fewwords

Posting from Brooklyn about dance, economics, politics, art, and design.

[wnyc]

CALIFORNIA IS DYING / MOVE TO CALIFORNIA (via New York Times)

-sean, sideshow

[ryeisenberg]

This kind of misogyny, joking or not, is insipidly mainstream. It’s everywhere—it dominates plenty of political policy in the country, for example. It’s the sort of thing alternative culture should say “fuck off” to every chance it gets.

Baltimore City Paper - Why we’re not running ‘Maakies’ anymore (via ryeisenberg)

[profeminist]

9 Inspiring Photos That Show Black Ballerinas Breaking Down Barriers

The Dallas-based organization Brown Girls Do Ballet is turning the spotlight on talented dancers of color.

TaKiyah Wallace never planned on starting an organization that celebrates and supports girls of color who want to be ballerinas, but that’s exactly what happened. When Wallace was looking for a dance school for her then 3-year-old daughter, she noticed something was missing: brown girls.

At the time, Wallace’s daughter hadn’t been enrolled in day care or school, so she wanted to find a dance academy where she’d feel completely at ease. “Her hair was not long and flowing, and she wears her Afro proudly,” Wallace explains. “So I wanted to find a school that was diverse enough for her first experience outside of the house.”

As she surfed several schools’ websites, Wallace, a public school teacher and freelance photographer in Dallas, didn’t find what she was looking for—so she decided to create it. That’s when Brown Girls Do Ballet was born.

“I was looking for a project to shoot during my downtime, so I decided my project was going to be photographing dancers of color,” Wallace says.

At first, she planned on shooting 12 little brown ballerinas, but when the casting call she issued on Facebook received responses from all over the country, she realized she was onto something.

“It went viral,” she says, still surprised by the response. “That’s when I realized how very little we are represented in the ballet world, and specifically the classical ballet world.” Click through to see how Brown Girls Do Ballet has transformed into an organization that not only highlights dancers of color in strikingly beautiful photographs, but also supports them along their journey.  

Read the full piece and see more photos here

[wnyc]

Instagram of the day by @visualmemories_ 

[lori-nyc]

Finally breaking open a friend's gift from Suntory Whisky Distillery. Yum. And aren't those illustrations pretty?

[wnyc]

Instagram of the day by @dave_krugman

[toughpigs]

Mr. Snuffleupagus isn’t imaginary.  He’s just protecting his tweets.

[truebluemeandyou]

DIY Animated Cards from Instructables’ User goldlego. First seen at MAKE. GIFs cropped and sized to fit Tumblr’s 1.75MB maximum size using my favorite GIF resizing program: lunapic.com.

DIY Retro Valentine’s Day Animated Card by goldlego at Instructables.

DIY Windows Retro 95 Animated Loading Birthday Card by goldlego at Instructables. You can edit the message in this card.

[wnyc]

Instagram of the day by @_misshattan

[micdotcom]

#HistoricPOC is the hashtag we need this Black History Month 

Founded by Mikki Kendall, #HistoricPOC has taken social media by storm this week. Kendall has created a platform to showcase the diversity of multiculturalism and race throughout America’s history and prove that there is so much more for us to learn.

How it demonstrates the one thing we need to remember this month

[wnyc]

–– A real-life “Rosie the Riveter” operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, Tennessee, working on an A-31 Vengeance dive bomber.

–– The Kim Sisters, a South Korean trio who had a successful career in America during the 50’s and 60’s, performing 22 times on The Ed Sullivan Show.

–– Sister Rosetta Tharpe – rockin’ & rollin’ before Elvis. And before Chuck Berry. “The Original Soul Sister.”

[femsplain]

The Grass Only Looks Greener Because Of The Instagram Filter (It’s Valencia)

No matter what choice you make, there’s the “what if,” the greener grass, the other side — which you see every day, filtered to the extreme — on social media. If only people shared their real lives instead of their best moments… But I guess crying in the shower or Netflix in bed won’t ever look good, even in Valencia.

Read More

[iquantny]

It has been about four months since I first wrote about the numbers you have to memorize in order to get an even number of rides on your Metrocard, and specifically my favorite: $19.05 for eight rides. I first started looking at the issue after noticing that I could never seem to zero out my own balance. For a while, as I saw the differing amounts collect on my card, I wondered if it was just me. From there, I actually wrote a mathematical proof to convince myself that you literally can’t zero your balance, no matter how many times you refill your card using preset buttons, and no matter how many times you ride.  So it wasn’t just me.  It was literally every single rider who used the MTA’s preset buttons. ……

And just like the seasons, the inevitable fare increases have arrived once again.  The new fare is $2.75 and the new bonus is 11%.  So what does that do to our Metrocard buying experience starting on March 22nd?……

[wnyc]

[salon]

“What if my son had panicked under the stress, having never had a gun pointed at him before, and made what the officer considered a ‘suspicious’ movement? Had I come close to losing him? Triggers cannot be unpulled. Bullets cannot be called back.”

Charles Blow expresses his completely understandable outrage.

[newyorker]

Why “Selma” Is More Than Fair to L.B.J.

Amy Davidson writes:

It is ahistorical to insist that a film show how civil-rights leaders ought to have experienced Johnson, given his fine intentions, and not how they did.

[wnyc]

"How Objective is the Law? Serial: Part 1"

New PBS Idea Channel! And this one’s right in our wheelhouse!

P.S. Rock that tweed, Mike!

[balltillifall-deactivated202007]

Homemade front yard ice rink because Minnesota.

[lori-nyc]

Amazing. (As a former Texan, I still can't imagine living somewhere this cold.)

[newyorker]

Marina Harss on a dancer’s quest for self-improvement:

[Calvin Royal III] started dancing late—he was fourteen—and almost by chance, after taking a class in his performing-arts high school (where he specialized in classical piano). He studied with a local teacher, Suzanne Pomerantzeff, who gave him lots of videos to watch, including one of Stiefel as Oberon in “The Dream.” His promise was quickly recognized and he was offered a scholarship at A.B.T.’s affiliated academy, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. The scholarship was funded by of the company’s stars, Ethan Stiefel.

Courtesy Susie Morgan Taylor