Notices by Flipboard Culture Desk (culturedesk@flipboard.social)

Jackhammers have begun to remove the large yellow "Black Lives Matter" painted on to the street a block from the White House. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the change last week, which was made as a result of pressure from Republicans in Congress. The words will be replaced by murals, the design of which is as yet unknown. "The removal amounts to a public acknowledgement of just how vulnerable the District of Columbia is now that Trump is back in the White House and Republicans control both houses of Congress," writes @AssociatedPress.

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#BlackLivesMatter #WashingtonDC #WhiteHouse #BLM

If you've seen Canadians share messages on social media (and "Saturday Night Live") with the words "elbows up" and wondered what that means, MP Charlie Angus has written this helpful explainer. Referring to the late, great hockey player Gordie Howe, Angus writes: "When Gordie put the elbows up, guys lost teeth or ended up with black eyes ... A big surprise is coming for guys like Pete Navarro, J. D. Vance, and the Trump trolls who think they can bully, threaten and push us around."

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#Canada #CaPoli #Tariffs #Trump #CharlieAngus #TrumpAdministration #ElbowsUp

Michelle Trachtenberg, the former child actress who went on to appear in shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Gossip Girl," has died at age 39. Here's @THR's tribute to her.

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#Celebrity #Television #Movies #Entertainment #RIP #InMemoriam #MichelleTrachtenberg

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, the African American leader whose uncompromising vision of Black separatism inspired some while terrifying others. Born Malcolm Little, he disavowed his “slave name” in favor of X, and later became El Hajj Malik El Shabazz after a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. @BBCNews has more on his life, death, incendiary rhetoric, and the lesser-known moderate views he later adopted:

https://flip.it/e7Me4o

#Culture #BlackHistoryMonth #MalcolmX #CivilRights

Classical composer Edmund Dédé was born in New Orleans in 1827 but left the city for France in the 1850s as the rights of Black people in the U.S. became more restricted in the years before the Civil War. In Bordeaux, where he had a prestigious position at the Grand Théâtre, he wrote his grand opera, "Morgiane." But after his death in 1902, the manuscript vanished. It was discovered in Harvard's archive in 2007 and is believed to be the first complete opera by an African American. Last week, it had its concert premiere, co-produced by Opera Lafayette and OperaCréole. Here's @CNN's story about the losing and finding of the piece. Click the second link to join a mailing list so you can watch the livestream.

https://flip.it/ApJjTH

https://operalafayette.org/newsletter

#Music #Opera #BlackHistory @blackmastodon #History @histodons #EdmundDede

For this week's Good Life newsletter, Jessica Bethel of @literaturenoirclub talked about the Black renaissance, highlighting books by Tananarive Due, Ta-Nehisi Coats, Imani Perry and Percival Everett, Natasha Rothwell's brilliant (and just canceled) "How to Die Alone" TV show, and movies including "The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat" and "Love to Love You, Donna Summer." Check it out here:

https://flipboard.com/@4eyedgirl/a-black-renaissance-everything-black-media-you-should-check-out-s40fumfc36vld73o

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackMastodon @blackmastodon #Books @bookstodon #Movies #TV #Entertainment

Black History Month began on Saturday across the United States, kicking off a celebration of Black history, culture and education. The history of the month dates back almost a century when historian and author Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week. “I think Black folks understood what they had contributed to America’s historical narrative, but no one was talking about it,” said Kaye Whitehead, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. @AssociatedPress has more on the month’s origins, importance to the American story, and its perseverance in 2025.

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#Culture #History #BlackHistoryMonth #AfricanAmerican #USA

More than 98% of Costco shareholders voted down an anti-DEI proposal at their annual meeting. The proposal had been filed by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank. In its Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Costco's board of directors had urged shareholders to reject the motion, saying: "Our efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion remind and reinforce with everyone at our Company the importance of creating opportunities for all." Here's more from @AxiosNews.

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#DEI #DiversityEquityInclusion #Costco #Retail #Lifestyle

The Rev. Bernice King spoke at the annual service in Atlanta to commemorate her late father and warned against anti-woke rhetoric. “To be woke is to be aware of oppression and commitment to justice,” she told the congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. had been preacher. She warned those who would strip away civil rights. "We will not go back!" Here's more from @AssociatedPress.

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#MartinLutherKing #MLK #CivilRights #BlackMastodon @blackmastodon

Are you a history buff? The U.S. National Archives is looking for volunteers who can read cursive to transcribe and classify documents including Revolutionary War pension applications, Japanese evacuation records, and the 1950s Census. Here's more from @USAToday, plus details on the decline of cursive. Tell us in the comments: Do you still use joined-up writing?

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#History @histodons #Writing #Culture #Handwriting #Cursive

Octavia Butler's 1993 novel, "Parable of the Sower" describes a fictional suburb of Los Angeles as "a struggling walled suburb... besieged by severe drought; class wars; violent, fire-setting scavengers; and a long-embattled population seized by political apathy.” In its 1998 sequel, "Parable of the Talents," a candidate runs using the slogan "Make America Great Again." Butler, who died in 2006, wasn't clairvoyant and pooh-poohed that idea. She was a student of history. Here's @TeenVogue's story about the prescience of her writings and those of Marxist historian Mike Davis.

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#History @histodons #Literature #Books @bookstodon #ParableOfTheSower #OctaviaButler

Apple TV Plus will be free to stream globally from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, according to @theverge. Tell us in the comments what non-subscribers should binge.

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#Television #TV #AppleTV #Streaming #TedLasso #Severance #Shrinking #Silo #Entertainment

Copyrights expired yesterday for a wealth of books, films, comic strips, musical compositions and other works from 1929. @Smithsonianmag breaks down what creations are now in the public domain, from Popeye to Ravel's "Boléro."

Link: https://flip.it/T.Mvcf

#Art #Music #Literature #Copyright #CopyrightLaw #Culture

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, has died at 100. Carter served one term, from 1976-1980. After the White House, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, spent decades working alongside Habitat for Humanity volunteers, repairing and building affordable homes across the globe. @abc takes a look at the enduring legacy Carter leaves behind in a cause he cherished greatly:

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#Culture #JimmyCarter #HabitatForHumanity

"A Man on the Inside," Ted Danson and Michael Schur's new Netflix comedy, is based on a 2020 Chilean documentary, "The Mole Agent." @Variety explains how the adaptation happened.

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#TV #Television #Entertainment #AManOnTheInside

If you want to glimpse into a world without modern medicine, just pick up a Victorian book. In the first half of the 19th century, between 40% and 50% of children in the U.S. didn't live past the age of five. Kids were dying of diseases that are now preventable by vaccination, treatable with antibiotics, or out of the picture thanks to better sanitation, as well as from consuming unpasteurized milk or contaminated foods. @TheConversationUS looks at how this shows up in classic fiction, periodicals and personal writing. "These Victorian stories commemorate a profound, culturally shared grief. To dismiss them as old-fashioned is to assume they are outdated because of the passage of time. But the collective pain of a high child mortality rate was eradicated not by time, but by effort," writes Andrea Kaston Tange, a professor of English.

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#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Literature #PublicHealth #Disease #DiseasePrevention

Backpacking can be a terrific way to go on an adventurous trip. Even more adventurous when hunkering down for the night in one of the U.K.’s hiking “hotels.” You can’t book them and you don't know who else will be there, but they're an excellent way to explore Britain's most remote corners — for free. Read more from the BBC.

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#Culture #Travel #Hiking #Backpacking #UK

Of the 4,000 Indigenous languages worldwide, one dies every two weeks and Michael Running Wolf, founder of Indigenous AI, says most Native American languages will be lost within the next decade. Running Wolf leads First Languages AI Reality, where he and his team are building speech recognition models for more than 200 endangered Indigenous languages. @NBCNews talked to him, student engineers Kyra Kaya, who is Native Hawaiian, and Madeline Gupta, who is Chippewa, and Lakota artist Suzanne Kite about their AI projects to preserve and restore the languages, stories and culture.

https://flip.it/7etsZN

#IndigenousHeritage #NativeAmericanHeritage #Language #Culture #ArtificialIntelligence #AI

Today is Trans Day of Remembrance. A new report released yesterday by the Human Rights Campaign says that at least 36 transgender and gender expansive people were killed in the U.S. since Nov. 20 2023. Three-quarters of these were people of color. The report comes out amid an onslaught of anti-trans legislation in the USA — just today, House Speaker Mike Johnson said trans women will not be allowed to use the women's bathroom in the Capitol buildings. @TeenVogue highlights some of the organizations across the country supporting trans people, including Genderbands in Utah, the Iowa Mutual Aid Network, and Gender Justice LA.

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#TransDayOfRemembrance #TransRightsAreHumanRights #USPolitics #LGBTQ

When a website listed a Halloween parade in Dublin at which Cristiano Ronaldo and MrBeast might appear, social media hype began to build. And last night, thousands of Dubliners showed up from Parnell Street to Christchurch Cathedral, waiting for the three-hour event that would "[transform] Dublin into a lively tapestry of costumes, artistic performances, and cultural festivities." They waited in vain — the listing was, according to Defector, "a combination of classic SEO bait tactics and newfangled AI slop content." Here's more.

https://flip.it/Z7H84q

#Culture #Dublin #Halloween #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AISlop