By Mark Salinas
Measuring the amount of space between objects has been occupying my mind, again. It seems everyone has dusted off the old home sewing machine and has committed bobbins and pinking shears to at-home Project Runway challenges, creating facemasks for friends, family, and even strangers.
By Aliza Pantoja
Sometimes I forget my name and where I am because I have a dissociative disorder that alters my identity, my memory, and my connection to the world. It can be difficult to feel successful when I struggle with the simple upkeep of normal social and professional personas. I forget that although I have no choice but to adapt, my adaptability is a strength.
By Heather Korbulic
The birds piss me off these days. Their incessant, merry chirping seems tone deaf to the darkness that fills day after blurry day in quarantine. Dear little finch – shut the hell up – I’m trying to be miserable here.
By Autumn Harry, Tsanavi Spoonhunter, and Jarrette Werk
As Indigenous Peoples, our place-based narratives connect us with the ancestral world- geographically, spiritually, and physically. Due to the continued impacts of colonialism, Indigenous communities within North America are actively advocating for their rights to be recognized and respected within their ancestral homelands.
By Susanna Newbury, Lauren Paljusaj, and Anne Savage
Photographs showcase history through the art of images. As objects, they represent shifting cultural styles and attitudes of times (and mediums) that no longer exist in the flickering novelty of the present. As Oliver Wendell Holmes warned in 1859, their invention trained us to hunt and collect images as glimmering appearances, in his words, like the skin and hide of trophy hunters. Photographs carry with them the possibility of leaving lives formerly lived to dissolve, mirage-like, in history’s distant viewfinder.
We asked our board of trustees what they are reading during the pandemic. Here are some favorite reads from some of the Nevada Humanities Board of Trustee members.
Read MoreBy Alicia Barber, PhD
In times of both calm and chaos, history provides critical context for our lives. Most would agree that a knowledge of past events and decisions is essential to understanding our government, our institutions, our cultures and traditions.
By Andrew Church
I once read that only 24% of Nevadans were born in Nevada. The rest of us are migrants, pioneers, transients, exiles, and opportunists of a modern sort. But in spite of our varying origins, what we hold in common is that we all came here, to the Great Basin that encompasses most of Nevada and beyond. Which raises the question, does that commonality have any significance in who we are?
By Dr. Joe Crowley
Submitted by Jane F. Tors
In mid-July, 1965, Joy and I spent a week at Plumas Pines, California, and decided to drive down to Reno to see the University of Nevada campus. I had accepted a one semester job there, beginning in January, 1966. Joy dropped me off at Morrill Hall, the first campus building, and, as I learned later, still one considered to house the heartbeat of the university. Just north of it was a long, leafy, lovely space known as the Quad.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, enjoy readings from Ashley Vargas, Elizabeth Quiñones-Zaldaña, Samuel Piccone, Emilee Wirshing, Jarret Keene, and Jennifer Battisti.
Read MoreBy Jarret Keene
Coyote skittering the blacktop
Jackrabbit rip-zagging a tumbleweed
In half
Jet plane blasting
Across a blood-orange sky
And where are you, darling?
Read MoreBy Melissa Bowles-Terry
An old joke: A university is a loosely organized group of scholars, united only by their complaints about parking. We live and work in our departments, mostly: anthropologists hanging out with other anthropologists, chemists bumping into chemists. There are few places we routinely encounter one another outside of our discipline-specific spheres.
By Paul Michelsen
This is how you write a poem
You make the hieroglyphics
do a little dance, then
let them make sweet love
How you remember
your loved ones
The living and the dead
By Stephen Siwinski
“Good deal.”
That was Dad’s way of saying something was satisfactory, his highest form of praise or a way to wrap up a conversation that had gone on a little too long. It was a utilitarian phrase that could be unfolded and used in any situation like a trusty pocket knife. Dad loved deals.
By Michelle Aucoin Wait
While God’s sunshine plays around the little tomb where her remains are buried, by the side of her second husband, and her sons and daughters, Marie Laveau’s name will not be forgotten in New Orleans. The Times-Picayune (17 June 1881)
By Staff of Nevada Humanities
One positive side of social distancing is spending time with some good books. Here’s what our staff at Nevada Humanities are reading.
By Stephanie Gibson
As I hole up at home, the rhythm of the day – rise, run, coffee, child wrangling, commute, work, home, dinner, more wrangling, bed, repeat – completely upended, I’m trying to establish some routines that make this new normal feel more, normal. Besides taking many deep breaths, spending time researching how one homeschools, and setting up my Nevada Humanities home office, here are a few things that bring some peace, joy, and connection to my days:
By Anny Ayala Ortega
My introduction to roller skating was when I saw Michelle Steilen, a.k.a. Estro Jen, in this profile of her skate part for Bones Swiss Bearings. In 2017, I asked my best friend Jennifer to learn how to roller skate with me, and so we did. It took a lot of courage and getting over fears, and in the end was about pushing through and learning the steps together. It’s a sport you can immediately fall in love with.
By Staff of Nevada Humanities
Since we are halfway through Women’s History Month in March and April’s National Poetry Month will be here soon, we thought it appropriate to celebrate the works of women poets from Nevada. We cannot highlight all of the women poets in the Silver State so we pulled a few poets who have contributed to the Double Down blog. Enjoy!
As the challenges presented by COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) continue to evolve rapidly, Nevada Humanities’ top priority remains the health, safety, and well-being of our Nevada communities. With the growing prevalence of COVID-19 nationally and with its appearance in Nevada, we are carefully monitoring both federal and state guidance on how to minimize exposure to and spread of the virus. The health and peace of mind of our staff, board, partners, grantees, and program participants will guide our decision making in the coming weeks.
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