The Fierce Pride and Passion of Rhinestone Fashion | We Spend Time With Mickalene Thomas

The Fierce Pride and Passion of Rhinestone Fashion | We Spend Time With Mickalene Thomas

Contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her large-scale paintings of black women posed against boldly patterned backgrounds and adorned with rhinestones. Illustrative of the artist’s signature style, her 2010 Portrait of Mnonja depicts a striking female figure reclining on a couch.

Visitors, who find their way to the high-ceiling third floor gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, consistently gather round this painting, fascinated by its bright colors and drawn to its subject—an elegant and poised African-American woman.

“She is owning and claiming her space, which is very exciting,” reveals the artist in a 2017 SAAM interview. The woman’s crossed ankles are perched on the sofa’s armrest, and her fuchsia high heels dangle over the edge. Her right hand rests on her knee and her fingers evoke a dancer’s enviable combination of strength and grace. Exuding an air of power and sophistication, Mnonja literally sparkles from head to toe—her hair, makeup, jewelry, clothes, fingernails and shoes all glisten with rhinestones.

"Isolated" Societies, a Tourist Fantasy and Bringing Jesus to their Inhabitants

ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA. PHOTO BY PAU CASALS ON UNSPLASH

"Isolated" Societies, a Tourist Fantasy and Bringing Jesus to their Inhabitants

In November 2018, John Chau was killed in the Andaman Islands, wanting to access the island of Nord-Sentinel for, he said, "bring Jesus" to its inhabitants.

In the same archipelago, on the southern and central Andaman Islands, the Jarawa are in a situation almost opposite to that of the Sentinels, known to live in complete isolation.

There, on the other hand, attempts to ban the presence of tourists - regarded as carriers of an unhealthy curiosity and harmful influences - are more or less total failure since they have access to island communities and behave with them. like the Europeans of XIX th century during the colonial exhibitions even throwing them bananas .

Who Were the Mysterious Neolithic People That Enabled the Rise of Ancient Egypt?

Who Were the Mysterious Neolithic People That Enabled the Rise of Ancient Egypt?

To many, ancient Egypt is synonymous with the pharaohs and pyramids of the Dynastic period starting about 3,100BC. Yet long before that, about 9,300-4,000BC, enigmatic Neolithic peoples flourished. Indeed, it was the lifestyles and cultural innovations of these peoples that provided the very foundation for the advanced civilisations to come.

But who were they? As it turns out, they haven’t actually been studied much, at least relative to their successors. But our excavations of six burial sites – with some of the analyses recently published – have now provided important insights into their mysterious ways of life.

One reason why we know so little about Neolithic Egypt is that the sites are often inaccessible, lying beneath the Nile’s former flood plain or in outlying deserts.

Emmett Till Memorial to Be Replaced With Bulletproof Sign Due to Repeated Vandalism

Emmett Till Memorial to Be Replaced With Bulletproof Sign Due to Repeated Vandalism

In 2007, a sign was erected along the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi, marking the spot where the body of Emmett Till was pulled from the water in 1955. The murder of Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who was brutally killed by two white men, became a galvanizing incident of the Civil Rights Movement. But over the years, the memorial commemorating his death has been repeatedly vandalized—first stolen, then shot at, then shot at again, according to Nicole Chavez, Martin Savidge and Devon M. Sayers of CNN. Now, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission is planning to replace the damaged memorial with a bulletproof sign.

This will be the fourth sign that the commission has placed at the site. The first was swiped in 2008, and no arrests were ever made in connection with the incident. The replacement marker was vandalized with bullets, more than 100 rounds over the course of several years. Just 35 days after it was erected in 2018, the third sign was shot at as well.

The third memorial made headlines recently when Jerry Mitchell of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, in conjunction with ProPublica, revealed that three University of Mississippi students had been suspended from their fraternity house after posing in front of the sign with guns, in a photo that was posted to the private Instagram account of one of the students. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating the incident.

The sign has now been taken down, and a new one is “on its way,” Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, said last week, according to CBS News. Chavez, Savidge and Sayers of CNN report that the replacement memorial will weigh 600 pounds and be made of reinforced steel. It is expected to go up by the Tallahatchie River in October.

“Unlike the first three signs, this sign calls attention to the vandalism itself,” the commission noted. “We believe it is important to keep a sign at this historic site, but we don’t want to hide the legacy of racism by constantly replacing broken signs. The commission hopes this sign will endure, and that it will continue to spark conversations about Till, history, and racial justice.”

Teen Vogue Introduces 9 Teen Climate Activists Fighting For The Planet's Future

No one takes the reality of climate change more seriously than members of Generation Z, as climate change and the Green New Deal, advanced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , take center stage in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary.

Days after her election to the House, then Congresswoman-elect Ocasio-Cortez joined 150 youth activists associated the Sunrise movement in a sit-in at then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Hill office, where the group called for congressional action on climate change.

Teen Vogue introduces us to 9 Teen Climate Activists Fighting for the Future of the Planet. Heading the list is Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 16. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Thunberg will be speaking at the UN Climate Summit in New York in September. She is among the 15 Forces for Change featured in the September 2019 issue of British Vogue.

Other climate activists profiled by Teen Vogue include: Katie Eder, 19 executive director of Future Coalition; Jamie Margolin, 17 cofounder and co-executive director of Zero Hour; Nadia Nazar, 17 Cofounder, co-executive, and art director of Zero Hour; Isra Hirsi, 16 cofounder and co-executive director of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike; Alexandria Villasenor, 14 founder of Earth Uprising; Haven Coleman, 13 cofounder and co-executive director the U.S. Youth Climate Strike; Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, 19 youth director of Earth Guardians and author of the book We Rise; and Jayden Foytlin, 15 member of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018.

CNN will host a climate change debate in New York on September 4 for candidates qualifying for the September Democratic debates. Presently, only eight candidates meet that criteria: former Vice President Joe Biden; New Jersey Senator Cory Booker; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; California Senator Kamala Harris; Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar; former Representative Beto O’Rourke; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders; and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

MSNBC will host a two-day event in Washington, DC on September 19 and 20. All presidential candidates are invited from both parties.

How Smells Reconnect Us To Nature: Breathing Well In Urban Spaces

How Smells Reconnect Us To Nature: Breathing Well In Urban Spaces

We live in a society focused on vision. The technology, the media, the article you are reading, all of these things are mostly perceived and analyzed through our eyes. But it is to our five senses that we owe most of our daily experiences, without always always being aware of it ...

The experience of nature is a perfect example. Our relationship with the natural environment indeed responds to a complex process involving our organs from head to toe: we enjoy a forest walk on a spring morning for the bright colors and the harsh light that runs through the foliage; for the songs of birds, for the cool wind that caresses our skin.

If this moment gives us well-being, it is the fact of multiple sensory stimuli which, by mingling, define together the same experience. Thus the experience of nature is in essence a multisensory experience. But if we enjoy a walk in the forest on a spring morning, it is also for the smells that it exhales  : here the resinous perfume of a pine, there that of the humus or the hyacinths of the woods.

How Fireflies Glow -- And What Signals They're Sending

How Fireflies Glow -- And What Signals They're Sending

You might not really be sure you saw what you think you saw when the first one shows up. But you stare in the direction of the flicker of light and there it is again – the first firefly of the evening. If you are in good firefly habitat, soon there are dozens, or even hundreds, of the insects flying about, flashing their mysterious signals.

Fireflies – alternatively known as lightning bugs in much of the United States – are neither flies nor bugs. They’re soft-winged beetles, related to click beetles and others. The most dramatic aspect of their biology is that they can produce light; this ability in a living organism, called bioluminescence, is relatively rare.

I’m an entomologist who does research on, and teaches about, the ecology and biology of insects. Recently, I’ve been trying to understand the diversity and ecology of fireflies in my home state of North Carolina. Fireflies are found widely across North America, including many places in the west, but they are most abundant and diverse in the eastern half of the continent, from Florida to southern Canada.

Forest Elephants Are Our Allies in the Fight Against Climate Change, Say Researchers

Forest Elephants Are Our Allies in the Fight Against Climate Change, Say Researchers

Forest elephant extinction would exacerbate climate change. That’s according to a new study in Nature Geoscience which links feeding by elephants with an increase in the amount of carbon that forests are able to store.

The bad news is that African forest elephants – smaller and more vulnerable relatives of the better known African bush elephant – are fast going extinct. If we allow their ongoing extermination to continue, we will be also worsening climate change. The good news is that if we protect and conserve these elephants, we will simultaneously fight climate change.

One of the Largest Subspecies of Giraffes Is Declared Endangered: the Masai

One of the Largest Subspecies of Giraffes Is Declared Endangered: the Masai

Conservationists have been sounding the alarm bells on giraffes for several years. In 2016, the IUCN listed giraffes as a whole as vulnerable, the status just above endangered after finding that over three decades giraffes suffered up to a 40 percent population drop, plummeting from an estimated 157,000 individuals to 97,500.

Currently, two of the nine giraffe subspecies—the Kordofan and Nubian—are critically endangered, while the Reticulated is endangered. Now, after a recent assessment, the Masai subspecies has also been listed as endangered. It’s the first time the population has been analyzed on its own, and the status is a big deal since there are an estimated 35,000 individual Masai left, making it one of the largest-remaining subspecies of the gentle giants and, therefore, a key population for keeping the species numbers up.

Previously, the Masai subspecies was the most-populous group of giraffes, with an estimated 71,000 individuals. That drop of 49 to 51 percent of the subspecies in the last 30 years was what prompted the listing, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

How Women in Kenya Mobilized for Peace After Surviving Violence

How Women in Kenya Mobilized for Peace After Surviving Violence

Women are rarely represented adequately at peace negotiations yet they make up half the population of any country in conflict or at war. This remains the case despite increasing global policy awareness on how women are affected by conflict and the importance of including them in peace and security processes. For instance, the UN’s landmark framework on women, peace and security reaffirms the important role women play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.

Women’s contributions are also underscored in African peace instruments like the Maputo Protocol and Kenya’s National Action Plan.

But how do women in conflict actually engage in peacebuilding? There is considerable academic literature on the links between gender and peace but the lived experiences of women peace builders are not well captured.

The Forgotten History of Segregated Swimming Pools and Amusement Parks

The Forgotten History of Segregated Swimming Pools and Amusement Parks

By Victoria W. Wolcott

Summers often bring a wave of childhood memories: lounging poolside, trips to the local amusement park, languid, steamy days at the beach.

These nostalgic recollections, however, aren’t held by all Americans.

Municipal swimming pools and urban amusement parks flourished in the 20th century. But too often, their success was based on the exclusion of African Americans.

As a social historian who has written a book on segregated recreation, I have found that the history of recreational segregation is a largely forgotten one. But it has had a lasting significance on modern race relations.

Swimming pools and beaches were among the most segregated and fought over public spaces in the North and the South.

Leonardo DiCaprio Folds His Climate Change Foundation Into New Earth Alliance

Leonardo DiCaprio Folds His Climate Change Foundation Into New Earth Alliance

Environmentalist and Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio is the narrator and co-producer of Ice on Fire, an ‘eye-opening’ look at ‘never-before-seen solutions’ to climate change.

‘Ice On Fire’ first aired on HBO June 11 and is perhaps coordinated with another major decision by DiCaprio to fold his environmental charity, The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, into the new Earth Alliance.

As a co-founding chair, the actor will join forces with Laurene Powell Jobs and her Emerson Collective and billionaire investor Brian Sheth, who is a co-founder and president of the private equity fund Vista Equity Partners and also board chair of the Global Wildlife Conservation.

Botswana Has An Elephant Poaching Problem, Not An Overpopulation Problem

Botswana Has An Elephant Poaching Problem, Not An Overpopulation Problem

The Botswana government recently reintroduced trophy hunting after a five-year moratorium. It did so on the pretext that Botswana has “too many elephants”.

But a new academic paper shows that this argument doesn’t hold.

The researchers compared the results of two aerial surveys in northern Botswana. The first was conducted in 2014, the second in 2018. Both were conducted during the dry season. This allowed for easy detection of changes over time.

A 94,000km2 area was studied and the elephant population estimated at 122,700 in 2018. This was roughly similar to the 2014 numbers.

But comparing results from the 2014 and 2018 aerial surveys, the scientists found that the numbers of elephant carcasses have increased, especially for newer carcasses dead for less than roughly 1 year. Populations can remain stable despite increased carcass counts because of new births and immigration from other range states.

The Botswana government recently reintroduced trophy hunting after a five-year moratorium. It did so on the pretext that Botswana has “too many elephants”.

But a new academic paper shows that this argument doesn’t hold.

The researchers compared the results of two aerial surveys in northern Botswana. The first was conducted in 2014, the second in 2018. Both were conducted during the dry season. This allowed for easy detection of changes over time.

A 94,000km2 area was studied and the elephant population estimated at 122,700 in 2018. This was roughly similar to the 2014 numbers.

But comparing results from the 2014 and 2018 aerial surveys, the scientists found that the numbers of elephant carcasses have increased, especially for newer carcasses dead for less than roughly 1 year. Populations can remain stable despite increased carcass counts because of new births and immigration from other range states.

Prince Harry, Nat Geo, Steve Boyes Take Us 'Into The Okavango' A Fragile Ecosystem We Simply MUST Save

Prince Harry, Nat Geo, Steve Boyes Take Us 'Into The Okavango' A Fragile Ecosystem We Simply MUST Save

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, discussed his ‘20 year connection’ with Angola and Botswana, posting a heartfelt Instagram message on Thursday. The tribute was created in conjunction with a fundraising event promoting National Geographic’s ‘Into The Okavango’ documentary film.

Harry explained that he is ‘grateful’ to see National Geographic partnering with both the Angolan government and The Halo Trust to promote the sustainable management of the Okavango Delta’s resources.

Mozambique's Niassa Reserve Celebrates One Year Of No Elephant Kills | The Women Of Gorongosa Park

Mozambique's Niassa Reserve Celebrates One Year Of No Elephant Kills | The Women Of Gorongosa Park

Beautiful Girls Meet Animals in Central Mozambique’s Gorongosa Park,

Researching the Niassa Reserve story, AOC found this exquisite video from Mozambique’s Gorongosa Park that’s a total respite — a small escape — from the world’s tragic events on The Guardian website.

Before you watch it, consider that in March 2019, Cyclone Idai devastated the communities around Mozambique's Gorongosa Park. There was no escape, no respite for the people of Mozambique as we steal precious moments with this video.

National Geographic reminded us just now of the cyclone, with the coincidence of a feature story on Grongosa National Park in the May 2019 issue of National Geographic. Click here to learn how you can help on the National Geographic website. Also, Gorongosa itself has information about devastation from the cyclone and how to help.

Landmines in Angola: How African Elephants’ Amazing Sense of Smell Could Save Lives

CHISHURU, A MALE AFRICAN ELEPHANT, INDICATES A TARGET SCENT DURING TRIALS. IMAGE BY GRAHAM ALEXANDER.

Landmines in Angola: How African Elephants’ Amazing Sense of Smell Could Save Lives

By Ashadee Kay Miller, PhD Candidate, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. First published on The Conversation.

For 27 years Angola was gripped by civil war. Half a million human lives were lost and wildlife, too, was decimated to sustain troops. Rhino and elephants became valuable targets – rhino horn and ivory served as currency for arms among rebel forces.

During the conflict elephant populations fled across the border into Botswana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When the war ended in 2002 animal populations slowly started to return to their pre-conflict grazing grounds. But a huge problem remained: millions of landmines were still in situ and undetonated across Angola. Many elephants were killed and maimed by the explosives as they attempted to recolonise.

Data collected from collared elephants moving through the affected areas showed herds avoiding minefields. This suggested that at least some of the returning elephants had associated minefields with danger. What could this association be based on? Had the minefield-avoiding elephants seen others killed in those areas? Or had they associated the smell of landmines with danger, extrapolating risk to other areas where the odour was present?

We couldn’t answer all these questions. To narrow down our search my colleagues and I set about finding out whether elephants could smell the main component of landmines – Trinitrotoluene (TNT).

Tom Craig Captures 'Poetry in Motion' As LVMH Stakes Strong Claim In Luxury Hospitality

Tom Craig Captures 'Poetry in Motion' As LVMH Stakes Strong Claim In Luxury Hospitality

British actress, poet and filmmaker Greta Bellamacina boards the Orient Express, headed for Venice in a fashion journey that’s pure ‘Poetry in Motion’. Photographer Tom Craig is behind the lens with styling by Leith Clark for Harper’s Bazaar UK July 2019./ Hair by Sebastien Bascle

Queen Elizabeth Plans Meghan's B-Day Party At Balmoreal As Royals Eye Fall 2019 Africa Trip

Queen Elizabeth Plans Meghan's B-Day Party At Balmoreal As Royals Eye Fall 2019 Africa Trip

Today June 17th, Prince Harry is working with HALO representatives, representatives of the Angolan government, conservation experts and philanthropists worldwide to discuss how clearing landmines from the unique Okavango headwaters in Angola is step one in protecting this precious habitat.

Twice as large as the UK, the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA) is Africa’s great wild space where Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge. At its heart is the World Heritage Site of the Okavango Delta, fed by headwaters rising in the far southeast of Angola. The success of the KAZA is of crucial importance to the development of southern Africa.

The Resilience of Barbados Counters Trump’s ‘Sh-thole’ Remarks

The Resilience of Barbados Counters Trump’s ‘Sh-thole’ Remarks

By J.M. Opal, Associate Professor of History and Chair, History and Classical Studies, McGill University. First published on The Conversation.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, former attorney and future inmate Michael Cohen revealed some of the uglier things Donald Trump said to him during their many years together.

Among the alleged quotes: “Name one country run by a Black person that’s not a sh—hole.” (One wonders how Trump characterized the United States when Barack Obama was President.)

Rarely stated so bluntly, this racist trope is widespread. As always, Trump gives vulgar expression to quiet prejudice, making him sound “honest” to about 40 per cent of Americans no matter how many lies he tells. As Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted after a similar revelation last year, Trump’s straight-shooting bigotry is one thing his fans love about him.

Those who don’t love him need to fight back with specific examples from the real world. Time and again, we need to highlight the big, complex reality that Trump and many of his supporters call “fake news.” Otherwise, his twisted version of the truth will continue to displace objective reality.

The United States May List Giraffes as an Endangered Species As Young Population Plummets

The United States May List Giraffes as an Endangered Species As Young Population Plummets

Between 1985 and 2016, the world's giraffe population plummeted by nearly 40 percent. Just over 97,000 of the long-necked mammals remain in the wild, including 68,000 mature adults—equivalent to less than a quarter of the world’s estimated African elephant population, Michael Biesecker reports for the Associated Press. While elephants were listed as a threatened species under the United States’ Endangered Species Act in 1978, giraffes have yet to receive any such legal protections.

A petition filed by environmental and conservation groups in April 2017 may pave the way for giraffes’ addition to the legislative act. According to the statement, the petition presents “substantial information that listing may be warranted,” as threats, including land development, civil unrest, commercial trade and poaching, pose major obstacles to the species’ long-term survival.