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Could new super highway lure military regimes back into the West African fold

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Masks, gloves, and other coronavirus waste are starting to fill up our oceans (Fast Company) It’s not news that our trash eventually finds its way to the ocean. Because oceans are downstream, litter will eventually find a pathway into our bodies of water if it’s not discarded properly—and often even if it is. But as the COVID-19 crisis slowly generates a new kind of waste, made up of disposable masks and other PPE items, it’s posing new problems for the Earth’s oceans.

Dark days in the cinema business (The Week) Movie theaters will need more than popcorn to persuade audiences to catch the latest blockbuster this summer. Cinemas are among the last businesses to reopen in the United States and Europe, and with good reason: Plenty of customers remain skeptical that it’s “safe to sit in a room with strangers for two hours during a pandemic.” But the largest chains, AMC, Regal, and Cinemark, are forging ahead with plans to reopen nationwide by mid-July. It’s already proving tricky. AMC, the world’s largest theater operator, “drew outcry when it said it wouldn’t require masks” because the company “did not want to be drawn into a political controversy.” AMC later reversed its policy. It’s still capping seating at 30 ­percent, which will make chopping down its $10 billion net debt difficult. Meanwhile, the threat from streaming services has only grown during the crisis. If the public decides that going to the movies is unsafe, studios can go straight to video.

Protesters Won’t Leave CHOP in Seattle as Tensions Rise (WSJ) Several hundred demonstrators are staying in an autonomous area claimed by protesters for racial justice in Seattle, even as its size is shrinking and pressure to shut it down completely is increasing from local businesses and residents, as well as city officials. The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, or CHOP, began on June 8 after thousands of protesters moved into a six-block area in the artsy neighborhood. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered police to abandon the local East Precinct police station to help end violent confrontations there following the killing of the African-American George Floyd by a white Minneapolis policeman on May 25. The CHOP was initially akin to a community festival focused on antiracism and police reform, with few problems or complaints from local residents. But last weekend there were three shootings in the area, one of which left a man dead. Police attempting to respond to the fatal incident in the predawn hours Saturday were blocked by a crowd telling them to leave. The 19-year-old victim, shot by an unknown assailant inside the occupied zone, was taken by private citizens to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. “It’s time for people to go home,” Ms. Durkan said in a press conference Monday. “We can still accommodate people who want to protest peacefully, come there and gather. But the impacts on the businesses and residents and community are now too much.”

272 uniformed NYPD cops file for retirement after George Floyd death (NY Post) Cops are hanging up their handcuffs in huge numbers. The flurry of farewells began after the police-involved killing of George Floyd on May 25, with 272 uniformed cops putting in retirement papers from then through June 24, the NYPD says. An NYPD source suggested the recent departures could signal a coming crisis for the 36,000-member department, which also faces a $1 billion budget reduction amid the “defund the police” furor. Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said cops are “at their breaking point, whether they have 20 years on the job or only two. We are all asking the same question: ‘How can we keep doing our job in this environment?’ And that is exactly what the anti-cop crowd wants. If we have no cops because no one wants to be a cop, they will have achieved their ultimate goal.”

In Haiti, coronavirus spreads in slums (Reuters) Berthony Clermont shares a two-room flat without running water with 10 relatives in the Haitian capital’s Cite Soleil slum, so when he fell ill with the novel coronavirus, they all did. “I tried staying at home at the beginning but it was difficult to isolate myself as the house is too small,” said the 45-year old. Mistrustful of the dilapidated public healthcare in Haiti—the poorest country in the Americas—Clermont and his family treated themselves at home with herbal teas. Clermont’s plight is shared by many in Haiti and, more broadly, across the Caribbean and Latin America. Home to 654 million people, it is the most unequal region in the world, according to the United Nations. As governments in Europe and some parts of Asia have managed to stem the spread of coronavirus, Latin America and the Caribbean have emerged as one of the epicenters of the pandemic.

A divided Poland holds presidential vote delayed by pandemic (AP) Poles voted in a presidential election Sunday that was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and was taking place amid deep cultural and political divisions in the European Union nation. President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservative backed by the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party, was running against 10 other candidates as he sought a second 5-year term. Whether Duda wins or not will determine whether the ruling party keeps its near-monopoly on political power in Poland. Most recent polls showed that no single candidate was likely to reach the 50% required to avoid a runoff given the crowded field of candidates, all of whom are male. In that case, the two top vote-getters will face each other on July 12.

After deadly border clash, India faces uncomfortable truths about its reliance on China (Washington Post) After 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the first deadly clash with Chinese troops in decades, India faced a dilemma. Could it retaliate against its more powerful neighbor? Military action held obvious risks, including a dangerous escalation between two nuclear-armed nations. Some called for an economic boycott instead, urging ordinary Indians and companies to shun Chinese goods. Now India is facing an uncomfortable truth familiar to governments around the world: It’s difficult to disentangle from China. In wide-ranging goods such as cars, cellphones and medicine, Chinese components are a crucial part of Indian supply chains. Even bulletproof vests used by Indian soldiers are made with material imported from China. China is India’s second-largest overall trading partner and its biggest source of imports. India, by contrast, does not figure in China’s top 15 trading partners and is even lower on the list of sources of imports.

China virus cases stabilize (AP) China has extended COVID-19 tests to newly reopened salons amid a drop in cases, while South Korea continues to face new infections after it eased social distancing rules to lift the economy. Hard-hit Italy, meanwhile, registered the lowest day-to-day tally of COVID-19 deaths Saturday in nearly four months. No positive cases were found in Beijing’s beauty and barber shops in a further sign that the city’s recent outbreak has been largely brought under control. Beijing officials have temporarily shut a huge wholesale food market where the virus spread widely, reclosed schools and locked down some neighborhoods. Anyone leaving Beijing is required to have a negative virus test result within the previous seven days. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 40 of the newly reported cases were domestically infected, while 22 others came from overseas. In Hawaii, the city of Honolulu announced that campgrounds will reopen for the first time in three months with limited permits to ensure social distancing. In contrast, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee put a hold on plans to move counties to the fourth phase of his reopening plan as cases continue to increase.

Dozens arrested as Hong Kongers protest planned national security laws (Reuters) Hong Kong police arrested at least 53 people on Sunday after scuffles erupted during a relatively peaceful protest against planned national security legislation to be implemented by the mainland Chinese government. Armed riot police were present as a crowd of several hundred moved from Jordan to Mong Kok in the Kowloon district, staging what was intended as a “silent protest” against the planned law. However, chanting and slogans were shouted towards police and later scuffles broke out in Mong Kok, prompting police to use pepper spray to subdue parts of the crowd. The proposed national security law has raised concerns among Hong Kong democracy activists and some foreign governments that Beijing is further eroding the extensive autonomy promised when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997.

Arab leaders say West Bank annexation will imperil regional security. Will Israel listen? (Washington Post) A succession of Arab leaders and officials have sharply warned Israel against moving forward with a controversial plan to annex Palestinian lands in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as early as this week—an action they say could destabilize the region and undermine peace efforts. Jordan’s King Abdullah has declared it “unacceptable” and warned of a “massive conflict” in the region. Senior Jordanian officials have threatened to reconsider their peace treaty with Israel or their security cooperation agreements. Egypt, the only other Arab nation that has signed a peace treaty with Israel, has also objected, as have Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The United Arab Emirates said annexation would imperil Israel’s chances of building stronger ties to Persian Gulf nations. But it remains to be seen whether Arab leaders will go beyond mere statements of solidarity for Palestinians and take concrete measures in the event of annexation, Palestinians and regional analysts say. Pressure from the streets to do so could be limited, as Arabs across the region are distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, economic instability, civil wars and other woes.

Opposition wins historic rerun of Malawi’s presidential vote (AP) The opposition has won Malawi’s historic rerun of the presidential election, the first time a court-overturned vote in Africa has led to the defeat of an incumbent leader. Lazarus Chakwera’s victory late Saturday was a result of months of determined street protests in the southern African nation, and of a unanimous decision by the Constitutional Court that widespread irregularities in the May 2019 election—including the use of correction fluid on ballots —could not stand. President Peter Mutharika, who had sought a second five-year term, earlier Saturday called the rerun of the election “the worst in Malawi’s history.” He alleged his party’s monitors had been beaten and intimidated during Tuesday’s election, but the Malawi Human Rights Commission, an observer, called the vote peaceful and transparent. Chakwera won with 58% of the vote, or 2.6 million votes out of 4.4 million cast. Mutharika received 1.7 million. Flag-waving supporters erupted in cheers as the results were read out, and some street celebrations began. Fireworks popped.

[erhiem]

Success travels in the company of hard work, there is no trick, there is no easy way, this line is proved very well by Harris Kimberley Faulkner, widely known as Harris Faulkner, is an American newscaster and television host. In addition, he is best known as the host of the daily daytime show, Outnumbered Overtime, along with Harris Faulkner.

In addition, Harris achieved great fame as the winner of six Emmy Awards, including Best Newscaster and Best News Special in 2005. Recently, she came into limelight when she started her new show called The Faulkner Focus in early 2021.

Born on 13 October 1965, this beautiful personality has turned 55 in the year 2020. Her height is 175 cms and 5’5 inches feet and inches. Moreover, she is very conscious about her physique and figure and takes care of her weight which is 56 kgs and 123 lbs pounds.

She maintains herself with the size measurements of 35 inches breast, 24 inches waist and 35 inches hips. She has a beautiful doll-like face which is complemented by her dark brown eyes and dark hair.

According to the sources, the estimated net worth of Harris Faulkner is around $2 million.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America, Harris belongs to African-American ethnicity. She is the lovely and talented daughter of Bob Harris (father) and Shirley Harris (mother).

His father was a retired lieutenant colonel, Army aviator, and a US Army officer who served three tours in Vietnam. As part of his education, he enrolled at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication.

nick name harris faulkner birth place Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Date of birth 13 October 1965 Ages 55 years (as of 2020) height In Feet and Inches: 5’9″

in centimeters: 175 cm

weight In kilograms: 56kg

In pounds: 123 pounds

eye color dark brown hair color Black profession TV reporter sexual orientation Straight School not known University University of California, Santa Barbara Religion Christianity the nationality American hometown Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Zodiac sign Libra father’s name bob harris

Harris Faulkner with his father

Mother’s name shirley harris

Harris Faulkner with his mother

Brothers not known Sister’s not known

Talking about his career, Harris took the first step towards his career by working as a freelance business writer for LA Weekly where he was paid $50 per article. Later, she began her television career at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, where she was a trainee.

In addition, she moved to Greenville, North Carolina where she worked as an anchor and reporter for WNCT-TV. In addition, Faulkner also served as an evening anchor for WDAF-TV in Kansas City from 1992 to 2000. Also, in the year 1999, she published a book, Breaking News: God Has a Plan – An Anchorwoman’s Journey Through Faith.

However, while working in Kansas, Harris became the victim of stalking and harassment by a former acquaintance who was following him from North Carolina. After that, she worked as an evening anchor at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In the year 2004, she left Minneapolis and joined Fox News in 2005.

Also, in 2005 for the revival of A Current Affair, she debuted as a correspondent. But at the end of 2005, the show was canceled. In addition, from 2011 to 2017, she anchored her first solo network newscast Fox Report Weekend. Similarly, he also made a guest appearance on the nightly satirical show, Red Eye.

In the year 2014, Harris began working as a co-host on the Fox News show Outnumbered. Then in the year 2017, she became the anchor of Outnumbered Overtime. Later, in the year 2018, this versatile personality also published another book: 9 Rules of Engagement – A Military Brats Guide to Life and Success.

Harris is a married woman who is married to Tony Berlin who is a former reporter at WCOO-TV. Moreover, the couple tied the knot with each other in the year 2003. Later, the couple was blessed with two lovely daughters. As of now, she is living a happy and blissful life with her family.

Lover not known marital status married Husband Tony Berlin

Harris Faulkner with her husband

children Two daughters (name not known)

Harris Faulkner with his daughter

Here we are providing the list of Harris Faulkner’s favourites:

Favourite Actor not known favorite actress not known favorite destination not known favorite musical instrument not known favourite sport not known favorite food not known favourite colour not known

His zodiac sign is Libra.

In the year 2018, he covered the midterm elections.

In 1998, Harris won the Amelia Earhart Pioneering Lifetime Achievement Award for her humanitarian efforts.

He is also quite popular on Instagram and has more than 109K followers.

Harris has also lived in different places as a child, including Stuttgart in West Germany.

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The post Harris Faulkner Biography, Age, Wiki, Height, Weight, Boyfriend, Family & More – appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

[diariozombie-ar]

The 'Oregon Trail' Studio Made a Game About Slavery. Then Parents Saw It - In June, screenwriter John Ridley wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that called on Warner Media to remove the film Gone with the Wind from their new streaming service, HBO Max. Ridley argued that the film – widely regarded as an American classic – “glorifies the antebellum south… some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color.” His op-ed led to an online protest that culminated in Warner Media removing Gone with the Wind from HBO Max and reposting the film with a new introductory disclaimer featuring film scholar Jacqueline Stewart. The success of Ridley’s op-ed points to an idea almost all of us accept: portrayals of history by movies, novels, and television shows have a dramatic effect—rightly or wrongly—on how we remember the past. But can’t the same thing be said about historical video games? Is there a video game equivalent to Gone with the Wind? The answer is: almost. In 1992, the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation or MECC, makers of The Oregon Trail, released a game called Freedom!. Using many of the underlying mechanics of Oregon Trail, Freedom! followed the journey of a runaway slave in the antebellum south attempting to escape bondage.  Unlike Gone with the Wind, Freedom! was made for laudable reasons: to educate grade school students on the history of slavery in the United States, to emphasize that African Americans resisted slavery, and to show how difficult the escape from slavery actually was. Freedom! was also made by conscientious people: MECC’s development team boasted decades of experience creating educational software, and they relied on subject experts and scholarly sources to ensure the game’s historical accuracy. Moreover, Freedom! was made in a compelling way: from a first person perspective, players had to rely on environmental clues and careful resource management in order to traverse a dangerous landscape filled with slave patrollers, dogs, and natural obstacles.  Ultimately, however, Freedom! was a disaster. Shortly after its release in fall 1992, Freedom! encountered heavy criticism and protests for perpetuating racial stereotypes. In early 1993, MECC pulled Freedom! from store shelves and revoked the game’s license for schools across the country.  The story of how Freedom! went from being a worthwhile idea to becoming the object of protest starts in 1983. That year saw the state of Minnesota convert MECC from a state owned nonprofit consortium into a profit-seeking corporation. Originally, MECC was created to provide computer access and software for students within the state of Minnesota. By the early 1980s, however, MECC began to sell licenses for their software to other states, who were eager to introduce computers to their students but lacked proven educational software to run on those machines. Seizing on the opportunity, the state of Minnesota cut MECC loose, and allowed it to pursue the burgeoning educational software market unfettered, so long as the company shared a portion of its profits with the state.  It’s common to see educational games left out of popular accounts of the history of video games, but, in terms of both sales and influence, MECC was one of the most successful game companies of the 1980s. By the end of the decade, MECC dominated educational software in America, maintaining lucrative licensing deals with over 1/3 of the school districts in the country.  It routinely raked in millions in profits thanks in large part to its sale of history titles such as The Oregon Trail, which sold 65 million copies across all of its iterations. When MECC was purchased from Minnesota by a venture capital firm in 1991, the company aggressively pursued the expansion of its history game portfolio. This expansion took a familiar form, with a series of games borrowing The Oregon Trail name (e.g. Africa Trail, Amazon Trail, Yukon Trail), and The Oregon Trail’s mechanics (i.e. roguelike, resource management, turn-based strategy, high difficulty). It was in this environment that Freedom! emerged. Given the context of MECC’s bottom line, it makes sense that Freedom! would be a run-based historical simulation. But why make a game about antebellum slavery? In their promotional materials for the game, MECC stated that Freedom! fit in with the company’s commitment “to providing inclusive instructional materials,” and their goal to “portray the experiences and perspectives of people from various cultures.” We can infer here that Freedom! represented a nod to the needs of MECC’s primary customer (i.e. school districts emphasizing multicultural education) as well as an awareness that many of MECC’s previous history titles, namely The Oregon Trail, portrayed a white colonial perspective of the past to the detriment of other groups.  The key inspiration for Freedom!, however, didn’t come from financial necessity or even The Oregon Trail, but instead from a new living history event near MECC’s headquarters in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. In the late 1980s, an activist named Kamau Kambui began to run a live action role play event called Underground Railroad Reenactments (UGRRs) just outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul. These events placed participants in the role of fugitive slaves attempting to escape to freedom during the course of a night. You can learn more about Kambui and UGRRs from this recent and excellent write up in The New Yorker. At some point in the early 1990s, Kambui met MECC designer Rich Bergeron, who used Kambui’s UGRRs as the basis for the history and gameplay in Freedom!. Kambui became the game’s primary consultant, and, as The New Yorker notes, “his influence is clear in the emphasis on wilderness survival���period dialect and characters with a distinctly ‘African’ look.” Given this background, what is Freedom! actually like? You can play the game yourself, if you don’t mind downloading it from My Abandonware and running it on an emulator like AppleWin. If you can't be bothered, you can find a few let’s plays of the game on YouTube. Either way, what you’ll discover is a game that’s obviously drawing a great deal from The Oregon Trail, but will also leave you wishing for problems with dysentery and snake bites. Freedom! is brutally difficult. You start by choosing your origin point in the south, which can include Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia. The location of your plantation can determine how difficult and time consuming your playthrough will end up being, but regardless of where you decide to start you’ll feel incredible pressure throughout. Your journey to freedom will require you to overcome a near endless stream of slave patrollers, slave patrollers with dogs, slave patrollers with lanterns, water, and “rough” water (usually the ocean, so if you come across this you might as well turn and face whatever version of slave patroller is chasing you).  On top of the constant threat presented by the game’s enemies and natural obstacles, you’re also tasked with managing your nutrition, health, and stamina as well as keeping track of which direction you’re headed. If your character doesn’t start with a compass, you’ll be left following the stars or looking at moss on trees to determine north. And as soon as you’re chased by slave patrollers, your character will run directionless until they are either recaptured or escape, in which case you’ll have to find north all over again. Whereas your white player character in Oregon Trail gets to follow a well worn path to the west at a leisurely pace without much beyond environmental hazards to worry about, the position of the black player characters in Freedom! make you feel as though you have to reinvent the wheel with a gun at your head every time you start a new escape. In the end, however, the controversy that enveloped Freedom! had nothing to do with the game’s incredible difficulty. Instead, most of the controversy related to characters and dialogue that the player encounters before the game even begins. After choosing your starting location, Freedom! presents you with a brief biography for your character and then gives you an opportunity to visit your plantation’s slave elders before starting your run. These elders essentially serve the same purpose as shop owners from Oregon Trail: a source for equipment, food, and useful tips about your upcoming journey north. These elders, however, speak in a dialect and their appearance (created using Apple II’s limited color palette) often resemble racist caricatures of African Americans. In addition to the plantation elders, the player character’s dialogue options often contain broken English, and their starting characteristics, which are randomized, can include an inability to read and write. This characteristic can greatly affect a playthrough as place names and written messages become illegible, making it that much more difficult for the player to complete the game.  With regard to the use of era specific dialect in Freedom!, it’s clear that the development team were expecting at least some pushback from players. The game’s manual, which you can read here, makes special mention of dialect in a section on topics that instructors may want to discuss with their students ahead of playing the game for the first time. This section states that this dialect was included “to maintain a ‘feel’ for the historical period… was highly recommended by our consultant, an African American.” The manual also mentions that the game was play tested by a diverse group of teachers and students in the Twin Cities area before release.  I talked with Clemson Professor Susanna Ashton, an expert on 19th century slave narratives, about the game's dialect. She felt that while the game's dialect was roughly accurate for published slave narratives from the 19th and 20th centuries, the dialect did not necessarily reflect how slaves actually spoke. Furthermore, the reconstructed dialect from these narratives could often have a racist effect even if there was no racist intent. The end result of this influence on Freedom! is a game—without instructor guidance—that can feel and look more like a minstrel show rather than an accurate historical simulation.  While the developers were careful to include “cover your ass” language with reference to dialect, they were a bit more cavalier with the types of activities they recommended instructors use to supplement their class’ playthrough of the game. In particular, the manual encourages instructors to have their students “re-enact the institution of slavery” in the classroom, with some students roleplaying as slaveowners and the others roleplaying as slaves. The developers, however, merely recommended that instructors make sure to not let “all the white children be ‘owners’ and all black children or children of color be ‘slaves.’” Reading the manual for Freedom! reveals both the earnestness of the developers and their naivete. They are convinced of the importance and potential benefits of their game, but they are also hopeful that the game will only be played in an appropriate setting with instructor guidance. In practice, few players of Freedom! ever played with an instructor, let alone read the manual. This issue manifested itself first at Henry P. Fieler Elementary School in Merrillville, Indiana outside of Chicago. At Fieler, Freedom! was added to “the school’s open computer lab, offered as something students could explore with their free time. No curriculum was attached.” Soon after, a group of African American parents complained to teachers and then to MECC directly that Freedom! was offensive and “Nintendoized” slavery. In particular, the game’s use of dialect and general depiction of blacks “exposed their children to ridicule.” For players of Freedom!, playing the digital past was too often an excuse to resurrect it in real life. The school’s superintendent added that the game trivialized “the pain and suffering these folks went through.” As one parent succinctly put it, “slavery was not a game in our history.” After meeting with the parent group at Fieler Elementary and a representative of the NAACP, MECC pulled the game from stores, and requested customers either return the game to MECC or destroy their copy. An updated version of the game was never released.  Freedom! and the controversy surrounding it had a profound effect on MECC’s subsequent development process. In 1994, MECC hired an outside firm to run a focus group for a project called Africa Trek (eventually retitled, unsurprisingly, Africa Trail), which was centered around a 12,000 mile bike journey from north to south Africa. The focus group’s documentation, available at the Strong Library, explicitly references the “adverse public and administrative reaction” to Freedom!, and recommended that Africa Trek should not be marketed “as a way to ‘discover your roots.’” Moreover, the focus group panel strongly advised that “development management should obtain consumer and teacher feedback … as a disaster check” before publishing. As one focus group member summarized, “whenever you try to recreate history, there’s a lot of hostility that comes out.” Like Gone with the Wind, Freedom! is an example of a work of historical fiction engendering and perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes. Yet MECC’s removal of Freedom! from shelves and computer labs means that the game and the criticism of it have largely been forgotten. MECC had the capability to address the game’s issues, but Freedom! was never rereleased. Did it deserve a second chance? When considering this question, it’s important to study the history of The Oregon Trail game. Originally created as a supplemental lesson for Don Rawitsch’s junior high history course in 1971, The Oregon Trail game famously debuted without mention of Native Americans, or the wider racial and ethnic implications of westward expansion. Yet as the decades past, and the game’s popularity grew, new versions were created that addressed not only the game’s mechanical shortcomings but many of its worst historical faults as well. To a large extent, The Oregon Trail was iterated out of controversy. Freedom! never got that opportunity. But maybe it should have. Intent matters here. Gone with the Wind was made to romanticize a nonexistent past. Freedom! was made to educate players on an important, and depressingly under-taught topic. To a certain extent, the game’s failures were part and parcel of how little African American history was taught in schools to begin with. As one Henry P. Fieler parent argued in 1992, “What I’d like to see is an African-American curriculum in the school system period, before a slavery game can be used as an educational tool.” In reading the original criticism of Freedom!, there’s a case to be made that parent concerns in 1992-93 related not just to the game’s depiction of black Americans, but also the fact that this depiction was in a game to begin with. Freedom! may have been an educational game, but it was released right in the middle of one of America’s great, periodic hysterias about games in general, thanks to titles like Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, and Wolfenstein 3D.  While America’s opinion on games and gaming have improved since the early 1990s, recent events in Minnesota and elsewhere have shown that not much has changed with education on topics like slavery and reconstruction since Freedom! was released. This problem is a big reason why educators continue to awkwardly and often disastrously attempt their own classroom roleplay games centered around antebellum slavery. They look to games and gaming as a way to make up for failures with textbooks and traditional instruction. One of the better examples of this work is the publicly funded Mission US game Flight to Freedom, a flash game that follows a slave’s escape to freedom, but also deftly updates the character’s spoken language to avoid the controversies with dialect found in Freedom!. Popular game developers, for their part, are eager to engage with the past, but only if the history is profitable and they can find cover for mistakes behind nebulous, catchall disclaimers (i.e. this game was “designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team…”).   Maybe historical knowledge—real historical knowledge that could change society—can’t exist in popular games. Maybe it can’t even exist in educational or serious games. Maybe society has to change first: games can be an educational supplement, but there has to be something to supplement. The story of Freedom! highlights how at once the game's message was absolutely necessary, but by itself was also insufficient to its purpose. Even  an experienced team of developers relying on expert knowledge published a game that had to be pulled from the shelves.  There's an irony here. Jacqueline Stewart’s introduction for Gone with the Wind on HBO Max argues that the problematic film should remain available because it shines a light on the racial inequalities that existed at the time of its production and the inequalities that continue to this day. The same can be said of titles like the original Oregon Trail, where the absence of indigenous people and slavery can be used to criticize the game as well as entrenched narratives of westward expansion. In the right hands, even badly flawed games and toxic works of art can still be used to teach history. But that history will still often be taught in relation to the white mythmaking and stereotyping that erased and reduced marginalized people. Freedom!, which (however imperfectly) attempted to center the experience of fleeing slaves and highlight the horrors of the antebellum United States, remains a little-seen historical curiosity.  http://diariozombie.ar/the-oregon-trail-studio-made-a-game-about-slavery-then-parents-saw-it/

[anarchistnewsdaily]

News Highlights: January 22 2018 - January 28 2018

In case you didn’t see, hear, or do it yourself these are some events that took place or were reported during the last week. 

Smashy

Santiago, Chile: Incendiary Attack Against the Mother of Divine Providence Parish During the Visit of the Pope

“Anonymous attackers managed to break the padlock of the perimeter fence of the religious temple, then set the Vatican and Chilean flags on fire at the the feet of a sculpture of the Virgin, as well as throwing incendiary devices at the doors of the Parish. The fire began to spread both at the door and inside the Parish before being discovered by priests and security guards who extinguished it. At the scene they would have found anarchist leaflets which were not mentioned by the media, but would have contained slogans against religion and the Pope’s visit to Chile.“

Report Back from the Eagles Riots: A Chance for Solidarity, but More Importantly, a Chance for Joy | anarchistnews.org

“On January 21st, we took the opportunity to take part in the temporary autonomous spaces created by the post victory fervor of thousands of football fans. Realizing that the soon to be victory of the Eagles was an ample time for us to strike back against the domination of civilization, the police, and the prison walls built by our own deteriorating mental, we met up with friends outside of Lincoln Financial field with the intention of freeing ourselves, albeit temporarily. We joined up with fellow members of the continuous class war in their celebration, singing, chanting, lighting fires, and using this opportunity to attack ATMs and throw a little bit of art on the dismal walls of south Philadelphia. We moved down broad street with a roving party that the Philly PD just couldn’t seem to shut down.“

Earth Liberation

FERC Grants Request to Begin Tree Cutting for Atlantic Coast Pipeline | Earth First! Newswire

“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted a request by the Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline to begin cutting down trees along parts of the 600-mile pipeline route in West Virginia and Virginia, despite the fact that the project still lacks some regulatory approvals.“

Menominee Tribe Files Lawsuit Over Back Forty Mine Clean Water Act Wetlands Permit | Earth First! Newswire

“Today the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Tribe asserts that the agencies have failed to take primary responsibility for a wetland permit that is key to the future of the controversial Back Forty Mine proposal.“

Protesters March Against Snowbowl, Snowmaking

“Just the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a vehement group against the expansion of Arizona Snowbowl and snowmaking on Dook’o’ooslííd, marched across downtown Flagstaff, urging the city council to end the city’s contract with the ski resort.“

Estonia: Logging Threatens Endangered Species, Sacred Sites | Earth First! Newswire

“Thousands of ancient sites are at risk of logging because the government will not pay to have them mapped, according to Tiit Kaasik, board member of the country’s Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Estonia’s FSC is prepared to recommend to international headquarters that auditor Nepcon be stripped of its certification rights, he told Climate Home News, if pagan traditions are not respected.“

Hambacher Forest, Germany: Barricade-eviction, and the ‘Hambi 9’ « Contra Info

“9 activists in pre-trial detention, after being arrested during a barricade-eviction in the occupied Hambach Forest, Germany. The activists are accused of ‘obstructing the work of police officers’, during the barricade eviction on Monday the 22. of January. Arriving early in the morning, the cops were met with activists occupying blockading-infrastructure, including 2 tripods, 3 monopods, a skypod, and a 3 meter deep tunnel. The cutting of the Hambacher Forest was officially stopped early this season, on a court-decision, postponing cutting until October 1st 2018, however the risk of eviction of the occupation is as great as ever.

Canada: Kwakwaka'wakw Leaders Hand Eviction Notice to B.C. Fish Farm | Earth First! Newswire

“Setting out from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, members of at least six B.C. First Nations took to the sea Monday to deliver an eviction notice to a fish farm operated by Marine Harvest: one of Canada’s largest producers of farmed Atlantic salmon.”

South Dakota: Oglala Lakota People Denounce State's Approval of Gold Mining | Earth First! Newswire

“At a hearing on Jan. 18, Oglala Lakota tribal members and others took issue with state officials for approving a permit transfer that moves Canadian prospectors one step closer to their goal of large-scale Black Hills gold mining.”

Animal Liberation

First Wolf in a Hundred Years Recorded in Belgium | Earth First! Newswire

“The first recorded wolf on Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark. Farmers in north-east Flanders have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek across Europe, had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout.“

Mutual Aid

San Diego, CA: Report on Autonomous Activity Over Last Week - It's Going Down

“Food Not Bombs of San Diego/Drop the Ban held one of several actions defying El Cajon’s new law against feeding houseless people in public on MLK Day. Earlier in the day, reportedly a blue lives matter flag was captured from a local business in an increasingly gentrified, hip part of town, and the words “I CAN’T BREATHE,” were seen painted onto the side of the building.“

“Meanwhile, signs have been put up in all of the popular panhandling spots with the words “DON’T SUPPORT PAN HANDLING. CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOLUTION…” Suggesting people donate to other services online instead. These signs are promptly being vandalized. Lastly, on January 20th, in solidarity with the J20 defendants and increasing border struggles a very large banner was dropped over the busy I-15. The banner read: “WE ARE STILL HERE DROP J20 SMASH THE WALL!” A bold three arrows on one side and a circle A on the other.“

Banner Drop

Minneapolis, MN: Banner Drop in Solidarity with #J20 - It's Going Down

“Solidarity from comrades in the Twin Cities IWW/GDC! The banner reads: Drop The Charges #Defendj20!“

Chicago: Solidarity with #J20 Defendees Coordinated Banner Drop - It's Going Down

“On the one year anniversary of the J20, partisans in Chicago coordinated a series of banner drops in support of the 59 remaining arrestees. We will continue to organize and fight with our comrades until each and every one of them is free from the state’s repression.“

Narrm / Melbourne, So-Called Australia: Banner Action for Invasion Day 2018

“Banner drop. West Gate freeway. Melbourne. Solidarity with our Indigenous brothers and sisters.”

Narrm / Melbourne, So-Called Australia: Banner & Poster Action for #7DaysOfResistance

“Anti-colonial poster & banner action for #7DaysOfResistance on occupied territory of the Boon Wurrung, Kulin Nations. South Eastern suburbs of so-called-Melbourne, ‘Australia‘.

Banners (L-R): Australia Is A Crime Scene, Stop The Genocide, Abolish Aus Day

Posters: Sovereignty Never Ceded! No Pride In Genocide, Queers Against Colonialism

Abolish Australia Day, Solidarity with the Aboriginal Resistance, Burn the Butcher’s Rag.”

Armidale, NSW, So-Called Australia: Banner Drops for Invasion Day 2018

“In the early hours of January 26th, 2018, banners were hung around so-called Armidale, NSW, with one facing out onto the parklands where Australia Day Festivities would be held later that day, reading “NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE – JAN 26 = INVASION DAY”. This action was taken by non-Indigenous people as a minimal act of solidarity with the ongoing struggles of First Nations peoples.”

Infiltration

An Anarchist Survey of Amazon: Day Two | anarchistnews.org

“Security was very lose and we entered without issue or incident. This laxness was due in large part to the fact that Jeff Bezos was not going to be there. Our first observation was that the majority of Amazon employees in Seattle are between the ages of 25 and 35, many of whom wore Romanesque laurels around their heads. The only major exceptions were immigrant tech employees on H1B visas who were mostly in their 40s and early 50s. Our first stop was the silent dancing area where two hundred employees danced to music over specialty headphones provided for the occasion. It was eerily reminiscent of the celibate loner cult depicted in the film The Lobster who danced silently to their headphones in the middle of a forest. “

Union Activity

Portland, OR: Burgerville Workers Union Pickets and Expands Into More Stores - It's Going Down

“Our first picket of the year kicked off 2018 right: faced with yet another strong picket, Burgerville CLOSED THE STORE for the duration of the action for a suspicious “maintenance inspection.” This is the power of workers and the community coming together to show that we can and will continue to shut union-busters down!“

Antifa

Neo-Nazi Virginia Tech Employee Mark Neuhoff Continues Online Rants Against African-Americans and Jews - It's Going Down

“This following report from New River Against Fascism, details the ongoing exploits of Graduate Assistant Mark Neuhoff, a current employee of Virginia Tech University.”

We Don't Forget J20: Action Report Back from the Greater Seattle IWW General Defense Committee - It's Going Down

“local musicians performed and the DJ blasted songs throughout the square. Not much later began a rousing march through the campus and down the University Avenue main thoroughfare.“

J20 Solidarity Demonstration in Grand Rapids, MI - It's Going Down

“On January 20, about 30 people held an event in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan in solidarity with the remaining J20 defendants. There was a short rally with speakers about the J20 case, ongoing struggles, and the importance of fighting back. Following the speakers, the crowd burned an American flag and a Trump banner before setting off on a march through the center of the city. There were numerous people masked up, anarchist flags were flying, and anti-fascist chants were plentiful.“

Berkeley, CA: Antifa Patrol Turns Up Zero Alt-Right Posters - It's Going Down

“Along the way, we were able to put several anti-fascist stickers up on campus and the surrounding area. So in the end, what was to be a 4chan propaganda night ended up becoming yet another opportunity to make it known that Berkeley is an antifa zone!“

Albany, NY: Anarchists & Radicals Stand in Solidarity with J20 Defendants at Benefit - It's Going Down

“The Albany anarchist and radical community came out en mass to celebrate and support J20 defendants at a benefit show thrown at community education space The Albany Free School in the city’s Mansion District. The event put on by “friendly neighborhood anarchists,” featured over a dozen bands from around the capital region, vegan pizza sourced and catered by Albany Food Not Bombs, and a raffle with anarchist themed prizes donated by groups such as It’s Going Down and AK Press.”

Phoenix, AZ: #MyBordersMyChoice Neo-Nazi Propaganda Efforts Foiled by Antifascists - It's Going Down

“Around 50 fliers were found in total, a large increase in prior instances, and it was determined that at least two people were involved, with the comparison of fliers, and techniques used to post them. After we were confident that we had rounded up the significant majority of fascist materials, we moved to a nearby park and disposed of them by fire.“

Stand With Tariq Khan As Alt-Right Outrage Machine Inspires Death Threats - It's Going Down

“It is questionable whether Khan and his partner will be able to continue their studies uninterrupted, putting their dreams on hold until racists can stop making harassment their pet cause.  This is disgusting, and it is not something we are going to stand by and just let happen.  Khan is a respected academic and scholar, a celebrated educator, a committed student, and an amazing father and husband.  We will not allow college campuses to be the killing fields for Alt Right terror, and we stand with Khan and anyone else who has been victimized by this kind of threat.”

Knoxville, TN: Neo-Nazis outnumbered 700 to 1 at Knoxville Women’s March - It's Going Down

“Less than two hours after they arrived at their barricaded protest area, the Traditionalist Worker Party members were escorted back to their vehicles in a nearby parking garage by several police officers in riot gear. A crowd of antifa and anti-racist activists followed them, shouting, “Go home Nazi.”

Outreach

Kolkata, India: International Anarchist Solidarity Action with Villawood Hunger Strikers

“Our solidarity action involved displaying a banner, reading; “Solidarity with Villawood Hunger Strikers! Burn down the concentration camps! Boycott Australian Tourism, End Exploitation of South Asian Students!”. We also distributed 200 plus flyers to passers-by and students attending the Indian State sponsored Australian Education Fair,”

Repression

#NoDAPL Water Protector 'Rattler' Takes Non-Cooperating Plea - UNICORN RIOT

“The Water Protector Legal Collectiveannounced that attorneys for water protector Michael Markus, known as Rattler, had reached a non-cooperating plea agreement with federal prosecutors. In the deal, Rattler agreed to plead guilty to one charge of Civil Disorder in exchange for a recommended prison sentence of three years. He had been scheduled to go to trial on two charges of Civil Disorder and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Felony Offense, which carried a minimum sentence of ten years in prison and a possible sentence of up to fifteen years.“ 

Chile: Prison Officer Michelle Barahona, Responsible for the Harassment & Mistreatment of Anarchist Comrade Tamara Sol (Eng/Esp)

“Tamara Sol has been punished in a severe and inhuman manner. The last incident was provoked when two common prisoners, instructed by the gendarmarie, threatened Tamara and she defended herself. Tamara and two comrades who came to her aid, were brutally beaten, locked in ‘La Jaula’ (punishment cell) and shackled, with their hands and feet bound.“

Third Black Cville Resident Arrested in Wake of 'Unite the Right' - It's Going Down

“Mr. Blakney is the third counter-protester to be arrested and charged arising out of the events in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. Corey Long and DeAndre Harris are both also facing criminal charges. All three are Black men and local residents who were attacked that day.“

Italy – The Italian government’s politics in Libya |

“With the shameless pretext of the ‘struggle against human traffickers’, the Italian State is lavishly financing war lords, guards and militias (those clumsily defined as the ‘Libyan government’) for the control and mass internment of the poor in flight. Patrols and refusal of entry along the Mediterranean coast, the detention of about six hundred thousand people in the Libyan concentration camps, the erection of a wall in the desert along theborders with Niger, Chad and Mali.“

The Heat is On: Update on Week 1 of #OperationPUSH - It's Going Down

“Prison organizers who correspond with these groups are being targeted for having their “security threat level” increased–a practice that translates into greater isolation and harsher conditions of confinement. One prisoner was told point blank, “As long as you communicate with these people you’re always going to be labelled a security threat and you’re always going to be put under investigation. ”Communication has been curtailed so severely that it’s hard to know how much of an economic impact the strike has had so far; we do know that in some cases scab labor has been brought in to keep facilities running.“

BREAKING: Rashid Johnson Tortured by Florida DOC - It's Going Down

“Kevin “Rashid” Johnson is being tortured at the Florida State Prison according to an “emergency note” Rashid’s lawyers received from him yesterday dated 1/19. It is suspected the torture began sometime between 1/12 and 1/19 since there was no mention of it in his 1/12 communication. No other details are available at this time but we will post updates here once we have them. This comes immediately after news that Rashid faces an “inciting a riot” charge for merely reporting on #OperationPUSH. You can read Rashid’s original reporting on Operation PUSH and the conditions in Florida prisons on IWOC’s site here. Rashid is the Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter) and a prolific organizer, author, and artist.

Albany, NY: Support for Dawedo from Capital Region Anti-Repression Committee - It's Going Down

“Here in Albany, a community member is being targeted by ICE. Dawedo Sanon was taken and is being held in an immigration facility in Buffalo, NY. She is facing court dates, and her family is navigating how to keep her home. They’re raising funds to get her out of the facility. Her family has set up a fundraiser, which you can donate to here.“

Kurdish Fighters Defend Afrin From Turkish Military Invasion in Northern Syria - UNICORN RIOT

“Turkish Armed Forces launched “Operation Olive Branch” which amounted to a full-scale military invasion of northwestern Kurdish-controlled Syria. The Turkish Armed Forces rank second to the United States, as the largest military force within the NATO alliance. In the last few days, the Turkish military along with an estimated 25,000 Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels, have fired extensive artillery barrages into multiple villages near Afrin, dropped hundreds of bombs with F-16’s, and driven ground forces into Syria that include armored tank brigades and heavy infantry.”

“On January 17th, 2018, our compañera and community member of Cherán, Guadalupe Companur, was found dead in the area known as Irapio, in the Municipality of Chilchota, Michoacán.  We want to clarify that her assassination did not occur inside the community, nor in the territory of Cherán.  In spite of the measures of community security we have developed in our community, the region continues suffering from problems of insecurity and violence.“

Arrests and Injuries as Mexicali Resiste Defends Blockade Against Police Attack - It's Going Down

“For more than one year, residents of Mexicali have been organizing against the construction of a brewery and aqueduct by the U.S. company Constellation Brands. If completed, the facility would produce beer for export to the U.S. and consume seven to thirty million cubic meters of water annually. (A city of one million uses around 20 million cubic meters.) Earlier this month, members of Mexicali Resiste began blockading aqueduct construction. On January 16, state and local police forces attacked the blockade and an hours-long confrontation ensued. While the blockade was successfully defended, at least five were arrested and ten injured. Below is a translation of the statement released later that day by Mexicali Resiste.“

Italy – Updates on the deported Sardinian anarchist prisoner Davide Delogu |

“From a telegram we received on 15/01/2018 we learn that the censorship office has been accumulating books sent in over 8 months, which they are not giving him. He has only received two bulletins. He sends hugs to all comrades who unconditionally struggle with dignity on both sides of the walls.“

Senate Approves Extended Surveillance Powers For Trump - UNICORN RIOT

“The US Senate voted to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA – the legal underpinning for global mass surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA). The Senate passed the bill last Thursday after the US House of Representatives approved the same legislation a week earlier on January 11. President Trump signed the bill into law on Friday, January 19. The bill would extend unaccountable surveillance authorities for another seven years, at which point FISA will again be up for congressional reauthorization.“

Humanitarian Arrested After Group Releases Report Implicating US Border Patrol - UNICORN RIOT

“Hours after the release of a report titled ‘Interference with Humanitarian Aid: Death and ​Disappearance on the US-Mexico Border‘, which exposes the US Border Patrol’s efforts to destroy water, food, and blankets left by humanitarian aid workers, agents arrested an aid provider and two others receiving aid near Ajo, Arizona on January 17, 2018.

The aid provider arrested by Border Patrol was Scott Warren, who since 2013 has been working with the organization No More Deaths to provide “direct humanitarian aid in an effort to end death and suffering along the US-Mexico border.”

Judge Accepts Red Fawn Fallis Plea Agreement - UNICORN RIOT

“Red Fawn Fallis’s plea agreement was accepted by North Dakota Chief Judge Hovland. The agreement, made between her defense team and federal prosecutors, dropped the most serious charge of “discharge of a firearm in relation to a felony crime of violence.” Fallis pled guilty to the remaining charges of  ‘Civil Disorder and ‘Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition by a Convicted Felon.’ Red Fawn Fallis is expected to have a sentencing hearing sometime in May.”

Social Center Burned Down by Nazis & Nationalists in Thessaloniki, Greece - UNICORN RIOT

“Using the cover of a large nationalist rally over Macedonia naming rights, Nazis and nationalists attacked two social centers (burning one to the ground), vandalized a Holocaust Memorial and tore down a sign promoting religious tolerance. Although dozens of police were present, no arrests were reported in either of the attacks on the social centers, ‘The School’ and ‘Libertatia Squat’.“

Water Supply at the Ramsey Unit, Texas, May be Contaminated Like the Rest of the State - It's Going Down

“Jason Renard Walker is Deputy Minister of Labor for the New Afrikan Black Panther Party and one of the contributors to the Fire Inside zine. He writes here about possible water contamination in Texas prisons, as it has been revealed that across Texas, many people are drinking water polluted with radium.“

Cops, Cameras, and Condos: Bloomington Is Getting Worse - It's Going Down

“Bloomington is not an unaffordable, tightly-packed, constantly-surveilled dystopia yet. There are more condos, cameras, and cops now than in the recent past, and there will be even more of all three in the future. This piece is not meant to produce a feeling of hopelessness, but rather point out to those who are threatened by these new developments how the situation here is changing, so we can adapt. The forces of order are still not omnipotent, not even close.”

Cambodia: Environmental Activists Jailed For Photographing Boat | Earth First! Newswire

“Dem and Hun were arrested on September 12, 2017 while at sea after filming boats suspected of being involved in the transportation of illegally dredged silica sand. The two environmental activists have been held in pre-trial detention since their arrest.”

Class War Scotland member on trial for displaying a poster on his window | anarchistnews.org

”Eventually David was arrested for ’threatening or abusive behaviour’ under Section 38, The Criminal Justice and Licencing (Scotland) Act 2012 and for ‘failure to give details as a witness’ under the Court Section 13–14, The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. However, initially David wasn’t even charged: instead, he was taken to the police station, where he was made to wait for 9 hours, and was subjected to anal cavity search. David is a member of Class War Scotland. He says that ‘It was done to humiliate me, because they were obviously aware of my political standing which is anarchist’. David’s trial took place mid- January at Glasgow Sheriff Court and the case has been adjourned till June. “

Rest In Power

Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed for Her Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 88

“Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminine sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like “The Left Hand of Darkness” and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 88.“

For further news check out: Anarchist News Daily

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For anarchist videos check out: F Yeah Anarchist Video

Current news sites include: itsgoingdown.org insurrectionnewsworldwide.com earthfirstjournal.org unicornriot.ninja anarchistnews.org contrainfo.espiv.net actforfree.nostate.net

[hclib]

Minneapolis’ Seward Neighborhood Wins Great Places in America Award

In early October, 2017, the American Planning Association (APA) announced that the Seward Neighborhood in Minneapolis was one of five Great Neighborhoods on their annual Great Places in America list. The program, in its 10th year, recognizes 15 great neighborhoods, streets, and public spaces across the country which demonstrate exceptional character, quality, and planning.

What makes Seward great?

Seward (which is bordered by I-94 on the North, the Mississippi River on the East, the Greenway on the South, and Hiawatha Ave on the West) has established itself as a diverse, inclusive, and environmentally conscious neighborhood. The neighborhood is home to successful affordable housing developments, a food co-op, arts organizations like the Northern Clay Center and Playwrights’ Center, public parks and bike and pedestrian trails, the Milwaukee Avenue Historic District, a vibrant and diverse commercial corridor on Franklin Ave., and high frequency MetroTransit access. Over 1,000 new East African immigrants call Seward home. Community organizations like the Seward Neighborhood Group and Seward Redesign encourage community involvement and enrich the community.

Since launching the Great Places in America program in 2007, APA has recognized 275 neighborhoods, streets, and public spaces around the country. Designees are selected annually and represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for the future. This is the fifth designation for the Minneapolis St. Paul area. The Grand Rounds, Rice Park, Summit Avenue and the Minneapolis Kenwood neighborhood have also all received Great Places designations.

What makes your neighborhood great? 

Photos of Seward Neighborhood’s past from the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections.

[lawrencedienerthings]

At nearly every turn in Denver, protesters confront a reason to march

more news https://northdenvernews.com

Kenny White, a black man in his late 20s, joins the downtown Denver protesters near dusk. A speaker has just wrapped his exhortation to the hundreds gathered at the west steps. “This is not a black-versus-white issue,” he says. “This is an us-versus-them issue.” The words “By any means necessary” are spray-painted on the Capitol wall behind him. Across the street, in the Civic Center amphitheater, Pastor Rico Wint is collapsing 400 years of black history into a plea for people to educate themselves: “If you know more about the Jordan Rules than the Black Codes, you have a problem.”

It is the eighth night of nationwide protests set off by videotape of a white Minneapolis police officer’s indifferent asphyxiation of a black man named George Floyd. It is the eighth night White has come to the Capitol to march to demand accountability. He will be here on the ninth night and the 10th and the 11th and the 12th. He will be here as long as there are protests, as long as people are listening, as long as he needs to be. 

“How long was the bus boycott in Montgomery? A year? It takes time to get real change done,” White says on Day 12. “I’m not here for Day 10 or Day 14. I’m here for Day 365, Day 710. This shit has to stop before I have kids. I never want to have to explain to my kids why the world is a dangerous place because they look like me.”

The protesters — of every race and ethnicity — call out for justice. They denounce institutional racism, the federal, state and local policies that deliberately have favored whites in almost every realm of life. In Colorado, the consequences play out from womb to grave, in ways seen and unseen. But they are obvious in data point after data point after data point.

Lizzy Lukens, center, said “I want equality rights and I want police brutality to come to an end,” Lizzy Lukens, center, said June 3, during the seventh day of protests near the state Capitol . Her sign reads “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Steve Peterson, Special to The Colorado Sun)

“A lot of people think racism is the angry white person yelling at a black person calling them — it hurts to say this, but — a nigger,” White says in an interview on Day 9. “But why do that when I can control where you live, where your kids go to school, when I can control where funding goes in your area, when I control whether you get this job or not, how much you earn, whether you can buy this house or not. Racism is integrated with the system.”

The protesters march in a state where African Americans make up nearly 5% of the population, but 18% of the state inmate population. They march in a state where the most recent five-year census survey shows the poverty level of African Americans is more than twice that of whites, where the median household income of African Americans is two-thirds that of whites — a gap that has barely budged in the last 50 years. They march in a state where white homeownership is nearly double that of blacks. The un- and underemployment rates fell across the board last year and gaps among blacks and whites narrowed significantly, but still persist, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis provided by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy.

They march in a state where in 2019 the percentage of black fifth-graders performing at grade level in language arts in 2019 was half that of whites, where the black infant mortality rate is nearly three times higher that of whites, where the rates of diabetes and childhood asthma and the levels of food insecurity are higher and life spans lower for black residents. COVID-19 rates in the state are also disproportionately higher among blacks than whites. (Similar gaps also exist between whites and Latinos, Colorado’s largest minority group.)  

And they march in a city where the public school system, forcibly desegregated during the lifetimes of many of the protesters, has long disproportionately punished black students with out-of-school suspensions. About 13% of Denver Public School students are black and they are disproportionately identified as having a disability and underrepresented in more advanced high school classes. In the 2017 and 2018 school years, when police handcuffed 155 Denver Public School students, nearly half of those students were black, Chalkbeat reported.

DPS’s four-year graduation rates have risen across the board, but the gap between white and black students continues, narrowing in some years, widening in others, but never closing despite attempts by a long line of superintendents. Last year’s graduating class saw a 13 percentage point gap, the second-largest since 2006, according to data provided to The Colorado Independent by the Denver-based Shift Research Lab. 

The protesters pour from Denver’s Civic Center along sidewalks that lie in the shadows of bank and federal government buildings, the twin power centers that enforced the city’s past segregation by ensuring black residents could not get home loans, could not move to neighborhoods with better schools, stronger tax bases, healthier environments. They march past national banks repeatedly hit with complaints of discriminatory lending practices. They march through once-redlined neighborhoods where disinvestment made way for displacement and displacement for replacement of black by white. In the three census tracts that make up Denver’s once-black Five Points and Curtis Park neighborhoods, the poverty rate among whites, who now make up about six in 10 residents, is 11 percent. Among blacks it is 43%, data provided by Shift Research Lab shows. The share of white owner-occupied homes is 78%. Among blacks it is less than 2%. 

Two children take a knee during 8 minutes and 46 seconds of of silence to honor George Floyd during a Black Lives Matter demonstration, organized on June 7 by Denver Public School Board Members, to emphasize the need for more black educators in schools. (Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Colorado Sun)

The protesters move through neighborhoods where covenants forbade the sale of homes to black families through the late ‘40s and current zoning contributes to those homes’ lack of affordability. Some of the protesters come from a community in northeast Denver where last year property owners voted to keep the name of the former Denver mayor and ex-Klansman by which it is known.

“We’ve avoided this conversation for a long time because we seem to think that Colorado, whether it’s our history or how we’ve marketed ourselves or how we identify as Coloradans, we are somehow immune from this because we are not like the South …Well, we are and we aren’t,” says Tom Romero, an associate professor of law at the University of Denver, whose research includes the legal history of the American West, school desegregation, property and land use. “Without understanding Colorado history, we create plausible deniability.” 

Denver Public School Board Member Tay Anderson (center), leads a Black Lives Matter march on June 7 to emphasize the need for more black educators in schools. (Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Colorado Sun)

What should be evident is that what happened in the past, whether 400 or 50 years ago, does not stay in the past, says Pastor Rico, who founded Young Men of Purpose, a Denver metro group that guides young, black men. It is not just the data that damns, he says, it is the messaging, large and small, that regularly casts black Americans as inferior. It is, he says, the Walmart in Montbello that locks up black hair care products, but not white ones. (Walmart on Wednesday announced it was changing this policy nationwide.)

“We have to divorce the nation from the idea that it was so long ago and see that the tentacles of the idea of black people, of what we are and what we are not, are everywhere around us now,” Pastor Rico says. “It’s our life. I have to go and ask someone to open up a case for haircare products …

“Words like ‘inequity’, ‘discrimination’, ‘marginalization’ are not just buzzwords, they are palpable to the people they affect.”

On the eighth day on Denver’s streets, the protesters march near the jail where sheriff’s deputies killed two black men, Marvin Booker and Michael Marshall, and then went unpunished. They head toward the long-ago Latino neighborhood declared blighted in the late ‘60s and razed to make way for the gleaming college campuses now in its place. Here, too, are reminders of disparity. Of those who enrolled in Colorado’s public colleges and universities in 2014, the 40% of white students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree four years later was double that of black students.

Protesters kneel in front of Denver jail, where Marvin Booker and Michael Marshall died in custody, demanding change. Many participants urged police officers in tactical gear outside the jail to take a knee with them. (Erica Breunlin, The Colorado Sun)

To the south of the campuses lies the public housing community where La’Queta McCauley once lived. She has joined the marches because “sitting at home is traumatizing …  It is not mentally OK to deal with this constantly and to feel alone in this.” 

On Day 10, McCauley, who works with special-needs children, follows the protesters in her car, trunk open, windows rolled down, calling out: “I have snacks. I have water. Help yourself.”

“You cannot unsee racism once you see it and become educated,” she says on Day 12. “You see it in all its forms. I see that family with the single mom and mom looks stressed and I know her kids are going to that school that is full of police officers and too many students and too many first-year teachers and not enough resources. I know she is living in a building owned by a white slumlord and the utility company is estimating her bills and overcharging her and that she is working two jobs and being underpaid in both. And even if she does make it to the point where she is earning a good income, even if she does make it like myself, I still had to live in public housing because the banks are biased and I could not afford to live in a house.”

Colorado’s public school and higher education systems, its departments of health and environment, education, corrections, and many city and county governments, publicly recognize systemic racial inequity and have, over many years, in many ways, sought solutions. What roars in the streets carries the trauma of generations and the acknowledgement of that trauma. What roars is a rebuke of small steps and a demand for sweeping redress. 

By the second week of protests, the legislature, the city council and the police department are promising change and the state Senate has voted 32-1 to pass a police reform bill. 

This is not enough for White. Not enough for Pastor Rico. Not enough for McCauley. 

“If you’ve been a survivor of domestic violence and your abuser says, ‘I’m going to rehab,’ until you see it, it doesn’t mean anything,” McCauley says. “I. Need. To. See. It. We’ve played this game before. I’ve seen this movie before. This is systemic and that means a lot of changes need to be made.”

Accountability is imperative, White says, “on all fronts.”  Dismantle the police department and replace cops with social workers and mental health workers, he says. In the meantime, set up a truly independent public safety monitor. The mayor must be held responsible for the policies that harm communities. The legislature must do more than pass incremental bills. 

A protester kneels on the ground in front of police dressed in riot gear during a demonstration on May 31, 2020 in Denver in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minnesota. (Joe Mahoney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

For Pastor Rico, the next steps rely on education. “You have to teach people what happened so they know why black people are skeptical and why we are so tired. I have well-intentioned white friends who tell me they are exhausted. You’re exhausted? It’s been 12 days. Imagine being my grandmother from Missouri, a slave state. Imagine being my mother. Imagine black skin never washing off. Welcome to American blackness.”

In the face of repeated evidence of systemic racism and the toll it has taken upon men, women and children, a willful blindness persists, he says. 

“It’s still, ‘Get up, dance, sing, use your artistry and dunk those balls and entertain us.’ Well, guys, we have some issues, we the people who built this country for free. We the people who have never been compensated. We have some things we want to discuss.” 

Tina Greigo is The Colorado Independent’s managing editor. This story was published at coloradoindependent.com on June 11, 2020.

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[xtruss]

Monuments to America’s Racist History Toppled Amid Mass Protests

Confederate monuments celebrating the United States' racist history are coming down in several states after being targeted by protesters over the past week.

— June 4, 2020 | DemocracyNow.Org

Monuments celebrating the nation’s racist history are coming down in several states after being targeted by protesters over the past week. On Wednesday, the city of Philadelphia removed a statue of the city’s former racist police chief and mayor, Frank Rizzo, just days after protesters attempted to topple it and light it on fire. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said, “The statue represented bigotry, hatred, and oppression for too many people, for too long.”

In Virginia, Governor Ralph Northam is expected to order the removal today of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the state Capitol grounds in Richmond after it was vandalized during the protests.

In Birmingham, Alabama, protesters toppled a statue of Confederate officer Charles Linn and vandalized a monument known as the Confederate Sailors and Soldiers Monument. Following the action, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered the rest of the statue to be removed.

In Nashville, Tennessee, protesters toppled a statue of Edward Carmack, a racist politician and newspaper publisher who incited violence against Ida B. Wells for her reporting on lynchings.

Three Other Officers Involved in George Floyd’s Killing Charged and Arrested

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed charges against all four Minneapolis police officers involved in last week’s killing of George Floyd, which sparked ongoing nationwide protests. A charge of second-degree murder was added against officer Derek Chauvin, who was already facing a third-degree murder charge for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds while Floyd pleaded for his life. The other three officers present were charged with aiding and abetting the murder. Chauvin was arrested last week. The other three officers — Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — are now in custody. Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s first African American attorney general, announced the charges on Wednesday afternoon.

Attorney General Keith Ellison: “Let me be honest here. I mean, our country has had — has underprosecuted these matters, in Minnesota and throughout the country. And so I think the trust is a result of historically not holding people who are public guardians accountable for their behavior in situations where we should have.”

A memorial service will be held today for George Floyd in Minneapolis. On Wednesday, his son Quincy Mason Floyd welcomed the charges against the officers.

Quincy Mason Floyd: “I am happy that all the officers have been arrested. My father should not have been killed like this. We deserve justice. That’s all I have to say.”

200+ New York Mayoral Staffers Demand “Radical Change,” Police Budget Cuts

Mayor Bill de Blasio holds a media availability at New York City Hall on Wednesday, June 3. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Two-hundred thirty-six current and former staffers for Mayor de Blasio signed an open letter calling on him to live up to the promises of reform that initially drew them to work for him. Read about the effort here. Below is the full text of the document:

An Open Letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio

We are former and current de Blasio Administration staffers.

We came to the Mayor’s Office from different places and walks of life, but we all shared a common goal: to work for a fairer, more just New York City.

None of us joined the de Blasio Administration believing this mayor would be radical on criminal justice policy. That was apparent from the moment he hired Bill Bratton to be his police commissioner. But we saw in Bill de Blasio a chance for real change.

He made his opposition to “Stop and Frisk” a pillar of his run for the mayoralty. He spoke passionately about his duty as a parent to make New York City safer for his Black son and daughter. He called for cuts to the City’s jail population, and for the closure of Rikers Island.

It was our hope that these words were a starting place. That we could push the Administration further to reform New York City’s racist criminal legal system. That together we could create real, lasting change for a City and police department that have failed Black and brown New Yorkers, generation after generation.

Our time in the Mayor’s Office showed us that the change we had hoped for, and fought for, might never come.

We saw up close the Administration’s unwillingness to challenge the abuses of the NYPD—the Mayor’s refusal to fire Daniel Pantaleo for choking the life out of Eric Garner, the continuation of the failed “Broken Windows” policing strategy that criminalizes our Black and brown communities, the rejection of even basic accountability measures like making information public about police officers accused of misconduct.

We saw how, while crime rates are at record lows, the Administration has continued to pour money into the NYPD budget—which is now almost $1 billion larger than when de Blasio took office—heightening the over-policing of Black and brown communities.

We saw how the Mayor refused to end the use of solitary confinement, which took the lives of New Yorkers like Kalief Browder and Layleen Polanco, in the City’s jails.

We saw the aggressive push for the construction of new borough-based jails, at a cost of $9 billion, despite activists’ cries to invest that money in jobs and alternatives to incarceration.

The chasm between Mayor de Blasio’s promise to reform the criminal legal system and the actions of his Administration has only widened in the past year.

De Blasio expanded the City’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which wages war on our immigrant communities.

He joined with police and prosecutors as they demonized the progressive bail and discovery reforms that activists and advocates spent years lobbying for in Albany.

He sat by as thousands of our fellow New Yorkers remained locked in cages on Rikers Island, while a deadly virus raged inside its jails.

And these past long days, as New Yorkers have taken to the streets demanding an end to the racist policing that humiliates, maims, and kills Black New Yorkers, he stood with the very police who perpetrate that violence.

Many of us marched at these protests. We’ve all seen the images and read the stories. Crowds of cops swarming over a single protestor, raining down blows with their batons. Protestors rammed with police cars. A rampaging cop throwing a protester to the curb, sending her to the hospital with seizures. A cop drawing his gun and pointing it into a crowd. A cop macing a defenseless young man with his hands in the air. Cops covering their badges so they could act with utter impunity.

What was the Mayor’s response? He said that the NYPD had “acted appropriately.” That police had “shown a lot of restraint.” That he “was not going to blame” officers who were trying to deal with an “impossible situation.”

And while the Mayor did attempt to walk back some of his comments on Sunday morning, by Tuesday he had implemented an 8:00 PM citywide curfew, an unprecedented attempt to silence New Yorkers’ cries for justice.

We have joined together in writing this letter because we could not remain silent while the Administration we served allows the NYPD to turn our City into an occupied territory. Our former boss might not hear the cries for justice from Black and brown New Yorkers, but we do.

We are demanding radical change from the Mayor, who is on the brink of losing all legitimacy in the eyes of New Yorkers.

1. Reduce the NYPD operating budget by $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2021, and reallocate that money to essential social services, including housing support and rental relief, food assistance, and health care, in alignment with the demands of the NYC Budget Justice campaign.

2. Immediately fire all NYPD officers found to have used excessive force—or to have covered their badges—at protests.

3. Release the names and official disciplinary records of all NYPD personnel who have been accused of using excessive force, covering their badge numbers, or other misconduct.

4. Appoint an independent commission, in the vein of the Knapp and Mollen Commissions, composed of civil rights attorneys, journalists, and activists, including abolitionist organizers, to investigate the response of the Mayor’s Office and the NYPD to the May and June 2020 protests against police violence.

We are also calling upon all former and current staffers of conscience to stand with us in our call for change.

We all chose to serve for a better New York. Stand with us now and demand justice—for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery. For Eric and Erica Garner. And for all Black and brown New Yorkers.

Signed,

Aarati Cohly, Aaron Ghitelman, Aaron S., Abdul Hafiz, Abe E., Abigail Cook-Mack, Aileen Almanzar, Aisha Pasha (Public Engagement Unit), Alacia Lauer (Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice), Alejandro Cintron (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Alex F. (Public Engagement Unit), Alex Washington, Alexandra R., Alexis H., Alyssa Lott, Amanda Clarke, Amen Ra Mashariki, Amrita Dasgupta, Amy Furman (Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency), Andrea H., Andrew Schustek, Angela Sherpa, Angela Lascala-Gruenewald, Angela Terry, Angie Carpio (Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice), Anthi Markatos, Anthony Jackson (Mayor’s Office of Creative Communications), Arelis Hernandez, Ariel L., Ashe Mcgovern, Ashley C., Ashley Dinzey (Gracie Mansion), Ashley Putnam (NYC Office of Workforce Development), Audrey Crabtree-Hannigan (Office of Research & Media Analysis), Ayesha D., Ayesha I., Ben Kantor, Ben Sarle (Mayor’s Press Office), Benita Miller, Benjamin Mandel (Mayor’s Office of Sustainability), Bianca Guerrero (Mayor’s Office of Policy and Planning), Brad Raimondo (de Blasio for Mayor 2017), Brandon G. Brandon West (Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget), Brandt Hamilton (Mayor’s Office of Speechwriting), Brian Erickson (Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations), Brian Johnson (Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget), Bridgit Donnelly, Camara Cooper (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Cara F., Carly Fleming (Public Engagement Unit) Carlyn Cowen (Mayor’s Office of Contract Services), Catherine Almonte, Cathy Pasion (Mayor’s Office of Sustainability), Chai Jindasurat (Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget), Charlette Renault-Caragianes, Christopher Collins-McNeil (Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs), Colin Stayna-Wynter, Cristina Gonzalez (Mayor’s Office of Appointments), Cristine K. (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Curtis Cravens (Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency), Daniel B., Daniel Backman, Daniel Edelman, Darren Martin, David Vincent Rodriguez (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Deena Patel, Diana G., Dina Rybak, Dina Simon, Dorothy Suchkova (Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice), Douglas Nam Le (Climate Policy and Programs), Eden T., Elisa Gahng, Elizabeth Olguin, Ellen P., Elvin Garcia (Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit), Emily Apple, Emily Preuss, Emnet Almedom (Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity), Eric G., Erika Lindsey, Esai Ramirez (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs) Essence Franklin (Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity), Esther Rosario, Eve Grassfield (Office of the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives), Ezra Cukor (CCHR), Felicia H., Frances Chapman, Gabriela Martins (NYC Census 2020), Gagan Kaur, Giulianna S., Gloria Medina (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Gwendolyn Litvak, Hanif Yazdi (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Hannah Shaw (Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity), Harrison N., Helen Ho, Hermanoschy Bernard, Hina Naveed (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Ian Hanson, Ifeoma Ike (Young Men’s Initiative), Irina Tavera (NYC Census 2020), Jacqlene Moran (Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency), Jacqueline Crossan, James N., Janie K., Jasmine Fernandez, Jason Spear (Young Men’s Initiative), Jean Bae, Jen Samawat (Office of the First Lady of New York City), Jenna Tatum (NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability), Jennifer Scaife (Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice), Jennings Louis, Jeremiah Cedeño (NYC Census 2020), Jerry Bruno, Jessica Woolford (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Jesús Alejandro C., Joi Rae, Jonathan Soto, Joseph Desimone (de Blasio for Mayor 2013), Joshua C., Juana Silverio, Julie Kim (NYC Census), Julie W., June Glover, Karen Coronel (Mayor’s Office of Appointments), Kate Bernyk, Kate Van Tassel, Katerín Fernández (Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services), Katie Unger, Kimberly P., Kristen Grennan, Kunchok Dolma (Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), Lacey Tauber, Leah R., Leigh Shapiro, Lexi I., Lilly L., Lily K., Lindsay F. (Mayor’s Office of Operations), Lindsay Mollineaux (Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics), Lindsay Scola

— New York Daily News | By Shant Shahrigian | June 03, 2020

— Shant Shahrigian covers politics for the Daily News. He was previously an assistant city editor for the paper, and has also worked for outlets from the hyperlocal Riverdale Press to Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.

[ericfruits]

Donald Trump’s favourite freshmen face primaries

Squad goals Donald Trump’s favourite freshmen face primaries

Some high-profile left-wing House members are drawing challenges from the centre

May 23rd 2020

WASHINGTON, DC

SIX DAYS after she was elected to Congress in November 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a picture of herself with three other freshmen Democrats—Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar—and tagged it simply, “Squad”. The name stuck, not least with Donald Trump, who called them “a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced and not very smart”, and urged them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

The quartet have revelled in Mr Trump’s contempt, and occasionally matched his vulgarity: hours after being sworn in, Ms Tlaib vowed to “impeach the motherfucker”. Many saw them as avatars of a new progressive era. In fact, they all replaced incumbents from safe Democratic seats; the Democrats retook the House in 2018 thanks to moderates from swing districts. And with the Squad’s first re-election just months away, three have drawn primary challengers—suggesting that it is not only Republicans who object to their politics.

The nickname links the four in America’s political imagination. But aside from being progressive, non-white women, they differ markedly from each other. Ms Pressley, who is running unchallenged, is an institutionalist who spent 13 years working for John Kerry when he was a senator. In 2009 she became the first black woman ever elected to Boston’s City Council. During her first year in office she introduced more legislation than her fellow Squad members, while keeping the lowest profile—the sort of approach that makes possible a long congressional career.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, by contrast, has perhaps the highest profile of any representative other than Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. She is a punctilious questioner and a skilled orator, overflowing with ambition and charisma. Those qualities, combined with her social-media game, made her a star. But her challenger, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, believes her far-left politics are “robbing the district of opportunities”. Ms Ocasio-Cortez helped lead a fight against Amazon’s second headquarters, with its promise of 25,000 jobs nearby.

Ms Caruso-Cabrera has also dinged her opponent for hypocrisy, accusing her of staying in “a luxury apartment with a Whole Foods in the lobby” in Washington, while the virus wreaks havoc in her district. On this charge, Ms Caruso-Cabrera risks hurling rocks through glass walls. She did not move to the district until late 2019; before then, she lived for several years in the Trump International Hotel and Tower, on the south-west corner of Central Park. Ms Caruso-Cabrera is well-funded but, Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s primary dispatch of Joe Crowley last time round notwithstanding, New York is usually kind to its incumbents.

Ms Omar did not defeat an incumbent; she handily won a six-way primary for an open seat. Before becoming the first Somali-American elected to Congress, she was the first elected to Minnesota’s House of Representatives. Her colourful headdresses and pointed challenges to American foreign policy have made her both instantly recognisable and divisive.

Antone Melton-Meaux, a 47-year-old lawyer and the most serious of her primary opponents, blames Ms Omar for not “work[ing] with the party in a collaborative way...Being a progressive is about progress, meaning getting things done.” Nekima Levy Armstrong, a prominent civil-rights lawyer who headed Minneapolis’s NAACP chapter, has endorsed him, citing both his credentials and Ms Omar’s “lack of presence when it’s time to vote”. But Ms Omar won more votes in 2018 than any other freshman; she will be hard to defeat.

Ms Tlaib is probably the most endangered of the four. In 2018 she defeated Brenda Jones, the Detroit city-council president, by one point in a six-way primary that split the (majority) African-American vote. That contest also featured Bill Wild, the mayor of Westland, a mostly white city in the district’s western edge, who will not be running. Ms Jones is the sole opponent this time. If she can consolidate the African-American vote and capture a critical mass of Mr Wild’s voters, she will win.

Yet should Mr Trump lose in November, Squad members who return to Congress may get less attention. They would no longer have a president who boosts their profiles by insulting them. They would be outspoken progressives in an age of resurgent centrism. Where’s the fun in that?■

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Exit, pursued by a centrist?"

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[bullmiddle5-blog]

America’s 38 Essential Restaurants

Plenty of smart, useful articles appear each year directing people to the nation’s buzziest restaurants, highlighting emerging trends and up-and-coming chefs. This annual guide, compiled after 34 weeks of travel and almost 600 meals in 36 cities, aims to accomplish something else: It’s a distillation of the foods and the communities to which I’ve borne witness. The undertaking has defined my work — my life, really — for nearly the last five years as Eater’s national critic.

The one-word mantra that steers my thinking, and also the city-based Eater 38 maps upon which the list is modeled, is essential. Which places become indispensable to their neighborhoods, and eventually to their towns and whole regions? Which ones spur trends, or set standards for hospitality and leadership, or stir conversations around representation and inclusivity? Which restaurants, ultimately, become vital to how we understand ourselves, and others, at the table?

Every year, the list changes substantially; this time around, we welcome 17 newcomers. They’re the places where I had especially meaningful aha moments, where I thought, “Of course New Mexican cuisine should be lauded,” or “Absolutely this is the one Korean barbecue restaurant where everyone should eat,” or “It’s crazy how perfectly these Pakistani-Texan dishes summarize the heart of Houston dining.” The bleeding-edge vanguards among this crew include a Los Angeles maverick where the chef grafts cuisines from around the world with astounding grace, a San Antonio barbecue upstart ushering Mexican flavors to the forefront, and America’s most impactful Southern restaurant — which happens to be in Seattle.

This being the fifth of these roundups I’ve agonized over, I’ve also observed, over these years, a shifting national consciousness, where diners from many backgrounds increasingly embrace cuisines with which they were previously unfamiliar. It’s the new paradigm, not an exception. Coded culinary language denoting “them” and “us” — as “American” or “other” — is slowly but inexorably dissolving. Each of these restaurants cooks American food; I can’t imagine our dining landscape without them. Sure, they’re wonderful places to eat. But they all engender belonging, possibility, and connection — things we surely need in our country right now.

★ – an Eater 38 Icon, on this list five consecutive times

The 2017 list | The December 2016 list | The January 2016 list | The 2015 list

2M Smokehouse, San Antonio, TX | Al Ameer, Dearborn, MI | Atelier Crenn, San Francisco, CA | Bad Saint, Washington, DC | Bateau, Seattle, WA | ★ Benu, San Francisco, CA | Bertha’s Kitchen, North Charleston, SC | ★ Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, NY | Brennan’s, New Orleans, LA | Compère Lapin, New Orleans, LA | FIG, Charleston, SC | ★ Franklin Barbecue, Austin, TX | The Grey, Savannah, GA | Here’s Looking At You, Los Angeles, CA | Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL | Himalaya, Houston, TX | Jose Enrique, San Juan, PR | JuneBaby, Seattle, WA | Kachka, Portland, OR | Koi Palace, Daly City, CA | Mariscos Jalisco, Los Angeles, CA | Mary & Tito’s Cafe, Albuquerque, NM | Milktooth, Indianapolis, IN | Momofuku Ko, New York, NY | Mud Hen Water, Honolulu, HI | n/naka, Los Angeles, CA | Palace Diner, Biddeford, ME | Parachute, Chicago, IL | Park’s BBQ, Los Angeles, CA | ★ Prince’s Hot Chicken, Nashville, TN | Smyth & the Loyalist, Chicago, IL | Spoon & Stable, Minneapolis, MN | Staplehouse, Atlanta, GA | Superiority Burger, New York, NY | Via Carota, New York, NY | Xi’an Famous Foods, New York, NY | Xochi, Houston, TX | ★ Zahav, Philadelphia, PA

2M Smokehouse

San Antonio

In an ever-more-crowded genre, pitmaster Esaul Ramos and fellow San Antonian Joe Melig transcend the Texas smoked-meats melee by also serving a frictionless combination of dishes that express their Mexican-American heritage. The uniformly blackened, near-custardy brisket rivals the efforts of the Austin superstars; chopped poblanos and blots of queso Oaxaca punctuate their stellar pork sausage. Fold them into speckled flour tortillas, topped with pickled nopales and interspersed with forkfuls of borracho beans and “Chicharoni Macaroni” (mac and cheese dusted with fried pork skins). This is how the leading edge of Lone Star barbecue looks, smells, and tastes. 2731 South WW White Road, San Antonio, TX, (210) 885-9352, 2msmokehouse.com

Atelier Crenn

San Francisco

With an artist’s sense of constant reinvention, Dominique Crenn has been bending flavors and meditating on design since her flagship restaurant’s 2011 debut. More masterfully than ever, Crenn and her team (including pastry chef Juan Contreras) mine the middle ground between intellect and emotion, between heady presentation and flat-out deliciousness. Crenn focuses the modernist kitchen on seafood and vegetables, using impeccable Bay Area ingredients while musing over her upbringing in Brittany, France, for inspiration. Stunning black-walnut tables, part of the dining room’s 2017 renovation, show off swirling wood grains that resemble turbulent cloud patterns; the effect is mirrored in tableside theatrics like platters of billowing dry ice that soon reveal tiny geoduck tarts. 3125 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 440-0460, ateliercrenn.com

Brennan’s

New Orleans

Ralph Brennan and his business partner, Terry White, rescued this French Quarter monolith in 2014, shepherding $20 million worth of reconstructive surgery on a building the size of a small cruise ship. Among the city’s Creole restaurant institutions, Brennan’s now takes the lead with its balance of timeless pageantry and relevant, finely honed cooking. Executive chef Slade Rushing nails the classics — eggs Sardou laced with creamed spinach for breakfast, snapper amandine or blackened redfish for dinner, bananas Foster for dessert any time of day — but also rotates in fresh twists like frog legs with basil tempura and tomato escabeche. 417 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA, (504) 525-9711, brennansneworleans.com

Here’s Looking At You

Los Angeles

Beef tartare at Here’s Looking At You

Wonho Frank Lee

Jonathan Whitener, the chef who owns HLAY with front-of-house ace Lien Ta, is arguably the country’s most creatively energized practitioner of the “global plates” aesthetic. Salsa negra, smoked beef tongue, nam jim, carrot curry, blood cake, almond dukkah, sprouted broccoli, New Zealand cockles: All have a place on his menu; all make sense in his electric, eclectic compositions; all reflect Los Angeles’s wondrous pluralism. The cocktail menu takes cues from Tiki culture but spirals off in similarly wild and amazingly cohesive directions. 3901 West 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA, (213) 568-3573, hereslookingatyoula.com

Himalaya

Houston

Effervescent, always-present owner Kaiser Lashkari and his wife, Azra Babar Lashkari, turn out nearly 100 distinct dishes at their boxy strip-mall restaurant in the city’s Mahatma Gandhi District. Numerous curries, including Hyderabadi chicken hara masala coursing with green chiles, evince several regional Indian cuisines, but it’s key to order the gems inspired by Kaiser Lashkari’s native Pakistan. He excels in “hunter beef,” a preparation similar to pastrami, best served cold in thick slices with head-clearing mustard. He links the Pakistani affinity for beef with Texas in specials like his weekend-only smoked brisket masala. The restaurant’s excellent, mildly spiced fried chicken bridges cultures just as successfully. 6652 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX, (713) 532-2837, himalayarestauranthouston.com

Jose Enrique

San Juan, PR

Jose Enrique’s whole fried fish over yuca

There is no sign outside the self-named restaurant of Jose Enrique Montes Alvarez; there’s also no missing the building, a cottage spangled with Art Deco geometries and painted bright pink. Jose Enrique served as the initial headquarters for José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen, which eventually served over 3 million meals in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria’s destruction in 2017. And it rightly remains the island’s most lauded dining destination. Whiteboards propped around the dining room list the daily-changing menu, a narration of the island’s comida criolla in which local seafood keeps diners rapt. Build a meal around an Enrique classic: whole fish fried into a kinetic sculpture, crowned with a chunky salsa of papaya and avocado and set over mashed yam. The crowd is drinking local rum. Join them. 176 Calle Duffaut, San Juan, Puerto Rico, (787) 725-3518, joseenriquepr.com

JuneBaby

Seattle

Edouardo Jordan grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, with family roots in Georgia, but it wasn’t until he opened his second Seattle restaurant, in the spring of 2017, that he chose to focus professionally on the foods of the South and his African-American heritage. The decision, and the restaurant’s immediate success, has made him one of the nation’s towering figures of Southern cooking. Among the menu’s familiar, gorgeously rendered comforts, the truest treasures (oxtails, vinegared chitterlings, collard greens with ham hock) are the ones that most resonantly invoke Jordan’s upbringing. 2122 Northeast 65th Street, Seattle, WA, (206) 257-4470, junebabyseattle.com

Koi Palace

Daly City, CA

Dim sum is among my favorite meals; I took a particularly obsessive deep dive through the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles this past year while researching the Eater Guide to California. A Sunday jaunt to the original Koi Palace (the flagship of its three locations) reminded me why it’s the indispensable cornerstone among the region’s many stellar dim sum options. Once you wade through the chaotic crowds, a euphoric whirlwind of food and service awaits. In a blur of dumplings, noodles, congees, sweet and savory cakes, piled greens, and crisp-skinned meats, a through-line of freshness and craftsmanship gives the feast cohesion. Finish with the last dregs of tea and the custardy fritters called “Sugar Egg Puffs.” 365 Gellert Boulevard, Daly City, CA, (650) 992-9000, koipalace.com

Mary & Tito’s Cafe

Albuquerque

The foodways of New Mexico are even more regionalized and misconstrued than Texas’s Tex-Mex traditions. In restaurants, New Mexican cuisine boils down to the quality of two dominant chile sauces: the dusky, fruity, slightly spicy red variation, made from dried pods, and the chunkier, vegetal roasted green chile version. There is no better indoctrination into the state’s culinary nucleus than the cafe started by Tito and Mary Ann Gonzales in 1963. Both have died, but their daughter Antoinette Knight, her family, and the restaurant’s longtime cooks keep the recipes and spirit alive. The crucial dishes: carne adovada (pork marinated in bright, silky, near-perfect red chile sauce and then baked) and stacked blue corn enchiladas with both red and green chiles — which is to say, “Christmas” style. 2711 4th St NW, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 344-6266, no website

Momofuku Ko

New York

The wit and technical command behind the tasting menu at David Chang’s toniest outpost perpetually makes Ko one of Manhattan’s worthiest splurges. A course of frozen foie shavings, melting on the tongue like otherworldly snowflakes, is a forever trademark; it’s hard to look at the split shape of the “Ko egg” and not envision an alabaster Pac-Man gobbling dots of caviar. But this past year the restaurant hoisted itself to another dimension by adding a walk-ins-only bar with a separate, experimental, and sneakily brilliant menu by executive chef Sean Gray and his team. Consistent pleasures have included quadruple-fried chicken legs, served cold. They’re so outrageously good, Harland Sanders only wishes he were picnicking on them in the afterlife. 8 Extra Place, New York, NY, (212) 203-8095, ko.momofuku.com

Palace Diner

Biddeford, Maine

In 2014, Chad Conley and Greg Mitchell took over a decades-old, 15-seat restaurant housed in a Pollard train car built in 1927 and turned it into the ideal realization of a daytime Americana diner. Eating here haunts me: I can’t find better light, lemony, buttery pancakes, or a more precisely engineered egg sandwich, and theirs is the only tuna melt I ever hunger after. Location plays a charming role: Sleepy but quickly burgeoning Biddeford, Maine (also home to Rabelais, one of the country’s finest food-focused booksellers), sits about 20 miles south of Portland. It’s all worth the trek. 18 Franklin Street, Biddeford, ME, (207) 284-0015, palacedinerme.com

Park’s BBQ

Los Angeles

Tabletop barbecue and banchan at Park’s BBQ

Wonho Frank Lee/Eater

In America, the meaty magnetism of Korean barbecue restaurants often serves as a gateway to the country’s cuisine. Park’s, ensconced in a Koreatown strip mall, is more of a journey’s culmination — the pinnacle of the genre. Certainly the tabletop-grilled meats (especially the kalbi, or short ribs, and anything offered as an American wagyu upgrade) deliver with sizzling edges and smoky depths. Before the main event, tiny plates of chef-owner Jenee Kim’s meticulous banchan (kimchi; gyeran mari, or rolled egg; battered slices of squash) rev the appetite. The cooking alone distinguishes the restaurant; the engaged, near-telepathic staff propels the experience even higher. 955 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, (213) 380-1717, parksbbq.com

Smyth & the Loyalist

Chicago

Chicago is a stronghold of tasting-menu restaurants all nearly on par in their intellectual heft. At Smyth, husband and wife John Shields and Karen Urie Shields certainly show off brainpower through 12 courses that uniquely coalesce Japanese, Nordic, and Southern-American flavors and techniques. But their close relationship with a farm 20 miles south of the city in Bourbonnais, Illinois helps give Smyth’s cuisine a literal and spiritual grounding. I taste the honest Midwest in dishes like end-of-summer green gooseberries paired with uni. At the Loyalist downstairs, the duo apply their formidable know-how to the Americana fare, including killer biscuits with cheddar and what may be the most righteous cheeseburger in Chicago. 177 North Ada Street, Chicago, IL, (773) 913-3773, smythandtheloyalist.com

Superiority Burger

New York

Brooks Headley departed from his top-of-the-food-chain gig as pastry chef at Del Posto in 2015 to channel his punk-musician origins into a solo project: a seditious, moshing, 270-square-foot Lower East Side restaurant that specializes in a remarkably gratifying vegetarian burger. The place is an ever-rarer reminder of individuality and tenacity in New York City. At its busiest moments, the crowd streams from the six-seat storefront out onto the sidewalk, a breadth of humanity sharing the moment as they consume meat-free sandwiches and spontaneous vegetable creations, straight from the farmers markets. Every menu item costs under $10. Headley doesn’t entirely abandon his previous title: He channels every ounce of his dessert genius into two transcendent gelato and ice cream flavors that change daily and come squashed together in a paper cup. 430 East 9th Street, New York, NY, (212) 256-1192, superiorityburger.com

Via Carota

New York

I’ll just say it: This is my favorite place to eat in New York. While no one “quintessential Manhattan” restaurant exists, Via Carota exquisitely inhabits one version of the mythology. It’s the filtered, shifting light that seeps through the picture windows overlooking a narrow West Village street. It’s the crowd’s smart air (especially at lunch, the ideal time to drop in). And it’s certainly the assured Italian cooking, heavy on vegetable dishes but also with soul-soothing pleasures like tagliatelle showered with Parmesan and draped with prosciutto. An unusually harmonic partnership animates the place: Chef couple Rita Sodi and Jody Williams each started still-successful restaurants nearby before combining forces on their joint darling. I always feel cheered by their doting brand of culinary co-parenting. 51 Grove Street, New York, NY, (212) 255-1962, viacarota.com

Xi’an Famous Foods

New York

Jason Wang and his father, David Shi, began their success story out of longing: The dishes they first served out of a basement stall of the Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing, Queens, channeled signatures of their native Xi’an, the capital of China’s northwestern Shaanxi Province. Hand-ripped noodles with spicy cumin lamb (its complexly seasoned chile oil reflective of Xi’an’s Eastern point along the spice routes), liangpi “cold skin” noodles, and a lamb burger stuffed in a hamburger-bun-shaped bao became phenomenons. Now with over a dozen locations in three New York boroughs, the chain remains in the family, and the food — remarkable in its consistency and affordability — rightly persists as a cult obsession. 41-10 Main Street, Flushing, NY, (212) 786-2068, and other locations, xianfoods.com

Xochi

Houston

Chicken tacos at Xochi

Each of Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught’s four Houston restaurants lend distinction to the world-class greatness of the city’s dining scene. Since opening in early 2017, Xochi quickly ascended as the finest of their bellwethers. Ortega and his chefs delve into Oaxaca’s earthy, exhilarating, spicy-sweet cuisine, with its color wheel of moles and its masa-based specialties shaped into irresistible geometries. Look for memelas (a thicker tortilla cradling roasted pork rib), tetelas (blue-masa triangles stuffed with house-made cheese), and molotes (crisp oval cakes painted with creamy and spicy sauces). Lunch ranks equal to dinner in excellence, a blessing for Downtown’s visitors and local workers alike. 1777 Walker Street, Houston, TX, (713) 400-3330, xochihouston.com

Among those reappearing on the list, only five standouts remain from the original guide Eater published in January 2015. The quintet — consider them Eater Icons — comprises the progenitor of hot chicken, the nation’s ranking barbecue lodestar, two luminaries where I’d most readily recommend celebrating a special occasion, and the restaurant that shifted how many of us perceive Middle Eastern foods. These are the places that I could never bring myself to rotate out. They all exemplify cuisines and ideas that dominated the decade, but their influence also clearly surpasses momentary fad.

Al Ameer

Dearborn, Michigan | Among Dearborn’s cache of Lebanese restaurants, this is the paragon. Kahlil Ammar and Zaki Hashem’s family business includes an in-house butcher facility, so the unrivaled stuffed lamb (and also lamb liver, a traditional breakfast dish) exhibits exceptional freshness. 12710 West Warren Avenue, Dearborn, MI, (313) 582-8185, alameerrestaurant.com

Benu

San Francisco

“Thousand year old egg” at Benu

No culinary leader in America deserves the honorific of “chef’s chef” more than Corey Lee. Easy labels don’t stick to his visionary cooking. Lee runs three San Francisco restaurants, including the bistro Monsieur Benjamin and In Situ at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but it’s at his flagship where his virtuosic talents most hold sway. Lee was born in Korea, and he most often summons the cuisines of China, Japan, and his native country for his intricate, striking dishes. Lobster coral soup dumplings, mussels stuffed with glass noodles and layered vegetables, a combination of potato salad and caramelized anchovies that recalls two staples of banchan: After thousands of meals consumed for Eater, I don’t know another place in America that serves food more dazzlingly, gratifyingly singular than Benu. Master sommelier Yoon Ha’s beverage pairings keep pace with Lee’s kitchen — another of the restaurant’s near-impossible achievements. 22 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 685-4860, benusf.com

Bad Saint

Washington, D.C. | The challenge: a no-reservations policy, 24 seats, and a line that begins several hours nightly before opening. The payoff: Tom Cunanan’s peerless Filipino cuisine. Inspirations like piniritong alimasag (fried soft-shell crab in spicy crab-fat sauce) also brilliantly signal the Chesapeake region in which he cooks. 3226 11th Street NW, Washington, D.C., no phone, badsaintdc.com

Bateau

Seattle | At Renee Erickson’s revolutionary overhaul of the American steakhouse, she and her partners dry-age the beef they raise on nearby Whidbey Island. Servers maintain a nightly running list of steaks on a chalkboard; lesser-known cuts like gracilis (the lean top round cap) receive equal billing with New York strips and ribeyes. Gallic-accented sides (kale gratin) and desserts (baba au rhum) trumpet the country’s renewed obsession with French cuisine. 1040 East Union Street, Seattle, WA, (206) 900-8699, restaurantbateau.com

Bertha’s Kitchen

North Charleston | Sisters Sharon Grant Coakley, Julie Grant, and Linda Pinckney carry on the culinary traditions of their deceased mother, Albertha Grant, serving red rice and shrimp, garlic crabs, lima beans, okra stew, and other specialties of the Gullah, former slaves who made their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. 2332 Meeting Street Road, North Charleston, SC, (843) 554-6519, no website

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Pocantico Hills, NY

Squash in the guise of guacamole at Stone Barns

If pushed to pinpoint one restaurant that I consider to be the “best” in America, I will time and again name Dan Barber’s Westchester County destination, the centerpiece of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Four-hour-plus meals here are elegant, interactive experiences: They begin with the front-of-house staff asking about interests and appetites, and then the first bites comprise a procession of “vegetables from the field” served raw and impaled on spikes with the lightest gloss of vinaigrette. From there… who knows? Barber and his seasoned improvisers run the show, orchestrating scenarios of experimental squash varietals and no-waste animal cookery; perhaps there’s a mid-evening field trip to the bakery or a course or two in the refurbished manure shed (yes, it’s a thing) or the kitchen. Diners ultimately leave with altered definitions of place and time around food. What Barber creates is a life-affirming reset of what a restaurant can and should be. 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, NY, (914) 366-9606, bluehillfarm.com

Compère Lapin

New Orleans | Nina Compton, a native of St. Lucia, revives New Orleans’s often-forgotten connections to the Caribbean; at her three-year-old restaurant, she knits together cultures with dishes like snapper with vinegary pepper escovitch and carrot beurre blanc. 535 Tchoupitoulas Street, New Orleans, LA, (504) 599-2119, comperelapin.com

FIG

Charleston | The first place you should eat in Charleston? And maybe the last? Mike Lata and Jason Stanhope’s ever-creative, always-consistent fixture, where the daily catch from Southern waters steers the nightly menu. 232 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC, (843) 805-5900, eatatfig.com

Franklin Barbecue

Austin, TX

A classic spread at Franklin Barbecue

Courtney Pierce/Eater

Things Americans willingly wait in line for: rides in Disney theme parks, Black Friday sales, the latest iPhone, Aaron Franklin’s sublime array of smoked meats. I’d argue the latter leads to the greatest rewards. Texas barbecue functions as a ferocious, intensely observed sport unto itself; who crafts the most rapturous beef rib or the snappiest sausages fuel constant debate. What isn’t disputed is how Franklin raised the discourse around barbecue when he and his wife, Stacy, stoked the first pit at their barbecue trailer in 2009. (The business moved to its current midcentury modern digs in 2011.) His brisket alone altered my brain chemistry, and did the same for a lot of other souls, forever changing our expectations of that Lone Star staple. A spread of brisket, ribs, pulled pork, potato salad, and pinto beans still merits the wait, which every omnivore should brave once in their lives. 900 East 11th Street, Austin, TX, (512) 653-1187, franklinbarbecue.com

The Grey

Savannah, GA | Eater’s 2017 Restaurant of the Year resides in a former Greyhound bus station, restored to its original 1938 Art Deco grandeur in a multimillion-dollar renovation. Mashama Bailey culls Southern port city flavors into a jubilantly personal expression, with triumphs like salt-preserved grouper on toast and quail scented with Madeira. 109 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Savannah, GA, (912) 662-5999, thegreyrestaurant.com

Highlands Bar & Grill

Birmingham, AL | A victorious year, with James Beard Awards for Outstanding Restaurant (after nine previous nominations) and a long-deserved win for pastry chef Dolester Miles, only emphasizes the timeless relevance of Frank and Pardis Stitt’s affable Southern-French haven. 2011 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, (205) 939-1400, highlandsbarandgrill.com

Kachka

Portland, OR | Bonnie and Israel Morales recently moved their Belarusian-Georgian-Russian restaurant to a larger, splashier space without displacing an ounce of its inimitable spirit; their new lunch service offers the same signature dumplings, caviar, and newly supersized blini, and world-class vodkas. 960 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, OR, (503) 235-0059, kachkapdx.com

Mariscos Jalisco

Los Angeles | Raul Ortega’s mariscos truck, parked in LA’s Boyle Heights community, serves what is arguably the most perfectly constructed taco in the whole blessed country: The taco dorado de camaron, filled with spiced shrimp, emerges sizzling from the fryer before being swathed with salsa roja and avocado slices. 3040 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, (323) 528-6701, no website

Milktooth

Indianapolis | Dutch baby pancakes with fluffernutter and grape jelly, sourdough-chocolate waffles with oolong-infused maple syrup, bacon and beef sloppy Joes: Jonathan Brooks is a mad genius of the morning meal. There’s no more inspired destination for relentlessly inventive breakfasts in America. 534 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, IN, (317) 986-5131, milktoothindy.com

Mud Hen Water

Honolulu | Hawaiian food exists in its own delicious, swirling cosmos. In dishes like his version of grilled squid lūʻau, whole fish cooked in coals, and chicken long rice croquettes, O‘ahu native Ed Kenney connects the cultural dots like no one else on the islands. 3452 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI, (808) 737-6000, mudhenwater.com

n/naka

Los Angeles | Reservations open three months in advance and book out instantly, but tenacity rewards with the country’s most poetic kaiseki meal. Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida’s menus careen through cooking techniques (sashimi, steaming, frying, searing), but the whole is a meditation on the ties between culinary tradition and individual imagination. 3455 Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, (310) 836-6252, n-naka.com

Parachute

Chicago | Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark’s dishes crisscross continents in their exceptionally vivid flavors, but the road always leads back to Korea with seasonal journeys like dolsot bibimbap and sesame-laced beef stew. 3500 N Elston Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) 654-1460, parachuterestaurant.com

Prince’s Hot Chicken

Nashville

The one-and-only hot chicken at Prince’s

Nashville-style hot chicken can no longer be considered a trend or a local delicacy; its countrywide popularity over the last five years cemented its place in the foundation of American dining. But no matter how many people succumb to the masochistic pleasures of capsaicin and the endorphin rush that follows, or how many restaurant groups fashion their own variations, credit for the dish should — and will — always go straight back to the business that made it famous. James Thornton Prince founded the restaurant in the 1940s; his great-niece André Prince Jeffries remains the guardian of the recipe. The heat levels range from plain to “XXX Hot.” The “Hot” version is as far as I go, and as a full-body sensory happening, it’s plenty. Everyone should visit North Nashville and face the flames for themselves. 123 Ewing Drive, Nashville, TN, (615) 226-9442, princeshotchicken.com

Spoon & Stable

Minneapolis | This is the Twin Cities’ restaurant of the decade. Gavin Kaysen brought New York star power back to his native Minnesota but keeps himself grounded with local ingredients and compelling yet comforting plates. Pastry chef Diane Moua echoes the Midwest charm with creations like root-beer semifreddo. 211 North First Street, Minneapolis, MN, (612) 224-9850, spoonandstable.com

Staplehouse

Atlanta | Ryan Smith crafts the right-now model of the mid-priced tasting menu, serving a dozen or so constantly evolving courses; dishes might involve modernist mousses and powders but never spiral too far from an end goal of accessible pleasure. Co-owners Jen Hidinger and Kara Hidinger (Smith’s wife) lead the front of house with Southern graciousness. 541 Edgewood Avenue Southeast, Atlanta, GA, (404) 524-5005, staplehouse.com

Zahav

Philadelphia, PA

Smoked lamb shoulder with chickpeas at Zahav

The recent limelight on Middle Eastern foods in America, which is overdue and still very much emerging, can in part be traced to Michael Solomonov, the chef who owns Zahav (and about a dozen other restaurants) with Steve Cook. Solomonov, born in Israel, brings a respectful and contemporary translation of that nation’s clearinghouse adaptation of its region’s varied cuisines. Dinner should always begin with salatim — warmly spiced vegetable salads that light up the table in their shades of red, green, gold, and purple — and Solomonov’s justly lauded hummus, maybe in a Turkish variation bathed in melted butter. Grilled duck hearts, roasted carrots with labneh, the signature smoked lamb shoulder lacquered with pomegranate molasses, riffs on kanafeh (a shredded phyllo dessert) with seasonal fruits: These communal plates all foster kinship, further cultural understanding, and of course bring immense enjoyment. 237 St James Place, Philadelphia, PA, (215) 625-8800, zahavrestaurant.com

Editor: Erin DeJesus Art director: Brittany Holloway-Brown Shooter: Gary He Video editor: Murilo Ferreira Photographers: Katie Acheff, Joshua Brasted, Frank Wonho Lee, Reese Moore, Courtney Pierce Social media editors: Milly McGuinness, Adam Moussa Copy editor: Emma Alpern Special thanks to: Matt Buchanan, Amanda Kludt, Francesca Manto, Stefania Orru, Stephen Pelletteri, Mariya Pylayev, and Eater’s city editors

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Source: https://www.eater.com/best-american-restaurants-review/2018/11/13/18071890/best-restaurants-america-2018

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss: Just a few random items from the Minneapolis Aquatennial Convocation

So yours truly made it to the Minneapolis Aquatennial, and the latest Great Convocation of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, to boot!

Even to the extent of bringing along Crazy Claws, our very own Comedic Ambassador to Wisconsin Dells, which, you will recall, "came along for the ride" as part of a mission to sell Wisconsin Dells down Florida way--and boy, wouldn't you believe the company we had at turns for the ride: No less than two encounters with Scooby-Doo's crew, including one with Scrappy-Doo, otherwise much reviled ... a rather special overnight with the Cattanooga Cats at their retreat looking down on Gatlinburg and the Smokies, not to mention plenty of their legendary biscuits and gravy ... encountering Jabberjaw while snorkelling in the Florida Keys ... and that late-night run-in with Top Cat's crew in Key West, just off Duval Street, and that hole-in-the-wall bar whose conch stew, it's been said, can be pretty effective against hangover.

And our run-in with the storied Weeki Wachee Mermaids ... spiritual cousins, I understand, to certain mertrolls down Troll County way, such as are known to show certain trolls of a certain age some introllesting "facts of life" without embarrassment.

Not to mention plenty of battered shrimp and hush puppies of varying degrees of quality, as well as key lime pie besides.

So where to begin ... in the footsteps of the late Mary Tyler Moore, as in the opening titles to her show, walking along Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis on a somewhat mild overnight, walking off some rather rich turkey dinner at midnight and trying to stay awake with some fresh air such as overnights seem to afford. No fog in sight, but nonetheless, rather pleasant to be walking in. And heading back to downtown, epicenter for practically all the Aquatennial events these days, on one of the first buses of the morning from the neighbourhood. And though formally discouraged, the conversation heading into downtown Minneapolis turned out rather quixotic, as much about the Aquatennial as about the presence of so many Hanna-Barbera character types playing along, so to speak, in convocation.

*******

One particular trait said of Minnesotans is they love their coffee. And while there's a lot of debate over whether Minnesota or New Orleans consumes the most such, never let it be said that our Hospitality Rooms, situated in a disused downtown storefront which, for all the world, appeared disued to begin with, had plenty of coffee. And tea. And even rooibos, that caffeine-free South African sensation.Bottled water, even, though not that caffeinated Water Joe you've probably heard so much about. Kwickly Koala, at HIS food truck featuring Australian delights, probably topped them all with samples of Australian-grown Nerada tea, Bundaberg Ginger Beer and even prepared Coola (which is a rather popular lime-and-vanilla concoction made from a concentrate known as "cordial") alonsgide the Vegemite on SAO or Jatz, Cherry Ripe bars and TimTams.

(Just so you all know, Vegemite is brewer's yeast extract. Best taken sparingly, as the flavour is rather salty and not for the unacquainted.)

*******

Especially interesting as part of our convocations would have to be the "meet-and-greets" with fans old and new. Not just to pose for "selfies" and sign autographs, but also to engage in conversations which can get to be rather interesting. And yours truly was no exception, engaging with fans at the likes of the Minneapolis Farmers' Market early mornings (along with several others as were selected randomly for each day, mind you). And what bounty, what aromas of the earth of fresh produce and fresh-made treats as well! And who could resist the opportunity to have autographs as much as hot coffee with yours truly, or even Shaggy from Scooby-Doo's crew. Especially when coming up with ingredients for the Saturday hotdish competition, which we chose in the Minnesotan spirit after the rather successful Cincinnati Chili Cookoff back in Truth or Consequences, you may remember.

But for our two musical aggolomerations, The Banana Splits and the Cattanooga Cats, Tuesday evening began with a joint appearence of the two in concert at no less than First Avenue, as Prince and the "Minneapolis Sound" of the mid- to late 1980's made legendary. The very climax of which, by all accounts, was their jointly reworking Three Dog Night's "Let Me Serenade You" in a rather memorable appearence that really shook up the house. And yet all made it to the Opening Conclave, with especially warm welcomes by Droopy, something of an old acquaintenance of ours by way of Tom and Jerry.

*******

Speaking of said Tom and Jerry, I have it on credible authority that perhaps one of their better chases was around the dandelion fountains in Loring Park, just south of downtown, then up Hennepin Avenue towards 5th Street and the Warehouse District, itself something of a rather "hip" part of downtown of late heading into the Twins' new home, Target Field ... and when they got to the Northstar commuter-rail terminal across the way, security was powerless to stop the legendary duo from hightailing it on the right of way. Only to get stopped close to a major turn for the line by outright exhaustion on Tom's part as much as his feet being unable to take much of the ballast.

As for their cousins, Motormouse and Autocat, they were on their way to the Sturgis Rally via our convocation--but not before pulling a rather crazy chase as took them down Como Avenue in St. Paul as far as the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. And return. Only to have Autocat suffer from a serious fuel line issue which would quickly be repaired.

*******

Those Juicy Lucy burgers--eat your heart out, White Castle! Especially considering where a few of us Hanna-Barberians had some light-hearted compeititon seeing who could eat the most of those rather juicy sliders, even if such was unofficial. And as it came out in the end, Shaggy Rogers took the laurels, eating some 17 such at one sitting. To be followed by Big H with The King's crew, with 15 ... and Square Bear of the Hair Bear Bunch, who downed 14. Myself, I only availed myself of one such. And our own barbecue fan among Hanna-Barberians, the Cattanooga Cats' own Groove "himself," was not disappointed with the barbecue fare at Rudolph's Bar-B-Cue or even Market Bar-B-Que, the latter legendary for its pit-smoked ribs and sauce on the side. Enough for Scoots, also of the Cattanooga Cats, to work up a rather hilarious episode involving those crazy cousins of his from "back in the holler" who used some rotten hickory wood to smoke some hams once, and tried not to make too much of a fuss about the ensuing taste until jokes started being made among the neighbours with whom hams were shared. Leave it to Scoots to explain how all came out.

*******

And if you recall the Coach Bingo segments from the second season of The Banana Splits ... well, you'll be surprised to hear where Bingo was among the runners in the Aquatennial 5K race as preceded the Torchlight Parade ... and yet managed to join up with his fellow Splits members on their parade float. What impeccable timing! And finishing with no less than five half-litre bottles of water, besides--which, it turned out, were of Vichy Celestins from France that Mr. Jinks, for some reason, procured at an import grocery on a lark. And for some reason, Pixie and Dixie, those "meeces" with whom Jinks held grudges galore, laughed all along.

*******

All in all, many wonderful memories to be had, of which only a few exceptionally-memorable such could be put down in this space.

Meanwhile, next week, I'll likely be up among the World-Renowned and Far-Famed Ten Thousand Lakes of Minnesota, perhaps up around Brainerd--that much is all I can say as to where I'll be--and put in a few notes meditative.

[agendahammer79-blog]

America’s 38 Essential Restaurants

Plenty of smart, useful articles appear each year directing people to the nation’s buzziest restaurants, highlighting emerging trends and up-and-coming chefs. This annual guide, compiled after 34 weeks of travel and almost 600 meals in 36 cities, aims to accomplish something else: It’s a distillation of the foods and the communities to which I’ve borne witness. The undertaking has defined my work — my life, really — for nearly the last five years as Eater’s national critic.

The one-word mantra that steers my thinking, and also the city-based Eater 38 maps upon which the list is modeled, is essential. Which places become indispensable to their neighborhoods, and eventually to their towns and whole regions? Which ones spur trends, or set standards for hospitality and leadership, or stir conversations around representation and inclusivity? Which restaurants, ultimately, become vital to how we understand ourselves, and others, at the table?

Every year, the list changes substantially; this time around, we welcome 17 newcomers. They’re the places where I had especially meaningful aha moments, where I thought, “Of course New Mexican cuisine should be lauded,” or “Absolutely this is the one Korean barbecue restaurant where everyone should eat,” or “It’s crazy how perfectly these Pakistani-Texan dishes summarize the heart of Houston dining.” The bleeding-edge vanguards among this crew include a Los Angeles maverick where the chef grafts cuisines from around the world with astounding grace, a San Antonio barbecue upstart ushering Mexican flavors to the forefront, and America’s most impactful Southern restaurant — which happens to be in Seattle.

This being the fifth of these roundups I’ve agonized over, I’ve also observed, over these years, a shifting national consciousness, where diners from many backgrounds increasingly embrace cuisines with which they were previously unfamiliar. It’s the new paradigm, not an exception. Coded culinary language denoting “them” and “us” — as “American” or “other” — is slowly but inexorably dissolving. Each of these restaurants cooks American food; I can’t imagine our dining landscape without them. Sure, they’re wonderful places to eat. But they all engender belonging, possibility, and connection — things we surely need in our country right now.

★ – an Eater 38 Icon, on this list five consecutive times

The 2017 list | The December 2016 list | The January 2016 list | The 2015 list

2M Smokehouse, San Antonio, TX | Al Ameer, Dearborn, MI | Atelier Crenn, San Francisco, CA | Bad Saint, Washington, DC | Bateau, Seattle, WA | ★ Benu, San Francisco, CA | Bertha’s Kitchen, North Charleston, SC | ★ Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, NY | Brennan’s, New Orleans, LA | Compère Lapin, New Orleans, LA | FIG, Charleston, SC | ★ Franklin Barbecue, Austin, TX | The Grey, Savannah, GA | Here’s Looking At You, Los Angeles, CA | Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL | Himalaya, Houston, TX | Jose Enrique, San Juan, PR | JuneBaby, Seattle, WA | Kachka, Portland, OR | Koi Palace, Daly City, CA | Mariscos Jalisco, Los Angeles, CA | Mary & Tito’s Cafe, Albuquerque, NM | Milktooth, Indianapolis, IN | Momofuku Ko, New York, NY | Mud Hen Water, Honolulu, HI | n/naka, Los Angeles, CA | Palace Diner, Biddeford, ME | Parachute, Chicago, IL | Park’s BBQ, Los Angeles, CA | ★ Prince’s Hot Chicken, Nashville, TN | Smyth & the Loyalist, Chicago, IL | Spoon & Stable, Minneapolis, MN | Staplehouse, Atlanta, GA | Superiority Burger, New York, NY | Via Carota, New York, NY | Xi’an Famous Foods, New York, NY | Xochi, Houston, TX | ★ Zahav, Philadelphia, PA

2M Smokehouse

San Antonio

In an ever-more-crowded genre, pitmaster Esaul Ramos and fellow San Antonian Joe Melig transcend the Texas smoked-meats melee by also serving a frictionless combination of dishes that express their Mexican-American heritage. The uniformly blackened, near-custardy brisket rivals the efforts of the Austin superstars; chopped poblanos and blots of queso Oaxaca punctuate their stellar pork sausage. Fold them into speckled flour tortillas, topped with pickled nopales and interspersed with forkfuls of borracho beans and “Chicharoni Macaroni” (mac and cheese dusted with fried pork skins). This is how the leading edge of Lone Star barbecue looks, smells, and tastes. 2731 South WW White Road, San Antonio, TX, (210) 885-9352, 2msmokehouse.com

Atelier Crenn

San Francisco

With an artist’s sense of constant reinvention, Dominique Crenn has been bending flavors and meditating on design since her flagship restaurant’s 2011 debut. More masterfully than ever, Crenn and her team (including pastry chef Juan Contreras) mine the middle ground between intellect and emotion, between heady presentation and flat-out deliciousness. Crenn focuses the modernist kitchen on seafood and vegetables, using impeccable Bay Area ingredients while musing over her upbringing in Brittany, France, for inspiration. Stunning black-walnut tables, part of the dining room’s 2017 renovation, show off swirling wood grains that resemble turbulent cloud patterns; the effect is mirrored in tableside theatrics like platters of billowing dry ice that soon reveal tiny geoduck tarts. 3125 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 440-0460, ateliercrenn.com

Brennan’s

New Orleans

Ralph Brennan and his business partner, Terry White, rescued this French Quarter monolith in 2014, shepherding $20 million worth of reconstructive surgery on a building the size of a small cruise ship. Among the city’s Creole restaurant institutions, Brennan’s now takes the lead with its balance of timeless pageantry and relevant, finely honed cooking. Executive chef Slade Rushing nails the classics — eggs Sardou laced with creamed spinach for breakfast, snapper amandine or blackened redfish for dinner, bananas Foster for dessert any time of day — but also rotates in fresh twists like frog legs with basil tempura and tomato escabeche. 417 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA, (504) 525-9711, brennansneworleans.com

Here’s Looking At You

Los Angeles

Beef tartare at Here’s Looking At You

Wonho Frank Lee

Jonathan Whitener, the chef who owns HLAY with front-of-house ace Lien Ta, is arguably the country’s most creatively energized practitioner of the “global plates” aesthetic. Salsa negra, smoked beef tongue, nam jim, carrot curry, blood cake, almond dukkah, sprouted broccoli, New Zealand cockles: All have a place on his menu; all make sense in his electric, eclectic compositions; all reflect Los Angeles’s wondrous pluralism. The cocktail menu takes cues from Tiki culture but spirals off in similarly wild and amazingly cohesive directions. 3901 West 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA, (213) 568-3573, hereslookingatyoula.com

Himalaya

Houston

Effervescent, always-present owner Kaiser Lashkari and his wife, Azra Babar Lashkari, turn out nearly 100 distinct dishes at their boxy strip-mall restaurant in the city’s Mahatma Gandhi District. Numerous curries, including Hyderabadi chicken hara masala coursing with green chiles, evince several regional Indian cuisines, but it’s key to order the gems inspired by Kaiser Lashkari’s native Pakistan. He excels in “hunter beef,” a preparation similar to pastrami, best served cold in thick slices with head-clearing mustard. He links the Pakistani affinity for beef with Texas in specials like his weekend-only smoked brisket masala. The restaurant’s excellent, mildly spiced fried chicken bridges cultures just as successfully. 6652 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX, (713) 532-2837, himalayarestauranthouston.com

Jose Enrique

San Juan, PR

Jose Enrique’s whole fried fish over yuca

There is no sign outside the self-named restaurant of Jose Enrique Montes Alvarez; there’s also no missing the building, a cottage spangled with Art Deco geometries and painted bright pink. Jose Enrique served as the initial headquarters for José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen, which eventually served over 3 million meals in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria’s destruction in 2017. And it rightly remains the island’s most lauded dining destination. Whiteboards propped around the dining room list the daily-changing menu, a narration of the island’s comida criolla in which local seafood keeps diners rapt. Build a meal around an Enrique classic: whole fish fried into a kinetic sculpture, crowned with a chunky salsa of papaya and avocado and set over mashed yam. The crowd is drinking local rum. Join them. 176 Calle Duffaut, San Juan, Puerto Rico, (787) 725-3518, joseenriquepr.com

JuneBaby

Seattle

Edouardo Jordan grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, with family roots in Georgia, but it wasn’t until he opened his second Seattle restaurant, in the spring of 2017, that he chose to focus professionally on the foods of the South and his African-American heritage. The decision, and the restaurant’s immediate success, has made him one of the nation’s towering figures of Southern cooking. Among the menu’s familiar, gorgeously rendered comforts, the truest treasures (oxtails, vinegared chitterlings, collard greens with ham hock) are the ones that most resonantly invoke Jordan’s upbringing. 2122 Northeast 65th Street, Seattle, WA, (206) 257-4470, junebabyseattle.com

Koi Palace

Daly City, CA

Dim sum is among my favorite meals; I took a particularly obsessive deep dive through the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles this past year while researching the Eater Guide to California. A Sunday jaunt to the original Koi Palace (the flagship of its three locations) reminded me why it’s the indispensable cornerstone among the region’s many stellar dim sum options. Once you wade through the chaotic crowds, a euphoric whirlwind of food and service awaits. In a blur of dumplings, noodles, congees, sweet and savory cakes, piled greens, and crisp-skinned meats, a through-line of freshness and craftsmanship gives the feast cohesion. Finish with the last dregs of tea and the custardy fritters called “Sugar Egg Puffs.” 365 Gellert Boulevard, Daly City, CA, (650) 992-9000, koipalace.com

Mary & Tito’s Cafe

Albuquerque

The foodways of New Mexico are even more regionalized and misconstrued than Texas’s Tex-Mex traditions. In restaurants, New Mexican cuisine boils down to the quality of two dominant chile sauces: the dusky, fruity, slightly spicy red variation, made from dried pods, and the chunkier, vegetal roasted green chile version. There is no better indoctrination into the state’s culinary nucleus than the cafe started by Tito and Mary Ann Gonzales in 1963. Both have died, but their daughter Antoinette Knight, her family, and the restaurant’s longtime cooks keep the recipes and spirit alive. The crucial dishes: carne adovada (pork marinated in bright, silky, near-perfect red chile sauce and then baked) and stacked blue corn enchiladas with both red and green chiles — which is to say, “Christmas” style. 2711 4th St NW, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 344-6266, no website

Momofuku Ko

New York

The wit and technical command behind the tasting menu at David Chang’s toniest outpost perpetually makes Ko one of Manhattan’s worthiest splurges. A course of frozen foie shavings, melting on the tongue like otherworldly snowflakes, is a forever trademark; it’s hard to look at the split shape of the “Ko egg” and not envision an alabaster Pac-Man gobbling dots of caviar. But this past year the restaurant hoisted itself to another dimension by adding a walk-ins-only bar with a separate, experimental, and sneakily brilliant menu by executive chef Sean Gray and his team. Consistent pleasures have included quadruple-fried chicken legs, served cold. They’re so outrageously good, Harland Sanders only wishes he were picnicking on them in the afterlife. 8 Extra Place, New York, NY, (212) 203-8095, ko.momofuku.com

Palace Diner

Biddeford, Maine

In 2014, Chad Conley and Greg Mitchell took over a decades-old, 15-seat restaurant housed in a Pollard train car built in 1927 and turned it into the ideal realization of a daytime Americana diner. Eating here haunts me: I can’t find better light, lemony, buttery pancakes, or a more precisely engineered egg sandwich, and theirs is the only tuna melt I ever hunger after. Location plays a charming role: Sleepy but quickly burgeoning Biddeford, Maine (also home to Rabelais, one of the country’s finest food-focused booksellers), sits about 20 miles south of Portland. It’s all worth the trek. 18 Franklin Street, Biddeford, ME, (207) 284-0015, palacedinerme.com

Park’s BBQ

Los Angeles

Tabletop barbecue and banchan at Park’s BBQ

Wonho Frank Lee/Eater

In America, the meaty magnetism of Korean barbecue restaurants often serves as a gateway to the country’s cuisine. Park’s, ensconced in a Koreatown strip mall, is more of a journey’s culmination — the pinnacle of the genre. Certainly the tabletop-grilled meats (especially the kalbi, or short ribs, and anything offered as an American wagyu upgrade) deliver with sizzling edges and smoky depths. Before the main event, tiny plates of chef-owner Jenee Kim’s meticulous banchan (kimchi; gyeran mari, or rolled egg; battered slices of squash) rev the appetite. The cooking alone distinguishes the restaurant; the engaged, near-telepathic staff propels the experience even higher. 955 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, (213) 380-1717, parksbbq.com

Smyth & the Loyalist

Chicago

Chicago is a stronghold of tasting-menu restaurants all nearly on par in their intellectual heft. At Smyth, husband and wife John Shields and Karen Urie Shields certainly show off brainpower through 12 courses that uniquely coalesce Japanese, Nordic, and Southern-American flavors and techniques. But their close relationship with a farm 20 miles south of the city in Bourbonnais, Illinois helps give Smyth’s cuisine a literal and spiritual grounding. I taste the honest Midwest in dishes like end-of-summer green gooseberries paired with uni. At the Loyalist downstairs, the duo apply their formidable know-how to the Americana fare, including killer biscuits with cheddar and what may be the most righteous cheeseburger in Chicago. 177 North Ada Street, Chicago, IL, (773) 913-3773, smythandtheloyalist.com

Superiority Burger

New York

Brooks Headley departed from his top-of-the-food-chain gig as pastry chef at Del Posto in 2015 to channel his punk-musician origins into a solo project: a seditious, moshing, 270-square-foot Lower East Side restaurant that specializes in a remarkably gratifying vegetarian burger. The place is an ever-rarer reminder of individuality and tenacity in New York City. At its busiest moments, the crowd streams from the six-seat storefront out onto the sidewalk, a breadth of humanity sharing the moment as they consume meat-free sandwiches and spontaneous vegetable creations, straight from the farmers markets. Every menu item costs under $10. Headley doesn’t entirely abandon his previous title: He channels every ounce of his dessert genius into two transcendent gelato and ice cream flavors that change daily and come squashed together in a paper cup. 430 East 9th Street, New York, NY, (212) 256-1192, superiorityburger.com

Via Carota

New York

I’ll just say it: This is my favorite place to eat in New York. While no one “quintessential Manhattan” restaurant exists, Via Carota exquisitely inhabits one version of the mythology. It’s the filtered, shifting light that seeps through the picture windows overlooking a narrow West Village street. It’s the crowd’s smart air (especially at lunch, the ideal time to drop in). And it’s certainly the assured Italian cooking, heavy on vegetable dishes but also with soul-soothing pleasures like tagliatelle showered with Parmesan and draped with prosciutto. An unusually harmonic partnership animates the place: Chef couple Rita Sodi and Jody Williams each started still-successful restaurants nearby before combining forces on their joint darling. I always feel cheered by their doting brand of culinary co-parenting. 51 Grove Street, New York, NY, (212) 255-1962, viacarota.com

Xi’an Famous Foods

New York

Jason Wang and his father, David Shi, began their success story out of longing: The dishes they first served out of a basement stall of the Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing, Queens, channeled signatures of their native Xi’an, the capital of China’s northwestern Shaanxi Province. Hand-ripped noodles with spicy cumin lamb (its complexly seasoned chile oil reflective of Xi’an’s Eastern point along the spice routes), liangpi “cold skin” noodles, and a lamb burger stuffed in a hamburger-bun-shaped bao became phenomenons. Now with over a dozen locations in three New York boroughs, the chain remains in the family, and the food — remarkable in its consistency and affordability — rightly persists as a cult obsession. 41-10 Main Street, Flushing, NY, (212) 786-2068, and other locations, xianfoods.com

Xochi

Houston

Chicken tacos at Xochi

Each of Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught’s four Houston restaurants lend distinction to the world-class greatness of the city’s dining scene. Since opening in early 2017, Xochi quickly ascended as the finest of their bellwethers. Ortega and his chefs delve into Oaxaca’s earthy, exhilarating, spicy-sweet cuisine, with its color wheel of moles and its masa-based specialties shaped into irresistible geometries. Look for memelas (a thicker tortilla cradling roasted pork rib), tetelas (blue-masa triangles stuffed with house-made cheese), and molotes (crisp oval cakes painted with creamy and spicy sauces). Lunch ranks equal to dinner in excellence, a blessing for Downtown’s visitors and local workers alike. 1777 Walker Street, Houston, TX, (713) 400-3330, xochihouston.com

Among those reappearing on the list, only five standouts remain from the original guide Eater published in January 2015. The quintet — consider them Eater Icons — comprises the progenitor of hot chicken, the nation’s ranking barbecue lodestar, two luminaries where I’d most readily recommend celebrating a special occasion, and the restaurant that shifted how many of us perceive Middle Eastern foods. These are the places that I could never bring myself to rotate out. They all exemplify cuisines and ideas that dominated the decade, but their influence also clearly surpasses momentary fad.

Al Ameer

Dearborn, Michigan | Among Dearborn’s cache of Lebanese restaurants, this is the paragon. Kahlil Ammar and Zaki Hashem’s family business includes an in-house butcher facility, so the unrivaled stuffed lamb (and also lamb liver, a traditional breakfast dish) exhibits exceptional freshness. 12710 West Warren Avenue, Dearborn, MI, (313) 582-8185, alameerrestaurant.com

Benu

San Francisco

“Thousand year old egg” at Benu

No culinary leader in America deserves the honorific of “chef’s chef” more than Corey Lee. Easy labels don’t stick to his visionary cooking. Lee runs three San Francisco restaurants, including the bistro Monsieur Benjamin and In Situ at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but it’s at his flagship where his virtuosic talents most hold sway. Lee was born in Korea, and he most often summons the cuisines of China, Japan, and his native country for his intricate, striking dishes. Lobster coral soup dumplings, mussels stuffed with glass noodles and layered vegetables, a combination of potato salad and caramelized anchovies that recalls two staples of banchan: After thousands of meals consumed for Eater, I don’t know another place in America that serves food more dazzlingly, gratifyingly singular than Benu. Master sommelier Yoon Ha’s beverage pairings keep pace with Lee’s kitchen — another of the restaurant’s near-impossible achievements. 22 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA, (415) 685-4860, benusf.com

Bad Saint

Washington, D.C. | The challenge: a no-reservations policy, 24 seats, and a line that begins several hours nightly before opening. The payoff: Tom Cunanan’s peerless Filipino cuisine. Inspirations like piniritong alimasag (fried soft-shell crab in spicy crab-fat sauce) also brilliantly signal the Chesapeake region in which he cooks. 3226 11th Street NW, Washington, D.C., no phone, badsaintdc.com

Bateau

Seattle | At Renee Erickson’s revolutionary overhaul of the American steakhouse, she and her partners dry-age the beef they raise on nearby Whidbey Island. Servers maintain a nightly running list of steaks on a chalkboard; lesser-known cuts like gracilis (the lean top round cap) receive equal billing with New York strips and ribeyes. Gallic-accented sides (kale gratin) and desserts (baba au rhum) trumpet the country’s renewed obsession with French cuisine. 1040 East Union Street, Seattle, WA, (206) 900-8699, restaurantbateau.com

Bertha’s Kitchen

North Charleston | Sisters Sharon Grant Coakley, Julie Grant, and Linda Pinckney carry on the culinary traditions of their deceased mother, Albertha Grant, serving red rice and shrimp, garlic crabs, lima beans, okra stew, and other specialties of the Gullah, former slaves who made their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. 2332 Meeting Street Road, North Charleston, SC, (843) 554-6519, no website

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Pocantico Hills, NY

Squash in the guise of guacamole at Stone Barns

If pushed to pinpoint one restaurant that I consider to be the “best” in America, I will time and again name Dan Barber’s Westchester County destination, the centerpiece of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Four-hour-plus meals here are elegant, interactive experiences: They begin with the front-of-house staff asking about interests and appetites, and then the first bites comprise a procession of “vegetables from the field” served raw and impaled on spikes with the lightest gloss of vinaigrette. From there… who knows? Barber and his seasoned improvisers run the show, orchestrating scenarios of experimental squash varietals and no-waste animal cookery; perhaps there’s a mid-evening field trip to the bakery or a course or two in the refurbished manure shed (yes, it’s a thing) or the kitchen. Diners ultimately leave with altered definitions of place and time around food. What Barber creates is a life-affirming reset of what a restaurant can and should be. 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, NY, (914) 366-9606, bluehillfarm.com

Compère Lapin

New Orleans | Nina Compton, a native of St. Lucia, revives New Orleans’s often-forgotten connections to the Caribbean; at her three-year-old restaurant, she knits together cultures with dishes like snapper with vinegary pepper escovitch and carrot beurre blanc. 535 Tchoupitoulas Street, New Orleans, LA, (504) 599-2119, comperelapin.com

FIG

Charleston | The first place you should eat in Charleston? And maybe the last? Mike Lata and Jason Stanhope’s ever-creative, always-consistent fixture, where the daily catch from Southern waters steers the nightly menu. 232 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC, (843) 805-5900, eatatfig.com

Franklin Barbecue

Austin, TX

A classic spread at Franklin Barbecue

Courtney Pierce/Eater

Things Americans willingly wait in line for: rides in Disney theme parks, Black Friday sales, the latest iPhone, Aaron Franklin’s sublime array of smoked meats. I’d argue the latter leads to the greatest rewards. Texas barbecue functions as a ferocious, intensely observed sport unto itself; who crafts the most rapturous beef rib or the snappiest sausages fuel constant debate. What isn’t disputed is how Franklin raised the discourse around barbecue when he and his wife, Stacy, stoked the first pit at their barbecue trailer in 2009. (The business moved to its current midcentury modern digs in 2011.) His brisket alone altered my brain chemistry, and did the same for a lot of other souls, forever changing our expectations of that Lone Star staple. A spread of brisket, ribs, pulled pork, potato salad, and pinto beans still merits the wait, which every omnivore should brave once in their lives. 900 East 11th Street, Austin, TX, (512) 653-1187, franklinbarbecue.com

The Grey

Savannah, GA | Eater’s 2017 Restaurant of the Year resides in a former Greyhound bus station, restored to its original 1938 Art Deco grandeur in a multimillion-dollar renovation. Mashama Bailey culls Southern port city flavors into a jubilantly personal expression, with triumphs like salt-preserved grouper on toast and quail scented with Madeira. 109 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Savannah, GA, (912) 662-5999, thegreyrestaurant.com

Highlands Bar & Grill

Birmingham, AL | A victorious year, with James Beard Awards for Outstanding Restaurant (after nine previous nominations) and a long-deserved win for pastry chef Dolester Miles, only emphasizes the timeless relevance of Frank and Pardis Stitt’s affable Southern-French haven. 2011 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, (205) 939-1400, highlandsbarandgrill.com

Kachka

Portland, OR | Bonnie and Israel Morales recently moved their Belarusian-Georgian-Russian restaurant to a larger, splashier space without displacing an ounce of its inimitable spirit; their new lunch service offers the same signature dumplings, caviar, and newly supersized blini, and world-class vodkas. 960 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, OR, (503) 235-0059, kachkapdx.com

Mariscos Jalisco

Los Angeles | Raul Ortega’s mariscos truck, parked in LA’s Boyle Heights community, serves what is arguably the most perfectly constructed taco in the whole blessed country: The taco dorado de camaron, filled with spiced shrimp, emerges sizzling from the fryer before being swathed with salsa roja and avocado slices. 3040 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, (323) 528-6701, no website

Milktooth

Indianapolis | Dutch baby pancakes with fluffernutter and grape jelly, sourdough-chocolate waffles with oolong-infused maple syrup, bacon and beef sloppy Joes: Jonathan Brooks is a mad genius of the morning meal. There’s no more inspired destination for relentlessly inventive breakfasts in America. 534 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, IN, (317) 986-5131, milktoothindy.com

Mud Hen Water

Honolulu | Hawaiian food exists in its own delicious, swirling cosmos. In dishes like his version of grilled squid lūʻau, whole fish cooked in coals, and chicken long rice croquettes, O‘ahu native Ed Kenney connects the cultural dots like no one else on the islands. 3452 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI, (808) 737-6000, mudhenwater.com

n/naka

Los Angeles | Reservations open three months in advance and book out instantly, but tenacity rewards with the country’s most poetic kaiseki meal. Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida’s menus careen through cooking techniques (sashimi, steaming, frying, searing), but the whole is a meditation on the ties between culinary tradition and individual imagination. 3455 Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, (310) 836-6252, n-naka.com

Parachute

Chicago | Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark’s dishes crisscross continents in their exceptionally vivid flavors, but the road always leads back to Korea with seasonal journeys like dolsot bibimbap and sesame-laced beef stew. 3500 N Elston Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) 654-1460, parachuterestaurant.com

Prince’s Hot Chicken

Nashville

The one-and-only hot chicken at Prince’s

Nashville-style hot chicken can no longer be considered a trend or a local delicacy; its countrywide popularity over the last five years cemented its place in the foundation of American dining. But no matter how many people succumb to the masochistic pleasures of capsaicin and the endorphin rush that follows, or how many restaurant groups fashion their own variations, credit for the dish should — and will — always go straight back to the business that made it famous. James Thornton Prince founded the restaurant in the 1940s; his great-niece André Prince Jeffries remains the guardian of the recipe. The heat levels range from plain to “XXX Hot.” The “Hot” version is as far as I go, and as a full-body sensory happening, it’s plenty. Everyone should visit North Nashville and face the flames for themselves. 123 Ewing Drive, Nashville, TN, (615) 226-9442, princeshotchicken.com

Spoon & Stable

Minneapolis | This is the Twin Cities’ restaurant of the decade. Gavin Kaysen brought New York star power back to his native Minnesota but keeps himself grounded with local ingredients and compelling yet comforting plates. Pastry chef Diane Moua echoes the Midwest charm with creations like root-beer semifreddo. 211 North First Street, Minneapolis, MN, (612) 224-9850, spoonandstable.com

Staplehouse

Atlanta | Ryan Smith crafts the right-now model of the mid-priced tasting menu, serving a dozen or so constantly evolving courses; dishes might involve modernist mousses and powders but never spiral too far from an end goal of accessible pleasure. Co-owners Jen Hidinger and Kara Hidinger (Smith’s wife) lead the front of house with Southern graciousness. 541 Edgewood Avenue Southeast, Atlanta, GA, (404) 524-5005, staplehouse.com

Zahav

Philadelphia, PA

Smoked lamb shoulder with chickpeas at Zahav

The recent limelight on Middle Eastern foods in America, which is overdue and still very much emerging, can in part be traced to Michael Solomonov, the chef who owns Zahav (and about a dozen other restaurants) with Steve Cook. Solomonov, born in Israel, brings a respectful and contemporary translation of that nation’s clearinghouse adaptation of its region’s varied cuisines. Dinner should always begin with salatim — warmly spiced vegetable salads that light up the table in their shades of red, green, gold, and purple — and Solomonov’s justly lauded hummus, maybe in a Turkish variation bathed in melted butter. Grilled duck hearts, roasted carrots with labneh, the signature smoked lamb shoulder lacquered with pomegranate molasses, riffs on kanafeh (a shredded phyllo dessert) with seasonal fruits: These communal plates all foster kinship, further cultural understanding, and of course bring immense enjoyment. 237 St James Place, Philadelphia, PA, (215) 625-8800, zahavrestaurant.com

Editor: Erin DeJesus Art director: Brittany Holloway-Brown Shooter: Gary He Video editor: Murilo Ferreira Photographers: Katie Acheff, Joshua Brasted, Frank Wonho Lee, Reese Moore, Courtney Pierce Social media editors: Milly McGuinness, Adam Moussa Copy editor: Emma Alpern Special thanks to: Matt Buchanan, Amanda Kludt, Francesca Manto, Stefania Orru, Stephen Pelletteri, Mariya Pylayev, and Eater’s city editors

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Source: https://www.eater.com/best-american-restaurants-review/2018/11/13/18071890/best-restaurants-america-2018

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Maps, Journeys and Signs part 1 lecture notes

‘Here be dragons’

Map of Asia as a Pegasus -1590

-mythical winged horse – early cartography

Map markers have always used illustrative and narrative means for describing the place. In this map, the cartographer presents Asia as Pegasus. Now they never actually believed that it was that close to this, but it does make sense.

“Maps that will make you realize you know nothing about the earth.”

The map we see is a total lie because the earth is a sphere, there is no way to show it perfectly on a flat map.

So, all the maps are distorted.

Russia is only about 2.1x larger than the continental U.S.

Canada is actually only about 1.2x the size of the U.S.

Canada Continental United States

-9,984,670 km2 -8,080,514 km2

United Kingdom Madagascar

--243,610 km2 -587,041 km2

Greenland Africa

-2.166.086 km2 -30,221,532 km2

Africa is almost 14x larger.

In fact, Africa is larger than a lot of places.

Australia North America Antarctica

-7,741,220 km2 -24,256,000 km2 -13,209,000 km2

Never trust a map.

Peters project map attempts to show you the world in a more geographically correct projection that the Mercator map. It is still only a projection.

Named for its creator, the South African-born oceanographer, geophysicist, inventor, urban designer (having come up with Minneapolis skyway system), and comic artist Athelstan spilhaus, the spilhaus projection “ reverses the land-based bias of traditional cartographic projections.” “Writes Big Think’s Frank Jacobs, placing.” “The poles of the map in South America and China, ripping up continents to show the high seas as one interrupter whole. “The resulting ‘earth sea’ is performed by Antarctica and Australia, and fringed by the other land masses.”

“Maps are like milk: their information is perishable, and it is wise to check the date.” -Mark Monmonier, How to lie with maps.

“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” – Chinua Achebe.

Daniel Robin, founder and executive chairman of the Dune Group, says “ It is difficult to think of an industry that has been more affected by immigration.”

The jews from Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century, the Italian's, Turkish and Cypriots in the middle of the century, and the Indian and Pakistanis, later on, have been key drivers of fashion in the UK. They brought with them artisan skills and experiences.

Cities on the move – 2727 km Bottari truck, 1997

Soo Ja Kim uses stitch and thread to create Bottari, bundles of fabric that represent bodies and belongings. She takes these pieces across vast distances, trace the routes themselves through stitching and performance, described as the thread of her wanderings.

Bottari with the artist, 1994, used Korean clothes and bedcovers, Yang Dong Village, Korea.

A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trips to the Pacific coast in the only way he can use a toy car and google maps street view.

In one-year performance 1978-1979 (cage piece), Hsieh spent a year confined to a cell-like room, where a friend brought him food, clothes and removed his wasted. Over the year, he vowed not to converse, read, write, listen to the radio or watch television.

Do Ho Suh,

Apartment A, Unit 2, corridor and staircase, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, USA. Apt A: 2011-2014, Unit 2: 2014.

-Made out of polyester fabric and stainless steel tube. Home within home within home within home within a home, 2013.

Harry Beck’s first tube map.

“After swift discussion of the problem it was found to be more convenient to have Mr strange move the city, rather than change all the maps.” Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange, and Mr. Norrell.

Tehching (Sam) Hsieh, one-year performance 1981-1982 (Outdoor piece)

The only time Hsieh went inside all year was when he was arrested for vagrancy. Arranged to appear at court, Hsieh came before a sympathetic judge who had read about the artwork in the wall street Journal and immediately released him back on the streets.

Anon, Le Monde au temps des surrealists (The surrealist map of the world) (Variétés, Brussels 1929)

The map (Underground)

The tube map defines a shared mental model of London for the people that live here and for those that visit. It is often the first map used to plan journeys rather than a traditional physical map and so it is the User Interface to the city to aid planning. The first maps were just normal maps with the position of the underground lines superimposed. As the underground system grew this became more difficult to represent in an understandable way. The example below is frim 1908 and is one of the earliest maps to show how the various services connect.

….Maps, like speeches and paintings, are authored collections of information and also are also subject to distortions arising from ignorance, greed, ideological blindness, or malice.” -Mark Monmorier.

When he explored the area that was to become Nebraska and Oklahoma in 1820, Major Stephan H. Long called the region “The Great American Desert.”

“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.” – John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath.

[ellingtonboots]

“Section 2501” Grants Provide Essential Support to Military Veterans, Farmers of Color

Members of the Agua Gorda Cooperative growing organic produce for the Minneapolis market. Photo credit: Latino Economic Development Center.

Farmers of color and military veteran farmers face particularly challenging obstacles when it comes to starting and sustaining successful farm operations. One of the factors hampering the success of these farmers has been their historically limited access to federal grant, training, and resource programs. Many U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) programs exist at the federal level to support farmers – loan, conservation, and disaster assistance programs to name just a few – however, insufficient/inadequate outreach and assistance to farmers of color and military veterans have contributed to their lack of access to and participation in these programs.

USDA recently released the latest batch of grant projects funded through the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program (also known as “Section 2501”). This program is unique among federal farm bill programs in that it is the only one dedicated specifically to addressing the needs of minority farmers. In the last farm bill the program was expanded to also serve military veterans.

Program Overview

Section 2501 is administered by USDA and supports competitively funded grant projects to help academic institutions, community-based organizations, nonprofits, and tribal entities provide critical resources, outreach, and technical assistance to historically underserved producers. Recently, USDA announced the latest round of funded 2501 projects for 2017. In total, 46 organizational partners were awarded grants to better serve minority and veteran farmers in 28 states across the country.

Since 2003, USDA has awarded nearly 500 grants across the United States through the 2501 program. While the program has funded projects in every state, there is an evident concentration of projects in states with higher populations of minorities producers. Historically, the states that have most utilized 2501 program funding include:

Mississippi – 38 grants

Arkansas – 31 grants

Georgia – 28 grants

Alabama – 28 grants

Texas – 28 grants

New Mexico – 25 grants

California – 24 grants

North Carolina – 22 grants

Oklahoma – 19 grants

Montana – 17 grants

Geographically, the majority of grants this year were concentrated in the South, with 60 percent of funded projects serving farmers in this region. In comparison, 22 percent of funded projects served the West, 13 percent served the North Central region, and four percent served farmers in the Northeast.

The majority of this year’s awards will support projects led by non-profit and community-based organizations. In total, 31 grants (67 percent) were awarded to NGOs and CBOs (including tribal organizations), while 15 (33 percent) were awarded to university or Cooperative Extension-led projects. All but one grantee will serve socially disadvantaged farmer communities through their projects, and the majority of projects will assist veterans within these communities. In total, 25 projects (54 percent) will address issues facing veteran farmers of color, 17 will work directly with African-American farmers, seven with Indigenous Tribes, seven with Latinos and Hispanics, four with Hmong communities, two with refugees, and one with veteran youth aspiring to farm.

NSAC Member Highlights

Many members of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) utilize the 2501 program to help them achieve their goals of advancing racial equity in the American food and farm systems. In FY 2017, six NSAC member organizations received funding to support their work with farmers of color and veteran farmers, including:

California FarmLink and Kitchen Table Advisors – California: This project provides Latino and monolingual Spanish-speaking farmers and other aspiring socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in California with the tools, training, education, and technical assistance they need to access capital, protect farm income and build farm business assets. This project will focus on increasing these populations’ successful participation in USDA programs.

“California FarmLink delivers services focused on access to land and financing for farmers of color. The [2501] Program is an important source of support for these farmers’ abilities to achieve long-term success. Thanks to the program, we’re providing dozens of socially disadvantaged farmers with technical assistance on financial management and participation in USDA programs.” – Reggie Knox, Executive Director of California FarmLink

National Hmong American Farmers, Inc – California: The Strengthening the Bridge initiative targets socially disadvantaged and veteran Hmong farmers originally from Laos, throughout California’s Central Valley. Strengthening the Bridge is working to identify Hmong needs, inform and assist Hmong farmers on USDA programs, develop strategies, and enhance the ability of Hmong farmers to operate profitable farming operations.

Georgia Organics and the Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON) – Georgia: Georgia Organics and SAAFON will partner to execute a dynamic outreach project to provide USDA program information, education on sustainable production practices, and new marketing opportunities to socially disadvantaged and veteran producers in South Georgia. This project will seek to enroll African-American and veteran producers in areas of extreme poverty in relevant and impactful USDA programs, deliver instruction on USDA Certified Organic production regulations and techniques in order to expand access to new markets, and seeks to ultimately increase the viability and operational resilience of socially disadvantaged and veteran producers.

“This grant allows us the opportunity to open up a new market for Black and sustainable farmers in Georgia. We are appreciative of how the USDA’s [2501] grant supports us in finding new and creative market entry points for our farmers.” – Tamara Jones, SAAFON Executive Director

Michigan Integrated Food & Farming Systems (MIFFS) – Michigan: MIFFS will assist socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers in starting and successfully operating viable farms in Michigan. This project will focus on enhancing and expanding two Multicultural Farmer Networks and one Farmer Veteran Network; updating MIFFS USDA Program & Application Guides; using MIFFS Field Specialists to work one-on-one with farmers to assist them in navigating and applying for USDA programs; planning, marketing and facilitating a statewide conference where socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers come together to learn, share resources and network; and hosting four USDA workshop webinars.

Center for Rural Affairs (CFRA) ­– Nebraska: This project addresses the need for knowledge and access to production, financial practices, and environmental information for Latino farmers across Nebraska. CFRA will help Latino farmers to: improve their startup farm businesses with cultural, financial, production, and environmental training; develop business plans; and ultimately apply for USDA programs. Classroom sessions, farm and ranch visits, visits to USDA field offices, and individual advising will also be provided. The project will also connect Latino high school youth to mentor Latino farmers and help them develop a business plan and apply for FSA youth loans.

“The Center for Rural Affairs is grateful to receive funding through USDA’s 2501 Program, Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program. This funding allows us to assist farmers and ranchers access USDA programming to strengthen their businesses.  Many of the farmers and ranchers we help have language and cultural barriers that may prevent them from coming into their local USDA office.  With this funding we can educate them on the purpose of the USDA offices, and how the USDA opportunities can help them grow their businesses.” – Kirstin Bailey, CFRA Project Organizer

Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services Inc. (MOSES) – Wisconsin and Minnesota: MOSES will bring education about organic production and certification, sustainable farming practices, and USDA programs and services to over 300 socially disadvantaged farmers across Wisconsin and Minnesota, the majority of whom will be new and beginning farmers. The project will provide education to beginning Hmong and Latino farmers through two conferences (including scholarships, translated workshop tracks, access to USDA staff and resources) and will also support the translation and printing of MOSES’s popular Guidebook to Organic Certification into Spanish.

The Future of 2501

The 2501 program was created in the 1990 Farm Bill in order to address historic discrimination within USDA and federal farm programs against farmers of color. The most recent farm bill reauthorized and expanded the program to serve veterans; unfortunately, the bill expanded the program’s scope, but cut its funding in half. The decision to cut already scarce funds ultimately shrank resources for both veterans and farmers of color, and a continued lack of investment has hampered the program’s ability to fully meet the needs of these populations ever since.

Demand for federal resources and technical assistance from returning military veterans and farmers of color is expected to continue growing in the coming years. In order to support these populations successful entry into agriculture, Congress must not only reauthorize the Section 2501 Program in the next farm bill, it must also scale-up investments to ensure that the needs of underserved farmer populations are properly addressed. Authorization (and funding) for the Section 2501 Program expires at the end of this fiscal year (September 30) – because the program is one of several “tiny but mighty” farm bill programs without baseline funding, Congress must take action to actively choose to reauthorize the refund the program in each farm bill cycle.

NSAC and our allies are dedicated to fighting for the Section 2501 Program, and for increased support for military veterans and farmers of color in the next farm bill. To read more about racial equity and the farm bill, check out our previous blog post, to read more about the tiny but mighty farm bill programs click here.

The post “Section 2501” Grants Provide Essential Support to Military Veterans, Farmers of Color appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

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[mei-mei-me]

Stay Informed, Vocal, and Safe With These Organizations To Help And Follow

Right now, the world is going through one of its most impactful and important protests in years, focusing on ending the oppression of black people across the United States – as well as throughout the world. It is not enough to mourn past injustices with the benefit of hindsight. The continued presence of systemic racism is unjust, inhumane and must end.

The benefits of privilege start the day you are born and only accumulate over time. The more privilege we have, the more opportunity we have. The more opportunity we have, the more responsibility we have. As a non black person I am privileged because I can do things every day without fear. When you’re silent on such matters (whether it be out of guilt or lack of empathy), you are being intentionally ignorant, which is what our nation’s racism has been built on. Our responsibility is knowing that it’s not enough to be “not racist” or “colorblind.” Responsibility is, “I see your color and I honor you. I hear you, and I value your input. Please tell me how to be better.” Responsibility is owning up to the fact that as a person of privilege, I won’t ever completely “get” and understand the same experience as someone that was born without my privilege, and that I will make sure to listen to any expression of this frustration with the intention of deepening my understanding. Responsibility is fighting back against those who say something racist because those people think they are in safe company. Responsibility looks like being attuned to subtle racial bias in everyday interactions. It’s unlearning racism, supporting POC businesses, and doing your research into who and what you support. It’s having informed debates and writing letters and protesting (both digitally or physically) against those who still choose to ignore what is happening.

Support POC every day, not just in times of duress. These are all everyday individual actions that are critically important no matter how big or small. These are the actions that build up the basis for a movement and for lasting change.

I encourage you to share any accounts or websites you are finding helpful in the comments below, or through my social media channels. While by no means a comprehensive list, information on how to support local initiatives making positive impacts can be found via the following links:

Official George Floyd Memorial Fund

This fund aims to raise awareness of the murder of the unarmed 46-year-old African American Minnesota resident, and to help cover the family’s funeral and legal expenses as they seek justice for George Floyd.

Justice for George Floyd

The petition currently stands as the largest U.S. petition of all time according to Change.org. It aims to raise awareness of police violence and killings of unarmed African Americans. The end goal is to reach the attention of Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey and DA Mike Freeman to prosecute all four of the officers involved.

Minnesota Freedom Fund

The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a local nonprofit group that pays for criminal bails and immigration bonds. The organization has vowed to help free protesters incarcerated by police.

Amnesty International

Amnesty International has been fighting global human abuses since 1961. The operation has over 8 million supporters worldwide and has brought torturers to justice, stood up for the oppressed and championed individual and collective freedoms including gun control, climate change and discrimination.

On The Ground Chicago

Stores like Walgreens, Target, Costco, and Jewel have been closed on the south and west sides of Chicago. OnTheGroundChi is looking to pair families on the Northside of the city with families in areas of distress that have no access to groceries and deliver them. Even if you do not have a car there are a multitude of ways to participate.

The Bail Project

The Bail Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to mitigating incarceration rates by providing free bail assistance to people in need.

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration

This racial and migrant rights organization works to engage African American and black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for racial, social and economic justice.

Black Visions Collective

A Minneapolis-based organization committed to a long term vision in which “all black lives not only matter, but are able to thrive.”

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund

The New York State-chartered charitable bail fund helps pay bail for those who cannot afford it.

Campaign Zero

Campaign Zero takes a data-driven approach in the search to end police violence in America. The organization aims to limit police interventions through improving community interactions and ensuring accountability.

Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization promoting press freedoms throughout the world. The organization defends journalistic rights to “report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.”

Communities United Against Police Brutality

The Twin-Cities based organization was established to resist the abuse of authority by the police, and to offer support for survivors of police brutality and families of victims.

Fair Fight

Fair Fight aims to end systemic voter suppression from illegal voting roll purges and gerrymandering efforts to the closing of poll centers that directly affects minority citizens.

Food Bank for New York City

Many citizens are currently going hungry. The Food Bank of New York City does more than just aim to eliminate hunger throughout the five boroughs. It champions programs for children (currently one out of every six kids goes hungry in the city) and is undertaking elevated programs to expand its reach during the COVID-19 crisis.

Know Your Rights Camp

Know Your Rights is a campaign founded by former NFL quarterback and current activist Colin Kaepernick. The goal is to raise awareness on higher education, give people of color the tools for self-empowerment and teach valuable instructions on how to properly interact with law enforcement in any scenario.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

The NAACP is a civil rights organization that aims to secure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

The legal organization fights for racial justice through advocacy, litigation and education.

National Black Women’s Justice Institute

The National Black Women’s Justice Institute aims to reduce racial and gender disparities across the justice continuum affecting black women, girls and their families.

National Center for Transgender Equality

The National Center for Transgender Equality helps to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender people. They advocate changes in policies to prevent discrimination, violence and injustice so that the transgender community can not only survive in the present but thrive through acceptance with recently implemented projects like their Racial and Economic Justice Initiative.

Northstar Health Collective

This St. Paul-based organization provides support as street medics during protests.

Pride Fund to End Gun Violence

The Pride Fund to End Gun Violence was created as a Political Action Committee after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history targeted the LGBTQ+ community at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. They support government candidates who approach firearm reform in a sensible way, mobilizing the community and raising awareness in an effort to stop senseless gun tragedies.

Reclaim the Block

This community-led initiative organizes Minneapolis and its city council members to “move money from the police department” into other areas of the city’s budget that need it.

The Trevor Project

Founded in 1998, the Trevor Project has been providing suicide prevention and crisis intervention services to the LGBTQ+ community with a focus on those who are under 25 years old. The organization also hosts workshops, ally training, and TrevorSpace — a social networking community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth to connect with friends and allies.

Venture House

Venture House is a New York City non-profit community-based mental health agency and a member of Clubhouse International. The organization helps empower adults who are living with mental illness achieve recovery through access to employment, education, affordable housing and an environment driven by meaningful and engaged relationships.

[scrapsofsky]

I am on my way home from Dublin OR have already arrived. Like science fiction, my future is fundamentally about the present. Naturally, that means Worldcon has ended along with my sadly short vacation in Dublin, Ireland, a quaint little city… Oh, who the hell am I kidding? Dublin is really cool, y’all. And since “recaps of adventures” are a thing in the science fiction community, I’m here to, well, recap my adventures. This one will be a long one, y’all. So here…we…go!

The Dublin Worldcon was a bit like a dream. I pre-supported (or whatever it’s called) fairly early in the game AND bought an upgrade for my badge at the Worldcon in Finland (2017). I really wanted to go to a Worldcon in Dublin. More importantly, I wanted to support strong bids for non-U.S. Worldcons because, well, I actually take the “world” part of the name literally, and I don’t think you can have a “Worldcon” that doesn’t make an attempt to occur in various parts of the world.[1. I also recognize that logistically, it is quite difficult to run a Worldcon in every place on Earth. First, you need an established community that could reasonably handle a con the size of a Worldcon. Second, you need a space that can reasonably provide for potential attendees. Also: with the dystopian turn around the world, I have particular concerns about safety for convention attendees, especially if they come from marginalized groups. There are no easy solutions to this problem. After all, the West has decided to flush its progressive movement down the toilet. Most of us are fairly privileged in the West, and I am reminded of my nearly tearful smile in the EPIC Museum in Dublin when the fancy screen reminded us that Dublin was the first (or one of the first) countries to legalize gay marriage by popular vote. Respecting other cultures is one thing, but we also have to consider the safety of attendees in places where rights-based progress has not occurred. And, yes, I recognize that my home country, the United States of America, has SEVERE issues when it comes to safety right now. I would be hesitant to support a Worldcon in the U.S., which is likely to attract people from Mexico and other heavily Hispanic or Latinx nations; no U.S. Worldcon can guarantee that they won’t get randomly picked up by ICE and deported even though they are legally in the country. Worse, no U.S. Worldcon can guarantee that anyone picked by ICE for deportation won’t have their lives put at risk when they are detained in some ICE facility without the provisions necessary for comfort. I’ll remind people that simply being in the U.S. is not a crime, and being in the U.S. illegally is so minor of a crime that any argument suggesting they be treated like hardened criminals is, frankly, some fascist bullshit. Yes, fascist. OK. I’ll stop now…]

Originally, I had not planned to attend the event. I recently moved to Minnesota for a new job, and that meant a lot of moving expenses ended up on credit cards (ahem, I have a ko-fi). So I made the choice that I would save my money to pay down debt (ahem, I have a Paypal, ahem). Then y’all nominated my podcast, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, for Best Fancast. And when you’re nominated for a Hugo to be announced in Ireland, you have to scrap your previous adult plans for nerd shenanigans.

Also:  I will apologize in advance for forgetting anyone I might have hung out with, encountered, conversed with, etc. Dublin was a bit of a whirlwind, and I am notoriously forgetful. I also do want to apologize to folks we meant to interview for the podcast. Stuff sorta fell through, partly because of me and partly because of things I couldn’t control. However, I expect to record new stuffs with you folks in the near future!

So with that in mind, here’s a day-by-day accounting of the events in Dublin:

Day One (8/13/19 – 8/14/19): Dubliners

Thanks (seriously, thanks) to all the lovely folks who donated to my fundraiser (to cover the flight and hotel expenses), I was able to stay a little longer in Dublin than I might have if I could only rely on work reimbursement.[2. Work will basically cover all the stuff that isn’t flight or hotel related. Without your support, I probably would have been there for two days and then come back, which is kind of a waste of a trip. This way, I could cover some bills and experience a bit of Dublin.] One of my co-hosts and co-producers, Jen Zink, had procured accommodations at Trinity College for Friday through Tuesday, so I decided I’d take a few days off from work to enjoy a bit more of Dublin.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that my departure did not go smoothly. I left Bemidji for Minneapolis with more than enough time for a 2+ hour early arrival. But Minnesota decided the 13th would be the day to dump Florida-level rain on the whole damn state. By the time I hit Minneapolis, I had lost at least 30 minutes of lead time. In Minneapolis, things were even worse. The roads were swamped with slowed sections and accidents. I even took the wrong turnoff, which put me in even worse traffic and sent me through back roads trying to make my way. Normally, losing a 2-hour lead on a flight wouldn’t worry me. When I fly domestic, I usually don’t have any issues at the Minneapolis Airport and end up with over 90 minutes of free time. International flights aren’t always as smooth, so I was certain I’d miss the flight. So certain I think I had my first case of real road rage in a long time. I even called Jen to rant as a way to calm the nerves.

Needless to say, I made it with time to spare because Minneapolis is weird.

And if only that were the last disaster! Ha! Upon arrival in Dublin (about an hour late), I received the delightful news that the airline (KLM-Delta) had lost my luggage. And by “lost” I mean “somehow they got it off the plane and misplaced it on the way to the baggage carousel.” This happened to everyone’s luggage for the flight. The airline tried to claim that the luggage had come on a different flight due to weight concerns, but I call bullshit. [3. Pro-tip, folks. Bring a change of underwear in your carry-on luggage. T-shirt and sporty shorts are also a plus.]

At the time, this really stressed me out. In retrospect, it’s honestly not that big a deal. I was just damn tired and didn’t want to go shopping for supplies while in an unfamiliar city after a red-eye flight.

The good news? I ended that day by chilling with Gareth Kavanaugh and ickle_tayto (it’s a reference!). We had dinner at an Irish pub place, where I devoured a Guinness and an Irish stew. So the evening ended quite well indeed!

Day 2 (8/15):  Let the Great Pre-Con Spin

The second day turned out a bit better. As you do when you’re in Ireland, I started off with a full Irish breakfast at a local pub. Nomnom. Aside from lingering pain from my leg (hey, leg pain!), I had a pretty good time socializing and wandering the convention center.

One thing I did get to do was catch up with Anne Lyle, who has been one of my go-to “hey, we randomly happen to be in the same place” friends. She seems to pop up at the same conventions, and we never coordinate anything. We just run into each other, and it’s a happy friends time. On top of that, I joined up with Julia Rios and her husband, Moss (who is a delight), and all four of us had a lovely dinner at a local sushi place.

I’m also pretty sure this is the day I met Matt (a.k.a. runalongwomble). We had a beer (thank god for European conventions), chatted about a lot of stuffs, and enjoyed general merriment. Matt is awesome!

That pretty much sums up that day. I weirdly didn’t go to any panels, which I’ll blame on jet lag and the fiasco of the previous day. Honestly, if not for catching up with old friends, I imagine it would feel wasted, but as it stands:  totally a good day.

P.S.:  This is one of those days where my memory is quite fuzzy. If we talked on this day, please remind me, because the brain has deleted my browsing history…

Day 3 (8/16): The Picture of Loopdilou

By Friday, the Skiffy and Fanty crew had begun to accumulate like some kind of troupe of Might Morphin’ Power Rangers (yeah, I went there). Julia and Alex were already in town. Trish was probably hiding somewhere. And Jen was on her way from Colorado. I’m told the weather in Colorado was pleasant in her absence, which meteorologists attributed to the absence of her Storm-like aura of radiation (X-Men rule!).

I mostly spent the day enjoying good food (another full Irish breakfast, y’all — Spar’s got it goin’ on), chatting with folks, drinking beer at Martin’s (the “pub” offered by Worldcon because European Worldcons are like that), and so on. Mostly, I spent half of the day waiting for Jen, who decided to be late to the party. I also recorded an interview with Ariela Housman and Terri Ash of Geek Calligraphy (forthcoming).

Once Jen arrived, we got checked into our room at Trinity College, proceeded to hunt down Julia and Alex and Trish, attended Julia’s and Alex’s readings, and then poofed off to a local Irish pub for eats with Anne Lyle in tow. Oh, fun fact:  Jen totally fell like a cartoon character after “running into” a foot traffic barricade. It was hilarious.

After those shenanigans, we went to Julia’s hotel room, acquired some lovely alcohol, and recorded an episode of Torture Cinema with Skiffy and Fanty super fan, Linnea. You can listen to the episode here! Jen spent most of the evening snoring.

Day 4 (8/17):  A Portrait of the Panelist as an Old Fart

The next day was an eventful one. It was the first day I got to really enjoy panels at Worldcon. Here’s a quick rundown of the panels I attended (some will link to Twitter threads and what not):

One of the big panels I attended was “What is African Science Fiction?” starring Nick Wood and Geoff Ryman. This panel was meant to have others in attendance, but alas there were some issues that prevented that. You can read some of my notes on the panel via this Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/shaunduke/status/1162667073962741761

And even more can be found via Vanessa Rose Phin’s thread:

https://twitter.com/wordfey/status/1162660343895797760

I do just want to add that the problem of tourist visas is one that we’re going to need to deal with in the future. I’m not sure how much conventions can do to mitigate the damage this causes, but we all need to be more proactive in making sure people from other parts of the world can attend conventions and be part of our conversations. Otherwise, we’re just not the global community we should be. There’s more to be said on this, but this post is already ridiculously long!

From there, I decided to hit up “Building the SFF Community Online,” which I hoped would give me some insight into managing online communities. I semi-run two semi-communities:  The Skiffy and Fanty Show and StarWarsFanJoy, both of which I’ve semi-neglected because I am overwhelmed by life. The panel starred Christopher Davis, Kat Tanaka Okopnik, fromankyra, Elio Garcia Jr., and Heather Rose Jones (M).

I also attended a “Muslim SFF” panel starring S.A. Chakraborty, Yasser Bahjatt, Harun Šiljak, and Peter Adrian Behravesh (who looks like an English professor who took a class in Awesome). I really wish I had kept notes on the panel because they mentioned a lot of old school and relatively recent work, some of which was from Arabia and some of which was from elsewhere in the world (Bosnia!). I mostly go to these panels to find new stuff to check out, and in this case, I just missed a lot because I am still fairly new to the way names from Arabia (and, well, Bosnia) are spelled. In other words, I just missed a lot of names. But there’s good news for this one:  it was streamed live on YouTube! See here:

So go get you some Muslim SF/F!

The last panel I attended that wasn’t one of my own was “Audio Dramas and Radio Plays,” starring Phil Foglio, Roger Gregg, Fiona Moore, and Jeanne Beckwith (M). I mostly went because my co-hosts, Jen Zink and Trish Matson, were interested. I think we both expected to get something different out of it:  Jen probably wanted more tips on audio narration and dramatic presentation for her work as a podcast producer on non-Skiffy and Fanty things; I mostly wanted a better understanding of audio drama to see where there might be crossover for an actual play RPG podcast I’d like to do.

And, well, we didn’t really get much out of it. Except chuckles. The panel briefly talked about podcasts, but it was pretty clear that nobody on the panel actually knew anything about podcasts. That might not bother me except they were meant to be there as experts of a kind on audio dramas and radio plays, both things that have been part of the podcasting community for longer than I’ve been a part of it (I joined in 2010 and started listening in 2008 or so). Then one of the panelists basically said you shouldn’t start a podcast just to have fun, and all three us did one of those comedic “oh really” turns, and then Jen muttered “we really fucked this up.” We probably would have disrupted the panel with laughter if we hadn’t contained ourselves just a wee bit.

Beyond that, I had one panel and one event of my own to attend. It was a busy day! My first panel for Worldcon was “The Use of SF in Higher Education” starring Mary Anne Mohanraj (M), Nora E. Derrington, David DeGraff, and Corry L. Lee, Ph.D. We largely talked about how to navigate using SF in classrooms with emphasis on getting students to think about the world around them. There’s good reason for that:  most of the panelists teach physical sciences (physics and the like). I did get to go on a mini-ramble about the importance of using literature to think about digital technology, social media, and the like. This was one of those moments when I wished that panels could be longer or that we had more time between panels to have conversations with audience members. But Dublin tried to keep things moving, so…

The last thing on the list was a Literary Beer with, well, myself. These are basically kaffeeklatsches with beer instead of coffee. Free beer, I might add. Mmm. Free beer.

Anyway. I was pretty concerned about this because I do not consider myself much of a celebrity despite being a Hugo Award finalist two times in the same decade. However, my table ended up being full. In attendance: Valerie Valdes, who I had met at some point earlier in the convention (along with her lovely husband, Eric, who chatted my ear off about cinema sound production[3. Eric, you are totally evil for getting me back into Pokemon Go. You monster!]), S.C. Flynn, old friends Evergreen and Gary, Eyal Kless, and a whole lot of other folks! Honestly, I went in feeling very much like an impostor, but left feeling pretty good. For the most part, the conversation wandered into everything from Star Wars to toxic fandom to podcasting to separating the author from their work, etc. I have no idea if that’s how these things are meant to go, but I certainly enjoyed myself.

I ended up grabbing dinner on a boat with Evergreen and Gary, which was lovely, then nabbing beers, socializing, and then towing Jen back to Trinity College. It was a pretty good day.

Day 5 (8/18): The Book of Panels

Ah, Sunday. The big day. The awards day. The day we lost another Hugo Award. Ha!

For the most part, I didn’t get to attend any panels other than my own. There was a lot of sleeping in, eating full Irish breakfasts, socializing, and otherwise keeping our minds focused on being emotional wrecks. For the most part, we succeeded.

The first panel of the day was “Academics and Acolytes: Learning in SFF Worlds,” starring Karen Simpson Nikakis, Kenneth Schneyer, and Ali Baker. We mostly discussed how learning systems function in SF/F narratives, what they get right and wrong, etc. It was pretty fantasy heavy, but I think that’s largely because most narratives with memorable education systems happen to be fantasy narratives. We did have some fun at the end when an audience member asked which school from an SF/F story we’d like to attend. My answer was pretty reasonable:  Starfleet if for no other reason than that my chances of death on campus are remarkably low. Let’s be real:  most schools in fantasy worlds put their students in a lot of danger. I have no idea how any fantasy school manages to have insurance for the premises.

The other panel was simply called “Fan Podcasts,” starring Alexandra Rowland, Jonathan Strahan, Heather Rose Jones (M), and Jen Zink. Unlike a lot of podcast panels I’ve been on, we didn’t focus on all the technical details. Instead, Heather kindly directed us to talk about the trials that go into producing a show, our intentions and desires, and related components. It led to a lot of back-and-forth between the different podcast hosts, each of whom had different perspectives. All in all, it was a solid ending to my panel allotment!

And then the real scary stuff happened! The Skiffy and Fanty Crew got to attend another Hugo Awards ceremony together, beginning with a mini-party-whatsit (which we attended with Eden Royce and her husband, Mark Taylor). Brandon O’Brien, Trish Matson, Julia Rios, and Alex Acks were also in attendance. As far as Hugo Award ceremonies go, this one had quite a few hiccups. The biggest was the closed caption failures that brought about a lot of laughter during Ada Palmer’s award introduction. At first, I did find the inaccurate translations of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones as “Bored of the Rings” and “Cream of Thrones,” but the more I think about it, the more of a colossal screw-up it turned out to be. Obviously, they put that there for folks who are hard of hearing, but it’s clear that they needed a better system or some other method entirely, especially since the laughter completely disrupted the show. Beyond that, though, I think the awards were perfectly fine. There’s no online stream as far as I can tell, but you can learn about the winners here.

Naturally, we didn’t win. Surprise! But we did get to watch some really phenomenal folks get trophies and light the world on fire with some of their speeches.

After that, we headed to the now-infamous Hugo Losers Party. Infamous for unintended reasons… Much has been said about the issues surrounding the HLP. My voice is among the many, though I am by far the least significant voice. Instead of retreading here, I’ll simply point you to this string of Twitter threads and posts (mine will come last). A couple quick points to note:

The Dublin Worldcon folks are not responsible for the party, though they did put the invitations in finalist packets. Some of the threads tag Dublin 2019 in the mix, but they were minimally involved in the event. This suggests that there is a LOT of confusion about who runs the Hugo Losers Party, who manages things like transportation, etc.

New Zealand’s Worldcon crew are also mentioned in some of these threads. They were involved in the party, though I’m not sure to what degree. I do know that they were at the front doors and contributed, intentionally or otherwise, to the confusion outside. Hopefully, they took a LOT of notes.

There are also likely some inaccuracies in some of these threads, especially those written in the moment or the immediate wake. Again, this speaks to the degree of confusion about the event, who manages it, who said what and when, etc. It also shows just how much confusion there was at the doors. My friends and I honestly had no idea what was going on beyond “it’s full and you can’t get in,” and when we asked questions, we often got conflicting information, no information, or got told something that, in our eyes, seemed wrong (like dumping our +1s at the door like discarded luggage).

While there is a lot of anger in all of this, I don’t think anyone blames those who did attend the event for attending. It wasn’t their party, and they were simply doing what they thought they were allowed to do. More importantly, some of those folks, including convention staff, left when they found out that finalists were being refused entry. They shouldn’t have had to do that, but I appreciate that they chose to do so on our behalf. This is likely the reason Jen Zink and I managed to gain entry (see my thread below for more on that).

GRRM does partly finance and run this shindig, for which I think most people are grateful. Indeed, it’s a nice thing to do. Most of the issues that came up concern how people felt in trying to attend the event and the apparent dismissal of those feelings after the fact. You’ll see that in most of the threads.

Here are some initial reactions (understandably annoyed reactions):

https://twitter.com/katsudonburi/status/1163219408032018432

https://twitter.com/NussbaumAbigail/status/1163369795238223872

GRRM has now responded to some of these thoughts. I recommend you start with Alex Acks’ blog response to that post, which pretty well covers a lot of the major issues surrounding the party and the explanations that followed. Then look at these Twitter threads:

https://twitter.com/LoopdiLou/status/1168215279286898688

https://twitter.com/AlasdairStuart/status/1168519904179490817

https://twitter.com/_vajra/status/1168225748676726791

https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1168174552087769088

https://twitter.com/D_Libris/status/1168179746787790849

You can read my initial reactions to the party here:

https://twitter.com/shaunduke/status/1163256621985927168

And my post-GRRM explanation reactions here:

https://twitter.com/shaunduke/status/1168168091819421699

https://twitter.com/shaunduke/status/1168276842815639553

These are by no means the only reactions. I am certainly missing quite a few, so if you have suggestions for things to include, please let me know in the comments!

Other than that, the day was a good one. It might have ended awkwardly, but that’s just the way life works sometimes!

Day 6 (8/19):  Worldcon’s Ashes

Monday began with a quick meetup with Tanya DePass. Jen and I interviewed her about I Need Diverse Games and related gaming issues (forthcoming) before joining her for her reading from Game Devs & Others: Tales from the Margins. It was good stuff!

Beyond that, Monday is a bit of a blur. It was the last full day of Jen shenanigans, but she wasn’t feeling well enough to do much more than hang at the convention center. I’m sure I did a lot of socializing there, but I’m just drawing blanks while writing this (sorry).

I do know that we attended the closing ceremony party thing. We procured some bean bags with Gareth Kavanaugh. Ian Sales showed up, and we had a lovely chat about his recent move, making lists of movies where we accuse the other of being totally wrong about their choices, and other fun things. Then we retired…

Day 7 (8/20): Duke’s Travels

With the convention officially over, it was time to say goodbye to some people and get some last-minute Dublin adventures marked off the “to do” list. Jen and I joined Alasdair Stuart and Marguerite Kenner for breakfast as a farewell. They were all leaving relatively early in the day. We had a lovely conversation over burgers and fries, talked genre shenanigans, commiserated over the previous Sunday’s fiasco, babbled about audio production and Netflix shows, etc. It was pretty awesome.

Then we parted ways. I said goodbye to one of my best friends (and two new ones). To be fair, Jen and I are not allowed to be in the same region for more than 6 days due to some pesky international treaties signed between Thailand, the United States, and Poland. So don’t expect us to hang out again soon.

After that, I had the pleasure of joining Juan Sanmiguel (from Orlando’s SF/F fan community). We decided to check out Dublin Castle, which is pretty darn cool (see the pictures), the EPIC museum (also incredible), and Chapters, a massive new and used bookstore in Dublin.[4. I discovered the Antonio Benitez-Rojo wrote novels. Ask me about it some time.] I certainly didn’t get to see as much of the city as I would have liked, but you can’t have it all, right? We ended the evening at J.W. Sweetman, a brewery and pub in the center of Dublin. Yes, I tried all of their beers (in very small glasses).

As I write this, Juan is doing more Dublin things without me.[5. Actually, he’s home now, but I can’t be bothered to keep times accurate.]

Afterwards, I bought some souvenirs and turned in.

Day 8 (8/21): Thy Journey Might Cease

And so it all ended. Here I am writing up a longwinded report on my Worldcon activities from the relative discomfort of an airplane flying at 33,881 feet in -45 C temperatures at nearly 720 KMH. We just crossed the Atlantic and will land in Atlanta or something in a few hours. Be amazed that this is even a thing![7. Remember when I said I wouldn’t keep times accurate? I’m obviously not on a plane anymore, but just imagine that I am because that would mean I’ve been stuck on a plane for over a week!]

All in all, Worldcon was pretty fantastic. Yeah, there were some snafus and the like (and my leg was in extreme pain for most of it), but I met a bunch of folks, caught up with folks I already knew, and got to hang with my bestestest friend, Jen. And I got to see Dublin. It’s hard to complain too much now, right?

With that in mind, I’ll leave it to the Internets. If you attended Worldcon, what did you think? Did you have a good time? What were some of your favorite panel experiences? What did you see in the city that amazed you? Let me know in the comments!

Oh, and for those that like pictures, here you go:

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  And I'm back on the blog talking about stuff. Today's post takes a look at my experiences at Worldcon 77 in Dublin! Enjoy the rambles! I am on my way home from Dublin OR have already arrived. Like science fiction, my future is fundamentally about the present.