ICYMI: Highlights from the week that was July 8 – July 14, 2018
No one can keep up with everything, so let us do it for you. We’ll gather the top Smithsonian stories from across the country and around the world each week so you’ll never be at a loss for conversation around the water cooler.
This week, Philly cops are encouraged to take a field trip and Chinese mitten crabs are strongly discouraged from doing the same.
Rare desert lions are magnificent, and you can see them in their home territory
The Washington Post, July 8
In “King of the Desert Lions,” a pack of big cats is part of an arid but beautiful terrain. (Will Steenkamp)
The Five Musketeers are some of Africa’s most threatened hunters.
They’re not humans: They’re lions. The five male cats have touched lives beyond the desert in which they roam. “King of the Desert Lions,” premiering Wednesday on the Smithsonian Channel, tells their triumphant — and riveting — story. Produced and directed by Will and Lianne Steenkamp, it’s the result of nearly six years of filming in the inhospitable desert. The film’s spectacular visuals weave a story of a lion family that’s up against some serious odds. Read more from Erin Blakemore for The Washington Post.
The Secrets And Dreams Of A Leather Craftsman
NPR, July 8
Soumana Saley, a leather craftsman from Niger.
(Pearl Mak/NPR)
He was 11 years old. He lived in Niamey, the capital of Niger. And he’d never had a chance to go to school.
“Education in my country sucks,” he says.
So he played soccer on the streets.
Then he had an idea. The father of a friend owned a company that made leather goods. Soumana Saley decided he wanted to learn to be a leather craftsman. “I really liked the work,” he remembers.
He volunteered to be an apprentice. He kept it a secret from his parents, who were farmers. Leatherwork wasn’t part of the culture of his ethnic group, the Zarma people. He didn’t think they’d see a future in leather: “If your kid says, ‘I’m going to have this success, are you going to believe them?” Read more from Marc Silver for NPR’s “Goats and Soda.”
Folk Duo Maria i Marcel Shines Light On The ‘Very Real Taboo’ Of Spain’s Civil War
NPR, July 7
Catalonia, a culturally distinct and politically embattled region of northeast Spain, has held on to its distinct culture through centuries as it has struggled to redefine its relationship with the rest of the country.
These deep questions of identity and allegiance are heard in the music of modern Catalan folk duo Maria Arnal and Marcel Bagés. Drawing on traditional folk songs and archival field recordings, Maria i Marcel’s debut album 45 Cerebros y 1 Corázon, revisits painful memories of the Spanish Civil War.
The album’s title refers to a 2017 archaeological discovery in Burgos, Spain: 45 brains and one heart, naturally preserved in a mass grave of people killed by dictator General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. Read more from Michael Martin for NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
An important story that must be told (Opinion)
The Hill, July 9
Getty Images
You may be surprised to learn who Gen. George Washington (a Virginian) invited to march alongside him at the Victory Parade in Philadelphia on July 4, 1783. It was Revolutionary War hero General Bernardo de Galvez. He was Spain’s colonial governor of Cuba and the Louisiana territory (comprising 13 current U.S. states), Commander in Chief of the allied fleet in the Caribbean and Washington’s indispensable ally. This took place nearly 200 years after the founding of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in the United States and more than two centuries after Saint Augustine, Florida was settled in 1565, the oldest permanent European settlement in mainland USA.
If you’re feeling bad because you didn’t know this, don’t worry, because much of the information about Latino contributions to our nation’s history is missing from our text books and our museums. Latinos have played a vital and formative role throughout our history in every aspect of society. From our military to business to art, science, medicine and more. We would not be the great country we are today were it not for Latino contributions. It is important that we remember and commemorate these contributions. Read more from Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) and Danny Vargas for The Hill.
Philly Police Department Seeks to End Implicit Bias With a Field Trip to a Black Museum
The Root, July 10
iStock photo
Every time there is an incident involving excessive use of force by the police against a black person, there’s a public outcry for change and reform. We want heads to roll. We want officers held accountable and punished. We take to the streets. We protest. We write editorials and articles and commentary on the current state of things. We wonder what could be done differently to make change stick.
You know what we don’t do? Suggest they take a field trip to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Read more from Monique Judge for The Root.
Researchers Looking For Invasive Chinese Mitten Crab In Chesapeake
WJZ-13 Baltimore, July 10
Vanished or merely hiding? The invasive Chinese mitten crab hasn’t been seen in the Chesapeake Bay since 2012. That’s a good thing because they’re capable of making trouble, including with the way they reproduce.
“Sort of like a locust or cicada. It goes through major population outbreaks where it becomes wildly abundant,” said Greg Ruiz, a scientist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Read more from Alex DeMetrick for WJZ-13.
The national African-American museum still stirs the soul — and drops hints of what to expect at the Obama Presidential Center
Chicago Tribune, July 11
The Washington Monument is framed by a window at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, during a press preview. (Susan Walsh/AP)
The line to see the open casket that once held the tortured body of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicagoan whose 1955 murder in Mississippi helped spark the civil rights movement, is long and moves oh-so-slowly. But scores of visitors to the National Museum of African American History and Culture still queue up.
The visitors file by, paying their respects, as though they were at the South Side’s Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where thousands gazed into this casket to see Till’s mutilated face.
The display marks an emotional high point of the museum, which has drawn more than 3.5 million people since its Sept. 24, 2016, opening. To venture through it is a charged experience, entirely different from a stroll through a decorous place like, say, the National Portrait Gallery. Many visitors, particularly African-Americans, bring a palpable intensity to the displays, lingering over them as though they were poring over a freshly discovered scrapbook of family photos. Read more from Blair Kamin for The Chicago Tribune.
Plans for new Zoo fence and entrance put on hold
The Washington Post, July 12
Visitors spend time at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in March 2016. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
The fence will have to wait.
The National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday postponed a decision on the Smithsonian National Zoo’s proposal for extended security fencing and the reduction of the zoo’s pedestrian entrances from 13 to three.
The NCPC staff had recommended that the commission approve the plan, noting that it would enhance security and streamline visitor access and that the three entrances are the main entry points to the zoo. Read more from Michael Ruane for The Washington Post.
The Heart And Soul Of Armenia Lives In A Slab Of Wood
NPR, July 14
At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., Vahagn Amiryan of Armenia prepares to carve an inscription on a block of wood that would sit atop the “mother pillar” inside a traditional house in his country.
Paul Chisholm/NPR
Wood has a special place in Vahagn Amiryan’s heart. It can bring Armenia’s ancient past into the modern day.
The act of carving wood into traditional Armenian furniture and decor — and amulets to ward off the “evil eye” — is “a way to connect with the roots,” he explains through an interpreter at this summer’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C.
Amiryan, in his early 50s, spent two weeks sharing the art of Armenian wood craft with visitors around the world. This year, the event highlighted the middle-income country of Armenia, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus mountains. Read more from Paul Chisolm for NPR’s “Goats and Soda.”
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Posted: 16 July 2018
