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Some moments in history feel like a long-overdue shift toward progress, and Anne Collins Smith being named as Chief Curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art is a groundbreaking step toward a more inclusive and representative art world. Now, she has not only reached the pinnacle of a career she has meticulously built but also made history. As the first Black American and the first Black native New Orleanian to hold a full curatorial role at NOMA, this is more than a personal achievement—it is a testament to the power of perseverance, community, and cultural stewardship.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Smith said, reflecting on her long journey in the art world. That journey began with a deep foundation in African American art, nurtured at Spelman College, where she earned her undergraduate degree before going on to complete an MA in visual arts administration at New York University. Over the years, she has held influential positions at institutions including the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Through these experiences, she honed her commitment to making art both accessible and resonant across diverse audiences.

Yet, her new endeavor at NOMA holds a significance that extends beyond her impressive resume. It is deeply personal—a homecoming and a duty that carries weight. “It means that I’ve done the work, and I can be a representative of all that’s great about New Orleans,” she said. “It means that I get to represent a plethora of communities that help to shape me.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/38825764

Youtube

Whenever Nikki Williams’ feet touch the soil on Sapelo Island, Georgia, memories of her youth flood back vividly.

Every fall, her grandfather had her work at the drink booth during Cultural Day, where hundreds gathered to celebrate “the heart and soul of Gullah Geechee culture” through arts and live entertainment. It’s a time to “touch the soil, hear the stories, and smell the food.”

This annual gathering is a living testament to the centuries of resilience and strength of Gullah Geechee folk on Sapelo Island, the last intact Gullah Geechee community on the Georgia coast. But, the recent tragedy, coupled with continued threats of displacement and erasure, forces descendants back into a state of high alert. For years, they’ve endured government neglect, property tax hikes, and white developers eyeing the land, known for its beaches and climate, as a place to build luxury resorts and golf courses.

Williams’ lineage to Sapelo Island dates back more than a century. She is a descendant of two of the 44 formerly enslaved families that settled here after the Civil War. There were several Black settlements, but the first Black-owned land purchased by freedmen was in 1871 at Raccoon Bluff, according to the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society. However, by 1965, landowner Richard J. Reynolds consolidated the remaining Black settlements into one: Hogg Hammock.

Once Williams arrived at her grandparents’ trailer, they’d unload groceries. Then, they’d meet cousins at Aunt Jo and Uncle Earl’s house — they were cousins, too, but they called them “Aunt” and “Uncle” because they were much older. While Earl fired up the grill outside, the delicious aroma of traditional Gullah food lingered in the air, drifting from the kitchen. Jo, short for Josephine, served red rice, hoppin’ john, or collard greens, along with a three-layered cake in a domed glass stand.

Today, there’s fewer than 30 original descendants who live on the island.

As an adult, she now understands the struggles.

“I would hear the elders talking about preserving the land and people moving in, but when you’re young, you’re not thinking about that,” she said. “But when I saw it, that’s when I was like, ‘The things that they have been talking about are happening, and I’m looking at this with adult eyes, and I see it now.”

My day was filled with thankfulness for being with my family, praise, and love. It was nice.

Here's me, my grandma and my baby cousin singing, "Down By The Riverside." [Traditional slave hymn for those unaware] I'm the lead singer and tambourine player, LMAO.

https://jumpshare.com/s/RjVW7yFpAF7257fvnKlQ

For fun, suggest names for our little group.

BONUS: "Brown Girl In The Ring" (Solo) [I TRIED] (This is a traditional Jamaican Kids' Song.)

https://jumpshare.com/s/1ZasTtCCzKVTTqwR9q3B

Someone, please give me rhythm! 🫠

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/21050246

Welcome to the trans poc community! :]

I made this group to be a safe space on the fediverse for trans poc! it's pretty white out there!

On a Wednesday summer evening on the Rosebud Reservation, members of the Siċaŋġu Nation arrange 12 tables to form a U around the parking lot of a South Dakota Boys & Girls Club. The tables at the Siċaŋġu Harvest Market are laden with homemade foods for sale—tortillas, cooked beans, pickles, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. The market is one of many ways the nonprofit increases access to traditional and healthful foods that also happen to come with a low climate impact. The Lakota, of which Siċaŋġu is one of seven nations, were traditionally hunters and gatherers, but today, the Siċaŋġu Co nonprofit is building on both new and old traditions to fulfill its mission.

The market is one component of the group’s food sovereignty work, which also includes cultivating mushrooms and caring for a bison herd. Siċaŋġu Co is also working on housing, education, and programs that support physical and spiritual wellness. But food came first. “We started with food because it’s so universal. Not just as a need but as a grounding cultural and family force,” says Michael Prate, who spearheaded the program in its initial stages. “It’s where people come together to build relationships.”

At the market, Siċaŋġu Co member Frederick Fast Horse shows off the mushrooms that he has foraged and raised to passersby. According to an important story passed down in Lakota history, the Lakota were once cave dwellers, and mushrooms were key to their survival, Fast Horse tells Sentient. These critical fungi are more than just calories though, as Fast Horse believes mushrooms are part of what helped Lakota stay so healthy for centuries, until the effects of colonization, which shifted the Nation’s diet to a heavy reliance on dairy and processed meats. “Every single mushroom actually coincides and targets a specific organ inside of your body,” he tells me.

In addition to being a skilled mycologist and forager, Fast Horse is also the chef at the nonprofit’s school, where he is reintroducing culturally significant ingredients to the students. Fast Horse makes breakfast and lunch for around 70 students and staff each day. The typical fare is pretty simple, he says: dishes made of just a handful of ingredients, plus a broth and spices.

In collaboration with school leadership, Fast Horse is developing dietary guidelines that reflect more traditional foods and agricultural practices. This way of eating amounts to “living off of the land.” It means eating “all the foods that are already around us, everything that you grow and very simplistic methods of preparing food and eating it,” says Fast Horse.

Guns are part of everyone’s life in the South. Guns came to the continent of North America as the violent conquering weapon. They became central to white supremacy’s cult, part of how whites terrorized Black communities over the centuries we’ve been coexisting here. Guns are deeply intertwined with the lives of many of the Black folks you’ll find living in Southern states, in Mississippi and Georgia and Texas and Alabama. It’s a fact of life for us that people around us are armed. We hope that those who are armed are on our side, to help defend against threats.

Black Southerners weren’t displaying their guns as a visible symbol of defiance, like the iconic portraits of armed Black Panthers from the 1960s. There’s nothing wrong with that at all—to stand in the face of white America and boldly announce you won’t be backing down. But the ways guns were culturally held in the Black South were different, the covert protection kept for when white supremacists reared their heads at you, that you pull out when needed. That is the distinguishing feature of Black Southern gun culture as opposed to mainstream white gun culture: Black Southern gun culture is a response to violent white supremacy and a defense against it, not a colonial offensive against marginalized groups to subjugate them.

Chile’s Indigenous Mapuche people have long fought the government over land claims. They’ve faced discrimination and assimilation into Chilean society. But some Mapuche communities are now turning the page. And they’re using an ancestral sport to help protect and revive their culture, customs and language.

Javier Soto Antihual, 35, is the coach and leader of these weekend games in the Santiago neighborhood of Pedro Aguirre Cerda.

He said that there’s a large Mapuche community here. And with the help of the Mapuche organization We Newen, or New Force, they’ve been holding these community games here for several years.

Introducing Mosiac! (It’s supposed to be Mosaic, but oh well. 💀) I created this platform because I've noticed how unwelcoming the internet can be for Black folks, whether on mainstream social media or the fediverse. I'm tired of it, and I want Mosiac to be a space where it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — whether you’re a Black person in the U.S. or in Ghana. The diaspora is rich and diverse, and while we share common struggles, I want us to move beyond our pain and connect authentically. That’s the essence of Mosiac!

I've been working on this instance for a week (2 weeks apparently. I’m big brain.), and it launched yesterday. While it’s currently closed to the public, I’m exploring the possibility of federating with other Black instances out there. I’m really excited about this!

If you’d like an invite, feel free to DM me or email my business account at kimadmin@mosiac.cc. [You can email if you have questions too. (:]

(Please note that this is a safe space for Black folks only! I know of one other POC instance, rage.love, so I hope you can find what you need there. ❤️ [I hope this doesn’t come off as rude. 😭])

Screenshots:

Mostly looking for instances for Black Fedi users, I’ve been looking on my own and can’t find much. Much appreciated!

EDIT: Found some! Please DM me if interested. They’re approval only of course!

I'm on the verge of stepping away from Reddit (I might stick around to moderate some communities but won't be actively engaging with the content). I’d like to bring over the things I enjoyed from Reddit, specifically some communities I liked. I'm curious about how well they would do here or on an instance like lemmy.world. Most of the communities I participated in on Reddit were black focused, which often brought in trolls or upset users. 💀

See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/philly/s/hwbR6zc0RX

https://beehaw.org/post/17237009

“Great oogly moogly, I’m a racist.”

• Moi.

That’s not funny, but the delivery is.

.

I'm taken aback by the views expressed in this post, especially in a community focused on Philadelphia. I want to clarify that I'm not harboring ill-will towards every white person. However, my experiences with racism have left me with trauma, and I'm not yet ready to confront those feelings or be in inclusive spaces. For now, I prefer to surround myself with people who understand my struggles, and for the most part, that’s my own.

The recent election results have only reinforced my concerns. I'm so disappointed and feel that it's essential to acknowledge the ongoing issues faced by Black America. To the white folks reading this, I urge you to be allies, not obstacles. If your black friends are open to your support, offer it. Donate to organizations working towards a better future for Black America, and educate yourself on the challenges we face.

Here, I’ll say it — I don’t believe America is progressive one bit, Even outside of what we face, the LGBT+ are still fighting for their rights as well. It’s insane, but this is where we are right now, and for most of us, myself included, I really don’t see things getting better but I will try to be optimistic.

So I’ve practically argued up and down the thread, but after several panic attacks I’m one foot out of the door with Reddit but hesitant to leave as there are communities I enjoy there that I don’t think moved to Lemmy. The question was asked on my city’s subreddit and I had people try to frame me into being a racist, mock my trauma with white people, and try to minimize the effects of racism that follow us all in the current day. I’m tired, man.

I know not all white folks are bad but some are making me wish to not interact with them at all. I’m sorry.

In this video Shana Leigh takes a look at how Native Americans sometimes have moved around a lot and weren't either born or raised entirely in the Americas.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17133217

An absolutely fantastic look at how goth is overwhelmingly white and all the problems that causes in it by Shonalika.

Ahead of Trump’s second term, the historic Black press can serve as a guiding light for practicing journalism in pursuit of a healthy democracy — or, at least, survival and community.

Trying to discuss race with white people is like talking to a brick wall. I just tried to talk about racism and got fucking ganged up on by white people swearing that you can only be racist if you intend to be so they aren't racist as long as they mean well. It's so fucking entitled when white people start lecturing poc about what's really racist. God.

As the United States sits on the precipice of yet another election that could ‘determine the fate of democracy’ (cue dramatic music), many Black Americans, myself included, have started to veer away from the question of, “Who are we voting for?’ and toward, “Where are we moving?”

In the years following the heavily documented rise in police brutality, killings, and assaults against Black people, coupled with the polarizing political environment, more and more Black Americans have grown tired of the status quo and are considering options elsewhere as we await the outcome of the upcoming election and what it could mean for our future in the States.

But this isn’t a new story. For decades, Black people have sought an escape from ever-present racism, discrimination, and oppression in the United States. Notable figures throughout history – artists, musicians, and free thinkers like James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, and W.E.B DuBois all pursued a life abroad at some point.

For many, the choice to leave or stay likely comes down to economics – will they be able to find work and provide for themselves and their families if they uproot for an entirely different country? It also comes down to a willingness to take a leap of faith.