The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951

Along with my affection for the writing of Anton Chekhov and Ian Frazier, the music of Gustav Mahler and Charles Mingus, the songs of Bob Dylan and the basketball of Bill Russell,  I have a love for the work of American documentarian photographers like Dorothea Lange (and her roadside dog stand, as shown above.)

The work of many other documentarians was on view at The Jewish Museum, in New York, November 4, 2011 to March 25, 2012. The exhibition, reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, has also made a stop at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, in San Francisco, October 11, 2012 to January 21, 2013. Here's a sample of what lucky visitors will see. 

Weegee (born Arthur Fellig) (American, b. Poland, 1899-1968)

Max Is Rushing in the Bagels to a Restaurant
 on Second Avenue for the Morning Trade,

c. 1940

Ruth Orkin (American, 1921-1985)Times Square, from Astor Hotel,c. 1950

Rebecca Lepkoff (American, 1916--) 

Broken Window on South Street, New York,

c.1948

The New York Times has more to say about this exhibition. You can also find many photographs from the exhibition at The Daily Mail.


Nearer to home is the Getty and their wonderful photography collection. Sarah Hamil--Thank You, Sarah!--formerly of English 1C drew attention to a photography exhibition that was last on view at the Getty Center in March 2012. It was Lyonel Feininger, Photographs, 1928-1939, an exhibition the Getty calls "the first comprehensive overview of photographs by one of the most important artists of the 20th century."  The Getty regularly schedules important photography exhibitions.  See what they have now: The photographs of Ray K. Metzger and the Institute of Design. 

Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956)

Untitled (Street Scene, Double Exposure, Halle)

1929-1930 

Veterans and Their Stories

In honor of our Veterans on this Veterans Day, Byliner sent out this letter with links to stories that have been published in recent years.  Maybe you will find one or two worth your reading time.  At least we can take a moment and thank our veterans for their service. 

	Dear Readers, In honor of Veterans Day, we bring you stories of Americans who’ve served this nation at war. In his recently released Byliner Original “The Living and the Dead,” acclaimed journalist and Iraq war veteran Brian Mockenhaupt tells the wrenching tale of three Marines— their friendships, struggles, and lives led on the battlefield and the home front. This excerpt follows them on what began as a relatively normal day: “Muzzle flashes twinkled from alleyways and darkened windows. The Marines at Dakota were terrified of buried bombs—the utter lack of control—but they loved firefights. Here they could influence the outcome.” The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have produced nearly two million veterans, many of whom suffer from physical and psychological injuries. Last year in Esquire, Mike Sager wrote about one veteran who began taking in others in need on his Tennessee farm. “Vetville,” Sager wrote, is “a sort of do-it-yourself halfway house for Marines broken by war. Some stay for a week; some stay for months; one guy is working on year two.” “I was a soldier in Vietnam and have talked to a number of those who went. It is always hard to know if a veteran’s problems stem from his war, hard to know even for the veteran himself,” Tracy Kidder wrote in a 1974 Atlantic article, “Soldiers of Misfortune.” He summarized the scale of the problem faced by veterans such as himself: “The United States sent 2,796,000 soldiers to Vietnam: 57,002 died, and 300,000 were wounded— about 150,000 seriously enough to be hospitalized. About 75,000 were left severely handicapped, and some 25,000 came home totally disabled. But information on what happened to the wounded and to the rest of the survivors is sketchy. To some extent, Vietnam veterans have been, as one observer puts it, ‘tarred with the brush of My Lai.’” Nancy L.W. Hoffman wrote about a female Korean War veteran in a more lighthearted 1992 Leatherneck article, “Sgt Reckless: Combat Veteran.” Hoffman’s brave, beloved, beer-drinking Marine wasn’t remarkable just because of her gender. “In fact, she was a horse—a small, sorrel or chestnut-colored horse with a white blaze on her face and three white stocking feet.” “Nine years ago, there were 700 left alive,” Evan Fleischer reflected in “The Last Two Veterans of WWI,” written last year for The Awl. “Nearly 10,000,000 men were killed in the conflict, 65 million participated, and now we are left with two. Think about that. Think about those numbers. What are you supposed to do when an era is inches away from disappearing?” To our veterans and their families, thank you. The Byliner Team

Red Cross Relief Hurricane Sandy

Hurricanes and Tropical Storms (Hurricane Sandy)

from The New York Times, November 2, 2012

The Storm:

Hurricane Sandy battered the mid-Atlantic region on Oct. 29 and 30, with powerful gusts and storm surges that caused once-in-a-generation flooding in coastal communities of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, knocking down trees and power lines and leaving more than eight million people — including a large swath of Manhattan — in the rain-soaked dark.

The mammoth and merciless storm unexpectedly picked up speed as it roared over the Atlantic Ocean. When it made landfall near Atlantic City around 8 p.m., it packed maximum sustained winds of about 80 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. That was shortly after the center had reclassified the storm as a post-tropical cyclone, a scientific renaming that had no bearing on the powerful winds, driving rains and life-threatening storm surge that accompanied its push onto land.

Forecasters attributed the power of the storm to a convergence of weather systems. As the hurricane swirled north in the Atlantic and then pivoted toward land, a system known as a midlatitude trough — which often causes severe winter storms — was moving across the country from the west.  It drew in Hurricane Sandy, giving it added energy. A burst of Arctic air swept down through the Canadian Plains just as they were converging. That led to several feet of snow in West Virginia.

The Aftermath:

The storm was blamed for more than 80 deaths in the United States, including 41 in New York City, 8 in New Jersey and 4 in Connecticut. Before it began its crawl toward the Northeast, the storm left more than 60 people dead in the Caribbean.

Read more here.

Hurricane victims waiting for food in Long Beach, New York

To donate, visit American Red Cross or call 1-800-RED-CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Red Cross Relief for Sandy Storm Victims

Haley Rombi, 3, was rescued from flooding on Staten Island.

11 Excellent Reasons Not To Vote?' & UPDATE--Where to Vote & FAQ

By ERROL MORRIS

Published: October 30, 2012 

from The New York Times

It doesn’t look good for the United States.

We are proud when Iraqis and Libyans dodge bombs to vote in their first free elections in decades, and then, when it’s our chance, we barely exceed their turnout rates. Often, we do worse. Roughly half of us vote, and the other half don’t.

It made me wonder: What’s stopping us? Do we have reasons not to vote? How can we hear so much about the election, and not participate? If hope isn’t doing it, isn’t the fear of the other guy winning enough to brave the roads, the long lines?

In the middle of October, I spoke to more than 50 people between 18 and 40, almost all of whom are planning to go to the polls on Nov. 6. That made them exceptional: only 51 percent of young people voted in 2008. A smaller group is expected this year.

Before asking why they will vote, I asked why most young people won’t. They told me that many of the issues they care about — climate change, civil rights, the war on drugs, immigration, prison reform — are not discussed by Democrats or Republicans. That there is such a gulf between what candidates say they will do, and what they do, that it’s impossible to trust anyone. That apathy is actually supported by the evidence.

Voting is a leap of faith. Calling it a civic duty is not enough. Either you believe that the system is both changeable and worth changing, or you don’t — and most new voters are not convinced.

The arguments against voting have been persuasive to many Americans. But what about the flip side? Why bother? Here I think the arguments are better. War and peace. Equal rights for women and same-sex couples. My personal favorite, the balance of the Supreme Court. The prospect of meeting the love of your life at the polling place. Several people argued that if you don’t vote, you lose your right to complain about the results of an election. But I respectfully disagree. In our society, the right to complain is even more fundamental than the right to vote.

I don’t know what, in the end, forces me to vote. It could be fear; it could be guilt. Although my mother died over 10 years ago, I feel that she is watching me, and I don’t want to disappoint her.

I would like to thank everyone who volunteered to be interviewed. I would also like to thank Doug Abel, Bob Chappell, Steven Hathaway, John Kusiak, Isaac Silverglate, Nick Rondeau, Dan Mooney, Jeremy Landman, Julie Ahlberg, Robert Fernandez, Amanda Branson Gill, Dina Piscatelli, Eric, Lori and Jessica Lander, Bina Venkataraman, Linda Carlson, Angus Wall, Jennifer Sofio Hall, a52, Kim Bica, Kirsten Thon-Webb, Arcade, Dana May, Patrick Regan, Ronnie Lee, Zoey Taylor, Adam Picchietti, Timothy Collins, Josh Kearney, Max Larkin, Drew Beirut, Reid Savage, Karen Skinner, Ann Petrone and Julia Sheehan.

This Op-Doc video was produced in collaboration with two creative agencies, CHI & Partners NY and Moxie Pictures, and with the I CAN. I WILL. Campaign for Our Time, a nonprofit organization that advocates for young voters and consumers.

Errol Morris  is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker (“The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara”) and author of the recent book “A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald.” His first film, “Gates of Heaven,” is on Roger Ebert’s list of the 10 best movies ever made, and his latest, “The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld,” will open in 2013.  He lives in Cambridge, Mass., with his wife and two French bulldogs.

FAQ: posted November 5th.

WHEN ARE POLLING PLACES OPEN?

Polls are open from 7:00am until 8:00 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, November 6.

CAN I STILL MAIL MY ABSENTEE/MAIL BALLOT?

No, as postmarks don’t count. However, you can drop it off at any polling place in your county and it will be counted!

WHAT IF I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO VOTE?

Google has set up a nonpartisan page that makes it easy to find your polling place:

https://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/vote

I REGISTERED, BUT NEVER RECEIVED ANY INFORMATION.

If you go to the Google site and type in your address, your nearest polling place will appear. You can go to the polling place and, if your name is not on the roster, ask to complete a “provisional ballot.” If your registration was processed by the county, your vote will count!

 

Writing About Photography

I just found a terrific site that you might find helpful as you write about photography. The Duke University Writing Studio tells you what kinds of questions to ask and observations to make when you are looking at a photograph.  It is a must site to see.

Reyna Grande

From Pasadena City College News: PCC Hosts First Writer In Residence, Reyna Grande: 

Pasadena City College is proud to present its first Writer in Residence, award-winning author and PCC alumna Reyna Grande, on campus Oct. 15 to 17. Grande has written two novels: “Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing With Butterflies” and a new memoir called “The Distance Between Us.”

Grande will be featured at two events on campus that are free and open to the public. On Tuesday, Oct. 16, she will be at the Community Writing Workshop from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in the Circadian. On Wednesday Oct. 17, she will be at a Public Reading from 7 to 9 p.m. in C333. Grande will also be visiting several classrooms, speaking with creative writing and composition classes.

Grande is a recipient of the American Book Award (2007), the El Premio Aztlan Literary Award (2006) and the International Latino Book Award (2010). Copies of Grande’s books are available in the PCC Bookstore.

The Writer in Residence program is made possible by a generous grant from the Pasadena Festival of Women Authors.

For more information or to reserve a spot at the Writing Workshop, please contact Manny Perea, English Division instructor, at (626) 585-7496 or via email at mxperea@pasadena.edu.

To learn more about Reyna Grande, go to this link to her website.

1A, 1B, 1C: The Benefits of Bilingualism

The New York Times

Gray Matter: Why Bilinguals are Smarter

By YUDHIJIT BHATTACHARJEE
Published: March 17, 2012

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

Read all of the article here.

As someone who has struggled to learn to read, write and speak one language and half-hearted attempts to learn another, I am humbled by people who know two or three or four or more languages. How is this possible?  I am interested to hear stories from all of you re: acquiring a language, whether it has been one (like me) or more.  I invite you to post your comments here at our blog.

English 1A, 1B, 1C ... Are We Getting Dumber?

from
The New York Times

February 27, 2012

Room for Debate: Are People Getting Dumber?

If you turn on the TV, or flip through standardized tests, or spend mindless hours on YouTube, it’s hard not to wonder: Is our species devolving? Are people getting dumber?

To read this debate go to this link.

Join in the discussion, if you like, and post your comments here on our blog.

College Application Personal Statement

Whether you are writing a college personal statement or not, take a look at these words of advice from college admissions officers.  Their advice can be applied to all forms of writing. 


Read The New York Times article, October 28, 2011, "College Application Essay as Haiku?"  To the right on the blog there are also links to personal statement writing tips by the University of California and the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. Purdue's site includes the personal statement and the application process, examples of successful statements,  advice from admissions representatives, and top 10 rules and pitfalls.

Mark Rothko @ MOCA & the Mark Taper (update July 1)

Mark Rothko 
No. 301 (Reds and Violet over Red/
Red and Blue over Red) [Red and Blue over Red], 1959 
Oil on canvas 
93 1/8 x 81 in. (236.5 x 205.7 cm)
at MOCA, Los Angeles 

To listen to Leonard Nimoy, Dr. Spock of Star Trek fame, discuss this painting by Mark Rothko, go here. To learn more about Mark Rothko, go here.


Red, a play about Mark Rothko, will be staged at the Mark Taper Forum at the Los Angeles County Music Center, from August 1-September 9.

RODNEY G. KING, 1965-2012

Rodney King meets the media on May 1, 1992, during the L.A. riots,
his first public appearance. He asked "Can we all get along?"
(Los Angeles Times)

"Rodney King dies at 47; victim of brutal beating became reluctant symbol of race relations"
from the Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2012

"Police Beating Victim Who Asked ‘Can We All Get Along?’
from The New York Times, June 18, 2012

"Rodney King dead at 47" 
from CNN, June 18, 2012
CNN has an extensive site devoted to Rodney King with a series of profiles of him and reports on the 1992 Los Angeles riots.  You will find links at this page.

Rodney King gestures to supporters at an event in Los Angeles on April 30, 2012.
King, whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police in 1991
sparked the LA riots, was found dead Sunday, June 12. He was 47. (CNN)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival FINANCIAL AID

OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (OSF)

AUGUST 4-11, 2012 TRIP

FINANCIAL AID

As much as $500 in financial aid might be available for as many as six PCC students. Speak with Prof. Oventile or Prof. Bonilla soon.  The financial aid is about to be distributed.

Cost

is $825 (Double/Shared Bath), $985 (Single/Shared Bath), $1045 (Double/Private Bath), and $1275 (Single/Private Bath.) Cost includes accommodations for seven nights, tickets for seven plays, backstage tour, discussions with actors, lectures by theatre company members, and insurance.  Class enrollment fee, transportation, meals and parking not included.

For more information contact:

Prof. Robert Oventile

(626) 585-7646

rsoventile@pasadena.edu

Prof. Martha Bonilla

(626) 585-7080

mebonilla@pasadena.edu

P.S. Program participants need not be current PCC students.

There is additional information at the PCC web page for the Ashland study/travel program.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival home page will tell you more about the festival, too.

The 2010 and 2011
Oregon Shakespeare Festival

In recent years I co-led the OSF trip with colleagues.  They and the PCC student particiapnts were excellent company.  I'm glad I made the trip.  I hope I can do it again. Here's some of my photographs and notes from recent trips:

Since 1935 the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has offered some of the best productions of Shakespeare and world theatre.  (Sorry that I'm starting to sound like a public relations guy, but sometimes we have to do a little marketing.)  The festival now puts on nearly 780 performances per year for an audience of 780,000.  For more than 35 years PCC has offered its students and members of the community the chance to travel to Ashland, Oregon, and experience such great theatre for one week during the summer.

During the week we ignored signs--actually, just this one, above--as members of the Shakespeare Festival gave us a backstage tour of their three theatres, to see the company's wardrobe and costume shop, stand on the Globe Theatre's center stage, watch the crew miraculously and quickly change sets in the  Bowmer Theatre, and take a break in the actors' green room. Sorry, there were no pictures allowed inside.

Actors joined us for discussions about their experiences as actors and members of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Above, from left to right, Michael Kay, Roshni Divate, and Jennifer Rose, listen to actor John Tufts.

John Tufts, above, left, who starred as Prince Hal in Henry IV: Part I, signs Annie Tang's playbill at the end of class. Tufts will be back next summer in Henry IV: Part II.  (Sounds like a sequel. Mmmm.)

One evening we saw an incredible performance by Miriam Luabe in Twelfth Night on the Globe stage, and the next morning she engaged us, above, in an enthusiastic conversation about the play and the rehearsal process.

In addition to PCC students and their friends and family members joining the trip, class participants come from a range of backgrounds--from the newspaper and health care fields to former PCC students now enrolled at UCLA and Cal State universities.  Some students are new to Shakespeare and the theatre, while others have longtime experience.  Jeanne Roach at left, played Viola in Twelfth Night at a Maine college nearly 60 years ago, and Lucila Dypiangco, a former fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library, taught English at Bell High School for many years. Miriam Luabe, center, a member of the Oregon Shakespeare Company for six seasons, was thrilled to meet them.

Particpants also eat well on the trip, and there are many good, inexpensive places to eat and convenient markets for groceries.  Stanley Chao, Maggie Getova, Annie Tang, and Jimmy Stafford, left to right, enjoy a picnic in Ashland's Lithia Park, 93 acres of tall trees and hiking trails around Ashland Creek.  The park's entrance is just a short walk from the theatres.

This year's (2011) participants also hiked Crater Lake and went white water rafting. From left, above, Stanley Chao, Chris McCabe, Maggie Getova, Janet McCabe, Jimmy Stafford, and Annie Tang take on one of the northwest's great rivers--the Rogue.

Class pariticpants are eager to return, and I am now making plans for the summer 2011 trip and will have details later in Fall 2010. We'll probably see four plays by Shakespeare--including Measure for Measure and Julius Caesar--and two new productions and one more classic.  I hope you join us! In Ashland! At the theatre! And on one of the great rivers of life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sense of the World - FREE! - ALL GONE!

ALL COPIES ARE GONE!
In several days I'll receive copies of A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts.  If you would like a free copy, send me an email.  I'll distribute the copies on a first come, first served basis. ONLY A FEW COPIES LEFT!

An EXCERPT from the Introduction to A SENSE OF THE WORLD, entitled “The World and Its Multiplying Delights”:

Until the invention of the internal combustion engine, the most prolific traveler in history was also the most unlikely. Born in 1786, James Holman was in many ways the quintessential world explorer: a dashing mix of discipline, recklessness, and accomplishment, a Knight of Windsor, Fellow of the Royal Society, and bestselling author. It was easy to forget that he was intermittently crippled, and permanently blind.

He journeyed alone. He entered each country not knowing a single word of the local language. He had only enough money to travel in native fashion, in public carriages and peasant carts, on horseback and on foot. Yet “he traversed the great globe itself more thoroughly than any other traveler that ever existed,” as one journalist of the time put it, “and surveyed its manifold parts as perfectly as, if not more than, the most intelligent and clear-sighted of his predecessors.”

In an era when the blind were routinely warehoused in asylums, Holman could be found studying medicine in Edinburgh, fighting the slave trade in Africa (where the Holman River was named in his honor), hunting rogue elephants in Ceylon, and surviving a frozen captivity in Siberia. He helped unlock the puzzle of Equatorial Guinea’s indigenous language, averting bloodshed in the process. In The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin cites him as an authority on the fauna of the Indian Ocean. In his commentary on the The Arabian Nights, Sir Richard Francis Burton (who spent years following in his footsteps) pays tribute to both the man and his fame by referring to him not by name, but simply as the Blind Traveller.

* * *

James Holman was justly hailed as “one of the greatest wonders of the world he so sagaciously explored.” But astounding as his exploits were, a further astonishment is how quickly he was forgotten. The public’s embrace, driven more by novelty than genuine respect, did not endure. Critics dismissed his literary and scientific ambitions as “something incongruous and approaching the absurd.” One bitter enemy, another professional adventurer whose expedition was eclipsed by Holman’s, leveled a charge that took root in public perception: his sightlessness made genuine insight impossible. He might have been in Zanzibar, but how could the Blind Traveler claim to know Zanzibar? He was rarely doubted—his firsthand facts were unassailably accurate—but he was increasingly ignored.

The fame diminished, and curdled into ridicule, but Holman didn’t slow down in the slightest. Impoverished, increasingly threadbare, and still in debilitating health, he kept to his solo travels, even as his works fell out of print and his new writings went unpublished. His few steadfast admirers lost track of him, presuming him dead in some distant corner of the globe. His true end came suddenly, in a scandalously unlikely corner of London, interrupting both his fervent work and plans for further voyages.

Holman dreamed that future generations might appreciate his life’s work, but they weren’t given the chance. His eclectic collection of artifacts was scattered and discarded, his manuscripts destroyed or lost. If he could be said to have a monument at it, it was a brief biographical sketch in the Encyclopedia Britannica, an entry that dwindled in subsequent enditions. By 1910, it was a single paragraph. By 1960, it had disappeared altogether.

(from A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler, by Jason Roberts. all rights reserved) 


You can learn more about author Jason Roberts at his website.

At Amazon you can get an additional sample of the book at its Kindle page. When you get there, just  click and look inside.

TED Talk - Anna Deveare Smith

In English 1A today we talked about some good video resources that are available online. I have offered links to some of these resources here at English with McCabe; you'll find to the right such links to PBS television and Zocalo Public Square.  Another source mentioned (thank you Justin!): TED. What is TED?  It is, TED says, "a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design."

You could do worse than spend an evening watching their many video lectures online. I haven't had a chance to watch the following, but I heard it is pretty good and might be worth showing to a class someday.  What do you think? Is Anna Deavere Smith: Four American Characters worth 23 minutes and 8 seconds of someone's time?

Do you have other favorites on TED?  Let us know.

Martin Luther King, April 4, 1968 - A Remembrance

from the Los Angeles Times

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr., killed 44 years ago today

By Rene Lynch

April 4, 2012, 9:40 a.m.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.was assassinated 44 years ago today. The somber anniversary will be marked across the country, including with a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., which is on the site where King was fatally shot.

And the new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., will also mark the anniversary -- its very first, since it just opened to the public last summer -- with a candlelight vigil later this evening.

In the social media world, the anniversary of King's assassination is being noted in a different way -- with a dotted line being drawn between King's assassination and the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. "From Martin to Martin: Hoodies up on the Mountaintop," reads the headline at the influential website Global Grind. "Today is Wed, April 4, 2012, the 44th anniv of MLK's death, the 38th day since the murder of #Trayvon Martin -- with no arrest," according to a posting on Twitter.

On April 4, 1968, King was staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., preparing a speech he was scheduled to give that night at the nearby Mason Temple. The hotel was one of the few places in the area where blacks were welcome to spend the night, according to the Commercial Appeal, and was a haven on the road for the likes of black celebrities and entertainers such as Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton and Aretha Franklin.

When King stepped out onto the balcony before heading over to the temple, a shot rang out: Assassin James Earl Ray had been lying in wait with a clear view from a nearby boardinghouse. Ray escaped that night but was later captured and convicted of King's death; he spent the remainder of his life insisting that he was innocent and that he was being used as a scapegoat.

King had long been the target of bombings and death threats and had often alluded to a belief that his life would be cut short. In fact, one night earlier, in a speech at the Mason Temple, he told those in attendance: "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that we as a people will get to the promised land."

The National Civil Rights Museum was built up around the motel where the assassination took place, and visitors can still see the room -- Room 306 -- where King slept. Efforts have been made to preserve it exactly as it was, down to an ashtray filled with cigarettes. The museum will not be open this time next year. Renovations will shut its doors on what would be the 45th anniversary of King's assassination, the Commercial Appeal notes.

Events being held in Memphis to mark the anniversary include a rally organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Council -- an organization that King led until his death -- and the renaming of a street in King's honor.

And at 5:30 p.m. local time, the Rev. Jesse Jackson  -- who was with King at the time of the assassination -- will lay a wreath on the balcony near the spot where King was shot.

The candlelight vigil being held in Washington, D.C., will include a number of dignitaries, including Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi.

Follow this link to read the above article at the Los Angeles Times website.


from The New York Times

April 5, 1968 OBITUARY Martin Luther King Jr.: Leader of Millions in Nonviolent Drive for Racial Justice By MURRAY SCHUMACH To many million of American Negroes, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the prophet of their crusade for racial equality. He was their voice of anguish, their eloquence in humiliation, their battle cry for human dignity. He forged for them the weapons of nonviolence that withstood and blunted the ferocity of segregation. And to many millions of American whites, he was one of a group of Negroes who preserved the bridge of communication between races when racial warfare threatened the United States in the nineteen-sixties, as Negroes sought the full emancipation pledged to them a century before by Abraham Lincoln. To the world Dr. King had the stature that accrued to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a man with access to the White House and the Vatican; a veritable hero in the African states that were just emerging from colonialism. Between Extremes In his dedication to non-violence, Dr. King was caught between white and Negro extremists as racial tensions erupted into arson, gunfire and looting in many of the nation's cities during the summer of 1967. Militant Negroes, with the cry of, "burn, baby burn," argued that only by violence and segregation could the Negro attain self-respect, dignity and real equality in the United States. Floyd B. McKissick, when director of the Congress of Racial Equality, declared in August of that year that it was a "foolish assumption to try to sell nonviolence to the ghettos." And white extremists, not bothering to make distinctions between degrees of Negro militancy, looked upon Dr. King as one of their chief enemies. At times in recent months, efforts by Dr. King to utilize nonviolent methods exploded into violence. Violence in Memphis Last week, when he led a protest march through downtown Memphis, Tenn., in support of the city's striking sanitation workers, a group of Negro youths suddenly began breaking store windows and looting, and one Negro was shot to death. Two days later, however, Dr. King said he would stage another demonstration and attributed the violence to his own "miscalculation." At the time he was assassinated in Memphis, Dr. King was involved in one of his greatest plans to dramatize the plight of the poor and stir Congress to help Negroes. He called this venture the "Poor People's Campaign." It was to be a huge "camp-in" either in Washington or in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. In one of his last public announcements before the shooting, Dr. King told an audience in a Harlem church on March 26: "We need an alternative to riots and to timid supplication. Nonviolence is our most potent weapon." His strong beliefs in civil rights and nonviolence made him one of the leading opponents of American participation in the war in Vietnam. To him the war was unjust, diverting vast sums away from programs to alleviate the condition of the Negro poor in this country. He called the conflict "one of history's most cruel and senseless wars." Last January he said: "We need to make clear in this political year, to Congressmen on both sides of the aisle and to the President of the United States that we will no longer vote for men who continue to see the killing of Vietnamese and Americans as the best way of advancing the goals of freedom and self- determination in Southeast Asia." Follow this link  to read the complete New York Times obituary.

PCC Associated Students Scholarship

Awards range between $200 to $500.

Applications are available at 

as.pasadena.edu or the Office of Student Affairs.

Applications must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs by the deadline.

Priority will be given to students displaced by the Spring cuts.  However, scholarships will not be limited to displaced students only.

If you have any questions, please call the Associated Students at 626-585-7980

or email Daniela Rueda, V.P. for Business Affairs at aspcc.drueda@gmail.com

Homeless as Wi-Fi spots? Really?

Clarence Jones worked as a mobile hot spot
 at the South by Southwest conference.

The New York Times

Use of Homeless as Internet Hot Spots Backfires on Marketer

By JENNA WORTHAM
Published: March 12, 2012

AUSTIN, Tex.  --  Which product at this year’s South by Southwest technology conference received more attention than perhaps any other?

Homeless people as wireless transmitters.

A marketing agency touched off a wave of criticism and debate when it hired members of the local homeless population to walk around carrying mobile Wi-Fi devices, offering conferencegoers Internet access in exchange for donations.

BBH Labs, the innovation unit of the international marketing agency BBH, outfitted 13 volunteers from a homeless shelter with the devices, business cards and T-shirts bearing their names: “I’m Clarence, a 4G Hotspot.” They were told to go to the most densely packed areas of the conference, which has become a magnet for those who want to chase the latest in technology trends.

Follow the full story here.

Students:  How and where is this story being covered elsewhere? Post links and your reactions to this practice of hiring the homeless as Wi-Fi hot spots in our comments section.

Regulars at the Austin Resource Center for the homeless.
photo by Ben Sklar for The New York Times.