By Staff of Nevada Humanities
Can you remember the last time you picked up a rock to study it, smelled a flower, listened to the birds in the trees, or lay on your back to watch the clouds go by? When was the last time you stepped outside and stopped to appreciate your surroundings? In these socially distant times, nurturing our relationships with one another has become of paramount importance, but it is worth considering how we can also find solace, comfort, and inspiration in our relationship with the natural world.

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By Sean C. Jones
Several years ago, I tasked myself with doing what I’ve required my public-school art class kids to do for over 20 years – a “Daily Drawing.” I bet myself I could do 365 drawings daily, even on weekends, and post them on social media. It was fun, occasionally stressful, but I just drew whatever I wanted to.

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By MJ Ubando
People always look skeptical when I tell them I’ve crowd-surfed. I don’t necessarily blame them. These days, and for most of my life, I’ve always been a bit of a grandma. At 32 years old, I love acrylic sweaters, a cup of warm tea, and will spout out Golden Girls quotes at any given opportunity.

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2020 presented Nevada Humanities with the opportunity to transform and shift our programming online. In case you missed some of our virtual events in the blur of 2020, we invite you to look back in a retrospect of our 2020 virtual events on our YouTube channel.

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By Wendy Kveck
The impetus for curating New Monuments for a Future Las Vegas for the Nevada Humanities Exhibition Series, which is currently on view at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery and online at nevadahumanities.org, was my experience teaching the inaugural Las Vegas Seminar, Finding America in Las Vegas, last spring in the Department of Art at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. A lofty premise! but I stand behind it.

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By Staff of Nevada Humanities
At Nevada Humanities, we create and fund programs that use the humanities to illuminate our diverse histories and chart a path forward in a dramatically changing world. We know the critical role that the humanities play in nurturing just and healthy communities, in connecting people, providing space for diverse perspectives, and strengthening our community bonds with deeper intellectual and cultural engagement.

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By Michael Green
The obituary stood out to me: Frederick Hesse Stitt, Jr. It noted that he was 62, well liked, and overcame addiction. I knew all that. I met him at the gym, and he gave me a greater gift than he realized. That I would recognize a name in the obituary column probably is unsurprising. I write and teach about Las Vegas history, and I’m likely to know some names that others would miss.

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By Kathleen Kuo
I have been working remotely from my home in Las Vegas since April 1, my first day of employment at Nevada Humanities. It feels strange to be homebound, leaving only for essential errands, and I feel this lack of human connection even more so because of Nevada Humanities’ emphasis on producing and forging meaningful human connections and programs.

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An Interview with Antoinette Cavanaugh—New Board Chair of Nevada Humanities
Humanities, from my viewpoint, is the individual and unique artistic expression of our perceptions, feelings, and passions about the world around us. Our individual gifts of expression provide others the opportunity to interpret that which is expressed. These creative interactions then encourage growth and understanding of and between all of us.

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Staff of Nevada Humanities
Wishing you and yours a most Happy Thanksgiving Day! Celebrate, give thanks, and seek out the humanities in the world around you.

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By Staff of Nevada Humanities
GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide is coming and you can be part of the movement to fund our work.

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By Staff of Nevada Humanities
As record numbers of Americans have cast their ballots in the 2020 election season, Nevada Humanities is sharing essays and reflections from first-time and seasoned voters throughout the state.

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By Emilee Wirshing
clay mineral rusts
the desert brush
an alchemy of iron & time,
when our rituals need sacrifice
we steep the knuckled twigs
of ephedra for tea, wander
bare ankled through fields
of jumping cholla.

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By Daniel Enrique Pérez
As the United States reckons with its legacy of racial violence and discrimination against several communities of color and religious minorities—Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Jewish, and Muslim—I am reminded of the important role the names of places play.

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By Sally Denton
Living in the long shadow of the coronavirus pandemic during a particularly prickly presidential election year, it’s easy to be consumed by the daily headlines and forget those better angels of our common humanity. But it’s at just such times that the Humanities are more important than ever, because they remind us of the great spirit that exists in the American people.

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By Bill Marion
You may not know it, but October is National Arts and Humanities Month. As the Chair of the Board of Nevada Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, it has fallen on me to say something about why we should dedicate a full month to the Arts and Humanities, particularly when venerable institutions like hot dogs, apple pie, and the American flag only get a day each. This of course then leads to the questions of what are the arts? What are the humanities?

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By Aliza Pantoja
To whom it may concern:
I have written this letter in support of Nevada Humanities. This letter has not been written on behalf of them or as a request from them. We are an organization that has continued to create and support programs that resonate with the people of our state during the recent, uncertain times. I am proud of the work that we do, and I think our group of sometimes nine or more women are a true representation of an organization that tries to create something good in our state.

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By Kurt Rasmussen
The muddy lake is like an ocean to the boy
who is your son, digging landscapes in the sand.
He is a wastrel god with tiny, pruned-up hands
creating worlds and wrecking them with savage joy.

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