Cultural Studies

An academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. Generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits.
letmypeopleshow: I’ll stop the world and melt with you:  Elizabeth Fleming, Rejected Popsicle, archival inkjet print from “Life Is a Series of Small Moments,” 2008. From the show “Through the Plain Camera: Small and Shapely Pleasures in Contemporary Photography,” opening Friday at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. The exhibition, curated by ARTnews photo editor Rebecca Roberson and Sarah Kaufman, spotlights images of “intimate, unposed moments seemingly snapped from the daily lives of the photographers: a stain on a sofa, a bar of soap left on the sink, a perfectly wrapped package of Chinese noodle soup.” Courtesy of the artist. 

letmypeopleshow:

I’ll stop the world and melt with you: 

Elizabeth Fleming, Rejected Popsicle, archival inkjet print from “Life Is a Series of Small Moments,” 2008. From the show “Through the Plain Camera: Small and Shapely Pleasures in Contemporary Photography,” opening Friday at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. The exhibition, curated by ARTnews photo editor Rebecca Roberson and Sarah Kaufman, spotlights images of “intimate, unposed moments seemingly snapped from the daily lives of the photographers: a stain on a sofa, a bar of soap left on the sink, a perfectly wrapped package of Chinese noodle soup.”

Courtesy of the artist. 

afrikanwomen: BOOK, My father’s daughter by Hannah Pool In 1974 Hannah Pool was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea and brought to England by her white adoptive father.  She grew up unable to imagine what it must be like to look into the eyes of a blood relative until one day a letter arrived from a brother she never knew she had.  Not knowing what to do with the letter, Hannah hid it away.  But she was unable to forget it, and ten years later she finally decided to track down her surviving Eritrean family and embarked upon a journey that would take her far from the comfort zone of her metropolitan lifestye to confront the poverty and oppression of a life that could so easily have been her own. About the author: Hannah Pool is, in her own words, British-Eritrean, Eritrean-British. She was born in Eritrea in 1974 and was adopted at the age of six months by a British scholar who lived and worked in the Sudan. She was raised in Manchester, England, believing that both her parents had died shortly after her birth. At the age of nineteen, she received a letter from her brother informing her that her father was alive and she had a sister and several brothers who lived in Eritrea. It took ten years for her to make the decision to meet with her birth family. She then embarked on a journey which took her back to her origins and which she recounts in her book titled My Fathers’ Daughter (Hamish Hamilton, 2005.) She now lives in London where she works as a columnist for The Guardian

afrikanwomen:

BOOK, My father’s daughter by Hannah Pool

In 1974 Hannah Pool was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea and brought to England by her white adoptive father.  She grew up unable to imagine what it must be like to look into the eyes of a blood relative until one day a letter arrived from a brother she never knew she had.  Not knowing what to do with the letter, Hannah hid it away.  But she was unable to forget it, and ten years later she finally decided to track down her surviving Eritrean family and embarked upon a journey that would take her far from the comfort zone of her metropolitan lifestye to confront the poverty and oppression of a life that could so easily have been her own.

About the author: Hannah Pool is, in her own words, British-Eritrean, Eritrean-British. She was born in Eritrea in 1974 and was adopted at the age of six months by a British scholar who lived and worked in the Sudan. She was raised in Manchester, England, believing that both her parents had died shortly after her birth. At the age of nineteen, she received a letter from her brother informing her that her father was alive and she had a sister and several brothers who lived in Eritrea.

It took ten years for her to make the decision to meet with her birth family. She then embarked on a journey which took her back to her origins and which she recounts in her book titled My Fathers’ Daughter (Hamish Hamilton, 2005.) She now lives in London where she works as a columnist for The Guardian

(via )

Chinese Expats Treat Nigerian Employees As Punching Bags

saharareporters:

The Chinese kick Nigerian workers on the testicles when they are not submissive.

If you are a Nigerian working for the Chinese, you are at risk of losing your private parts, says Maaji Meriga, after he practically lost the use of his manhood while working to construct railway tracks in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, for the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), a major overseas interest of the Chinese government.

The 62-year-old casual worker and bread winner of a family of 6 children was left potentially impotent when the company’s transport manager, Marcho Chin, popularly called ‘old soldier’, allegedly kicked him on his testicles and punched him on the ear to prove who is boss.

It all began a month into his job as a water tanker driver on January 29, 2011 at about 11:00am when Old Soldier asked Mr. Meriga to fill his tank and water the road leading to the CCECC yard, around Karamajiji Village near the Abuja airport. Mr. Meriga said while en route and spraying the ground, another Chinese in charge of drainages stopped him close to the yard and asked he fill two drums with water. He obliged, turned off the main spray machine, opened the side tap and began filling the drums when Old Soldier came and queried him.

“He said I am wasting resources, that I want to spoil the tanker. I told him that I can’t spoil it. He just went and opened the spray machine,” said Mr. Meriga. “I told him that it is his brother that asked me to fill the drums. I bent down to switch off the spray machine when he then kicked me from behind on my scrotum and testes. I immediately fell down. As I got up and asked him ‘master why?’ he then blew me on the ear before entering his jeep and drove to the yard.

Mr. Meriga immediately reported the case to the company’s personnel manager, Mr. Austin, but was ordered out of the premises, without any medical attention given to him.

“I reported at Karamajiji Police Station. I naked myself before the Police and showed them what happened to me. They saw my thing was swelling. I told them I am dying, I need,” Mr. Meriga said. “One officer followed me to the company but Mr. Austin told the Policeman he will not allow the white man go to station unless order comes from above.”

But several days later the order never came. By this time, Mr. Meriga’s left testicle had become swollen to the extent he was admitted for five days at the Garaku General Hospital in Nasarawa State. He was in need of urgent surgery as “examination of the testis showed grossly enlarged left hemi scrotum with marked tenderness of contiguous testis”. One medical record stated that an impression of inflammation was “made secondary to direct blow resulting from a beating”.

[read more]

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newyorker: Lopi LaRoe, artist, Brooklyn, New York. “My main issues are connected to the environment, but I recognize that it all stems from corporations having too much say in government, and taking our natural resources.” On Tuesday, Martin Schoeller photographed Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park. Click through to see the rest of Schoeller’s pictures: http://nyr.kr/nolJ0Z

newyorker:

Lopi LaRoe, artist, Brooklyn, New York. “My main issues are connected to the environment, but I recognize that it all stems from corporations having too much say in government, and taking our natural resources.”

On Tuesday, Martin Schoeller photographed Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park. Click through to see the rest of Schoeller’s pictures: http://nyr.kr/nolJ0Z

(Source: newyorker.com)

newyorker: Jacquelyn Hermer, nurse, Seattle, Washington. “I really believe that everyone should be here.” On Tuesday, Martin Schoeller photographed Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park. Click through to see the rest of Schoeller’s pictures: http://nyr.kr/nolJ0Z

newyorker:

Jacquelyn Hermer, nurse, Seattle, Washington. “I really believe that everyone should be here.”

On Tuesday, Martin Schoeller photographed Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park. Click through to see the rest of Schoeller’s pictures: http://nyr.kr/nolJ0Z

(Source: newyorker.com)

Tingatinga is a contemporary painting genre from Tanzania, named after its founder self-taught painter, Edward [Eduardo] Said Tingatinga (1932 – 1972, b. Nakapanya formerly called Namochelia, Tanzania). At the age of 38, E.S. Tingatinga created the informal art movement in an effort to supplement his then meagre income. The tools of his new found trade, high gloss enamel bicycle paint and ceiling board used to depict colourful yet flat renditions of animals such as birds, hyena’s, cheetahs and other animals found on the African savannah, as well as scenes from daily life and spirit figures. Tingatinga produced work for only four years before his untimely death. His work is said to have greatly influence another renown East African artist, George Lilanga. The Tingatinga movement to this day continues to provide a livelihood for many painters in Tanzania. A tradition that does not espouse to the western norm of uniqueness. Tingatinga paintings are mass produced, motifs are copied over and over and further developed.

Tingatinga is a contemporary painting genre from Tanzania, named after its founder self-taught painter, Edward [Eduardo] Said Tingatinga (1932 – 1972, b. Nakapanya formerly called Namochelia, Tanzania). At the age of 38, E.S. Tingatinga created the informal art movement in an effort to supplement his then meagre income. The tools of his new found trade, high gloss enamel bicycle paint and ceiling board used to depict colourful yet flat renditions of animals such as birds, hyena’s, cheetahs and other animals found on the African savannah, as well as scenes from daily life and spirit figures. Tingatinga produced work for only four years before his untimely death. His work is said to have greatly influence another renown East African artist, George Lilanga. The Tingatinga movement to this day continues to provide a livelihood for many painters in Tanzania. A tradition that does not espouse to the western norm of uniqueness. Tingatinga paintings are mass produced, motifs are copied over and over and further developed.

(via )

tammuz: Carved ivory art from the Sumerian city of Ur. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Babylon Chronicle

tammuz:

Carved ivory art from the Sumerian city of Ur. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

thesmithian: Gap Inc., the clothing retailer which runs the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic retail chains, announced Thursday that it would be closing 189 Gap locations across North America by the end of 2013. The move comes as part of the struggling retailer’s goal of reducing its presence in North America…At the same time, Gap is expanding its footprint overseas, opening a flagship store in Hong Kong and tripling its locations in China from 15 to 45. more.

thesmithian:

Gap Inc., the clothing retailer which runs the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic retail chains, announced Thursday that it would be closing 189 Gap locations across North America by the end of 2013. The move comes as part of the struggling retailer’s goal of reducing its presence in North America…At the same time, Gap is expanding its footprint overseas, opening a flagship store in Hong Kong and tripling its locations in China from 15 to 45.

more.

(Source: thesmithian)

thesmithian: McMillian offers early on that while “second-wave feminism was among the most important protest traditions to emerge from the 1960s, strictly speaking, it was not part of the New Left. Very few male radicals developed progressive gender politics in the 1960s. In fact, much of the energy that fueled the women’s liberation movement arose in response to the patriarchy and sexism they encountered in the New Left—and especially, in its underground newspapers”…It is frustrating…to hear him acknowledge the rampant sexism so ingrained in the culture of the underground press but not to pursue this further, nor to analyze how the New Left’s idea of  participatory democracy was flawed—perhaps doomed—by its blindness to its own race, class, and gender-privileged discourse. more.

thesmithian:

McMillian offers early on that while “second-wave feminism was among the most important protest traditions to emerge from the 1960s, strictly speaking, it was not part of the New Left. Very few male radicals developed progressive gender politics in the 1960s. In fact, much of the energy that fueled the women’s liberation movement arose in response to the patriarchy and sexism they encountered in the New Left—and especially, in its underground newspapers”…It is frustrating…to hear him acknowledge the rampant sexism so ingrained in the culture of the underground press but not to pursue this further, nor to analyze how the New Left’s idea of  participatory democracy was flawed—perhaps doomed—by its blindness to its own race, class, and gender-privileged discourse.

more.

(Source: thesmithian)