Image Credit: Young evacuees of Japanese ancestry await relocation at Turlock, California, May 2, 1942. LMU Magazine On Feb. 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt. It authorized the incarceration (internment) of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. About 122,000 people were sent to concentration camps. With rare exceptions, many of their homes, businesses, and farms were confiscated by banks, local governments, and speculators. Image Credit:

At the 1936 Olympics, in Berlin, Germany, 18 African American’s challenged discrimination on the world stage. And won eight gold medals. It wasn’t only Jesse Owens, you ask? Nope. The American narrative of the 1936 Olympics is about one Black athlete named Jesse Owens. Like most narratives, there’s more to the story. ◊ ◊ ◊ The documentary, “Olympic Pride, American Prejudice explores the experiences of 18 African American Olympians who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitle

Image credit: New York Times In this short Opinion Documentary, what the New York Times, calls an “Op-Doc,” the media outlet asks, “What does it mean to be a Native American today?” ln their “latest installment of The Times’s Conversation on Race project, they set out to include as many perspectives on native identity as possible. And there are many perspectives.” “For this film, we spoke to dark-skinned and light-skinned individuals. Those whose ancestry ranges from one-si

What happens when America’s most fundamental values are put to the test? In Breaking the Deadlock: How to Fix an Election, moderator Aaron Tang (UC Davis School of Law) guides a diverse group of influential voices through an unfolding hypothetical crisis they’ve never seen before. What begins as a localized infrastructure threat quickly escalates, spilling into a high-stakes national moment involving an upcoming election, voting rights, and questions of national security. A

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now: “We end today’s show with the words of the late historian Howard Zinn. We’re turning back now to 2009 when Howard Zinn appeared on Democracy Now, less than a year before he died. He’d just published A Young People’s History Of The United States. “I asked him to respond to a question he’d frequently been asked about his work: Is it right to be so critical of the government’s policies of the traditional heroes of the country?” Howard: It’s true t

Image credit: National Memorial of Peace and Justice dedicated to lynching, Equal Justice Initiative. The National Memorial documents the most active era of racial terror lynchings from 1877 to 1950 including Emmett Till. On a hilltop overlooking Montgomery is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It is the first public reflection space to acknowledge the history of racial terror lynchings in America; the nation’s first comprehensive memorial dedicated to the legacy of

Image credit: Legacy Museum Image credit: Equal Justice Initiative “When I moved to Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1980s there were 59 monuments and memorials to the Confederacy,” says Bryan Stevenson. “You could not find the word slave slavery or enslavement anywhere in the city landscape. And the absence of any acknowledgment of that history bothered me. I saw it as a problem, but it wasn’t a priority then. It wasn’t a focus then. “I was focused on trying to get people who w

Image credit: Legacy Museum Image credit: Equal Justice Initiative Renowned human rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, reflects on why efforts to erase or soften Black history are intensifying, how fear and false narratives have shaped American law and culture for generations, and why preserving historical truth is essential to the country’s future. Image credit: The Grio In the Grio interview excerpted in this blog

Image credit: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124054/ “246 years. Nearly two and a half centuries. That is how long slavery lasted in what is now the United States of America,” wrote Isabel Wilkerson on Facebook in June 2026. “This is the day that we commemorate the moment that the last enslaved Americans were finally freed in the slavery stronghold of Texas on June 19, 1865. They had toiled for two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and mon

Image credit: Robert Hrovat, Pixabay Humid, putrid garbage mountains piled on neighborhood street corners, in alleys. I’m glad I don’t live in it anymore; the too-muchness. Loud, clanging, screechy. Clouds and shadows behind Chrysler, and Empire State Buildings. The Brooklyn Bridge. Ol’ skool New York. The best street food around. ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Anatomy of a Poem ◊ ◊ ◊

Image credit: Freya Norling, Fjord Cast “Should we have a little talk?” So begins Freyia, a Norse folklorist and mythologist. “Maybe you are tired because you have never finished a single death. Yes, I said that you have never finished a death. You have left too many versions of yourself half dead, half alive, trapped between worlds, still breathing, still attached. All those times you knew something was over and you didn’t bury it properly, that’s what’s leaking your ene

Image credit: The Elephant The first thing I do: Sneer smirk and all the rest. Too much damage to choose well. ◊ ◊ ◊ Anatomy of a Poem

Image credit: Time.com “Using the difficulty” is a present-moment opportunity to create-destroy-recreate. Here’s how that dynamic” played out in the making of the 2008 film, Rachel Getting Married, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anne Hathaway. Demme: I wanted all of the music to happen in the moment. we actually did this thing that you’re not supposed to do; we played live music while the actors are saying their dialogue. Hathaway: I didn’t know the movie was being s

Image credit: NoName_13 @ Pixabay.com “This is the heroism required of you: to reckon with the facts of your existence, to make hard choices and to keep meaning afloat even as you struggle.” Dr. Eric Maisel ◊ ◊ ◊ The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression

It is mine to fold blue rage onto itself, silken weeds live with icy green. Lopsided honeycombs in skin folds. How they bring back memories of lotus flowers in Vietnam when my father was still alive. ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Anatomy of a Poem

Image credit: Analogicus, Pixabay.com Gaping from the neck down. Spangles hang; knit supports. Quarter-Sized Sequins. She had a dress like this once. It looked amazing on her. She gave it away, like she does everything else. ◊ ◊ ◊ Anatomy of a Poem

Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com “Apoptosis is a word referring to programmed cell death. It’s a process by which your aging, damaged, or obsolete cells deliberately destroy themselves for the benefit of your organism as a whole. This “cellular suicide” is carefully regulated and crucial for development, maintenance, and protection against diseases. About 50-70 billion cells die in you every day, sacrificing themselves so you can live better. Let’s use this healt

Image credit: Anthony Pearson, sculpture If your work goes up in flames, don’t fetishize the ashes, is the headline for a section of the New York Times Magazine’s April 2024 “Beginners” issue. The subtitle for the issue is: “From debuts to do-overs, what it means to start an artistic life – at any age.” A featured quote from painter, photographer and sculptor, Anthony Pearson resonated with my focus on the dynamic of create-destroy-recreate. “In 2013 there was an electric

Image credit: Gina Greenlee, New York City Skyline Black-and-White Photo Handbag Use this purse-inspired step-by-step template as a writing prompt. ◊ ◊ ◊ What’s the Point, of Purse Prompts, You Ask? Fun way to fill a blank page. Blank pages keep folks from starting projects. You are getting your “reps” in, working and strengthening a muscle of getting started and getting on with it. With more reps, each time you work the muscle the lift gets easier. For writers, the art

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