The 150,000-square-foot International African American Museum of Charleston, South Carolina, is expected to open in January of 2023. The museum will feature the horrors of the slave trade and the resilience of enslaved people through nine exhibition galleries and a memorial garden.
Charleston has chosen to embrace its darker history rather than avoiding it as a result of cultural shifts in the community.
Original post by Jane Recker/Smithsonian Magazine
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The Latinos in Heritage Conservation (LHC) was founded in 2014 by a group of heritage practitioners, advocates, scholars, and students to serve as a national network to support the preservation of Latinx spaces in the U.S.
The Mellon Foundation awarded the LHV $750,000, and it granted them access to hire their first executive director Sehila Mota Casper. With their new hire, they also plan to use the money towards growing their office by hiring new people. After developing a bigger staff, they plan on advocating for the inclusion of Latinx heritage and equitable access to historical preservation on local, state, and national levels.
The Latinx heritage and their communities have been often misunderstood and disproportionately preserved compared to other ethnic and cultural sites, and the LHC wants to focus on changing that.
Original post by Priya Chhaya/People Saving Places
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In the past, the U.S Army bases had several locations named in honor of controversial Confederate officers. The country’s defense department proposed new base names that honor women and people of color.
Nine bases have been selected to receive names. The individuals honored either originated from or resonated with the communities the bases are. The bases are in Virginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Alabama.
Original post by Sarah Kuta/Smithsonian Magazine
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Justice Sunshine Suzanna Sykes was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as California’s first Native federal judge.
Sykes is now the fourth active Native federal judge in the nation.
Sykes’ previous achievements include being the Riverside County Superior Court judge, serving in that position since 2013. She worked for the California Indian Legal Services as a juvenile defense attorney with the Southwest Justice Center and as a Riverside County Attorney. Sykes received her law degree from Stanford Law School in 2001 and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in 1997.
Original post by Carina Dominguez/Indian Country Today
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Paleoanthropologists found a molar in a cave in Laos that possibly belonged to a member of the Denisovans, a group of humans that lived about 500,000 to 30,000 years ago. If the molar is confirmed, it will be the first fossil evidence of the Denisovans.
Researchers first identified the Denisovans in 2010. Their research depicted that they were from Southeast Asia, specifically in places such as Australia and the Philippines.
The molar found was estimated to be between 131,000 and 164,000 years old, belonging to a female who died between the ages of three and a half and eight and a half. Researchers identified the molar as a Denisovan since it did not resemble the teeth belonging to the Homo sapiens or Homo erectus species.
Original post by Margaret Osborne
Read more here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-molar-found-in-laos-could-help-fill-in-a-gap-in-human-history-180980105/
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino announced its first exhibition will open on June 18th.
The official opening of the National Latino Museum is expected to be in production for eight to twelve years, but the first exhibit premiere is to give the public a preview of what the museum will have to offer.
The exhibition opening this June will be called “¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States”. The exhibit will highlight and showcase the historical and cultural legacy of Latinos in the U.S. in conjunction with a website that includes oral histories, historical biographies, and 3D objects displayed at the gallery.
Original post by Nicole Acevedo/NBC News
Read more here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/smithsonian-gives-preview-planned-national-latino-museum-first-exhibit-rcna28405
The “Afro-Atlantic Histories” exhibition, by Hank Willis Thomas, joins the National Gallery of Arts (NGA) of Washington D.C.
“Afro-Atlantic Histories” showcases 130 pieces of artwork and documents from artists representing 24 countries. The exhibit explores the impact of the African diaspora in Africa, America, the Caribbean, and Europe between the 17th and 21st centuries.
Original post by Shantay Robinson/Smithsonian Magazine
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Scholars have found the oldest known Maya calendar in a pre-Hispanic archaeological complex in San Bartolo, Guatemala, inside the Las Pinturas pyramid.
The calendar was found marked 300-200 B.C.E., making it the earliest evidence of the Mayan calendar.
The site where the calendar was found has been a source of findings for 21 years now. In the past, archaeologists have found murals and artwork dating to around 100 B.C.E. This year, archaeologists identified a “7 Deer” glyph on two pieces of white plaster fallen from one of the murals. The “7 Deer” glyph represents one of the 260 days of the Mayan calendar, also known as tzolk’in.
Original post by Antonia Mufarech/Smithsonian Magazine
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The former Black Panther Party leader, Fred Hampton, who was shot and killed during a 1969 police raid of his Chicago apartment has now been designated as a historical landmark.
A campaign to designate his home as a landmark has been underway since the release of the Academy Award-winning film “Judas and the Black Messiah” about Hampton and his death.
Original post by Associated Press News
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Wax cylinders were the first form of audio that was produced in a way where people could listen to commercial music and record themselves. These cylinders were called Edison phonographs.
These cylinders have been a mystery for generations due to their fragileness and tendency to deteriorate after a few dozen uses.
In 2016, Jessica Wood, the assistant curator for music and recorded sound at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, found a box of unlabeled cylinders on a storage shelf. Inside the box were the words “Gift of Mary Dana to the New York Library in 1935.”
Original post by Jennifer Vanasco/NPR 7-minute Listen
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