Roman Chacon

34yo queer chicano, historian, folklorist, teacher, musician based in New York.

[polari]

this meeting could have been a beloved folktale passed down orally thru generations

[vintageeveryday]

Goodbye to Nedra Talley-Ross (1946–2026), the last surviving member of the iconic 1960s girl group The Ronettes.

[folkfashion]

Zapotec dancer's dress, Mexico, by Thomas Aleto

[phyllisdietrichsonswig]

Happy Appomattox Day ❤️

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[akm87]

[wolfythewitch]

Group projects are a humiliation ritual invented by Big Academia to suck you of your soul and fill you with the deepest forms of rage

[monkeyislandtwo]

i think "[sic]" is one of the funniest things of literature. like yeah this guy really wrote it out like that

[legendaryvermin]

For the uninitiated, you write [sic]—literally "this" or "so" in latin—to indicate that you haven't altered the wording or spelling. While it can be used to preserve a joke misspelling (aminals) or indicate that you know it looks weird (the Toronto Maple Leafs), it is also the most biting three letters that you can throw at a motherfucker who should know better.

[marlynnofmany]

Somebody made an error here and it sure wasn't me (derogatory)

[blackfolksintime]

25-year-old Cab Calloway photographed by Carl Van Vechten on January 12, 1933.

[professorerudite]

[folkfashion]

Venezuelan Diablos Danzante de Corpus Christi dance group, Venezuela, by Fundación Centro de la Diversidad Cultural

[tamamita]

I think people are kinda skimming over the fact that Greenland is colonized by the Danish, because many people seem to think that colonization can only happen when the Yanks do it.

[isuggestlandback]

Greenland Kalaallit Nunaat is Inuit land!!!

[iamheavymeta-lll]

Mardi Gra Indian Portrait

Eric Waters.

[thechanelmuse]

Remnants of the British Black Panther’s Lost Legacy

[clatterbane]

Britain’s black power movement is at risk of being forgotten, say historians

The Cambridge academic Robin Bunce said: “There is a fundamental danger of erasing the very notion of a struggle at all. I’ve been researching this for four and a half years and there have been so many occasions when people have said to me: ‘There was no black struggle in Britain. You’re thinking of South Africa or America.’“

The narrative that feeds it is the one that Britain is the utopia of fair play. We have such a commitment to individual rights, we have such a commitment to common sense and decency that there is no systematic racism in Britain.”…

Bunce said it was not just politicians, but wider British society that would rather not dwell on the less palatable.

[max1461]

I'm gonna reblog with some videos of people speaking various American Indian/indigenous American languages, because I think most people don't even know what they sound like. Not to be judgement of that—just, you know, I think people who want to be informed should know what they sound like!

[max1461]

Former president of the Navajo Nation, Joe Shirley, giving an address in Navajo.

[max1461]

Nora Marks Dauenhauer telling a story, "Raven and Deer", in Tlingit.

[max1461]

Albert White Hat, a well known Lakota teacher, translator, and activist, speaking Lakota.

[max1461]

This YouTube user, Grahm Wiley-Camacho, has uploaded a bunch of videos in Colville Okanagan Salish, but I'm not sure who all the speakers are.

[max1461]

Multiple people speaking Cherokee and talking about revitalization of the language.

[max1461]

This guy speaking Yucatec Maya (guest starring: adorable small child).

[max1461]

There's a ton of material in Greenlandic on YouTube, but it's hard for me to find, because the titles and other metadata are also in Greenlandic! Of course, this represents a huge win for the language, since this is a biproduct of being in vibrant use by a community of speakers. Greenlandic has been an official language of the territory of Greenland since 1979, and the sole official language since 2009.

Here are some proceedings of the Greenlandic parliament, the Inatsisartut, which are conducted in Greenlandic.

Here is a radio show in Greenlandic, from Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa.

And here is a video of Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, Greenlandic MP in the Danish parliament (Folketing), causing some upset by speaking in Greenlandic instead of Danish.

[max1461]

Conversation between Loran Thompson and Francis Boots in Mohawk.

[max1461]

Interview with Yup'ik elder Raphael Jimmy about qaneryaraq "words of wisdom/right living".

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[insteading]

Vincent Medina, Muwekma Ohlone, telling a story in Chochenyo, and talking about the reasons to relearn a language:

[vintageeveryday]

The Dahomey Amazons, known in their native Fon language as Mino (“Our Mothers”) or Agoji, were an all-female military regiment that served the Kingdom of Dahomey (in present-day Benin, West Africa) from the 17th century until the late 19th century. They are a unique and celebrated part of world history, recognized for their ferocity, discipline, and military prowess. They were named Amazons by Western Europeans who encountered them, due to the story of the female warriors of Amazons in Greek mythology.

The exact origin of the Dahomey Amazons is debated, with various oral traditions and historical accounts offering different theories. Some scholars suggest the group began in the 17th century during the reign of King Houegbadja (1645-1685), possibly as a corps of elephant huntresses known as Gbeto. Another theory credits King Agaja’s older sister and predecessor, Queen Hangbe (1716-1718), with forming an all-female bodyguard unit. Regardless of the precise origin, the unit became a formal and significant part of the Dahomey army under the rule of King Ghezo (1818-1858).

During the reign of King Ghezo, Dahomey became increasingly militaristic, and he formalized the female regiment, transforming it from a ceremonial group into a formidable military force. He significantly increased the army’s budget and placed great importance on the women’s unit. At their peak in the mid-19th century, the Amazons numbered between 1,000 and 6,000 women, comprising roughly one-third of the kingdom’s entire army.

Read more of their story here...

[suturesque]

vodun day, 2020 benin. julio sacristan