On a warm, windless morning, members of the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe carried a candle-like flame up a hill in San Luis Obispo. Slowly, ytt Tribal Chair Mona Olivas Tucker dipped a rope of braided, dried tule in the flame, then lowered the fire onto a mound of parched grass. As […]
The first-ever expansion of Indianapolis’ Cultural Trail is now open, and it’s accompanied by another first for the urban pathway: a planned sonic art experience. The extension, which was unveiled Thursday morning at a ribbon-cutting, stretches for about one mile along Indiana Avenue and 10th Street between the Madam Walker Legacy Center and Riley Hospital […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region have been systematically replacing the names of villages inhabited by Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to reflect the ruling Communist Party’s ideology, as part of an attack on their cultural identity, a report released by Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. About 630 villages in Xinjiang […]
If it weren’t the maple leaf on the Canadian flag, then it could just as easily be the canoe. This storied means of transport is a symbol of the millennia-old history of the indigenous population and an enduring one given that this canoeist’s paradise of a country is home to more than 2 million lakes […]
Sunita Williams, an Indian American NASA astronaut aboard the Boeing Starliner on Wednesday morning, has been known to bring items representing her culture with her to space. Williams, 58, was part of the first crewed launch of the Starliner capsule to the International Space Station with fellow astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore. Williams, a veteran of […]
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister has urged Chinese authorities to protect the cultural rights of minority Muslim Uyghurs in China’s western Xinjiang province and allow them to “live their values,” a Turkish official said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday concluded a three-day visit to China, where he met with his Chinese […]
As fire tore through Copenhagen’s Old Stock Exchange in mid-April, many people in the Danish capital rushed toward the flames and emerged carrying paintings, sculptures and other important items of Denmark’s cultural heritage. Seven weeks on and with about half the 17th-century building destroyed, including its dragon-tail spire, Denmark’s culture minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said that […]
A cultural historian and the president of Stony Brook University has been named the 24th president of Yale University. Maurie McInnis, who earned her Ph.D. in art history, will succeed Peter Salovey as of July 1. She was the unanimous choice of the Yale Corporation, the university’s board of trustees, according to Josh Bekenstein, senior […]
When Balu Natarajan became the first Indian American champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, a headline on an Associated Press article read, “Immigrants’ son wins National Spelling Bee,” with the first paragraph noting the champion “speaks his parents’ native Indian language at home.” Those details would hardly be newsworthy today after a […]
Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Citadel, wader deeper into the national debate about American colleges and the protests that have consumed many campuses over Israel’s war in Gaza. In an interview with the Financial Times, the Harvard alum and mega-donor decried the social justice “narrative” at some schools. “What you’re seeing […]
The Des Moines Register dates its founding to July 26, 1849, when publisher Barlow Granger printed the first edition of the Iowa Star. We’ll be celebrating with special content throughout the month of July. We also want to recognize other longtime institutions that have contributed to the tapestry of life in Iowa, so we earlier […]
Liany Serrano Oviedo crouched in her yellow graduation dress, stared at the mirror and carefully blotted her tears with a wipe. It was a rare moment for the 22-year-old University of Texas at Austin senior to be alone and gather her composure. Serrano Oviedo had been in high-performance mode all Thursday morning, making laps to […]