role of religion in criminal justice.

We are training churches to come outside of their four walls so that they can work with other organizations who are specialized on these topics, the Rev. Dr. Denise Strothers said. Just because we are spiritual leaders does not mean that we know how to deal with all issues.

The Rev. Strothers explained how there is a stigma among religious people around criminal justice, and how it needs to be stopped and replaced by understanding and willingness to having open conversations about it.

As people in the church, we can be come judgmental people because we dont understand what we dont know, Strothers said. The first thing you need to do is remove the stigma and the same, we encourage people to begin teaching on criminal justice to generate conversations.

Religious partnerships for stronger communities

In the concluding session of the conference, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles moderated a panel discussing the role of religious groups in society and how they can benefit communities.

The discussion was centered on two principles of religious freedom: how religious accountability benefits secular society and the multitude of good works that religion inspires people of faith to perform on behalf of others.

The panelists included Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the Rev. A.R. Bernard, the Rev. Dr. Que English and Elder David L. Buckner.

The panelists, three of whom belong to the Commission of Religious Leaders of New York, discussedthe importance of morality and combating injustices in society and government.

Were going to tackle these injustices together, because if it pains the heart of God, surely it pains our heart, too, English said. Its not about religion, its about the needs of humanity and what we need to do together to address it.

The group also addressed the importance of religion for a generation blurring the lines between religion and spirituality.

We are spiritual by nature, we have attributes and faculties that are not physical and religion codifies these attributes into thought, ritual and practice, Bernard said.

Potasnik touched on the importance of democracy and liberty in the United States and how religious freedom is being tested by those who are highly educated but look down on people of faith.

You can disagree with me, but dont denigrate me, Potasnik said. Education can make us smart but not necessarily moral. We have to be that part of the equation that inserts morality.

Bernard agreed that religious freedom goes beyond the ability to worship.

It means also that I shouldnt have to compromise my core values and beliefs and practices to conform to culture, Bernard said.

The group also talked about what they are doing to help in their own communities.

Bernard told the audience that because of their partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his organization was able to feed 125,000 people in New York City following the pandemic. Potasnik noted the importance of letting go of religious labels and working together to help humanity.

Its about opening doors for one another so someone else can enter, Potasnik said. We can walk on separate paths in our respective houses of worship but there comes that moment when all of us know we have to walk on that path of humanity together as one family.

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BYU Religious Freedom Annual Review on building bridges with LGBTQ groups, religion's role in criminal justice - The Daily Universe - Universe.byu.edu

"This vital report illustrates that cyberattacks go hand in hand with online repression." Mike Abramowitz, Freedom House

"Our findings indicate that where governments around the world restrict their citizens' online freedom, there is a corresponding increased risk of people falling victim to cyber attacks. This is often tied to a lower GDP in these countries which leads to the use of older systems which are more prone to attack, and the use of free and potentially illegal content which often is less secure. However, the distinction isn't cut and dried - people in countries with more digital freedom still face frequent attacks, and our findings show that there is still work to do when it comes to privacy protection - in free and in unfree countries," said Ondrej Vlcek, CEO of Avast. "To solve the problem of digital freedom, innovation is needed in the field of cybersecurity and digital trust solutions that will create more safety and transparency for all."

For the Digital Wellbeing Report, Avast combined its own data on cybersecurity risks and privacy challenges with Freedom House's "Freedom on the Net" report 2021, which assesses how much freedom people have using the internet in a country, based on the existence of surveillance and restrictions such as blocked social networks, censorship, or deliberately manipulated online discussions and disrupted ICT networks. Avast defines digital wellbeing as a combination of digital freedom, cybersecurity and privacy, with the ability of an internet user to utilize the internet in an open, regulated, private, secure, and informed way.

Amidst concerning global trends that include rising cybercrime and malicious activity, and governments around the world adopting increasingly authoritarian tactics, today wellbeing and free expression online are increasingly under threat across the globe. For the report, Avast compared data including risks of falling victim to cyber attacks, users' computer system age, and presence, transparency and readability of privacy policies to data of Freedom House's Freedom on the Net report, which assesses the online freedom of countries by looking at aspects such as whether their government blocked social media platforms, deliberately disrupted ICT networks, or arrested, or physically harmed a blogger or ICT user for political or social content.

"This vital report illustrates that cyberattacks go hand in hand with online repression. We're proud that Freedom House's Freedom on the Net report informs Avast's work to strengthen digital wellbeing," said Mike Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

Less digital freedom, higher cyber risks

The report found that people living in Free countries are at a lower risk of falling victim to a cyber attack (30%) than people in countries that are Partly Free or Not Free (both 36%). This could be related to factors that include a higher rate of violation of user rights, prohibition of encryption services, large scale state surveillance, data collection and the presence of backdoors used for state surveillance, showing an indirect correlation between the Freedom on the Net Index score of a state and the risk ratio of encountering a cyber-attack. Moreover, countries that are Not Free often have a lower GDP per capita which can lead to a higher use of torrent sites to access free content, games, movies via unsecure sources, which in turn can expose users to a high number of online risks.

Risk of falling victim to a cyber attack in the top ten Free countries (no. 1 being most free)

Risk of falling victim to a cyber attack in the lowest ten countries Not Free (no. 1 being least free)

Avast's researchers further observed a correlation between the age of operating systems being used and the risk of citizens to cyber-attacks. By comparing the ranking in the Freedom House Freedom on the Net Index to Avast's internal data, it can be inferred that in wealthier countries, such as those found higher up in the Index including Germany, France and the UK, users tend to have up-to-date operating systems, which can better guard them against cyberattacks. Conversely, users in countries that scored lower on the Freedom on the Net Index, like Indonesia, Turkey, and Belarus, have on average a lower GDP per capita and tend to use more outdated operating systems, which increases the risk of a cyberattack. The researchers found that only 28% of users in Free countries are still using outdated operating systems. By contrast, 38% percent of users in Partly Free countries are using outdated systems, and this figure is even higher in Not Free countries as ranked by the Freedom on the Net Index (41%).

Research shows that privacy policies aren't enough

The report published today also found that privacy policies in general can be found more often in Free countries, with websites in Free countries (as designated by the Freedom on the Net Index) more likely to have in place privacy policies (70%) than websites in countries considered Partly Free and Not Free (52% and 47%). However, the report also found that even though privacy policies are more prevalent in Free countries, there does not seem to be a direct correlation between the vagueness and readability of those policies and the level of online freedom in those countries. In other words, it appears that the mere presence of a robust privacy policy in a country may not be enough to guarantee enough privacy protection to its citizens.

"Privacy regulations such as GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California require that users are informed about how their data is used, which is supposed to create more transparency for the user. However, if privacy policies are written in a vague and unreadable way, this goal is essentially missed," said Ondrej Vlcek.

Average readability of English privacy policies in top ten Free countries (higher is better)

Average readability of English privacy policies in lowest ten countries Not Free (no. 1 being least free) / (higher is better)

Metrics: <46% very difficult to read; 46%-58% difficult to read; Please note that data for the least free country, China, and the tenth least free country, Uzbekistan were not assessed and therefore not included in this table.

This study further builds on Avast's Digital Citizenship Reportpublished in September 2021, which explored post-pandemic online behaviors, and is part of Avast's efforts in understanding how our life online can be improved.

For more detailed information visit the full report: https://press.avast.com/digital-wellbeing-report

About Avast:

Avast (LSE: AVST), a FTSE 100 company, is a global leader in digital security and privacy, headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. With over 435 million users online, Avast offers products under the Avast and AVG brands that protect people from threats on the internet and the evolving IoT threat landscape. The company's threat detection network is among the most advanced in the world, using machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to detect and stop threats in real time. Avastdigital security productsfor Mobile, PC or Mac are top-ranked and certified by VB100, AV-Comparatives, AV-Test, SE Labs and others. Avast is a member of Coalition Against Stalkerware, No More Ransom, and the Internet Watch Foundation. Visit: http://www.avast.com.

Keep in touch with Avast:

Media Contact: Marina Ziegler, [emailprotected]

SOURCE Avast Software, Inc.

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Cybersecurity Disconnect Between Digitally Free and Unfree Countries Persists While Freedom on the Net Declines - PR Newswire

Freedom, strength, and resilience were the themes set for this years Manhattan Juneteenth art auction, held Thursday at Manhattans Douglass Activity Center.

The second-annual event showcased works from artists across the community. These pieces were created by artists of all ages and skill levels.

Event organizer and artist Hilary Wahlen spoke with KMAN about the event, and she said that one change was made to the auction this year that benefited the event very well.

Wahlen

Wahlen had one piece up for auction at the event, which featured three generations of black women. She said that these women perfectly represented this years themes.

Wahlen

Another notable piece from the event was created by 15-year-old Kaylyn Parker. Parker was the second youngest artist whose work was part of the auction, yet her piece brought in the third highest amount of the night.

Parker

Overall, nearly $2,700 was raised at the auction. While the amount raised was a great benefit to the organization and the artists, Wahlen also said that the messages the art conveys are just as important.

Wahlen

Proceeds from Thursdays auction will be split between the artists and the Juneteenth Committee to help fund future Juneteenth events.

Downtown Manhattans website includes further details about this years art and artists as well as images of the pieces that were featured.

Go here to read the rest:

Freedom, strength, and resilience on display at Juneteenth art auction - News Radio KMAN

UZMA ASLAM KHANS latest novel, The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali (published by Westland India in 2019 and now available in the US from Deep Vellum) is a fictional account of the Andaman Islands under British and Japanese occupation, before and during World War II. With piercingly lucid attention, Uzma has drawn an intricate spiders web that is both a record and a refuge. (Nestled in the book is the story of the spider who saved the lives of Muhammad and his loyal companion by spinning a web over the mouth of the cave in which they hid.) Uzmas novel is an attempt to record the catastrophic consequences of imperial regimes while also honoring collaboratively made moments of safety and sanctuary among the colonized, including banished and incarcerated people, children, and the more-than-human world. Perhaps such possibilities are refuges unto themselves simultaneously invisible and glinting in plain sight.

Born in Pakistan, Uzma is the author of five novels that have been translated worldwide to critical acclaim. These include Trespassing, recipient of a Commonwealth Prize nomination in 2003; The Geometry of God, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2009; Thinner Than Skin, nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and winner of the French Embassy Prize for Best Fiction at the Karachi Literature Festival 2014. The daughter of Partition refugees, Uzma has lived in the Philippines, Japan, and England. She currently lives in Western Massachusetts. Our conversation unfolded across a series of documents emailed between us as March turned into April.

ARACELIS GIRMAY: In the books acknowledgments, you write of chancing upon a quote by a British politician who described a group of islands to which Indian prisoners were banished as a paradise. What arose in you when you read that British politicians word?

UZMA ASLAM KHAN: My first thought: I know almost nothing about these islands. I was a graduate student in Arizona, looking for another book in the library. It bothered me that Id been taught little of my history at my convent school in Karachi, where history arrived in a syllabus from Cambridge University. All I knew was the Urdu/Hindi name for the islands, Kala Pani. It means Black Water, indicating a place of absolute exile. Thats where the British sent anticolonial revolutionaries, whom they called terrorists. But the actual name of the islands, Andaman, meant little to me. So, when I found that quote, I felt Id been banished to an island without memory.

I went looking for a globe and found a spattering of freckles in a corner of the Indian Ocean. I had to know what had happened there. There was a single library stamp on the last page. I had a soulmate. I didnt find the book I was looking for, but I found the one I had to write. It took a long time almost 27 years. It involved learning and especially unlearning. A question loomed very large: how do I write into a void? Perhaps that single library stamp allowed me to jump.

In this work, everyones desires, strategies, and needs are thoroughly entangled. Entanglement is axiomatic a fact of our existence in the worlds inside and outside of your books pages. I am also thinking about the prison as a process by which members of the imperial regime exacted an ongoing humiliation and trauma upon those who were incarcerated. Can you talk about your relationship to these conditions of entanglement and isolation in your book?

I appreciate how you connect entanglement and isolation. Its where my research led me, even if, along the way, I had to shed the research to arrive at the writing. Let me explain. After I found that quote about the island paradise, I looked for true histories of the penal colony, but found hardly any. What I did find, unsurprisingly, was told from a male gaze. Though women were also exiled, because their removal carried a particular social and sexual stigma, in these sources not a single woman prisoner was named.

The first character that I wrote in The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali was the woman prisoner. In my earliest drafts, she had a name. Later, I called her Prisoner 218 D. But her story was taking forever to complete. I couldnt find the material needed to incorporate factual truth with the truth of my imaginings. I had her essence. I didnt have her words. They didnt sound accurate or feel true. I was becoming entangled in her world and isolated from its language.

The language was failing me because the research was failing me. Because of the colonial project itself, the selective erasure that its built upon, the isolation and trauma that comes with this erasure all of which are of course also alive in me. I needed to see that much of what I know comes through sources that omit people like me brown, Muslim women from the Global South. Though I continued to collect every article and image I could find, ultimately not finding all the facts grew to excite me. It forced me to imagine from scratch. There is freedom in not having a script.

To me, the tenderness with which you write is a kind of intervention of knowing that is in opposition to the colonial one. For instance, the roles that surveillance and record-keeping play in the brutalities of the imperial project, versus the knowing of the Mayakangne, Kwalakangne, and Dare winds. There is the intimate knowing between Priya, the chicken, and Nomi, the human. The third-person omniscient narration suggests, again, a different kind of knowing. How do you think about the memories and interiors of others within this much larger context of layered surveillance?

I love what you say about interventions of knowing. It reminds me of Edward Said on knowledge: Facts get their importance from interpretation [which] depend[s] on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment. When historical data privileges its own systems of knowledge, its hard to trust the archives. It wasnt till about 15 years into the book that I began finding alternative sources, inspiring my own interventions. A way perhaps to make fiction and an alternative record that I could trust.

Ill give examples. The titular character, Nomi, is made up. Her brother Zee is based on a historical figure. The first shot fired on South Andaman Island during the war was by a boy trying to save a chicken from Japanese soldiers. This actual event frames the opening chapter. Zee is based on the boy, Priya on the chicken. I took the liberty of giving Zee and Priya a loving sister.

The jailer, Cillian, is also based on a historical figure. I found reference to him in male prisoner testimonials. He is particularly feared by Prisoner 218 D. After the surrender of the Japanese, when the British reoccupied the islands, part of their strategy involved enlisting the help of former jailers. Cillian returns, with all the horrors that he took part in buried, along with my prisoners name, beneath an official narrative of white savior.

Too, the knowledge that you speak of between human and nonhuman. Its essential in all my books. For me, the physical world tells the emotional truth. One thats displaced when human and nonhuman reciprocity is displaced. So, for instance, the cost of war on indigenous fishermen because of underwater mines that removed them from their oldest food source and ally, the sea.

I cant say how I accessed these interiors. Love. Listening. A willingness to stay a long time, for instance, with the knowing of the winds that you mention. Interventions of knowing require immersion, empathy these are acts of faith. Theres a scene in the book in which an old man bemoans that the British never took their shoes off before entering a temple. I took my shoes off many times, yet I wasnt given permission to truly enter till I found Nomi.

Beloved Nomi Ali. Can you say more about your relationship with her? How she first came to you or you to her? How you carry her now that the book is complete?

I mentioned earlier that the woman prisoner was the first character I wrote, and she took a long time. In contrast, Nomi appeared years after I began, and didnt take as long. With her, the book found its momentum. The prisoner started the journey. Nomi completed it.

Theres a scene early on in which Nomi recites the names of as many bodies of water as drops in the bowl that shes carrying, while catching raindrops from a leaky ceiling. It was an image that stayed with me as I wrote her. Nomi collecting the Arabian Sea, Andaman Sea, Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean. Nomi as the keeper of seas, pooling in a bowl. Later, shes also the soils keeper. I feel this has been my task, too, as a storyteller and collector of histories familial, regional, global. At some point in the book, I touch upon the Partition of India into India and Pakistan, when refugees come to the islands. Like the prisoners and their children, the refugees ask what is left of the living with the death of the past. I was turning the question inward.

My fathers family are Partition refugees. He never spoke of the violence, but my paternal grandmother told me of the killing of her parents during the Partition riots. When I wrote this novel, what happened to Nomis father, Haider Ali, turned into an inversion of sorts of my great-grandparents Partition story. And there are other unexpected intersections between Nomis life and mine, those that touch me more directly, that Im only just beginning to see which is funny, given how long Ive been with the book. I wont risk spoilers, so will share only that Im also the youngest of two children, in a nuclear family of four that was broken by the grief of losing one child. Grief can make those closest to you cruel. The survivor child never stops carrying the grief her own and her familys and can recognize this particular kind of carrying in others, who are then lifted and given a home, as I do for Nomi, and she even more for me.

Yes, the brevity with which you explicitly refer to the Partition is devastating for the enormity of what is marked but unsaid. I wanted to hear from you about the moment in your book when Prisoner 218 D is in conversation with a beloved anticolonial comrade of her youth. This friend, Kaajal, refuses Gandhis summation that the female sex is not the weaker sex but the nobler, for her suffering. Kaajal rejects silent suffering. She says: I like anger. [] It wakes me up as a friend should. I am thinking of Audre Lordes 1981 essay The Uses of Anger. What are some of the uses of anger in this book and in the writing of this book?

I love this question. Earlier in that scene, Kaajal recalls her father saying, Anger isnt ladylike. And she asks the prisoner, Like which lady? I dont know any ladies who arent angry. After I wrote it, I made a list of words for unladylike women (later used for the prisoner). Virago. Harridan. Banshee. Minx. Shrew. Crone. Termagant, from the French termagaunt, an imaginary and violent Muslim deity.

The words become more loaded when the woman is of color. Then shes the angry Black or brown woman, a trope that functions like a panoptic gaze. So, I loved writing that scene between Kaajal and the prisoner. Later in the book, I loved writing the prisoner in an even wider range of emotions, and through her discovering the uses of anger in the book: expression, action, wholeness, art, visibility, triumph, opposition, allyship. Im thankful that you mentioned Audre Lorde. Who has more brilliantly drawn our attention to intersectional struggle? That scene between Kaajal and the prisoner has for me possible layers of attraction, though no reader has mentioned it yet. Lastly, do you know that Lorde, like Toni Morrison, was born on 2/18? I discovered it only now. My prisoners sole identification, on the wooden tag around her neck, is 218 D and the letter stands for dangerous.

Theres a scene in the book when the Japanese dentist-spy is surveying the Andaman, and readers see it as a small island between two island giants, the Empire of Japan and the British Isles. Each character has their own relationship with the concept island as a site of imprisonment and colonial expansion, or of escape and personal growth. For instance, Shakuntala, the Indian woman who runs her own farm. Could you speak of your relationship to islands?

As a child, I lived in Japan and the British Isles. Like many South Asians, Japan for me was haute Asia art, ceramics, fine cuisine. And the story Id learned of Japans alliance with Indian freedom fighters during World War II was a heroic one, of Japan helping India to fight the British.

As an adult, I lived on Oahu, in Hawaii. Though I was far from Pearl Harbor, being there helped me to recall my time in Tokyo, where Id apparently spoken a little Japanese (since forgotten). I had happy memories of Tokyo and troubled ones of London, though it was in London where I first recorded history I loved dogs and kept a secret journal of all the ones I met. In Hawaii, some childhood experiences found new homes through writing. For instance, Nomis teacher has a King Charles Spaniel. The headmaster of my school did too. Like Nomi, I was considered too dirty to play with the dog. The Japanese dentist-spy, who came to me in a flash, riding a bicycle, was perhaps a reincarnation of the kind man who helped me to steal a rose for my mother from the school garden in Tokyo.

It was in Oahu that I first learned of atrocities committed by the Japanese on the Andaman. I knew then that the book Id been writing was about a dual occupation. Being on the island also shifted how I measure time, distance, and proximity. Some images came very close, not only of my early childhood but also of my family resettling in Pakistan after leaving Japan and England. This was during the Cold War when the US fought the Soviets in Afghanistan through Pakistan. The Karachi that I grew up in was a battlefield between empires, though at one time it had been a fishing village. And now, in Hawaii, I seemed to fly to an in-betweenness from another time, one where borders are mapped by water. Possibly, this allowed me to find a language for characters who exist between empires and seas.

Aracelis Girmay is the author of three books of poems, most recentlythe black maria(BOA Editions, 2016), for which she was a finalist for the Neustadt Prize. An essayist, picture book maker, and teacher, she is also the current editor-at-large for the Blessing the Boats Selections and is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund.

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There Is Freedom in Not Having a Script: A Conversation with Uzma Aslam Khan - lareviewofbooks

HAMPTON, Va. Americas grim chapter of slavery began in 1619 in Hampton, where more than 20 enslaved Africans were traded to settlers in exchange for supplies.

They were taken, kidnapped and stolen for profit, said Tesha Vincent, a visitor engagement manager at the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center. I can only imagine the fear that was going through their minds as they were being walked on to shore.

The same shore and surrounding land would become Fort Monroe, a military installation that remained under the Union armys control when Virginia seceded and joined the Confederacy in 1861. In the spring of that year, three enslaved men in Hampton Roads Frank Baker, James Townsend and Shephard Mallory escaped their slave owners control and made the dangerous journey to Fort Monroe for a chance at freedom.

You can imagine the trepidation that theyre feeling, Vincent said. [They must have thought] 'If I could just get to Fort Monroe, then I can have my freedom.'"

At the end of their perilous journey to Fort Monroe, they faced Union General Benjamin Butler, who allowed the men to stay as contraband of war.

While Butlers decision was a political move to cripple the Confederacy by not returning enslaved people, it signaled to others enduring slavery that Fort Monroe was Freedoms Fortress.

The idea of freedom, just the fact that they can get close enough that they can even attempt to touch it, was enough for them to make this journey, Vincent said.

Thousands of enslaved people faced peril for the possibility of freedom at Fort Monroe. They built contraband camps near its borders. By 1863, President Lincoln created the Bureau of Colored Troops, allowing contrabands of war to enlist in the Union army.

On June 19, 1865 or Juneteenth as it is known today enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were the last to learn of their freedom months after the end of the Civil War.

[Slavery] was a horrific, very bleak, dark chapter in history, Vincent said. But they survived.

Fort Monroe offers self-guided walking tours and an interactive account of the sites history at the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center.

To mark Juneteenth, the Fort Monroe Theater is hosting the Wave of Freedom with Juneteenth Jazz Concert on Saturday, June 18 at 6 p.m. Admission is free.

On Sunday, June 19, Fort Monroe will be part of a virtual program hosted by the 400 Year African American History Commission at 3 p.m.

You can find a list of more Juneteenth celebrations across Hampton Roads here.

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Fort Monroes role as 'Freedoms Fortress' remembered ahead of Juneteenth - News 3 WTKR Norfolk