Carletta Carrington Wilson’s “letter to a laundress”

 

 

 

 

Carletta Carrington Wilson addresses her  “letter to a laundress”  to her great great grandmother, but her profound photo/poem installation currently on view at the Kittredge Gallery in Tacoma  (only until September 29) honors the work of all those who, in her words, “took in wash.”

 

She found photographs of anonymous laundresses in the archives of the Farm Security Administration, most of them taken in the late 1930s by such well known photographers as Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott and Russell Lee.

 

The “letter” is a poem written in blue script on the photographs, and recited by the artist in a pod cast as we view the work.

Mounted on fabric, the photographs are pegged to a line, and hang above our heads. As we walk between three lines of closely packed “laundry” the poem unwinds, describing, the many steps of doing laundry before the advent of machines and drip dry fabric.

 

Carletta has identified ten steps

each with a single word:

Wash Soak Starch Wring Boil Pin Rub Scrub Hang Press.

 

 

 

 

The photographs are arresting, suggesting the real labor of doing laundry and how it evolved. Some of the photographs are actually from the late nineteenth century, early washerwomen, using a  washing stick to stir laundry in a tub, others are using a washboard, that iconic object now seen only as a relic (several are included in the exhibition).

 

The separate steps, such as an iron wringer

now so lost to us,  appear in these FSA photographs.

 

The women rarely look up or out, never at the camera, the photographer. We have all types of women from those dressed in a muslin shift to elegant women in suits and shoes with heels.

 

Carletta Carrington Wilson deeply feels words, their meanings, double meanings and symbolism. Thus here, as offered by the artist, is a shift from laundry to something more sinister:

“hoist baskets tote tubs lug those loads every bundle extends a line

a line awaiting a line awaiting its hangings.” And suddenly as Wilson wrote the poem, she realized the double meaning of hanging as also lynching.

As the artist said in a lecture “The lines of the poem lead the reader away from the mundane duty of washing clothes to a disturbing image of lynching. Thus, we are led into the awful reality that links these women beyond the ordinary task of laundry.

“Post emancipation, in the late 19th and early 20th century there was a rise in the number of lynchings in the south.  These mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins and friends knew, were related to, heard of, witnessed and buried someone who had been lynched.  They, also, washed the clothes of someone who participated in a lynching. I was just speculating, but this was confirmed by a woman who spoke to me after one of the artist talks”*

 

 

This exhibition includes other intense works as well: across one wall is a series of fabric works called “field notes” from 2014 with Carletta’s trademark layers and meanings hidden in their patterns and textures.. You can spend a long time exploring these works, which are, as the artists suggests, like landscapes. One of her themes in her work is the “text of textiles” the steps from cotton into cloth and the metaphors that emerge from fabric.

 

 

Then there are simple cut out house shapes, what the artist calls “wordless books.” in a series called “knot my name haint my house”. They refer to the fact that 90 percent of enslaved people were illiterate. The blue around the doors is called ” ‘haint blue’and was used to deter ghosts”  the artist explained.

 

On one wall a “knotted line” again has double meaning, the names are (k)not names, but the names given by slave masters, here taken from a plantation inventory. The artist elaborated

“The idea is that once a person become enslaved their lines of descent are knotted.  Each time a person is sold, with each name

change and change of place of bondage the loss of knowledge of familiar ties becomes, increasingly, knotted and unknown.”

 

 

 

 

The “blood knot” lies below “2 resist dying”, another title with more than one meaning. two indigo blue wall hangings in dye resist. The artist describes the work “2 resist dying” as referring to both the resist-dye process and, also, that of a man and woman resisting their enslavement.

 

Underneath is a “blood knot, “a tangled pile on the floor invoking the intermixing (knotting) of blood among people involved in the slave trade. The artist specified “The “blood knot” represents the knotted blood lines of Africans, Europeans, Asians and Indians as a result of the global trade networks formed during the transatlantic slave trade.  ”

 

 

Carletta Carrington Wilson poet, collagist, historian, one of the most intriguing creative minds I have known. Here’s hoping this exhibition can move to a major museum soon.

 

*Thank you Carletta Carrington Wilson for sharing this text and other information and images for this blog post.

Three inclusive events in Seattle give me hope

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first event was the 55th anniversary of the March on Washington sponsored by Mt Zion Baptist Church, the oldest African American church in Seattle and a pioneer of Civil Rights Leadership under the Reverend Samuel B McKinney.

Here you see our new police chief Carmen Best marching with us. Low key, not putting herself forward.

 

We marched down 19th street from Union St. to Mt Zion led by the “filthyfem corps,” a trans group of fantastic musicians.

then a series of speeches outside and inside the church.

Inside we had staggering music and poetry and presentations from a wide range of different people

 

It was a moving and memorable event.

 

The march launched the campaign to repeal I 200 and the encouragement to sign the petition for  I 1000 that will negate I 200. I 200 eliminated Affirmative Action ( we are one of only 8 states that have repealed it). It was an early example of Tim Eyman and allies such as Wade Connerly from California,  pushing through a right wing petition. It said “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” I 1000 would repeal that. It is hoped to put it before the State Legislature in January.

 

 

In the video taken by Christina Lopez two youth  (seen here) recite the vast impacts of the tossing out of Affirmative Action for workers, students, and many other groups. A bell tolls after each statement. 

Inside we had speakers that included a rabbi, Daniel Weiner, a leader of the American Muslim Empowerment Network, Aneelah Afzali (a fabulous speaker), Native American spoken word, by Quinault Indian Nation member, Heather Upham,  Legislators, community activists, ( such as Jorge Baron, head of NWIRP) Reverend McKinney’s daughter, Dr. Lora-Ellen McKinney, who honored over eighty people who “fought for freedom, justice and the dignity of all people”. Here she is with a photo of the famous Jacob Lawrence.

 

and much more. It was wonderful to have everyone coming together. The singing of”Lift Up Your Voice and Sing”  by Josephine Howell,  brought tears to our eyes, the music captured by Christina Lopez. 

 

Likewise the Mayor’s Arts Awards two days later reached out to many communities with awards to individuals:

Fulgencio Lazo, my good friend and outstanding artist,  who connects us to Oaxaca Mexico.  Studio Lazo, an organization of artists and community members especially showcases the creativity of Latino artists, writers and musicians.

 

 

Tarik Abdullah a local chef artist, innovator, and community activist. His culinary creations honor traditions from North Africa and the Mediterranean;  his artistry comes through not only in his food, He cooks with the younger generation by teaching week long summer camps called “In the Kitchen with Chef T”

 

Karen P. Thomas a musican who is encouraging non binary identity for singers traditionally divided into Men’s choruses and Women’s choruses. She has been artistic director and conductor of Seattle Pro Musica since 1987.

 

Jorge Enrique Gonzalez Pacheco,  a Cuban poet and film maker. He is Founder and Chief Programmer of the Seattle Latino Film Festival (SLFF),

Paula Boggs, musician, public speaker, fundraiser and philanthropist. She is also a Board Member of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations. Boggs and the 6-piece Paula Boggs Band traverse jazz, world, rock and Americana.

 

For the first time, cultural categories were broadened beyond traditional definitions of art and culture. I think it was a great idea. I was also happy to see the move to individuals who build community, instead of mainly established cultural organizations (although they are all exceptional also).

 

 

The third event was “Decolonizing Immigration” at the Seattle Public Library on the same night as the Mayor’s Arts Awards.

Organized by Davida Ingram, it also made a point of being inclusive.

We began with wonderful music by D’Vonne Lewis and Pathways.Passageways—Drummer D’Vonne Lewis’ new group celebrates the Black Diaspora from Seattle’s rich African-American jazz heritage to rhythms from South Africa, Central America, and Senegal. Passageways is: D’Vonne Lewis, Ari Joshua, Alex Dugdale, and Thione Diop.

We had the history of immigration law by Enoka Herat of the ACLU who also defined what “decolonizing immigration” means. Notice “Turn and Talk” : we were asked to speak to our neighbor about our own story.

 

“To decolonize immigration, we must decriminalize and demilitarize enforcement against Indigenous, Black and Brown people. We must build a system that centers the power and humanity of immigrants, recognizing that migration- for love, opportunity, health, refuge is a fundamental aspect of being human.” Enoka Herat

We also had an interactive dance led by the incredibly charismatic David Rue that we all took part in. We were divided as an audience into three rhythms. Rue also spoke as an immigrant from Liberia ( indigenous Liberian, in contrast to the Americans who were encouraged to migrate there in the “back to Africa” era).

 

Ken Workman Duwamish Tribe fourth generation great grandson of Chief Seattle opened the event.

We heard from three poets learning English as a second language in a special program at the library. Their poetry that is published in a small book Learning to Love America

here is a short excerpt from Roberta Mocanu , born in Romania

My Roots

“I am an immigrant

Of the world

Why don’t you listen?

When I tell you my roots are bleeding”

….

Tom Ikeda spoke of Japanese detention camps and later oppressions, The Japanese are acutely aware of the illegality of detention and its arbitrariness.

I left as David Rue was speaking about his journey from Liberia.

Other participants who spoke were
Ellany Kayce Native activist
Graciela Nuñez Pargas Journalist,
Hodan Hassan social activist, feminist, climate justice organizer

Tuesday Velasquez

There will be a podcast which I will link when it is online.

 

It was not simply a sit and watch evening:  the message was you are part of the community, you are part of the issue, you are part of the story. You are part of the solution.

Hats off to everyone. All in one week. Hurray for Seattle.

 

Indigenous Artists and Contemporary Environmental Issues Part II

The despoliation of Indigenous reservations through fossil fuel extraction, pipe lines, uranium mining, and many other disastrous environmental policies, is a subject of the work of several prominent

Indigenous artists. Currently on view is the work of John Feodorov in the exhibition “In Red Ink,” curated by RYAN! Feddersen at the Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner

His four part work “Desecrations” :

#1the Coal plant

 

#2 the pipe lines

#3 the yellow radiation house

 

#4  fracking cracks in the earth

 

 

He painted these images on specially woven white Navaho rugs created by Navaho master weaver Tyra Preston.

Feodorov explained that as he painted on the rugs, he felt he also was committing an act of desecration:

 

“The series responds to ongoing environmental threats to traditional Diné lands and communities (including toxic pollution caused from uranium mining, coal burning, and fracking), as well as the exploitation and pollution of indigenous land around the world. But, it also refers to my hesitation in painting upon Tyra’s beautiful weavings.

 

“Just as Native lands are under constant threat, so are Native cultures. For me, these rugs act as metaphors for both land and culture. By painting upon them, perhaps I have also desecrated them? My mother taught me that weaving is a sacred art, taught to our Diné people by Spider Woman. So it was with some hesitation and great respect that I decided to undertake this series. Understandably, Tyra asked many probing questions of me before agreeing to participate, as well as consulting with a Navajo elder/medicine man from her community. I wish to thank Tyra Preston for weaving these gorgeous rugs, without which this series could not have been realized.”

 

A second Navaho artist is addressing nuclear pollution on the reservation: Demian DinéYazhi’ (photo by Patrick Weishampel) is currently showing an installation at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington as a result of winning the Brink Award. His work includes poetry, sculpture, and video intersecting to create a powerful statement.

 

It begins with confronting us as viewers with a manifesto presented in segments on a video screen:

 

“By entering this space you have agreed
To become a lifelong agent
Against humanitarian
And environmental injustice
You have agreed to forfeit your racist misconceptions
of Indigenous identity & respect the sacredness
of Indigenous traditional practices
You are not stepping into the past or staring into a
Picture plane void of Indigenous inhabitants
You are not glorifying western historical inaccuracies
Or romanticizing the cowboys and Indians narrative
By entering this space you agree to never again place
Your hand over your mouth in a mock “war cry”
Or teach your children to be ignorant of the
Indigenous peoples whose land you
Have claimed as your own
From this moment onward you have agreed to learn
The history of the Indigenous ancestral lands
That were stolen & continue to be stolen
Through settler colonial violence
&environmental genocide
By entering this space you have agreed to center
Your politics, social movements & institutions
Of knowledge around the Indigenous peoples
Whose lives & cultures were forever altered
In pursuit of this post-apocalypitic
heteropatriachal colonial nightmare”

The space itself includes more poetry presented in a slide show and with reference to a huge uranium spill that occurred at Church Rock, New Mexico in 1979.

 

I am going to insert here Emily Pothast’s excellent article in the Stranger, based on her interview with the artist:

 

“In July of 1979, a breached dam at Church Rock, New Mexico, sent more than a thousand tons of radioactive waste tumbling into the Puerco River. Despite being the largest release of radioactive material in US history, the incident received almost no media coverage. Many residents who used the river for irrigation weren’t even notified, and the governor denied local requests to declare Church Rock a federal disaster area.

 

“Nearly three decades later, a team of public-health researchers linked the negligence to racism. The Puerco River flows through what settlers call the Navajo Nation—known in the Diné language as Dinétah—and the spill primarily affected rural communities on the reservation.

 

“Today, abandoned uranium mines dot the landscape like open wounds along what was once Route 66, lit up by garish neon signs advertising “Indian jewelry” to non-indigenous tourists. Many of these sites have not been cleaned up, and probably won’t be cleaned up.”

PHOTO BY EMILY POTHAST
“There are two pieces in the current exhibition by Demian DinéYazhi’ at the Henry Art Gallery that address this ongoing history head-on. The first is in beauty it is restored, a circular neon sign that glows like uranium but also reflects the balance of Navajo cosmology and the power of ceremony to make things whole again. The second is Hey Jolene, a visual poem projected from an analog slide projector onto a billboard-shaped screen. Its text extends the metaphor of toxic phosphorescence to the warm glow of an alcohol-soaked liver. Unlike many of the artist’s pieces, which pair texts with family photos and images of landscapes, the background behind these words is crimson.

“I use red a lot as a way to maintain an indigenous aesthetic,” says DinéYazhi’. “This is actually my finger pressing against the camera lens pointed toward the sun.”

“As for the text: “It’s about a friend who passed away a few years ago on her reservation. It’s one of the only pieces that addresses a specific individual, but this story line is very similar to every other indigenous person’s story within the Gallup region.”

 

“The artist’s hometown of Gallup sits just outside the Navajo Nation, some 17 miles south of Church Rock. DinéYahzi’ describes it as a colonized border town, a place where indigenous and Western worldviews intersect.

 

“The way land art has been constructed within contemporary art practice is to usually leave a mark against the land,” says DinéYahzi’. “Within an indigenous framework, it’s not about leaving your mark on the land, it’s about honoring a region as much as possible. Photography is a safe site to have an experience of the land that isn’t necessarily continuing in this legacy of taking or extracting.”

Another site of colonization that the artist’s work addresses is gender. “The Navajo tribe had four to five different gender systems,” they explain, adding that now there are elders who side with the assimilationist agenda as an expression of trauma incurred through settler violence. “Coming back to the ceremonial framework is a way to heal as a community.”

 

Thank you Emily Pothast for this clear explanation!

 

 

 

 

The third visual artist who has addressed contamination on Indigenous reservations for many years is Gail Tremblay. I have frequently reviewed her exhibitions on this topic which include video interviews, poetry by Arthur Tulee, large felt sculptures of lungs contaminated by cancer, and scientfic images of cancer contamination.

 

Here is one piece I wrote about at Daybreak Star gallery for the literary magazine Raven Chronicles in 2002:

 

“Iókste Akwerià:ne: It is Heavy on My Heart A room sized installation with large felt sculptures or organs with cancerous tumors, DVD, audio tape of singing, color copies of cancerous organs and cells, small felt sculptures of spiderwort, normal and irradiated.

The installation takes us over, rather than the other way around. It has a larger than life scale.  Built out of felt, huge tumors grow on Lungs and Diaphragm and the Thyroid Gland. The cancerous tumors inhabit the room on the scale of human bodies, they invade our spirits, they invade our feelings. The felt surfaces seduce us with their beauty, but at the same time, the organs speak to us. Unlike the mute dolls, these organs speak;  tell us their story, they testify, through the voices of many different Indians and many tribes, through images of cancer infected fish and polluted landscapes.  They weave a tale of betrayal, the old tale and the new tale. The tale of the nuclear industry, its assault on traditional native lands, its campaign to deposit its waste on Indian lands, its careless removal of Indians or cajoling of Indians with money. The elders speak of the illness that the nuclear industry and its invisible radioactivity causes in their tribes, birth defects, growth delays, leukemia, skin diseases, asthma, heart disease, cancer, breast, lung, colon, prostate. They reply with legends, with poetry, with a clear alternative to the stealing of the insides of the earth, they speak of their way of life, their principles of living in the land, but not gaining from it.  Grand Canyon, Navaho, Hvasupai, Laguna, Acoma, Shoshone, Peyote Yakima Colville, Wishwram, Prairie Island, Apache Choctaw. Sioux. These are the tribes of the tellers of the tale.

 

The poet Arthur Tullee wearing a bright red shirt recites his exquisite poems of legends of death,sickness, and healing. ”

 

In addition to these three artists we have the wide and ongoing resistance by writers, poets, visual artists, activists and the general public to the Kinder Morgan pipeline outside of Vancouver. The link is to a poetic video by an articulate young Indigenous woman.

 

As of today, arrests are going on, and the destruction of protest camps is continuous. But the resistance is strong.

The Transmountain pipeline is on an existing route, but the plan is to triple its capacity. The protests have been in Burnaby outside of Vancouver BC all summer. Currently the Canadian government is looking for a buyer, since Kinder Morgan did back down and the government bought it with public funds -so much for Pierre Trudeau’s environmental credentials.

“Those arrested included 50-year-old Rita Wong, a poet and professor at Emily Carr University who organized Friday’s action on behalf of missing and murdered Indigenous women, according to a statement from Protect the Inlet, one of the many groups that oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline.

 

“The expansion of this pipeline would pose an increased risk to Indigenous women through displacement and man-camps, as well as everybody on Earth, through further climate destabilization,” she said in a statement, adding that “more people to make the connections between violence against the land and violence against Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.”

 

“Wong was placed in what looked like a black lawn chair and carried away from the scene Friday

 

“Mairy Beam, Kathryn Cass and Deb Wood, who are all in their 60s, were also arrested.

 

“I was nervous, but also very proud to take a stand and to take a stand for Mother Earth and to stand for my granddaughters,” Beam told CTV News.”

Indigenous Artists and Contemporary Environmental Issues Part I

Breaking News

Indigenous protests win Victory over Pipeline August 30 2018

We cried every day as we followed the tragedy of the Orca mother Tahlequah holding her dead baby for 17 days. The pod she belongs to has not had a successful birth in several years, this baby died immediately after it was born.

 

The resident population of this Southern Resident pod is dying for lack of Chinook Salmon. It consists of only 75 whales. They are also disrupted by vessel noise (especially cruise ships) and toxins. Solutions are quieting vessel noise, less development in habitat , and breaching lower Snake River Dam. It is a huge job that requires going beyond token gestures, like not eating Chinook Salmon. Katie Kurtz outlines the pollution problem clearly and the urgency of supporting the superfund clean up of the Duwamish which is of course being rolled back by the current administration. Read her article “To Save the Orcas We must clean up the Duwamish.

 

The Lummi tribe consider the Orcas as family members. They refer to them as qwel ihol mechen or “The People who live under the sea,”.

 

Before this summer of grief, the Lummi carved a totem dedicated to Tokitae, the last survivor of a horrendous capture of baby orcas in 1970 when a third of the population of this same pod of Southern Resident orcas were taken by aquariums for display. Three died during the capture. Tokitae is at the Miami Seaquarium.

 

She is know as Lolita there and lives in an illegally small tank where she performs tricks for audiences. The Aquarium has refused to allow Tokitae to return to her family in the Northwest. When the totem reached Miami ceremonies were held outside the aquarium, but no one was allowed to come in.

At the same time the Lummi are collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmosperic Administration to try to feed a wild orca  in the same Southern Resident pod, who is starving to death. This is a risky and unprecedented operation, as Orcas are very smart and could entirely refuse or become aware of human feeding. The analysis is that she may have worms or an infection of some kind that is preventing her from eating.

 

Orcas eat about 420 pounds of Chinook Salmon per day.

This magnificent mammals are incredibly bright. During the capture of babies in the 1970s one of the witnesses spoke of the gathering of the pod around the capture site, their obvious grieving at the loss of their babies, loud crying. Once the babies had been removed in a truck, the rest of the pod left the area never to return.

 

Does this not sound familiar, as children are ripped from their parents and sent off to captivity. This is no longer in the news, but the children are still being detained.

 

I want to end with Gloria Bornstein’s beautiful Whale sculpture at Seattle Center. We need a lot more beautiful art like this that celebrates these special creatures. 

 

I want to acknowledge the incredible reporting of Lynda Mapes at the Seattle Times on this summer of grief and crisis with our Southern Resident orca pod.

The stunning Olympic Peninsula with brief visits to three Native American tribal cultural events

 

Oh how fortunate we are in the Northwest to have the Olympic Peninsula! It is magnificent in mid July. We just completed a wonderful trip there, two nights at a cabin on Neah Bay.

 

We did the short walk to Cape Flattery, the furthest West point in US

and two nights camping at the Mora campground, near Rialto Beach and La Push. That is Henry and his magnificent blueberry pancake

 

 

It was cloudy at Rialto Beach, but it is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world in my opinion, and part of one of the few wild seacoasts in the continental US, jointly managed by the Olympic National Park, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and the offshore National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Sadly, in spite of all this protection, plus the collaboration with Native tribes, our Orca population is declining rapidly, a baby Orca died today.  Apparently they are starving because of reduced salmon runs. And our detestable national government is gutting the Endangered Species Act, adding yet another threat to the Orcas. At this time there are about 74 left.

 

Returning to a more joyful topic:

Our campsite was surrounded by old trees (not quite old growth, but almost). We had a stunning pair of trees near us with hollowed out bases. As we walked on the trails we saw other ancient trees with entangled roots that for me always resemble creatures.

And these oddly bent branches on the trails.

I am prolonging our experience by looking at these photographs again. Henry did a wonderful job.

 

Part II

The Olympic Peninsula has many distinct Native tribes. We intersected with only three, first the Suquamish, right after the Agate Point bridge, live on what is called the Point Madison Reservation.

 

We visited their  museum

for the exhibition, “Deconstructing Curtis Exhibition”   a comparison of Edward Curtis photographs and those of the Suquamish Archive belonging to the museum of the same people, or the same place. It was fascinating, underscoring both Curtis’s skill as a photographer and his European romanticism.

 

In one case Wahalcu, we read Curtis detailed description of his spiritual journey quest. Wahalcu helped Curtis as an ethnographer. He must have trusted Curtis to tell him this story in such detail. Curtis writing and photography both veered wildly between sincere and absurdly racist.

 

Next we were fortunate to see a stop on this year’s annual Native canoe journey. In Neah Bay we saw three canoes

( two were identified, Quinault and Chehalis) and the participants gathered for a supper on the shore.

 

All the canoes will eventually gather in Puyallup in early August. Here is part of the statement from that tribal leader Bill Sterud

 

“120 canoes and dozens of tribes to our shores as we celebrate
the theme of Honoring our Medicine. Our elders have always taught us that water is a powerful medicine—a life-giving force that sustains, heals, and protects us. And as we see with Canoe Journey,
where more than 15,000 will gather on our shores to greet the canoes, the water also provides connection between Native peoples and the land. ”

“The Puyallup Tribe is one of the most urban reservations in the country. We know intimately the effects of industry and development on our culture. So we must balance city living with the need to protect the way of life our ancestors practiced before freeways and industry transformed our land. Coast Salish
tribes have always moved through the region along the water, and we are dedicated to practicing this
ancient tradition. Reclaiming our traditions is a commitment we practice every day to make sure that
our children, and their children, can enjoy these waters after we are gone.
Today, the tips of our canoes touch the sand of beaches polluted by chemicals from upstream contamination. These same pollutants poison our tide flats and seep into our shellfish beds. Just like
tribes across the nation, we live with the result of declining fish supply as salmon habitat gets degraded and salmon passage is blocked by roads. With every new development, like the Liquid Natural Gas plant, we are faced with a battle to protect our waters, our life force, and our medicine. ”

 

 

 

 

We also visited the amazing Makah museum, with its artifacts from the Ozette Archeological Site. These artifacts, exposed by a storm in 1970 after being buried in a mud flow for hundreds of years, demonstrated that the Makah have been here for more than 4000 years.

 

The piece of net discovered at Ozette enabled all the Northwest Indian tribes to argue that net fishing is traditional and therefore they can continue to practice it.  In addition we saw tools made of many kinds of wood, each suited to its purpose,cedar,alder, hemlock, yew, preserved by the mud, fishhooks (metal from Japanese ships), bear and antler bones, stone technology, shells, cedar plank houses ( a large scale model), whaling spears, They were master whalers and so much more. They had canoes with sails.

We have been to this museum before in November 2011, but it is  reinstalled with excellent labels.

 

 

Also, the Japanese sent a model of the boat in 2006 that shipwrecked off the coast in 1832. The boat was a thank you to the Makah who saved the three surviving sailors. The sail was amazing. I have never seen a sail like this before.

 

Our third native cultural experience was in La Push with the Quilieute. They so happened to be celebrating Quilieult Days, and on the evening we were there after our hike to the beach we discovered they were celebrating Royalty at the high school gym. When we went there we learned that the Royalty were the children, the Queen and Warrior were the oldest:  the children included age groups from 11-15, 6-10 and birth to 5. It was fabulous. Several of them gave short speeches about their strong sense of community and family. One performed a dance with a mask.

 

 

 

 

Protesting Detention for Activist Leaders, Asylum Seekers, and ICE victims

 

 

Last week was a big week for protest, but we are just beginning! We have to keep on, keeping on. Immigration as we are all focusing on, is the foundation of our country. On the eve of this 4th of July, I want to speak of some of the powerful support that immigration is receiving from we the people, at the same time that the administration is gaining more power every day. We have to stay in the streets as much as we can. Everyone.

 

So our first protest was to support Maru Mora Villalpando, who is the articulate and generous spirited leader of the Northwest Detention Center Resistance. She was served with a notice to appear at a Deportation hearing at her home in Bellingham, not long after the beginning of the year. It was during the time that the Dept of Licensing was cooperating with ICE.

 

One of Maru’s great strengths is that she constantly reminds us of all the people who do not have her prominence, who are suffering the threat of deportation, the nightmare of detention, and the separation of their families. We need to stand up for every one.

 

This was her second hearing, in a nationwide policy to deport leaders of the resistance to illegal actions.

Almost 200 people gathered on the street outside the building in which ICE holds their hearings for deportation. Maru spoke to us before she went in, with no idea if she would come out.

As her hearing was going on, we heard from local activist leaders, who held a People’s Tribunal and  spoke of the evils of ICE, suprematist racial profiling, the public private partnerships of ICE, the for profit dehumanization of people of color throughout our history ( slave trade, Indian removal, Asian American detentions- which were about grabbing valuable farmland), They reminded us that the first detention center was created in 1882 to hold migrants from China (Angel Island),

 

They reminded us the gigantic profits that GEO, the private company that runs so many detention centers and prisons makes, from 42 to 144 million increase in one year and even the “alternatives” to detention are for profit ( ankle monitors have to be paid for with a monthly rent, foster care generates income also)

 

Our local campaign against spending millions on a new youth jail is connected to this opposition to incarceration for black and brown children.

 

The People’s Tribunal demanded the close of NW Detention Center  and all detention centers and found ICE guilty of  violating basic human rights. They called on Martin Selig to stop renting space to ICE and Governor Inslee to stop all collaboration between state agencies and ICE.

But in fact, we are all guilty, because any money we have in retirement accounts is probably invested in GEO ( look into it)

 

When Maru came out, she had a good result, her case was continued until January 2019 and because her daughter will be 21 in July, she can apply for a green card. But her words addressed the families in the hall awaiting hearing, the children crying, those who do not have a lawyer, or any opportunity for relief. As the ghastly administration tightens or eliminates all options for asylym ( Recently domestic violence and gang violence were eliminated as grounds for asylyum) , the situation requires our constant protest.  We need to think of all of the undocumented immigrant families who give so much to our country and are now being so horribly torn apart.  Here are a few children’s drawings.

 

s

 

 

 

On Saturday, we joined 10,000 people at the Federal Prison near Sea-Tac, to protest detention, some of the thousands of parents  separated from their children are being held there ( although they said if they are transferred to the Northwest Detention Center, they are treated much worse). And of course there were thousands and thousands protesting all across the US, although barely reported in the media except for Democracy Now. 

 

 

And on Sunday we joined the extremely energetic protest outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. It was led by the Northwest Detention Center Resistance. We heard from a mother of five children whose husband was in the detention center, leaving them in financial straits. He has very serious health problems that they delayed in treating causing more health problems.

We heard from a brave mother who had an “ankle monitor” speak of the nightmare of conditions there and we heard from a Cuban, ( they no longer have special status), who was detained inside for many weeks.

 

I have been to many of protests at the Northwest Detention Center, and this was the most successful in chanting long and loud outside the center ” you are not alone” ( in spanish), challenging employees entering to quit their jobs, and staying for a long time.

 

The Occupy movement is still alive and well,  and is now Occupying ICE, in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and nation wide, particularly successful in Portland, where they managed to shut down ICE for several days.

 

KEEP ON, WRITE LETTERS, PROTEST

 

 

 

 

 

Gentrification in the Central District: A Snapshot

 

 

 

 

 

This week we went to a meeting about a development on the corner of 23rd and Union ( top as it looks now), near us. It is the South east corner, an historic corner owned formerly by the Bangasser Family, known as Midtown Center. Above is a gathering from a few years ago demonstrating this crucial corner as a gathering place.

It was a starting point for a Black Lives Matter march also  (below first photograph) . Second photo shows the famous Fountain of Triumph by James Washington originally located there.

 

It was sold last year to the Lake Union Partners, who declare “Our focus on neighborhood context and the user experience is always at the forefront of design decisions. We strive to create viable financial strategies for each individual project based on those design drivers, including special emphasis on the street level experience – making sure our retail tenants complement the unique profile of each project.”

 

Well they have not encountered a neighborhood like ours, with its organized Africatown, and many articulate African Americans speaking up for the historic neighborhood.

Even before they started their presentation, Omari Garrett and several others started objecting to the fact that although one quarter of the block had been sold to Africatown to develop, it became a de facto act of segregation to have a separate development. You can see  the Africa Town portion is  on the far left in drawing, but in the presentation it was omitted entirely. The LUP development stopped at a semi circle ( above it is a rectangle, that was “was going to be a shared private space with the other part of the development”

 

Furthermore LUP was romping ahead with big funds and big access to process, while the other building was moving slower because of lack of experience. Why did not LUP do more to enable the other section to move forward was one question??

 

They have already developed two other corners at this intersection:

 

 

Above is the Northwest corner, below is the Southwest corner. Across from the second photograph you can see the third corner that was the subject of our meeting. Not bad looking buildings, but definitely designed for the well off.

 

This corner was orginally developed as an urban renewal zone in the 1960s with all black businesses. Tom Bangasser, who spoke at the meeting, spoke about recruiting the post office and a state liquor store which could not be red lined, in order to have anchor tenants.

He has a long time commitment to supporting African American businesses and also commissioned James Washingon ‘s beautiful fountain for the property.

 

That fountain was on 23rd just south of Union, it will now be on 24th and Union in a small private park, an idea that was much objected to by many people there. Indeed it was originally a gathering place and a focal point, now it will be a “quiet area”.

 

Before the development of the Southwest corner, a major public art work linked to the web told stories of the “corner”

 

Another aspect of the corner that I am connected to ( gentrifying white person) is weekly anti war demonstrations there for about ten years.

The city put in a public sculpture only a couple of years ago as part of the 23rd ave improvement project. It is by Martha Jackson Jarvis, from Washington, DC. She is honoring the community.

So back to SLU rhetoric

 

Here is more ( above is Patrick Foley, Principle of LUP who presented their plan):

“Our management team relies on a solid understanding of market fundamentals to direct our investment strategy and our extensive network and brand allow us to source considerable off-market opportunities.

LUP develops strategies customized to specific real estate asset classes. We recognize there are opportunities for our investors at any stage of a real estate cycle. Primarily, our partners are local family companies and we tailor each project to meet their short and long term goals.

 

We develop with integrity and invest in the community’s future. We are engaged in vibrant neighborhoods and have a knack for finding up and coming locations. We tend to invest in these areas before other developers – discovering livable, walkable and thriving communities.”

 

I went to one of these type of meetings about the Paul Allen development at Jackson and 23rd. Well off white people presenting to impoverished locals. Proudly those presenters declared they were incorporating an African American motif in order to “honor the history of the neighborhood. ” In that case, people said, what about all the other people and ethncities here?

 

In the case of 23rd and Union, one question was, in what way will your building reflect African American references.  Across the street, another new development by Africatown Community Land trust, includes art work by major African American artists from the neighborhood. It is the real deal. It is on the site of Liberty Bank first black owned bank west of the Mississippi, so this site has a lot of significance. They also own the 25 per cent of the 23rd and Union site.

 

LUP touted their public square in the middle of their development, with access to the street. Where those green ovals are ( now reduced to one tree). The idea is that all along the street level of these building will be lively little shops. Of course given our weather, how much time people spend outside there is a question. Another question for me is that “Ike’s” pot shop is right across the street, and this has been a corner for drug use for a long time. I wonder if that will be the main function of this public square.

 

It depends on lots of lively little cafes and stores to make it a draw for people. They will undoubtedly be little yoga/pilates studios, ice cream stores, and overpriced single product stores such as those filling up Capital Hill.

The real center of energy not far from that corner is Chucks Hop Shop at 20th and Union ( that’s Chuck there) , a wildly successful family oriented place.

Beer, ice cream and food trucks.

 

Also Katy’s cafe is a major center of action across the street ( lucky me this is my corner).

 

These two businesses together plus our 2020 bike shop,  Central Wellness Chiropractor, Central Ice Cream, Central Cinema and Communitea Kombucha factory, make for a vibrant block.

 

I wonder if LUP can make these type of buisnesses happen around their central plaza. I fear their rents will be too high. The reason these businesses survive is because the people who own the buildings are not greedy and have committed to keeping ordinary small business owners here. None of them are owned by African Americans though. The ice cream store is Filipino owned. Chuck’s is owned by an Asian American. Obviously, there is a good reason why Africatown is standing up for African American businesses and presence. When we first moved here in 1998, there were quite a few.

 

I fear for our small businesses all over Seattle. Downtown they are all being wiped out invisibly inside old buildings.

We heard about  Bernie Utz Hats, that is only the tip of the ice iceberg. My hairdresser has been displaced twice in ten years because each of the entire buildings he had his small business in on fourth avenue was bought by big corporations and all small businesses displaced. ( The jewelry on street level has been given a temporary reprieve. )

 

Anyway here’s hoping LUP can create the vibrant plaza they are hoping for.

PS and guess what, Africatown is showing them the way!! Here is the newly repainted plaza as of last Sunday. And a link to their mural project “Coming Soon” as described in the Seattle Times.

 

 

Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise

 

We had the thrill of touring the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship on Sunday. I am holding the “Wave of Resistance  #stop the pipelines Orca solidarity bracelet they gave us.

 

It has just come back from Antarctica where it took scientists to study the way to create a marine protected area in the midst of the drilling and resource extraction that is escalating at both the Antarctic and Arctic in the face of the melting of the polar ice caps. On the ship we learned that it was an ice breaker that breaks ice by pounding down on the ice with the rounded hull!  That means it is very tippy in general ( they nicknamed it the “washing machine”). The ship actually dates to 1975.

 

Here is a description of their history from Greenpeace website:

“The Arctic Sunrise’s first trip took it to the North Sea and the northeast Atlantic, where Greenpeace documented marine pollution by oil from offshore installations. Since then it has worked everywhere from within 450 miles of the North Pole, to Antarctica’s Ross Sea, and has navigated both the Congo and the Amazon.”

 

There have been major push backs against the important Greenpeace missions.A Greenpeace boat was bombed and exploded by French scuba divers when it was protesting nuclear testing off New Zealand.

They were boarded by Russian armed militia and the entire crew imprisoned for several months, released at the beginning of the Sochi Olympics in 2014  (when the Pussy Riot protesters were also released).

 

They carry 35 -40 people from many countries in the world on their trips.

 

Our tour included the control room with both old fashioned and up to the minute controls.

 

 

We also had a presentation on the resistance to the expansion of the tar sands pipe line in BC ( the one the Canadian government just declared that they were buying), as well as facts about the production of tar sands ( vast amounts of fresh water to burn tar out of sand, then toxins to make it flow in the pipeline. A spill will lead to a massive die off in the sea as it is so dense nothing can be recovered and nothing can survive.

 

 

Here you see the cut out banner added for the Seattle stay “Chief Seattle is Watching”. They are going on from Seattle to Tacoma to support the protest of the liquified “natural” gas facility there that is being built without a permit on the Puyallup land by Puget Sound Energy. Puyallup Tribe is leading the protest. Puget Sound Energy is “owned by an Australian utility claiming to be a leader in green energy, but 60 percent of its supply comes from coal and “natural gas”, most of it fracked. Gas has been called  a “Bridge” fuel in the transition to renewables, but methane released during extraction and transport means its as bad for the climate as coal because methane has 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide”   quote from brochure handed out at Arctic Sunrise event . It ends are you in the blast zone? find out at Frackno253.com . It looks like the entire Northwest Detention Center is certainly in the blast zone.

if you want to see the industry PR, here is a link

Puget Sound Energy.

and then you can text Governor Inslee to protest it.

“In the Fields of Empty Days: Intersections of Past and Present in Iranian Art,”

“In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in  Iranian Art” at The Los Angeles County Museum  is a show on a crucial topic. Although much of the work is contemporary, note that the title does not say that. Tirafkan’s image speaks volumes of the intersection of past and present that is the theme of the exhibition: the young man is blinded by the warriors of the past, his earbuds hanging around his neck.

As curated by Linda Komaroff, it includes photography, both historic and contemporary, drawing, video, valuable manuscript pages, historical paintings, sculpture, and animations.  Only a few of these artists have been shown in the US before ( note the Gray Art Gallery in New York City has an outstanding collection of Iranian modern art)

The curator’s decision to have absolutely no informative labels was slammed by the Washington Post critic. I disagree with that point of view.  It was intriguing how much we engaged with these extremely political works without information. We could understand the critique in the work without polemic. Look at the work above. From the title it is obvious what is happening, the British Ambassador holds a leash and a whip, the Shah is wearing female clothes.

Many of the works are in the permanent collection of the museum, shaped by the same perspectives seen in the exhibition. In a brilliant review published in Iran, the critic Mahsa Farhadi reveals the Orientalism that underlie the curatorial theme of past and present as well as the choice of works in the collection and in the exhibition. She sees the exhibition as overgeneralizing those categories of “past” and “present.” 

The title of the exhibition is a quote from a modern poet Mehdi Akhavan-Sales’s famous poem, “The Ending of Shahnameh.”

Shahnameh, (Persian: شاهنامه‎ )“The Book of Kings”), the famous 50,000 line Persian epic poem by Ferdowsi written in the tenth and eleventh century. Bringing back Iranian history and the Persian language, it tells the myths and history of Persia from the dawn of time to the Islamic conquest in the seventh century.  Illustrated versions of the Shahnameh represent the finest examples of the art of the book. The quote from the modern poem is

“Oh, henceforth we are

Like hunchbacked, old conquerors.

On the ships of waves, sails of froth.

Our hearts bound by the memory of the lambs

of splendor, in the fields of empty days,

Our swords rusty, worn out, and weary.

Our drums, forever silent,

Our arrows, broken winged.

We are the conquerors of the cities gone with the wind

We relate the forgotten stories

In a voice too weak to come out of the chest.

Nobody will pay attention or spare a copper for our coins

As if they are of a foreign king. Or, a prince whose dynasty is overthrown.

Siamak Filizadeh’s Underground , a series of huge photographs opened the exhibition, filling a long wall and a short wall. They feature the 19th Shah Nasir al-Din Shah, imagined as ruling an underground city. This Shah, like the Ottoman shahs of this time, engaged with Europe, and participating in modernizing. Reference is made to these trips in various ways, but the overall sense of the series is derogatory. The Shah appears ridiculous in Coronation, for example in which the throne is held up by two pairs of red stockinged legs and the shah is holding a rabbit.

The next artist who mesmerized me was Shoja Azari. He inserts video into a wall size projection of a manuscript page and a “coffee house painting” .

Here you can see some black and white figures in the center, as well as a nearby contemporary person. And near the upper right the famous Abu Ghraib image of torture is represented.

Another bizarre and fascinating combination of references appears in this propaganda poster from World War II based on the Shahnama with Goebbels as Satan as cook as monkey. It is drawn from an actual event in the Shahnama when Satan embeds himself as a cook at the court then through bribery enters the shoulders of the Shah Zahhak as serpents, causing the Shah to do many evil acts throughout his reign.

There is a wonderful cut out  paper pop up of this story. Cut out artist is Simon Arizpe, amazing pop up book artist.

One of my favorite pieces was Yasmin Sinai, a large ensemble of cardboard figures, almost life size recounting the story of a female warrior from the Shahnama.“But one of those within the fortress was a woman, daughter of the warrior Gazhdaham, named Gordafarid. When she learned that their leader had allowed himself to be taken, she found his behaviour so shameful that her rosy cheeks became as black as pitch with rage. With not a moment’s delay she dressed herself in a knight’s armour, gathered her hair beneath a Rumi helmet, and rode out from the fortress, a lion eager for battle. She roared at the enemy ranks, “Where are your heroes, your warriors, your tried and tested chieftains?”

There were not many women in the exhibition. Aside from Yasmin, they were familiar, Shirin Neshat and Shadi Ghadirian for example we know well.

Also familiar were Parviz Tanavoli, although best known as a sculptor and here seen in a painting and weavings.

This work by Fereydoun Ave was also familiar, another reference to both the male wrestling tradition and the Shahnameh epic hero Rustam.

The theme of male wrestling appeared repeatedly.

There were also stunning works by other well known Iranian modernists such as Charles Hossein Zenderoudi and Khosrow Hassanzadeh as well.

The juxtapositions of various epochs of art continued in the intricate and sardonic drawings of Ardeshir Mohassess, in a series from the 1970s borrowed from the Library of Congress! He uses late Qajar imagery to make reference to the Shah’s demise in the 1979 revolution.

That revolution and its convolutions came alive in the famous photographs of Abbas (above) ,  Kaveh Golestan, and Maryan Zandi. We see both the protests of the Shah and his supporters in mass crowds and up close.

As with all revolutions ( such as the Arab spring) , the joy led to tragedy, as the Islamic leaders followed an oppressively conservative direction subsequently challenged by the same people who were happy at the departure of the shah.

One of my favorite images  that focuses on the craziness of the Revolution is by Ramin Haerizadeh

Perhaps that is why the curator chose to include fabulous animations.

Or the imaginative work of Makekeh Nayiny

Although they also make reference to early myths, the metaphors of contemporary life and politics are obvious. In All in the Pink, Nayiny gives us a child in a grotesque mask, a demon mask, a reference to  the demons defeated by the hero Rustam in the Shahnama. Now though this disturbing masked child challenges us to wonder who the real demon actually is (you can see the historical depiction in the wallpaper in the background).

This subtle show offered us new insights into Iran. Most of the art works were direct satires or protest masked in historical and mythical themes. The photographs from the time of the revolution we now see in the light of subsequent events as deeply sad and ironic.

Given the one dimensional knowledge that most people in the US have of Iran today, visiting this exhibition provides an opportunity to understand the complexity of Iranian history as well as its present moment. The resonant phrase “In the Fields of Empty Days,” invokes a desolate end to an empire that can apply to not only the situation in Iran, but also elsewhere on the planet as misguided policies kill, torture and brutally damage humans and the earth.

Full Photo credits:

Sadegh Tirafkan The Loss of Our Identity no. 1 Boy 2007, fromthe Series, The Loss of our Identity, 2007, chromogenic print, Brooklyn MuseumMuseum Collection Fund, by exchange

Siamak Filizadeh, The British Ambassador, The Coronation and Anis al-Daula from the series “Underground”, 2014, inkjet print,  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kitzia and Richard Goodman through the 2016 Collectors Committee, © Siamak Filizadeh, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

Shoja Azari The Day of the Last Judgment (Coffee House Painting,)

2009  video projection, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, gift of Leila Heller

Kevin Evan Marengo, Ahriman-Goebbels disguised as Zahhak-Hitler’s cook causes serpents wiht the faces of Mussolini and Tojo to grow out of his shoulders, 1942, offset lithograph on paper, LACMA purchased with funds provided by Shidan Taslimi

Yasmin Sinai, The Act of Gurdafarid, the Female Warrior, 2015 cardboard paper glue, LACMA, gift of Lynda and Stewart Resnick through the 22017 Collections Committee

Parviz Tanavoli, Lion and Sword III, 1976, Bijar weave, 62 1/4 × 91 in., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Hope Warschaw through the 2018 Collectors Committee, courtesy of the artist, © Parviz Tanavoli, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

Fereydoun Ave, Untitled from the series Rostam in Late Summer—Revisited, 2009, inkjet print on canvas, 59 1/2 × 39 1/2 in., Mohammed Afkhami Foundation, Switzerland, © Fereydoun Ave, photo courtesy of Janet Rady Fine Art

Ardeshir Mohassess, The King is always above the people from the series Life in Iran, 1978, ink on paper, Prints an Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Kaveh Golestan, The Shah Left, 1979, printed 2015, gelatin silver print, 24 × 30 in., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the Estate of Kaveh Golestan, © Estate of Kaveh Golestan, digital image © Museum Associates/LACMA

Ramin Haerizadeh, He Came, He Left, He Left, He Came, 2010, mixed media and collage on canvas, 78 3/4 × 118 1/8 in., The Farook Collection, Dubai, © Ramin Haerizadeh, photo courtesy Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Malekeh Nayiny, All in Pink, 2007, dye coupler print, 47 1/4 × 35 3/8 in., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Nina Ansary, © Malekeh Nayiny

Art and Politics in films at the Seattle International film Festival

Warrior Women is a gripping documentary about radical activist leader Madonna Thunder Hawk, and her daughter Marcy Gilbert. Thunder Hawk ran a school for youth that educated them about Native History in the early days of the Civil Rights movement. Thunder Hawk’s own story spans from the era of native boarding schools that stripped indigenous people of their cultures, to the Wounded Knee confrontation, Alcatraz Island sit in, and finally Standing Rock, in South Dakota. It is a remarkable story of persistence in the face of the difficulties of being a radical leader: arrest, travel away from her family ( or with her family to radical events), lonely nights on the road, dramatic confrontations with hostile opponents, and much more. What is most remarkable is that her daughter grew up in this atmosphere and herself chose to also become a radical.

 

Bee Nation as in Spelling Bee documents the first Canadian First Nation engagement in the national spelling bee of Canada. It follows several young participants from their reservation life to the hotbed of a Toronto competition. The film begins with the youngest of the contestants preparing to dance in a pow wow ( see above , thus setting the stage for the intersection of traditional and white culture that this spelling bee represents. ( I wonder how white children would have done in a native spelling contest?)

Wajib ( Palestinian). wajib refers to a muslim obligation, in the case of this movie by Annemarie Jacir, it refers to the act of personally delivering wedding invitations by men of the family of the bride in Nazareth. The movie weaves together many contemporary concerns about the situation for Palestinians as a father who lives in Nazareth and his son, who lives in Italy, forced to leave as too radical, deliver the invitations to relatives and friends.

 

As they do so, the issue of inviting the Israeli supervisor of the father raises enormous tension between father and son, as the son states the man is a spy. Many other issues and tensions arise between father and son, particularly the mother who has left the country, her two young children and her husband, years before. She is perhaps coming to the wedding perhaps not. Also hotly debated is the issue of leaving as an expatriot vs staying in Nazareth and being subservient.

 

The brilliantly filmed sequences of interior and exterior spaces in Nazareth convey both the constrictions of life there and the generous spirit of the people who live under those constrictions.

 

Falling ( Ukrainian) Falling is both literal and metaphorical in this film set in the Ukraine after the uprising that led the Russians to invade and take over the  Crimea. It is always notable that movies from Europe move slower and are not about violence, but often about love. The two protagonists circle around one another, but ultimately fail to connect.

 

Razzia ( Morocco) Set in Casablanca, with the famous movie echoing through it, Razzia gave us the tensions of secular and Islamists starting with redoing the education system to conform to the Koran. But more important was the sense of the many fragments of secular life that were tangentially affected by a changing society.

 

Noble Earth ( set in Tuscany) was a huge disappointment, basically the film  recorded the good life for elites in Italy and finally had the previously almost silent female star spout out a political speech that was obviously why the filmmaker made the film. Awkward

 

This is Home ( Syrian refugees in Baltimore) beautiful documentary about several families who are adjusting to life in Baltimore.

 

Nona, a film about human trafficking also disappointed me, it seemed to be a series of single shots representing various stages of migration, without a believeable central core. A young woman without a family decides to go North with a stranger who pays her way to the border where he blindfolds her and disappears. She ends up in a brothel from which she runs away. Again as in Noble Earth, the politics emerge at the end with a blond “lawyer”? who goes on in English about all the political issues of human trafficking as she is ostensibly questioning her young victim who understands no English at all. This movie could have been so much better. It is a crucial subject.

 

The Crime of Monsieur Lange ( 1936 return of Jean Renoir film). Jean Renoir’s socialist era film from the mid 1930s in France, the workers form a cooperative and make a business financially successful when the capitalist exploiter returns. Lots of male exploitation of females.

But the key to the film is its appearance of spontaneity, As one critic, Pascal Mérigeau, puts it

 

“The tour de force accomplished by Renoir with Lange amounted to giving the illusion of improvisation while structuring chaos — without ever ceasing to be chaos.”

 

I saw an exhibition of Renoir father and son in Philadelphia. We saw how the impressionism of the father affected the eye of the filmmaker, but we also saw what an acute director he was in all sorts of films (none of them with any politics compared to Lange that dates from the height of the Popular Front in France).