All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Quote of the Day: No mother wants her daughter to have fewer rights than she did

Yesterday, Glamour named Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, a Woman of the Year. And damn — that woman has seriously had a year. Speaking about the attacks on Planned Parenthood, TRAP laws passed in conservative states to shut down clinics, and the pressures of her job, Richards said: There’s not a mother in the world who wants her daughter to have fewer rights than she did—and for me, it’s the 2.7 million people Planned Parenthood serves each year who make everything I advocate for possible. Women, men, and young people deserve quality health care and fundamental rights. I will do this job every day to protect them.We’re all so grateful that she does.

Source: Quote of the Day: No mother wants her daughter to have fewer rights than she did

Deforestation ‘may have started west Africa’s Ebola outbreak’

Environment ministers from all over the world attend one-day conference on deforestation and climate change in London

Source: Deforestation ‘may have started west Africa’s Ebola outbreak’

Deforestation may have triggered the recent Ebola outbreak in west Africa, France’s environment minister Ségolène Royal told a London summit hosted by the Prince of Wales ahead of next month’s Cop21 conference.

Royal said researchers believe the destruction of forest habitat brought bats, known to carry the virus, into greater contact with humans.

“They had to clear the forest to begin subsistence agriculture and the deforestation has also been caused by mining activity and large-scale logging for export,” she told the high-level meeting at Lancaster House.

“This destruction of the natural habitat of fruit-eating bats drove the animals to approach human settlements to find food and the virus may have been transmitted during this increased contact resulting from deforestation,” she said.

{I have thought this had to have been the cause of many outbreaks in the past, or we would have heard about it for more than 100 years but it took generations before too much of the forest was cut and drove bats into closer contact with humans and other primates.}

AFRICA/TANZANIA – The elections in Zanzibar revoked due to “serious irregularities”

Dar es Salaam – Concern for the annulment of the presidential, parliamentary and local election results in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, decided by the Independent Electoral Commission of Tanzania due to the “serious irregularities” found during the count on Sunday, October 25. According to the Commission, the elections will have to be repeated.
Voters in Zanzibar were called to vote for the President and Members of the Assembly of the archipelago. Tension increased in Stone Town, the historic center of the archipelago, where the police were deployed in the streets for fear of accidents.
In the rest of Tanzania the results were recognized as valid with regard to the election of the National President. According to data, which is still partial, John Magufuli of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in power was winning with 59.2% of votes cast before Edward Lowassa with 39.6%.

The Latino Photographer Who “Humanized” Frank Lloyd Wright

Latina Lista: News from the Latino perspective Latina Lista: News from the Latino perspective – News from the Latino perspective. The Latino Photographer Who “Humanized” Frank Lloyd Wright by Latina Lista

By Meghan Drueding
Preservation Nation

 

Frank Lloyd Wright isn’t necessarily thought of as warm and fuzzy. But he got along famously with photographer Pedro Guerrero, who started documenting Wright’s work at the tender age of 22 and continued to do so for the next 20 years. Guerrero, who was known for his combination of artistic talent and technical brilliance, went on to become the favored photographer of artists Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson. He died in 2012 in Florence, Arizona, not far from his birthplace of Mesa.

In September, PBS premiered the film Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey, presented by the American Masters series and Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES series. (The film will be available on DVD and for digital download starting November 17 at ShopPBS.org.) We spoke with Raymond Telles, who co-directed and co-produced with Yvan Iturriaga, about the experience of making the film.

Copyright 2015 Pedro E. Guerrero Archives                    Pedro E. Guerrero (pictured right) with his family in Mesa, Arizona, 1935.

What was Pedro Guerrero like?

I had met Pedro about 30 years ago through his family. Yvan Iturriaga and I interviewed him in April of 2010. At that time he was 92 years old. He was absolutely charming, a great storyteller. He felt relaxed enough that the camera being there didn’t really matter. It was like a conversation between old friends.

Did you have a particular favorite building that he photographed?

One of my favorites is that series [showing Wright sipping tea on the site of the Guggenheim Museum] called “Tea Break at the Guggenheim.” You land on that photograph and you really do get the feeling that you’re eavesdropping. There’s also the last sequence of photos of Calder, just before he died. Those are two of my favorites—not so much of buildings, but of individuals.

For buildings, some of my favorites are the photos of Taliesin [West], shot in the early days—1939-42. There’s some pretty cool stuff in there.

Copyright 2015 Pedro E. Guerrero Archives                                 Pedro E. Guerrero self-portrait, circa 1950s, New York City.

 

 


Copyright 2015 Pedro E. Guerrero Archives       
Frank Lloyd Wright at the “Sixty Years of Living Architecture” exhibit on the site of the future Guggenheim                                                                                                                             Museum, 1953, photographed by Pedro E. Guerrero.

What is Guerrero’s larger significance? Obviously he was very important in the photography world and the art and architecture world, but why choose him as your subject for this general-interest film?

His life and career spanned the 20th century. He lived to be 95 years of age. So he saw a lot. In a way, this is a real American story, told through the eyes of a Mexican-American that a lot of people didn’t know about. But he was a veteran, he experienced a lot of [historical] events, and he gave us a perspective on three major artists of the 20th century that we perhaps wouldn’t have [otherwise].

One of the things I was really pleased about was that I spoke with Tim Wright, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandsons, and he said: “Pedro showed that my grandfather had a sense of humor.” People think of Frank Lloyd Wright as being really serious. I think because he had these close relationships with them, I think he may have humanized [Wright, Calder, and Nevelson] a little bit. So I think that’s significant.

“In a way, this is a real American story, told through the eyes of a Mexican-American that a lot of people didn’t know about.”

                                                                                                     Raymond Telles
 

Was there anything that came up during the filming that surprised you about Guerrero?

There were a lot of photographs of himself. I asked Dixie, his wife, why? She said, you know, he was very concerned with his image. He tried to cultivate an image of himself throughout his life. Here was a man who was trying to figure out who he was and how he fit into the world, and I think taking those “selfies” helped him figure it out.

In the film, architectural historian Bernard Michael Boyle talks about how Guerrero was able to bring out the texture of a place. Can you think of a particular example?

Anything he shot that’s in the desert, the buildings actually look like they’re [growing] out of the ground. You can see the rocks they used from the area. The black and white photography kind of lends itself to that. Also shooting in large format, you really see detail, and the photographs show really well. We’ve had a few screenings in theaters as promotion for the American Masters broadcast, and the photographs stand up really well, even when they’re blown up on the big screen. They give the feeling that the buildings are of the earth and made with those [natural] materials.

 

Meghan Drueding is the managing editor of Preservation magazine. She has a weakness for Midcentury Modernism, walkable cities, and coffee table books about architecture and design.

Muslim High School Student Bullied By Classmate With “ISIS” Snapchats

Muslim High School Student Bullied By Classmate With "ISIS" Snapchats A New Jersey high school student has been speaking out about a bullying incident that mocked her Muslim faith. On Facebook, Student Saira Ali shared a letter from her school district claiming that photographs taken of her, and posted to Snapchat with “ISIS” and an emoji, were not bullying. And after that sparked the predictable outrage, the school district said the first letter was a mistake and another letter was on its way to her and her family. [ more › ]

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