The Southwest’s Indigenous Food and Films

I don’t think I’ve shared this video of a cooking demonstration from Agave Heritage Festival in Tucson here yet.

It seemed fitting to post this on Indigenous People’s Day (which I’m glad is gaining traction over Columbus Day!), since the recipe includes several local ingredients originally used by the Native American tribes in this area.

Also, unrelated to the video, we went to an IPD screening of two documentaries by Diné (Navajo) filmmakers at the Heard Museum yesterday. Both films were really great!

Heard Museum

You may get a chance to see them too, since they’re traveling around on a Navajo Films Documentary Tour starting in November, and one of the films, The Mayors of Shiprock, will air on the World Channel November 6.

Heard Museum

If I can track down tour dates, I’ll put them on the next Happenings List.

September 21, 2017September 19, 2017

Smithsonian: Air and Space Museum and Mitsitam Café

Cafe at National Museum of the American Indian

While I could have easily spent a full day at the Smithsonian American History Museum, a D.C.-area friend had recommended the Mitsitam Café at the Smithsonian American Indian Museum as a “little known gem.” I decided to make my way there for lunch.

The cafeteria serves native-inspired foods that span the American continents. I got a buffalo burger and fry bread.

The menu also includes options like wild rice and ceviche.

This is definitely a place I’d like to come back to and try more things!

National Air and Space Museum

When I walked down Independence Avenue to the south entrance of the Air and Space Museum, I was discouraged to see a line over 100 feet long to get in. I had started back toward our hotel, when I looked back and saw that the northern entrance – along Jefferson Drive – didn’t seem to have a line! Sure enough, about five minutes later I was in the museum!

So keep in mind that there is more than one entrance, especially since, as Stephanie later told me, the Air and Space Museum is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums.

Immediately upon entering, I saw display spaces festoooned with replica and original air and space craft – a lunar landing module, the “Spirit of St. Louis,” the front half of the fuselage of a 747, rocket nozzles as big as my living room.

In the past I had wanted to be an astronaut, so I was particularly intrigued by the exhibits showing relics of the U.S. space program in the 60s and 70s – toolkits, suits, windowed hatches, flight manuals, and the like. There’s even a very official and ornate “certificate of merit” presented to the first chimpanzee sent to space by the U.S., which I found both ridiculous and moving. While I was certainly impressed by the spacecrafts themselves, oddly, it was these historic bits of ephemera that captivated me the most.

The guided tour moved a bit too slow for me, so I bailed out to cover more ground.

Marty met up with me about an hour into my museum visit, so that was a nice surprise. We toured the World War II fighter aircraft exhibit together. I especially appreciated the naval aircraft display that replicated both the deck and interior of an aircraft carrier.

Unfortunately, our time soon ran out at the Air and Space Museum. We went to the food court with the biggest McDonald’s I’d ever been to. There was a large seating area and lots of windows to let in light. Fortunately, we went as the day was winding down, so we didn’t have to wait in line long.

I enjoyed sitting in the gradually-emptying mega-McDonald’s and debriefing the museum sights with Marty.

January 26, 2017June 24, 2020

Art, Nuance, Resistance

It’s Thursday, and I’ve been working on other things this week besides getting today’s post finished. I’m also fighting off a big headache. So let’s just wing it today, shall we?

I’m really saddened by the news of the president signing an order to keep refugees out of the U.S.

I believe that, just as intercultural travel enriches an individual, a diversity of cultures ultimately enriches a country. And the fact that we are turning away so many people seeking refuge breaks my heart.

What is it the Statue of Liberty says? “Give me…your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? I don’t recall it ending with “LOL! j/k” but I dunno. Maybe I’m misremembering.

When my sister-in-law asked on Facebook yesterday where everyone was finding hope, all I could think of was art.

I’ve been mulling this over for awhile now. Maybe since the election results came in and I couldn’t stop thinking of Goya and of Picasso. Maybe before that.

Even now – especially now – art is vital. Stories are vital.

The best art is nuanced, has layers of meaning, expresses truth.

When I think about how we got to this point in the U.S., I believe it has a lot to do with black-and-white thinking, with ignoring nuance. Saying “this is 100% evil” or “this is 100% perfect” and refusing to recognize the layers of a situation or the mix of good and bad that lives in all of us.

Creating something that comes from your heart, that expresses a piece of your experience, that puts authenticity over agenda, is a form of resistance against oversimplification and prejudice.

So let’s make things and speak truth and recognize people making art in our communities, because every person that makes/writes something that is true of themselves is also helping to paint a wider, truer picture of humanity.

Artwork in the photos:

1. Colibrí mural by Mata Ruda

2. Tempe Library art exhibition by John Randall Nelson

3. Studio and work of Judy Bruce

4 + 5. Murals in Clarion Alley

6. Colonel Platoff on His Charger by Kehinde Wiley

January 21, 2016

Where to Celebrate Australia Day in Arizona

Mr. Big is a 90-year-old eucalyptus tree outside of the town of Superior, AZ. Not every tree has a title. But, at 8 feet thick and 140 feet tall, Mr. Big gets your attention.

It (He?) is the largest tree in one of the largest collections of Australian plants in North America – at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

To celebrate this forest of outback transplants as well as the cultural roots from their native soil, the Arboretum celebrates Australia Day with walk-a-bout tours and didgeridoo jam sessions.

Phillip and I went last year with friends Anne and Jameela. We watched a demonstration on playing the didgeridoo, and then Phillip tried it out. Meanwhile, outside there was a guy swinging a bull-roarer over his head. Because, I guess, that’s the kind of thing that can happen on Australia Day. So Anne and I gave that a try.

Then we caught up with the tour through the Arboretum’s eucalyptus forest with Australian native and horticulturalist Paul Chambers pointing out different types of Australian plants, telling stories of his work importing them to the U.S., and sharing aboriginal traditions.

We left for a bit to get lunch at Jade Grill in Superior (my fave!).

Afterwards, we came back to the Arboretum, and there was a didgeridoo concert under the eucalyptus trees. We could still hear it from across the Queen Creek as we hiked the High Trail.

A video posted by stephanieliebold (@stephanieliebold) on Jan 17, 2015 at 8:38pm PST

Australia Day 2016 is coming up this Saturday. You can check out the schedule of events on the listed on the Arboretum’s website.

October 12, 2015October 12, 2015

Colombia Day and Other #ColumbusDayAlternatives

While I like having a 3-day weekend in October, I don’t think Columbus deserves his own holiday. So I was brainstorming Columbus Day alternatives (Columbus, Ohio Day; Bus Day; Cumulonimbus Day…) and decided my favorite was Colombia Day.

There are lots of ways you could celebrate here in Phoenix or elsewhere:

Order a Colombian coffee at your favorite local coffee shop.
Try a Colombian restaurant – a friend recommended La Tiendita Colombiana in Mesa.
Visit Colombian animals, like the Andean bears at the Phoenix Zoo.
Listen to Colombian music. We dig Juanes and old school Shakira (it should be in Spanish and she should have dark hair on the cover).
Dance cumbia or salsa.
Visit a Colombian or Latino cultural center. Although Phoenix’s Arizona Latin@ Arts and Cultural Center is closed Monday, you can check it out Tuesday through Saturday 11a-6p. Celebrando Nuestra Cultura is their current exhibition of 15 Arizona artists exploring Mexican history, which is not Colombian but sounds pretty interesting.

Some cities have nixed Columbus Day in favor of an Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In that spirit, you could visit the Heard Museum or another place in your area to learn about Native American cultures.

However, if you want to celebrate by watching the clouds, taking public transit, or even visiting Ohio, that works too. Those are all things worth celebrating more than Christopher Columbus.

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