In the second stanza of “How to Be a Poet,” Wendell Berry wrote: “There are no unsacred places; / there are only sacred places / and desecrated places.” When it comes to preserving important historical locations, such as monuments, parks, and buildings, a new interactive public art installation asks, “what happens when preservation itself is endangered?”
The Sacred Ordinary is an initiative organized by 1504, a production studio based in Birmingham that emphasizes in-depth storytelling to connect people with meaningful, human-focused services and experiences. The participatory artwork is presented in collaboration with the National Parks Conservation Association, which aims to protect U.S. national parks for future generations.
In early 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that mandated the removal of some National Park Service signage relating to slavery, the LGBTQ+ community, climate change, and more, a move that erases histories inextricable from the nation’s identity. (The current administration has also blocked millions in funding for numerous parks and disrupted services.)
In Birmingham, the Civil Rights District is formally designated a national monument, comprising neighborhoods that Black people historically called home and where Jim Crow laws authorized segregation until the 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement reached a nexus here when activists Fred Shuttlesworth, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy, among many others, organized nonviolent marches in 1963, known today as the Birmingham Campaign. Police turned their dogs on demonstrators and used fire hoses on children. A bombing at a Baptist church killed four young Black girls.
The Sacred Ordinary venerates access to things most of us take for granted: the ability to shop at any store, attend the nearest school, walk around any neighborhood, and sit at the front of the bus. The exhibition is installed around-the-clock, but by day, elements of the installation comprise vintage yet mundane objects that one typically walks by without giving a second thought.
A huge midcentury television rests on an open lawn, and a red newspaper vending box for The Birmingham News, which ceased publishing in 2012, advertises 25 cents per copy. Additional sites include a characteristically blue U.S. Postal Service mailbox and a walk-in telephone booth. Sheets of paper with tear-off tabs posted around town invite participants to learn more by texting a phone number. If you text “HERE” to the number, you’ll be directed to a starting point and an otherwise nondescript yellow fire hydrant.
In scavenger-hunt style, visitors are prompted to enter the year stamped on the unit, and if it’s between 5 and 8 p.m., the sequence of texted prompts doubles as a multimedia self-guided tour of Birmingham’s Civil Rights District like you’ve never seen it: the television screen, mailbox, phone booth, and more begin to glow once the sun has set.
“Birmingham, Alabama, is known around the world for such places—sites of civil rights history that many regard as sacred and that connect us to something larger than ourselves. But today, that memory is endangered,” 1504 says in a statement. “Aging infrastructure, the passing of a generation of foot soldiers, and federal efforts to erase chapters of American history raise an urgent question: if institutions alone cannot sustain history, what role can the public play in caring for sacred sites?”
Rather than center primarily on signage, The Sacred Ordinary focuses on objects associated with civic life in the mid-20th century, evoking collective memories and providing touchpoints for younger generations for whom boxy televisions, printed newspapers, and telephone booths feel distant from today’s experiences. Emblematic of the way news and information spread before the internet and smartphones, the objects confront visitors with not only the realities of how people organized and communicated during that time but also how those memories are preserved today. Even without didactics, objects and places carry meaning that no one can simply delete.
The tour opens with a narration by actor André Holland, who played a fundamental role in preserving a historic theater in nearby Bessemer, Alabama, and 1504 has dedicated the installation to Birmingham-based artist Joe Minter. The Sacred Ordinary continues nightly through December 13, with accompanying guided walks and other programs scheduled in the meantime. Learn more on the project’s website, and explore the studio’s work on Instagram. You might also be interested in “The Praise House,” directed by 1504’s Tyler Jones.
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The environmental and economic dilemmas he faces are formidable but, with a bold plan, he could set an example for leaders around the world
For politicians of the centre-left especially, it’s the great dilemma of the age. How do you do what everyone can see is essential to save the planet from boiling – even as your voters demand action to get the economy growing and to make life more affordable? Plenty of activists will tell you there’s no contradiction, that tackling the climate crisis makes economic as well as ecological sense and, in the long term, you know they’re right. But you don’t live in the long term. You’re running the government right now and facing several unavoidable, binary choices.
Andy Burnham is a prime example. This week, he addressed the Cop summit in Antalya, promising “a new era of British leadership” in the struggle against global heating. It’s important to him to talk that way: his political strategy relies on shrinking the appeal of the Green party, whose electoral success earlier this year helped remove his predecessor. But talk only takes you so far. Eventually the words have to be matched by action.
Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Molly Callahan, a gynecological teaching assistant, helps medical students practice pap smears and breast exams
On her busiest days, Molly Callahan, has 16 speculums inserted into her vagina. She works full-time as a gynecological teaching assistant (GTA) – a layperson who helps medical students practice pap smears and breast exams before they work with actual patients.
It’s not as unpleasant as you might think. In fact, the point is to help students learn how to do it without causing discomfort. Contrary to common belief, pap smears – tests that screen for cervical cancer – don’t have to be painful.
Continue reading...Secretary general says climate action ‘central to every aspect’ of UN’s work, as leaders depart Cop31 and talks go on
Tackling the climate crisis is central to all of human life and must be at the forefront of global governance, the outgoing UN secretary general has said in an emotional farewell address at the Cop31 climate summit.
“You cannot build peace on a burning planet,” António Guterres said at his final climate press conference as secretary general on Friday. “You cannot eradicate poverty when climate disasters keep throwing people back into it. You cannot promise young people a better future while destroying the natural systems on which that future depends.”
Continue reading...MEXICO-STAD (ANP/AFP) - Er is op dit moment geen migrantenkaravaan vanuit Mexico onderweg naar de Amerikaanse grens, verklaart de Mexicaanse president Claudia Sheinbaum in een persconferentie. Haar Amerikaanse ambtsgenoot Donald Trump dreigde donderdag met importheffingen als het land er niet in zou slagen de zogenaamde stroom mensen die naar het noorden reist tegen te houden.
Zeker twee groepen hebben de afgelopen dagen geprobeerd naar de Verenigde Staten te trekken. Volgens persbureau AFP ging het om een groep van ongeveer duizend deelnemers en een van ongeveer honderd personen. Deelnemers vertelden het persbureau dat ze hoopten dat het verlies van de Republikeinen bij de Amerikaanse verkiezingen zou leiden tot minder strenge grensbeperkingen.
Volgens Sheinbaum hebben lokale autoriteiten een groep mensen die vorige week aan de tocht was begonnen ervan weerhouden door te reizen.
Literary Hub is trying to determine the best literary TV adaptation of all time. I have soft spots for Station Eleven, Mindhunter, Shogun, The Expanse, Normal People, and, especially, My Brilliant Friend. (Where is Fleishman Is in Trouble??)
Als het kabinet-Jetten ergens de geschiedenis mee in gaat, dan is het wel met het uitstellen van belangrijke beslissingen. Eerst was er geen akkoord over de begroting, toen was er geen akkoord over het Belastingplan, en toen was er wel een akkoord over het belastingplan maar NIET met de VVD. En nou zitten Jetten en zijn vice-premiers Van den Brink (met zijn gemiep over boos zijn en gelijk hebben) en Yesilgöz al de hele dag te overleggen. Ouderwetsch Haagsch deurstaren dus, benieuwd of er pizza of rijsttafel wordt besteld. LIVESTREAM nog altijd bij de NOS, met ieder uur de mensen in Alphen aan den Rijn die het ook niet meer weten allemaal.
UPDATE 18u44 - Pim Sedee van de T. twittert: "Jetten gaat straks binnen verklaring geven"
