By GennaRose Nethercott
“If you come thiiiiiis way, we’ve got two thousand clowns.” Reeva’s eyes light up, a grin highlighting the gap left behind from a tooth she’s just recently lost. She’s six and isn’t afraid of anything—even the piles and piles of clowns lining every surface of her family’s novelty motel. Ragdoll clowns and porcelain figurines. Pennywises and hobo clowns. Jack-in-the-boxes and red-nosed puppets. This: her legacy.
Read MoreBy Paul Michelsen
I shuffled the deck
Not playing cards or Tarot
but 59 cards, each representing
one of the Buddhist lojong slogans.
I picked number 59
which could be the first or last line
of an American-style haiku
with its five syllables.
By Emily Hoover
Originally published in Waxing and Waning. The poem was selected as runner-up in the Tennessee Tempest Edition contest in 2021.
In springtime, rust-colored spiderwebs
are woven across the Mojave like fishnet
stockings draped on an open dresser.
This desert dodder engulfs creosote bushes
& sagebrush scrubs, an outstretched
hand in the dark after a nightmare.
By Harry Fagel and Rodney J. Lee
We asked Harry Fagel and Rodney J. Lee, poets and guest curators of the current Nevada Humanities Exhibition Series Affinity for Masculinity: An Exhibition of Poetry to answer three questions about their inspiration in creating this exhibition and about their 30-year friendship.
Read MoreMy grandmother lived her early years in Carlin, Nevada. In the 1920s, winters were cold enough to freeze the Humboldt River, and ice was harvested and loaded onto trains in the railyards of the Central Pacific Railroad, where her father (my great-grandfather) worked. She slept with a brick warmed from the fire to keep warm—“bricks the size of two books” wrapped in a cloth. As a young teen, her family relocated to Sparks for railroad work. She lived out the rest of her life in Reno and witnessed the American strides and trials of the next seven decades.
Read MoreNevada is a state brimming with diverse cultures, rich history, and vibrant communities. In the heart of this flourishing tapestry lies an organization that has touched countless lives and allowed individuals to truly bloom through the transformative power of the humanities. Welcome to the Nevada Humanities fundraising campaign, aptly named Bloom with Nevada Humanities, where the seeds of knowledge, creativity, and empathy are sown, cultivating a community that celebrates the human experience.
Read MoreWhen the first COVID-19 vaccines were first distributed in January 2021, I used a high-resolution thermal camera to document and track the body’s reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine. I have, to date, photographed the arms of 140 participants from Nevada at the site of each person’s injection.
Read MoreBy Lindsay Wilson
From the new collection The Day Gives Us so Many Ways to Eat
Frost took its last bite
a week back. Now you drive
out to wander the dry lake
in your old shirt. This wind
a cool sickle in the open
country the wild horses sweep
through. Out here you cairn
your thoughts and thoughts
and thoughts, so much sand
and salt to sift through,
By Kathleen Kuo
“What are the humanities?” As someone who just recently passed her three-year milestone of working at Nevada Humanities, you would think that by now I would have an answer ready for this question. But I like the spontaneity that comes with not having a canned elevator pitch—my answer is a genuine reflection of my beliefs and thoughts at the moment that shifts depending on who I am speaking to, just as my own lived understanding of the humanities continues to evolve over time.
Read MoreBy Nancy Brune
A trained social scientist, I have spent much of my professional life analyzing critical policy challenges facing our communities by collecting data, developing models, completing quantitative analyses, and quantifying outcomes.
When I joined the Nevada Humanities Board in 2019, I knew that the organization had celebrated local authors and provided grants to support public-facing organizations. But admittedly, I had a very limited view of how humanities programming might inform our understanding of some of the challenges facing our Nevada communities. However, I immediately discovered that under the tutelage of the Nevada Humanities’ talented team, the organization has provided innovative ways to learn about issues relevant to our communities.
Read MoreBy Kimberly J. Roberts
Part of the magic of vintage photographs is the historical information they contain, recording the intimate details of daily life that might otherwise be lost. This photograph, labeled Sparks Telephone exchange, c.1923, from the Sparks Museum and Cultural Center’s railroad collection, captures a moment in the history of the telephone that tells a story much larger than the image itself.
Read MoreBy Sean C. Jones
I was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the late 70s and early 80, when I was a pre-teen, the city had less than half the population it has now and vast areas of empty desert. The city was focused on entertaining adults, not the children who lived here. Unable to drive, I spent a lot of time in my room. We had no internet or cable, and my siblings and I shared one phone line. I spent most of my time in my room, reading books and listening to vinyl records or the radio. I often felt bored.
Read MorePoems by Shane Brant
Songbird
You’re a songbird! My precious songbird.
I am the revelation of the world, darling. Lingua franca.
In stupendous assembly something angelic and something
Nightmarish dictates me. All the energy of these lights
And all the power of these signs, their allure, their provocation,
Their desire to coax and annihilate dreams is mine,
Benissima cuore mia. I love you.
By Jen Nails
Who will clean out your desks?
A dirty penny that you can’t tell the year,
an invitation to Hudson’s bday in September,
math worksheets and one LEGO,
a red and yellow bouncy ball,
paper clips and a crumpled post-it that says “I love you!”
By Courtney Cliften
She reminds me of the desert,
and by that I mean, she reminds me
that sometimes we must demand
to survive. She says acrostics
have a way of figuring out exactly
what we want to say, closes books
if they don’t feel important.
Read MoreBy Linda Faiss
Growing up in Carson City, my three siblings and I often heard our mother say, “Go out and play!” Not just because we were in her way, but because it was healthy for us to be outside in nature exploring our sagebrush-dotted environment.
Read MoreBy Staff of Nevada Humanities
Spring is in the air, and there is a renewed enthusiasm blooming at Nevada Humanities. We are growing and need your help to continue to thrive. The humanities help ground us in the constantly changing world around us. The humanities help us understand, often with a fresh perspective, what life is about.
Read MoreBy Genevy Machuca
I want to start by apologizing to younger me
I head to college in a year,
And now it's starting to get pretty clear
I’m not going to be a princess
Wearing that shiny pink dress…
In fact I outgrew my tap shoe
Even got my license…
By Mo Lima Truong
i. Growing Pains
Escaping my mother’s womb has been my greatest feat in the name of individuality.
I cannot feel in simple
terms.
I shove my fingers into my veins and
pray I can begin
to map my skin.
I am exploding and
have exploded a
million times over.
By Dustin Howard
Many of my close friends are artists, and one of the most common topics of discussion amongst us is that of time—or the lack of it, to be precise. We often lament that there are not enough hours in the day for us to do the art we love to do. I know that this is a sentiment shared by artists the world over, and there’s some tiny solace in knowing that as individual artists we’re not alone in feeling this way.
