As Pomp and Circumstance began playing, students stomped through the grass to University Stadium, leaving behind a trail of small single-shot liquor bottles. Most of them were Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey. In sunny, 92 degree weather bachelor’s candidates smiled talking to their friends. “We made it,” was the most common statement. Empty liquor bottle where students.
Between the sunlight and my plants, a misty rainbow greets me every morning as I water my lush green babies. The dopamine from a hand glued to a smartphone doesn’t compare to the mood that I get from a thriving garden. No Snapchat filter or abundance of likes simulates that feeling.
Spring marks the start of my ultimate self-care routine. I think gardening is the best medicine for recovering our health, wellbeing, academic focus and also helps with food security. Looking around Butte County, I see a community that wants this view on gardening to be societally normalized as much as I do.
In downtown Atlanta, there sits a small brick building that was the home to the first black-owned radio station – WERD – in the United States in the 1950s. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders used the broadcast to spread their messages, encourage black citizens to vote and announce civil rights marches in between the performances of black jazz and blues performers during the Jim Crow era.
One would hope that by the year 2021 the legacy that WERD left in American history would only help to grow and expand the number of black-owned radio stations. Unfortunately, the data tells a much different story.
Nearly 130 years after his death, Van Gogh still lives. I struggle to find words to describe my experience at the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit that opened last month in San Francisco.
Overwhelmed with emotion and safely distanced from others, I sat within his brushstrokes as I watched his story unfold. The exhibit’s service provided layered aesthetics of music, motion picture and traditional art that relayed to me the necessity of art that equates to any other “essential service.”
In lockdown’s first few weeks, I questioned the pandemic’s effects on the gig economy, particularly visual and performing arts. Businesses seemingly closed as fast as cases and social-distancing increased.
If you have children and a Netflix account, then you might already be familiar with the new series ‘Waffles + Mochi.’ If, like me, you haven’t budged from your juvenile tastes, despite these crazy times begging for your adult capabilities to take action, then the show might offer some food for thought.
Led by former First Lady Michelle Obama and two adorably strange puppets, the series is a fusion of a child’s cooking show, history lessons and cultural appreciation that encourages support for gardens and farms.
With activities like pickling, visiting community gardens and reusing cracked eggshells to germinate seeds, the show provides lessons in self-reliance and nutritional awareness. Easily inspired by this show, I see its values that may help prevent future food insecurities.