Hesperia Branch Library in California hosted its 4th annual African American Read-In on Feb 7th. This read-in featured the sharing of literary contributions from African Americans. This event highlighted “Black voices, current and classic” by having participants read 3-to-5-minute poems, passages, or condensed biographies.
Read more here: https://news.yahoo.com/black-history-month-local-writers-193017991.html
523 acres of redwood forest have been returned to a group of Native American tribes in California. According to a statement from Save the Redwoods League, the ancestors of the tribes were involuntarily removed from the land generations ago.
The land will be renamed Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ, which means “Fish Run Place” in the Sinkyone language. The Sinkyone people lived on the land in California for thousands of years, traveling, hunting, and fishing throughout their territory before being removed in the 1800s.
Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ is in Mendocino County, within the North Cost area of the state.
Original post by Margaret Osborne/Smithsonian Magazine
Read more here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/more-than-500-acres-of-redwood-forest-returned-to-indigenous-tribes-180979505/
The Chief Seattle Club, of Seattle, WA, is a nonprofit founded in 1970. Its mission since has been to combat homelessness within the Indigenous community.
Last week the club announced its new housing development in Pioneer Square is now accepting residents. The building is called, ʔálʔal (pronounced “all-all”) meaning, ‘home’ in Lushootseed. The building can occupy up to 100 residents with Indigenous, poor, or formerly homeless backgrounds.
In addition to the housing, the building will also provide residents with a cafe that will serve traditional foods. Items from Indigenous-owned businesses, healthcare, and social services for the area’s indigenous people, will also be accessible. Artwork by Native artists will be displayed throughout the interior and exterior of the building.
Original post by Chris Aadland/Indian Country Today and Underscore.news
Read more here: https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/building-space-for-indigenous-in-need
Cherokee Nation Film Incentive will provide up to $1 million in annual funding for productions filmed within the Cherokee Nation’s northeast Oklahoma reservation. This program will be the first tribal film office in the country.
The purpose of this project is to introduce Hollywood to the beauty and diversity of its 14-county reservation. In 2019 the Cherokee Nation Film Office became the first certified American Indian film commission to open in the U.S.
This program is known for encouraging and providing jobs to unique all-inclusive talent, crew, staff, and actors that are American Indian.
Original post by Sheila Stogsdill/WRBL
Read more here: https://www.wrbl.com/news/cherokee-nation-film-office-launches-tribal-film-incentive-program/
Africatown, located outside of Mobile, Alabama, is a community of Black resistance against Black oppression.
The town once had a past of chattel slavery and breaking spirits of enslaved Africans, they resisted, eventually endured, restored, and secured land to establish themselves. Today, the Africatown Historic Preservation Foundation works to preserve the legacy of decades of transportation and environmental challenges.
In the 1950s, Africatown developed into a community that preserved the African culture and its traditions, deriving from 32 enslaved Africans. These individuals consisted of different ethnic groups, traditions, and customs and were kept in Timothy Meher’s possession in Alabama.
The Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation was founded in 2019 and funded by the American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (AHPF). AHPF has documented the community’s legacy through history projects and providing service and education. The AHPF is also striving to preserve the existing genealogical connections to Africatown.
Original post by Orilonise D. Yarborough/National Trust for Historic Preservation
Read more here: https://savingplaces.org/stories/hearing-spirit-speak-preserving-africatown#.YfMmqPXMI6E
Artist Faith Ringgold has resided on Rikers Island for the past 50 years. This island is also home to New York City’s jail complex created in 1971 for a women’s correctional facility.
Ringgold’s public art commission ‘For the Women’s House’ was designed to inspire female inmates. The mural consists of women of different ages, races, and jobs scarcely occupied by women in 1972, showing a society where all jobs can be available to women regardless of age, race, or gender.
She conducted multiple interviews with the women inmates and afterward designed that she wanted them to look beyond their situation and begin “the long road” ahead.
‘For the Women’s House” in 2000 was moved to the gym at Rose M. Singer Center, displayed there for over a decade, and later moved to a remote hallway with little traffic. Now Ringgold’s artwork will be relocated to the Brooklyn Museum.
Original report by: Brigit Katz/Smithsonian Magazine
Read more here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/an-evocative-mural-on-rikers-island-will-be-moved-to-the-brooklyn-museum-180979425/
Cynthia Chavez Lamar is the first native woman to serve as a Smithsonian Museum director. The institution recently announced Chavez as the director of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C, which contains one of the largest collections of Native and Indigenous items in the world.
Chavez is a member at San Felipe Pueblo, and her maternal ancestry includes Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo.
She will be the third director of the museum following, Kevin Gover, a citizen of the Pawnee Tribe who served from 2007-2021, and W. Richard West Jr., who is southern Cheyenne, the founding director in 1990.
Original post by: Joe Hernandez/NPR
Read more here: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074489213/cynthia-chavez-lamar-becomes-the-first-native-woman-to-lead-a-smithsonian-museum
The Southern Poverty Law Center provides $50,000 in grants to support civil rights museums. A memorial to the victims of the explosion at a munitions plant in 1973, and a monument to enslaved women who were subjected to medical experiments.
Five Black historic sites will receive grants from Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), including the “Mothers of Gynecology” monument, the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, the Thiokol Memorial Project, the Fannie Lou Hamer Museum, and the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum.
Original post by Livia Gershon/Daily Correspondent-Smithsonian Magazine
Read more here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-funding-will-help-highlight-five-black-history-sites-in-the-south-180979402/
The Ludlow Heritage Museum and Norfolk Southern announced a lease agreement to preserve the railroad company’s Ludlow Yard Store House building.
The agreement will allow the renovation of the museum building and the repurposing of its new headquarters. The plan is to create more museum space and additional rooms for meetings and events.
It is the last remaining original structure on Ludlow used by the Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific Railway, which became part of Southern railway, and later, Norfolk Southern.
Original post by River City News
Read More here: https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2022/01/07/historic-train-building-become-home-ludlow-heritage-museum
Brigette Lacquette is now the first indigenous woman to scout for an NHL team, by recent hire by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Lacquette has a past with breaking barriers as she became the first Frist Nations woman to play hockey for Canada in the 2018 Winter Olympics. In addition to that, the 29-year-old from Mallard, Manitoba, also played in three world championships over six years in the national women’s team, winning two medals.
Ryan Stewart, Blackhawk’s assistant general manager, offered the job to Lacquette via direct message on Facebook. The Blackhawks were looking to replenish their scouting staff with a more diverse group of people.
Original post by Associated Press
Read more here: https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/breaking-barriers-nhls-1st-first-nations-scout