It was 1971. I was 18. My dad had recently been installed as the new pastor of Wisconsin Avenue Baptist Church in Washington D.C. I’d moved from my home state of South Dakota to be with my family and attend college at the University of Maryland. I’d transferred my job as a telephone operator to a nearby Maryland suburb while establishing residency prior to starting school. I quickly accumulated new friends, many of them black as the D.C. area has, according to the most recent United States Census Bureau report, a 50 percent black population. By contrast, my home state (again according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau report) is only 1.7 percent black. My black friends would often attend church with me. And sometimes we’d hit the beach and boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. That’s when I first noticed that a casual walk down the boardwalk with my tall, attractive black friend, Tony, … [Read more...] about Gillian Laub: Pioneering Southern Rites at Lamont
Race
Wanderlust: New York City
Race, Background, and Culture at the MoMA By Ali Russo My father and I only had three days to spend in New York City until the throes of work and schooling pulled us back, so, we needed to coordinate carefully. The train we took out of the Route 128 Station in Westwood, Mass., left at 5:45 in the morning; meaning, if we timed it right, we’d be pulling into Penn Station at 10:45 a.m. the latest. If we wanted a full day at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), we had to leave it a full day undisturbed by travel. So, it was decided: Sunday was our Museum Day. This wasn’t our first time visiting MoMA. In the past, we had visited museums such as The Metropolitan, the Museum of Fine Art and even the Museum of Natural History, but the MoMA has always been my favorite. Not only is the staff incredibly kind and helpful, the people are so, so excited to have a job that involves them talking … [Read more...] about Wanderlust: New York City
Question Bridge At UMass Amherst
Black Males Get The Conversation Going by John P. Stapleton Over the past few years, there has been an ongoing conversation about race in the United States. The #BlackLivesMatter movement is rallying against the shooting deaths of black Americans by police officers and is constantly met with controversy from those who don’t find the problem to be about race. Despite where one stands on the issue, a lot of the backlash against the aforementioned movement touts negative stereotypes about black men in America, but also ignores the realities that marginalize them. The travelling video exhibit, “Question Bridge: Black Males,” explores this and simply examines what it’s like growing up as a black man in America. Directed by Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith, Kamal Sinclair and Chris Johnson, the video was released in 2012 after piecing together testimonies from over 150 men … [Read more...] about Question Bridge At UMass Amherst