Stars Align In Alabama: Emmett Till; Four Birmingham, Alabama Church-Going Girls; Doug Jones; Dana Schutz & Racial Reconciliation

Stars Align In Alabama: Emmett Till; Four Birmingham, Alabama Church-Going Girls; Doug Jones; Dana Schutz & Racial Reconciliation

Nigerian-born, Huntsville-raised, U of Alabama grad Toyin Ojih Odutola first got the attention of Voguemagazine when the poet Claudia Rankine published as essay in Aperture magazine, "A New Grammar for Blackness'. 

A year later, Toyin Ojih Odutola has mounted a solo show 'To Wander Determined' at the Whitney Museum in New York. Upon entering the show, visitors see a letter written by Odutola in the persona of the 'Deputy Private Secretary' for two aristocratic families in Lagos. 

artNet writes: "For Ojih Odutola, their images form a corrective to a Eurocentric art history that thinks of both court portraiture and genre paintings as belonging to a primarily white world, with black characters as footnotes—cast as servants, slaves, or left out completely.."

The topic of black identity, colonialism, and cultural appropriation have lived front and center in our national -- and international -- dialogue in 2017. 

Doug Jones Leads Roy Moore In Alabama Senate Race, Says New Post-Schar Poll | Large Majority Say Jones Has Higher Morals

Doug Jones Leads Roy Moore In Alabama Senate Race, Says New Post-Schar Poll | Large Majority Say Jones Has Higher Morals

I've become very involved in this race, working w/women in Alabama. My moods are swinging from positive for Jones (who I've supported since the primary) to despair over the outrageous and untrue statements said about him. This morning's poll gives me hope because the sample is much larger, and it documents that women are significantly more likely to vote for Jones. Turnout among moderate Republican women, Dems, of course, and Alabama's black community are critical.

When working on my own mindset, I remember Va a month ago, where polls showed an even race, but the actual result was huge for Dems.

The beliefs of Roy Moore are so extreme that it astounds me that he could become a US senator. Forget the sexual harassment claims. Moore is a LEADER in the personhood movement, giving ALL legal rights of a grown woman with three kids to a fertilized egg. The state would govern pregnancy, protecting the rights of the embryo.

It's all terrifying -- so terrifying that I forced myself to become educated on the rare third-trimester abortion last night. Not the statistics, which are about 1% nationally and 3 in Alabama last year, but the procedure itself.