Back in 2013, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco invited me to contribute to a show about yoga co-organized by the Smithsonians Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The exhibition, Yoga: The Art of Transformation, was the first major show ever mounted about the 2,500-year history of yoga. It featured over a hundred paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Curators, seeking a contemporary perspective, invited me to contribute to an educational exhibit for the show after having met me at a previous event. At the same time, I had another project up, at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, documenting the Indian American motel community across this country. It was an exciting time for me. But I didnt expect the absurdities that would soon followa parade of condescension, passive aggressiveness, and white fragility in which the Asian Art Museum revealed itself to be in a losing struggle with the whiteness at the core of its identity.

My run-in with the museum is the subject of new work Im showing this month at the Human Resources gallery in Los Angeles. Its taken me this long to tell the story because it was such a jarring experience. This was the Asian Art Museum, the largest museum dedicated exclusively to the Asian arts in the United Statesone of the largest platforms out there for an artist like me.

When I was asked to contribute, I took the invitation at face value: The Asian Art Museum wanted to give space to an Indian American artist. Much of my work focuses on first-generation Indian American experiences with appropriation and assimilation. The museum provided a first-floor walla big platform and a big honor.

Our agreement for the installation included my assemblage of yoga ephemera that Id collected in the form of magazines, books, posters, and album covers. Together they told the story of how the $16 billion yoga industry in this country had rebranded a South Asian discipline to sell yoga as a line of productshow yoga became Yoga. Its no coincidence that you rarely see a South Asian person on the cover of Yoga Journal magazine. Yoga has been put in an ironic position: Colonized and commodified, a tradition rooted in detachment and equanimity has been hijacked by a grasping possessiveness. I titled my work #WhitePeopleDoingYoga.

I knew the title #WhitePeopleDoingYoga would be provocative, but I chose it for a reason: For this installation, yoga was a case study in how culture gets colonized, a pattern that holds across industries, from fashion to food to music. The installation was meant to show how overwhelming and suffocating appropriation becomes under a capitalist structure. Every piece in the installation was either selling something or was itself once for sale.

But once my proposal made the rounds among curators, educators, and PR folks, cracks started to show in the museums support for the installation. The shows lead curators and education staffers Id metall but one of whom were whitedidnt feel completely comfortable with the title. They wanted something innocuous like #PeopleDoingYoga, without the word white, because the term white people could be offensive to museumgoers, donors, and staff. During our initial meetings at the museum, they told me to turn down the volume of my critique. They also insisted I remove a section of the installationa Hindu-inspired shrine featuring photographs of a white couple as South Asian gurus. This might be offensive to Indian people, staffers saidwhite authorities telling me what Indian people might find offensive. They gave me an ultimatum: Either I take down the shrine, or they dont include my installation. Museum leaders were diluting my installation, going well beyond the standard curatorial role.

[In an email to a Mother Jones fact-checker, museum reps acknowledge that there had been misgivings over the title and the installation in general, which they emphasize was intended to be educational rather than artistic. But they dispute that there was any ultimatum. According to a museum spokesperson, Bhakta was told that the phrase white people could be offensive or puzzling to some. As examples, the spokesperson pointed to Anglo practitioners of yoga unfamiliar with the concepts of cultural appropriation/appreciation, and K-12 students who havent had the proper exposure to understand the statement implied in White People Doing Yoga.' Additionally, in the same email to Mother Jones, Qamar Adamjee, one of the exhibits curators, writes that the museum objected to the shrine on the grounds that as an object type [it] did not align with the rest of the display, but that the installation was not contingent on its removal: We had invited him to do the display and revoking that invitation was not a consideration at any point.]

Over the years, Ive heard many shocking accounts from friendsartists of color from New York to Bombay, Los Angeles to Londonabout their experiences with institutional racism in its various forms. The numbers alone tell some of the story: A recent Williams College study found that 75 percent of artists in major US museums are white men, and the Association of Art Museum Directors reports that 72 percent of staff at its member institutions are white. These are the people who shape and reshape the canon, who have the power to decide and dismiss.

A bust of Avery Brundage at the entrance of the Asian Art Museum

Chiraag Bhakta

Consider the Asian Art Museums own history: It was founded on the collection of Avery Brundage, a Chicago businessman and the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee. Brundages portrait still hangs proudly in the museum library; a bust of him greets you at the entrance of the museum. In 1959, Brundage began donating his Asian artwork to the city of San Franciscoa collection that would amount to nearly 8,000 pieces. What the museum leaves out of its public narrative is that its founder was the preeminent American apologist for Nazi Germany, in the words of author Jeremy Schaap. In the 60s, the Olympic Committee for Human Rights, a group protesting racism in sports, demanded Brundages removal as the Olympics president. The committee had exposed his ownership of a country club in California that excluded Jewish and black people from its membership. In response to a potential boycott by black athletes of the 1968 Olympics, Brundage notoriously said, They wont be missed. (He had been instrumental in preventing a US boycott of the so-called Nazi games in 1936.) Brundage was a racist down to his toes, said Lee Evans, an American sprinter on the 1968 Olympic team. A brutal, racist pig, said a teammate, Marty Liquori. A Jew hater and a Jew baiter, was the verdict of Gustavus Town Kirby, delivered in a 1936 letter to Brundage himself. Now think about how a man like this actually acquired his art collection. Dont fool yourself.

The Asian Art Museum is far from the only institution negotiating its own white supremacist foundations. Just a few years ago, the British Museums Twitter account revealed as much when it shared how it decides to label artwork, tweeting: We aim to be understandable by 16 year olds. Sometimes Asian names can be confusing, so we have to be careful about using too many. (Dang, sorry to all those 16-year-old Asian kids with funny names.)

My installation went up after rounds of hard-fought revisions. I stood firm on the title #WhitePeopleDoingYoga, but I caved on the museums ultimatum: I took down the shrine depicting a white couple as South Asian gurus.

The installation as it appeared at the Asian Art Museum

Chiraag Bhakta

Lets break this shit down: Here were white elites exerting power over Brown critique that was explicitly about white elites exerting power over Brown culture. The irony is comical now, but it was painful and unnerving then. After taking parts down, I thought the worst was over, but it was only the beginning. People across the operation, from the marketing department to the education team to the curatorial staff, continued to sterilize my perspective, tiptoeing around me to make themselves feel more comfortable and spare the museum further controversy. Brown critique had to be sanitized for white consumption.

Throughout my meetings with curators and educators, there was one person whose name they kept mentioning as an authority calling the shotsthe chief curator, also white, an unseen figure in the forest who seemed to be deliberately keeping a distance. At first, I wouldnt have expected the chief curator to get involved, but it was a bit alarming that he never did, given all that went down. Some of the staffers under him were maneuvering through tense conversations with me, like messengers nervously doing their bosss bidding to keep their jobs. I completely sympathize, but it left me wondering: Was I seeing the museums disorganization or something more malicious, a deliberate mixing of messages? It felt as if Id hit a sore spot with several white staffers. Some of them had dedicated their entire lives to Asian arts, and now they had been implicated in my critique of appropriation. Why were they being criticized, they seemed to wonder. Werent they the ones giving nonwhite artists like me a platform?

Id soon caught wind that senior staffers, without telling me, had decided to withhold my works title from marketing material. This was enraging. The title #WhitePeopleDoingYoga was my observationmy statement as an Indian American. It was the core of my piece; the ephemera was just the vehicle, and the museum knew that. This battle over a title became a proxy for something bigger: a struggle over whose sensitivities needed to be protected and whose could be ignored.

As part of the marketing rollout for the yoga show, the museum planned to publish a 12-by-12-inch, 24-page advertising supplement in the San Francisco Examiner, the SF Weekly, and the SF Bay Guardian. In all, 250,000 copies were being printed. The museum had decided behind my back that it was not going to promote my work in an honest waynot just by excluding the title but also by dumbing down the description of my work. At one point, a draft of the marketing material referred to my work as an amusing and lighthearted collection.

And of course my title was nowhere to be found in the supplement. I decided to insert it myself: I contacted the supplements ad team, without consulting the museum, and took out my own full-page ad:

I paid out of pocket, negotiating a reduced rate that was equal to what the museum had paid me for my installation: $1,500. Straight into my hands for my work and straight out of my hands for my ad, all to retain my voice. Symmetry at its finest.

By this point, the museum store had already agreed to sell merch that I would create: T-shirts, tote bags, and postcards. (Ah, the irony of selling products for an installation critiquing capitalism.) When it came time to display my merch in the store, the marketing chief found out that my stuff bore the title #WhitePeopleDoingYoga and froze: In a meeting with two PR leaders, the marketer told me in a chipper, condescending voice that they werent sure where they stood on my merch. They needed a few days to think it through while keeping all the products in the basement.

I called a meeting, inviting all 11 staffers whod been involved in the process, nine of whom were white. What an awkward meeting. I met them in this grand, lavish, colonial-style boardroom, and from across a formal table, I listened to the marketing chief declare that the words white people are offensive and appear out of context on the merch. (Isnt all merch out of context?) Remember, this was an approved title. If a museum is going to approve an artworks title, either stand by it or dont. The push-and-pull was infuriating and exhausting. Getting a clear position from the museum was like trying to play catch with a balloon.

One of the museums staff members, who was white, came to my defense in that boardroom. He exposed the museums hypocrisy by holding up its own branded tote bag that bore only the word Asian on it, and as I remember it he said, Im a white man walking around San Francisco with this bag that just says Asian on it, without museum, and its completely out of context. Why is our bag okay but Chiraags is not? The marketing chiefs response: Well, thats our brand, so its okay.

And what to do with all those stacks of merch that they werent going to sell anymore? I joked that they should ship them to Indiaput some shirts on kids backs and create some interesting conversation. My other suggestion: Give the merch back to me. The museum eventually pulled all my bags and shirts from the store and sold them to me for a total of $1, to acknowledge the transaction.

The opening parties featured Indian classical music performed by white people, acro-yoga performed by white people, a chanting group mostly compromising white people, and a white couple from Marin teaching yoga for an hour. There was a sprinkle of Brown acts, but the headlinerwait for itwas a white rapper named MC Yogi, who spit about yoga and Indian culture over a beat dropped by DJ Drez, a white DJ with dreads. (Reminder: the largest institution of Asian art in the United States.)

Onstage behind the musicians was a massive projection of MC Yogis name, an Om symbol, and a crownthe very symbol of British oppression over India for hundreds of years. Here was a white artist mashing symbols and culturesIndian and hip-hopto root his identity in the fetishization of Brown and cool purely for his own benefit, disregarding communities of color.

Musicians perform at a 2014 gala celebrating the Asian Art Museums Yoga: The Art of Transformation.

Claudine Gossett for Drew Altizer Photography

To a certain kind of liberal-minded white person, perspectives like MC Yogis are commonly viewed as positive. He is sharing and celebrating cultures, not raiding them for his own benefit. In these contexts, positivity acts as a sort of Trojan horse; its how you smuggle white supremacy into the gates. Perspectives like mine, on the other hand, are widely seen as negative, divisive. The title of my upcoming show in Los Angeles plays on this concept: Why You So Negative?

The yoga show in 20132014 was scheduled to make one last stop after San Francisco, in Cleveland. I spoke with the Cleveland Art Museum to see if its curators wanted to include my installation. The lead curator said the idea was hugely interesting and there is a lot of enthusiasm for your project here at CMA. The curator flew to San Francisco and met me in person. Enthusiasm kept building. The conversation progressed far enough that we began talking costs, which didnt seem like a sticking point. The curator even emailed me an internal floorplan of the show to finalize gallery placement.

After more than a month of fine-tuning our plans, the curator said there was one last hurdle to clear before approval: The Cleveland museum planned to invite the citys commercial yoga studios to teach classes and had to make sure the studios felt comfortable in the same space as an installation titled #WhitePeopleDoingYoga. Thats when the plans fell apart. Out of nowhere, the curatorthe uneasy messengeremailed me to say the museum felt that my installation would be ad hoc (odd, given that wed spent a month planning it). And, wait, what had happened to that last hurdle? Its not surprising that local businesses could mute a museums platform; thats what happens when you trade curatorial integrity for financial obligations. (Mother Jones couldnt reach the curator for comment.)

The whole ordeal left me exhausted. My own community was a source of comfort, though. My friend Vijay Iyer, the jazz composer, MacArthur genius grant winner, and Harvard arts professor, gave me reassurance that I was not alone. In a talk he delivered in 2014 at Yale, he mentioned my installation in San Francisco, saying it was part of a problematic exhibit, and called out Northern California cultures imperial relationship to all things Indian. Vijay was speaking as a South Asian American whod spent plenty of time navigating and resisting the exoticizing, incorporating tendencies of white American cultural omnivores:

Because of the circles I traveled in as an artist, I noticed a similar tendency in the way that whites in the Bay Area dealt with jazz, hip-hop, and all things Black: not as a defiant assertion of Black identity and community, but as the fetishized trappings of coolsomething white people could wear, collect, or otherwise incorporate into white subjectivity.

That was it: My experience with the Asian Art Museum was an exercise in watching white people work out their identity on the back of mine. The platform they seemed to give me, it turned out, wasnt actually for meit was for them, a way to fashion my Brownness into something they could wear. White supremacy works that way, for all minorities; it censors any critique contained in nonwhite expression and commodifies and tokenizes whatevers left, forcing people like me into the posture of the model minority.

But Im the negative one, right?

You can find more about Chiraag Bhaktas work on PardonMyHindi.com.His solo show, Why You So Negative?, opens Friday and runs through October 27 at Human Resources in Los Angeles, at 410 Cottage Home Street, HumanResourcesLA.com.The shows programming includes a performance by artist Nikhil Chopra, who recently performed and has work up at the Met and SFMOMA. A yoga class will also take place the following weekend.

Chiraag is advised by Dr. Roger Neesh.

Read more from the original source:
The Whitewashing of #WhitePeopleDoingYoga - Mother Jones

There are more than 4,500 people across the world who are trained to teach Holy Yoga, and one of them practices right here in Boca Grande. Leslie Barrett teaches a Holy Yoga class on Wednesdays at the United Methodist Church of Boca Grande. The classes are held at 9 a.m. on certain scheduled days in the fellowship hall at the church.

Leslie has been teaching Holy Yoga at the church since last year, but shes been a yogi for many years.

She is a member of the United Methodist Church, and when she brought up the idea to a few church members last year, they showed in interest in taking the classes.

It was a pretty intensive training program, the yoga instructor said.

The classbegins with a scripture, and attendees can reflect upon the words during the hour-long activity.

Some people choose to just meditate and think about the scripture for part of the class, and thats fine, Leslie said.

She teaches more of a yin-style class, and each posture is held for about two to five minutes.

It really allows you to stretch and get to the deeper tissues, she said. We use props that can help accommodate people to find what works best for their bodies.

The class is open to all ages and skill levels.

We do a good amount of floor work using mats, but everyone is encouraged to do the poses at their own pace and comfort, Leslie said. The program teaches the history and principles of yoga with biblical foundations of the Christian faith.

Students can expect to do traditional movements like sun salutations, butterfly poses and twisting/balancing poses for strength training.

The classes are free.

The next scheduled class will be on October 23 at the church. Classes are planned to take place on the following dates: Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, Dec. 4 and Dec. 11.

Holy Yoga Global was founded by long-time yoga practitioner Brooke Boon in 2006.

Brooke was raised in the Jewish faith, but a personal crisis led her to a church where she found a bible and read it cover-to-cover. She developed an intimate relationship with religion, yet struggled to reconcile her background in yoga with her newfound faith. Her desire to include the gospel and use a simple wellness ministry to share with others became her mission.

Leslie plans to resume the classes on Wednesdays in January.

Originally from Colorado, Leslie moved here with her husband about seven years ago. Shes also a certified school teacher, but she and her husband have four young children, so she hasnt taught for the past few years.

The United Methodist Church is located at 325 3rd St. W. The fellowship hall at the church can accommodate about 30 people, and students are encouraged to bring their own mats.

To contact Leslie, send an email to bglighthouseumc.com.

Marcy Shortuse is the editor of the Boca Beacon, and has been with the paper since 2007. She is also editor of the Boca Beacon's sister publication, Gasparilla Magazine.She has more than 20 years of experience writing and editing local newspapers and is originally from the Chicago area.

More:
Mixing scripture and strength with the power of yoga - Boca Beacon

By COLIN BARTLEY

A BISHOP in a neighbouring diocese has asked schools to refrain from practicing yoga and mindfulness and instead replace them with prayers and quiet meditation.

In a letter sent to schools across Waterford city and county last week, the Bishop of Waterford & Lismore, Alphonsus Cullinan said: Yoga is not of Christian origin and is not suitable for our parish school setting.

The bishop begins his letter saying prayer is key and is the central part of each school day, before going on to ask the schools to give the children a period of silence to speak to Jesus in their own words.

Bishop Cullinan then claims he has been approached by members of his congregation concerned about the practice in local schools.

He adds: I have been asked by several people to say a word on yoga and mindfulness. My question is Will they bring us closer to Christ or replace him?

Yoga is not of Christian origin and is not suitable for our parish school setting and not during religious education time.

The Bishop then turns his attention towards mindfulness, saying it has been practiced in the Christian tradition since the beginning. But he adds: Christian mindfulness is not mindfulness but is meditation based on Christ, emptying the mind of everything unnecessary so that we become aware of the presence and love of Christ.

He then quotes a 2015 Pope Francis homily, in which the Pontiff said: Practices like yoga are not capable of opening our hearts up to Godall of this will never be able to give you freedom.

Bishop Cullinan pleads with the schools to replace yoga and mindfulness with prayer this October, the international month of the Rosary.

I encourage you to pray the Rosary and help the children to spend time with Jesus in adoration and quiet meditation in the classroom, he says.

Read more from the original source:
Bishop tells schools to ban 'yoga' and 'mindfulness' - Kilkenny Now

The launch week of Where Will The Art Go? - a new campaign which aims to highlight the loss of significant cultural spaces in Dublin - consists of three events; at the Bernard Shaw, The Workman's Club and Lost Lane.

Coming Monday, October 21, She Networks' campaign Where Will The Art Go? launches with a special showcase at the Bernard Shaw. The party will feature Dublin alt-rock band Gypsies on the Autobahn, as well as voices from the growing hip hop scene in Dublin such as UppBeat, amongst others.

The launch at the Bernard Shaw is followed by the Indigo Sessions at The Workman's Club on Wednesday.

One day later, on Thursday, the launch will close with showcases by Little Hours, KTG and Nathan Mac at Lost Lane. Get your tickets here.

The Where Will The Art Go? campaign has three purposes: To give a place for our homegrown and local talent to share their concerns and showcase their work, to market the venues that nurture this development in order for them to fill seats and become more sustainable and finally, to show the government and the city council how important culture is to its people.

Initiated by Rebecca Breene McDonnell, Where Will The Art Go? was a concept that she and her business partner Sorcha have spent many years thinking about. According to the women themselves, "the campaign came into fruition following BodyTonic's announcement that the cultural safe space, The Bernard Shaw, would be closing its doors at the hands of Dublin City Council."

"Nobody is taking action, so we must and we will", McDonnell says. "We are fortunate that we went to a media university and have a large network of people we can work with and we promise that we will use this positively. We want to be a lighthouse in this storm, starting with this campaign."

See the original post here:
UppBeat, Gypsies on the Autobahn to play Where Will The Art Go? launch at Bernard Shaw - hotpress.com

Errors in published histories, misreading, selective perception, willful historical fiction on the big screen, little screen, and web; alternative facts simply made up to suit various agendas; and the desire to believe what some wish to be true have created a constantly reverberating echo chamber of false knowledge which George Bernard Shaw warned is more dangerous than ignorance.

This post is an antidote for some of it.

Related: In 1919, the first pro-gay movie was made. A year later, it was banned.

The origin of faggot

Faggot as a male homosexual slur did not derive from burning gays at the stake. The word is English and did not evolve from another language. England hanged but did not burn gays at the stake as some other countries did. Its first known published gay connotation appeared in 1914s A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang: All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.

Any connection to the firewood used for executions is pure fantasy, says Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends, 2004.

Victims included Bishop John Atherton and his alleged lover John Childe; both hanged in 1640.

Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin

The few details actually documented about American Revolutionary War Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin continue to generate ever more amplified, ever more colorful retellings based solely on speculation and wishful thinking.

He was not thrown out of the Continental Army for being gay nor being homosexual nor homosexuality nor for his sexual orientation in 1778.

Those are states of being, and we know nothing of his sexual orientation. He was thrown out for same-sex behavior, but that doesnt tell us his motivation. He could have simply been pursuing sexual release with another man because a woman wasnt available as men in the military or prison or all-boys schools have for eternity.

But, contrary to ubiquitous assertions that behavior was not sodomy. He was charged with and found guilty of attempting to commit sodomy. While General George Washingtons secretary recorded the abhorrence and detestation of such infamous crimes, there was no reference to, let alone definition of, sodomy in the 5th Article 18th Section of the Articles of War which he was charged with violating.

Thus we have nothing to tell us which of the several things that accusation could have meant it actually did mean in this case.

It could have meant attempting to force sex (of whatever kind) upon someone; apparently in this instance from the scanty records, Pvt. John Monhort. It could also mean consensual attempted anal sex but without completing penetration, and, as gay historian Rictor Norton has noted, the phrase was sometimes used to encompass completed consensual same-sex acts other than anal intercourse such as fellatio.

Nor, contrary to assertions, was he dishonorably discharged because the term didnt exist yet.

Nor, as often claimed, was his sword broken over his head. The diary entry of an eyewitness to his drumming out, Lt. James McMichael, mentioned only that the coat of the delinquent was turned wrong side out. The phrase drumming out used metaphorically today was literal then. The regiments drum and fife corps played while the condemned exited the camp.

Maj. Gen. Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben

Articles exist asserting that both Benjamin Franklin and General Washington unequivocally knew that German Maj. Gen. Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben was gay and that his hiring proved they were ahead-of-their-time Friends of the Gays. Some justify the assertion by referencing late author Randy Shilts and his lengthy study of gays in the American military, Conduct Unbecoming.

Actually Shilts wrote: The acceptance of General Steuben and his contributions to the fledgling American military did not mean there was even tacit acceptance of homosexuality by Franklin or Washington.

If they actually knew about his sexuality, his employment was still more a matter of war, like politics, making strange bedfellows, no pun intended. Nor, contrary to the misreading of documents of the time, was von Steuben fleeing possible prosecution in France but, rather, his native Germany.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was certainly a gay martyr, but he was not a gay rights trailblazer who refused to deny his identity. He denied it multiple times over three trials; repeatedly insisting that his attachment to the various men linked to him was not sexual but only deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect.

The first gay magazine in the world

Der Eigene, first published in Berlin in 1896, was not the worlds first homosexual journal nor was it initially a homosexual periodical at all. Originally it was an anarchist magazine, not becoming EIN BLATT FR MNNLICHE KULTUR (A Journal for Male Culture) until 1898. Along with articles and poems, apparently it was the first periodical to feature nude photographs of men intended for gay subscribers.

The first gay periodical was published by German Karl Heinrichs Ulrichs in 1870: Prometheus Beitrge zur Erforschung des Naturrthsels des Uranismus und zur Errterung der sittlichen and gesellschaftlichen Interessen des Urningthums (Prometheus. Contributions to the investigation of the riddle of nature Uranismus and to the discussion of the moral and social interests of Urningthum). His hopes for subsequent issues failed for lack of adequate subscribers.

Franklin Roosevelt and homophobia

Claims that then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelts June 1917 article in the Ladies Home Journal, What the Navy Can Do for Your Boy, was exploiting the publics great fear of homosexual influence on American young men are contradicted by one of the articles photos a group of sailors on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania with the caption, Your Boy Would Not be Lonely on a Battleship.

Nor, contrary to persistent outraged claims, did Roosevelt create or order or use his own staff for the 1919 gay witch-hunt at Newport, Rhode Islands, Naval Training Station.

Such assertions reveal the failure of the authors of such claims to carefully read Lawrence Murphys original research on the witch-hunt published in 1988 as Perverts by Official Order.

It was instigated at the Newport base by a pathologically homophobic but persuasive Chief Machinists Mate not in Washington by Roosevelt and had been going on nearly a month before Roosevelt was even told about it. Those in Newport did not need his permission but only approached his boss, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, because they needed funding to continue. Daniels was leaving on a trip to Europe and told Roosevelt to meet with them.

Yes, his subsequent support was homophobic, but his later adamant denials that he had not known, let alone approved, sailors being told to engage in gay sex to entrap their victims, Navy and civilian, is credible, particularly given he had tried unsuccessfully to get the Justice Department to take over the investigation.

Lili Elbe reality check

As noted in my earlier article about Christine Jorgensen, Danish Girl Lili Ilse Elvenes/Lili Elbe was not the first person to have gender confirmation surgery. Her first operation in 1930 was supervised by legendary gay sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin who had been involved in such surgeries since at least 1906.

Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the Institute for Sexual Science, and book burning

Demonized for years as the Jewish Apostle of Sodomy, the mob attack on Hirschfeld that nearly killed him some newspapers did report his death happened in Munich in October 1920, not Berlin in May 1933 when a Nazi-affiliated youth group ransacked his Institute for Sexual Science.

Time and again one reads that the Institute and all of its contents were subsequently burned or destroyed. While most of the thousands of confiscated books, photos, and others items were burned, some of the materials were strangely held back and offered for sale through intermediaries back to Hirschfeld who was in Paris by then.

Further, anticipating such threats, his former lover Karl Giese had smuggled some of the most important documents out of the country.

Nor were all of the materials about homosexuality or gender identity. The Institute studied heterosexuality, too, and had a large medical practice for such things as contraception, infertility, and impotence. Nor was that the only book burning that day

A May 10, 1933, Associated Press article, along with several others, reported, Proscribed volumes [were] collected all over Germany for public burning blacklisted books from private as well as public libraries of ungerman influences All books of a socialistic, Jewish or Pacifist trend are especially marked for destruction.

The authors the article specifically named whose works were included were Helen Keller and Albert Einstein, neither of which, to the best of my knowledge, were L or G or B or T.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. George Bernard Shaw.

Read the original:
Inconvenient truths: Potholes along the yellow brick road of LGBTQ history - LGBTQ Nation

You wont find the word in the Oxford dictionary but its there in Wikipedia. Paraprosdokians is defined as a figure of speech in which the second half of a phrase or sentence is surprising or unexpected. It can be a clever form of wit or a neat way of making a dig.

I most enjoy paraprosdokians when theyre used as a put down. PG Wodehouses description of a fat woman is devastating: She looks as though shes been poured into her clothes and forgot to say when. So, too, Groucho Marxs parting comment to his hostess: Ive had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasnt it.

For debaters paraprosdokians are a Godsend. Here are a few from the Cambridge Union which are a part of the conventional armoury used for tackling awkward opponents: Hes a modest man with much to be modest about, Hes a well balanced person with a chip on both shoulders, and Our quarrels are a case of mind over matter I dont mind and he doesnt matter.

Winston Churchill was one of the few politicians who used paraprosdokians to great effect. Often the United States was his target: You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after theyve tried everything else. But even Clemenceau, though French, had a knack for it. And guess who his target was? America is the only country to have progressed from barbarism to decadence without experiencing the intervening stage of civilization. Theres a delightful but possibly apocryphal anecdote about George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill which is entirely based on this delicious figure of speech. The playwright sent the politician two tickets to the first night of one of his new plays. For you and a friend, if you have one, the accompanying note read. Not a bit put out, Churchill replied I cant make the first night but Ill be there for the second, if there is one.

My late cousin Ranjit, who spent his life researching the ephemeral and the obscure, once sent me a joyous collection of paraprosdokians. Theyre the sort you could cheerfully use. Memorise a few and wait for the first good opportunity! Here they are:-

The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but its still on my list. If I agreed with you, wed both be wrong. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine. I used to be indecisive. Now Im not so sure. I didnt say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research. But heres a special one for all of you fed up of television: The evening news is where they begin with Good Evening and then proceed to tell you why it isnt.

When I told my secretary, Santosh Kumar, I was going to write about paraprosdokians he did a bit of research and came up with a few delightful ones. Theyre both witty and clever: Where theres a will, I want to be in it; Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak; To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first & call whatever you hit the target; Youre never too old to learn something stupid; Im supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder & harder for me to find one now.

Let me leave you with a tongue-in-cheek truth about men and women which might be a trifle sexist but is also largely true. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think theyre sexy.

Karan Thapar is the author of Devils Advocate: The Untold Story

The views expressed are personal

First Published:Oct 19, 2019 20:42 IST

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The subtle humour in paraprosdokians, writes Karan Thapar - Hindustan Times

October 17, 2019

"This book happens at a moment, World War II, when it really was at the brink -- the Allies could have lost," says Bret Baier of his latest book, Three Days at the Brink: FDR's Daring Gamble to Win World War II. Baier, anchor and executive editor of Fox News Channel's Special Report and the network's chief political anchor, is a 1992 graduate of DePauw University. He appeared on WAGA-TV/Fox 5 in Atlanta this morning to preview the book, which will be published October 22 by William Morrow.

Baier says he focuses on an "overlooked moment" from November 1943. "We were losing in Europe, Hitler was on the march, things were not going great in the Pacific, and at this moment the leaders -- the big three, which is FDR, Churchill and Stalin -- designed to have this secret meeting in Tehran and they plan D-Day. And onbviously Operation Overlord, as it was known, became the moment that changed the dynamic."

The publisher will also offer a young reader's edition of the book. "I think sometimes history gets lost in our schools," Baier tells the program. "So we're doing a contest where we're going to give the big book and the young reader's edition to two schools' libraries in each state across the country."

It's the third book in Baier's "three days" series: the first entry was Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower's Final Mission; followed by Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire. Baier also authored Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love. He received the 2017 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, the National Press Foundations highest honor for a broadcast journalist.

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A 1992 graduate of DePauw, Baier was an English (composition) and political science double major and captained the Tiger golf team. He was among the first students to work in the then-new Center for Contemporary Media. While an undergradute Baier interned with Bernard Shaw at CNN and landed his first professional job at WJWJ-TV (PBS) in Beaufort, South Carolina. He also worked at WREX (NBC) in Rockford, Illinois, and WRAL (CBS) in Raleigh, North Carolina, before joining Fox in 1998. Before being named anchor of Special Report, he served as the network's national security correspondent and chief White House correspondent.

Baier returned to DePauw for Old Gold Weekend in 2013 and spoke as part of the Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture Series and received the University's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

"DePauw is a big part of who I am, it's a big part of who I became, and I really like coming back here," he told the homecoming audience.

The talk is summarized here; video is embedded below.

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Bret Baier '92 Discusses His Upcoming Book, Three Days at the Brink: FDR's Daring Gamble to Win World War II - DePauw University

Shakespeares whining schoolboy creeping like a snail unwillingly to school might well be more full of beans were he to be around today in California. The Golden Gate state has passed a law barring middle schools from beginning classes earlier than 8 am, and high schools before 8.30 am, to give students more sleep time. California is the first state in the US to adopt a law that says aye to more shut-eye, but it could become a trendsetter. Sleep therapists say that slumber unlumbers the mind of harmful stress and its beneficial for people of all ages to get in forty-one, or even forty-two, winks in preference to the conventionally recommended forty.

Indeed, sleeping on the job can sometimes prove to be the most efficient way of getting the job done. The German chemist Kekul is said to have hit upon the structure of the carbon molecule while he was in the arms of Morpheus. Freud used his innovative interpretation of dreams as the keystone to the understanding of the psyche through the working of the subconscious. As the poet more succinctly put it, I sleep, and my soul awakens. When a playwright protg of Bernard Shaw remonstrated that the Irish dramatist had been caught napping during a performance of the acolytes latest work to which hed been invited to give his opinion on, the Shavian response was, Sleep, sir, is an opinion.

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Golden Gate state puts snooze in the news - Economic Times

Theatre is a business where work can be infrequent at the best of times, and non-existent at the worst.

By that standard, Kimberly Rampersad has had an astonishing couple of seasons. In her Winnipeg hometown alone, she directed the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre production of Intimate Apparel. She choreographed Matilda: The Musical on the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre mainstage. Further afield, she was made an intern artistic director at the Shaw Festival, where she directed an epic, six-hour production of Man and Superman this summer (and earned herself a profile in the New York Times in the bargain). She also directed a production of the hit musical The Color Purple at Neptune Theatre in Halifax before being asked to direct an all-new production of the same play, a co-production of Edmontons Citadel Theatre and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, opening at the Royal MTC mainstage on Oct. 24.

Its not over. The 40-something Rampersad, fiercely proud of her North Kildonan roots, is still based here, but is talking on the phone from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. where she is only two-thirds through her Shaw Festival internship.

Im also co-starring in their winter production of Holiday Inn, she says. Im in rehearsals for that right now.

Theatre is a business where work can be infrequent at the best of times, and non-existent at the worst.

By that standard, Kimberly Rampersad has had an astonishing couple of seasons. In her Winnipeg hometown alone, she directed the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre production of Intimate Apparel. She choreographed Matilda: The Musical on the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre mainstage. Further afield, she was made an intern artistic director at the Shaw Festival, where she directed an epic, six-hour production of Man and Superman this summer (and earned herself a profile in the New York Times in the bargain). She also directed a production of the hit musical The Color Purple at Neptune Theatre in Halifax before being asked to direct an all-new production of the same play, a co-production of Edmontons Citadel Theatre and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, opening at the Royal MTC mainstage on Oct. 24.

Its not over. The 40-something Rampersad, fiercely proud of her North Kildonan roots, is still based here, but is talking on the phone from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. where she is only two-thirds through her Shaw Festival internship.

"Im also co-starring in their winter production of Holiday Inn," she says. "Im in rehearsals for that right now."

"I didnt see it coming," she says of this golden year. "All things being equal, I dont think this will happen again in my career and Im OK with that.

TARA WALTON PHOTO

Kimberley Rampersad says shell look back fondly at her busy 2019. Its been exhausting and thrilling.

"When I get to the end of this year, Im going to be exhausted, but so filled with gratitude that I got through it. Its been exhausting and thrilling."

FP: Directing The Color Purple for the second time in a year could be redundant. Did you look at it as a do-over?

KR: In a sense yes. I had the opportunity to improve what had been presented. But because MTC and the Citadel have contracted me for a new show and a new production, I have a lot of new artists and collaborators, because I wanted to be able to be accountable to them to not (just do) a remount.

So you create a team in terms of lighting designer, set and costume, musical director and about half of my cast.

I think its new. I wanted to be able to do that because I wanted to respect the contract that I was given and I also because I wanted to make sure that I challenged myself to not do the same thing again.

Once you have new collaborators, if youre an artist, you should be able to create something new, because theres new voices in the room."

Ian Jackson / Epic Photography

A scene from The Color Purple during its run at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

FP: What is the draw of the material for you?

KR: Alice Walkers book has always captured a special part of me because it reminds me so much of my mother and my mothers family. When you read the book, there are images of trees and of nature. The tree is ever-present and its like a female (presence) in the trees. Theyre rooted in the ground and reaching for the sky.

Sometimes it feels like some characters are chopping down the tree, but the tree always perseveres and even though it might be barren, there is still life in it and it still holds a community together.

The strength of the tree really reminds me of my mother and my mothers family. Theyre an incredible group of matriarchs and so Im just fascinated with it because I feel I feel my mothers wisdom in the play and it really just calls out to me. My mom is still alive and around so honestly, to do a show which is really a little a love story a love poem to my mom and to the women of her family its just important to me on that really personal level. We get to tell that kind of story at home in Winnipeg. It moves me."

FP: When you start out as a dancer, it might be assumed your subsequent work in theatre might be limited to choreographing or directing musicals. How did you break free of that to get the job directing the six-hour George Bernard Shaw drama Man and Superman at the Shaw Festival this summer?

KR: That was a thrill. It was so unexpected in the way that people were curious about us and our work and that our play got a feature in the New York Times. It was surreal.

Ian Jackson / Epic Photography

A scene from The Color Purple during its run at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

I can appreciate when people believe that I have a skill set that leads to musical theatre, because I do... and I love the form. But I think being a dancer or coming from a dance background actually prepares you for any and everything in terms of the discipline, the rigour, the self-assessment, seeing text as movement, being able to analyze, being able to deconstruct, to reconstruct, to work from the classical structure and technique. Theyre actually incredibly transferable."

I just appreciate and really thank my parents were giving me such a beautiful dance education because I think it leads me to my natural curiosity... and hopefully success in being a director.

FP: Youre best known for your work in arts, but you have a degree in political science from the University of Manitoba. Has that served you in your theatre career?

KR: Directing plays and how theyre programmed is a political act. Directing for me is where my art meets my politics. We all have agency to tell stories and thats why am interested in artistic direction.

FP: Given there have been two major Canadian productions of The Color Purple, does it feel the timing must be right for this musical?

KR: Its a great time for The Color Purple. We are ready and looking for and needing strong female narratives. Its a good time because were speaking about so many inequalities. There are so many massive themes that are represented in the play. We have a same-sex love story at the centre of it between Celie (Tara Jackson) and Shug (Karen Burthwright) and we frame it as a holy love, as sacred a love as any other kind of love.

Ian Jackson / Epic Photography

A scene from The Color Purple during its run at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

I think its so important that these stories are told. I think its important because in many communities and, unfortunately, in the black community in the black diaspora, we still have so many homophobic points of view in our community.

I think it is so important that in a space as large and secular as the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Citadel that we are able to represent a love story like this as such a sacred thing.

I think its so important that we talk about normalized domestic violence against women in particular in this play.

And I think its important because were talking about feminism. We have many women in the play, each fighting for space in this world, each a different aspect of what it is to be a woman.

Its a beautiful musical and the music is outstanding the voices and these actors are just... I know Im a little biased... but theyre just extraordinary they make my heart fly.

FP: Being a performer too, does it ever make you want to be on stage with them?

KR: I think I know what my wheelhouse is. I am so happy to watch people who are excellent do their thing and to support them.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

Randall KingReporter

In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.

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Hitting the mother lode - Winnipeg Free Press

Creativity is a highly desirable and yet widely elusive attribute in both personal and professional spheres. A generally accepted definition of creativity is to come up with ideas that are both useful and novel. If an idea lacks utility, its nothing more than a daydream, whereas if its not novel it is all but common sense. Balancing, or rather striving for, the dual requirements of novelty and utility calls for specific thinking paradigms and temperaments, and even some physiological traits.

Here are the three quintessential characteristics that can possibly raise your creative yield and, hopefully, have a rub-off effect on those around you. The attributes are having a clear head, a deep heart and honing a thick skin.

Staying original

First up, the imperative of thinking clearly. We are surrounded by more noise than probably at any time in history, and yet we manage to distil the signal from the noise. The creative types are far more adept at it. Research suggests that clear decision-making stems from a well laid-out set of rules, or rules of thumb. Such heuristics help think through complex contexts with ease.

The ensuing clarity of thoughts helps you focus on the precious few and keep distractions and temptations at bay, much needed for producing anything remarkable. Thats what Steve Jobs referred to when he observed that innovation is saying no" to 1,000 things. A clear head help both conserve and converge energies, and hence, help thing through problems for longer periods of time, which is essential for complex problem-solving.

Creativity is not just about thinking though. A genuine sense of creativity calls for empathy, and your ability to put yourself in other persons shoes and look for solutions. Studies on emotional intelligence, mindfulness, meditation, empathy and social intelligence show emotions play an important role in problem-solving, for you must feel about the problem and not just think about it.

In fact, leaders such as Satya Nadella and Anand Mahindra, are very vocal about the importance of cultivating workplace empathy and its impact on creativity and employee well-being.

While you need to have a clear mind and empathy for the cause and the potential users, you must also demonstrate high levels of conviction and drive, which means being thick-skinned. In the words of George Bernard Shaw,The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Being unreasonable necessitates you not getting too much perturbed by what people say about you, for any original idea would disturb the status quo. The key is to persist against the odds because every new idea looks ridiculous in the foresight, but obvious in the hindsight.

There is a sufficient research to indicate that creativity has little correlation with intelligence, unless one has low latent inhibitions. Those with low latent inhibitions are not too much concerned about what other may think of them, as much as they can learn from a new situation. They are more adept at making newer connections across contexts and domains, and as a result, have a greater ability of associative thinking, a quintessential trait of creativity. You ought to be sensitive towards what other feel (read a deep heart), but not too sensitive about what other feel about you (read a thick skin). Amazons Jeff Bezos once famously said, If you cant tolerate critics, dont do anything new or interesting."

Pavan Soni is the founder of Inflexion Point, an innovation and strategy consultancy.

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A clear head, a deep heart and thick skin will help raise your creativity - Livemint