Contact: Tom Moore
Director of Arts Management
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

For All the World to See, an exhibition organized by UMBC's Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and curated by UMBC Research Professor Maurice Berger, opens today, January 17, at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, where it will continue on display through May 15.

Through a host of media--including photographs, television and film, magazines, newspapers, posters, books, and pamphlets--the project explores the historic role of visual culture in shaping, influencing, and transforming the fight for racial equality and justice in the United States from the late-1940s to the mid-1970s. For All the World to See includes a traveling exhibition, website, online film festival, and richly illustrated companion book.

Photo:
Ernest C. Withers
Sanitation Workers Assemble in Front of Clayborn Temple for a Solidarity March, Memphis, TN, March 28, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Image: 8 1/2 x 14 3/4 in.
Paper: 16 x 20 in.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Museum Purchase, © Ernest C. Withers, Courtesy Panopticon Gallery, Boston MA

Online Resources
For All the World to See website and online exhibition: http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc/foralltheworld/index.php
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture: http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://nmaahc.si.edu/
DuSable Musuem of African American History: http://www.dusablemuseum.org/
UMBC Arts & Culture Calendar: http://www.umbc.edu/arts

Here she comes, Miss America 2011!

We can’t even make this up: Judge rules NY inmate ‘bitten on penis by rodent’ may sue.

Reince Priebus replaces Michael Steele as chairman of the Republican National Party.

Miss the Golden Globes last night?  Check out who won and who lost.

While you’re at it, see who dressed like a winner… and who looked like a loser.

You probably have heard about “electric fences” for dogs. You know, those invisible “fences” that seem to mysteriously keep barking canines on their territory rather than at your throat when you pass near.

But you probably haven’t heard about the gigantic super-duper high-tech fence planned for the US-Mexican border.

This fence is also invisible… but not because it works.

This $1 Billion ineffective fence is invisible because it won’t work…it is being scrapped all-together.

Back during the Bush administration, the former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said they were “looking to build a 21st century virtual fence”  which was virtually impossible.

Current Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explains the move to scrap the fence, saying there is no “one-size-fits-all” border security solution.

Clearly the proposal for the fence, like so many fences, was full of holes.

Sports news at the moment is dominated by American Football playoffs and world football (soccer) Cup matches.

We at USDemocrazy recently stumbled upon this great article on a different kind of competition.  ESPN’s magazine has written about a 14-year-old girl in Uganda who has an inspiring story thanks to her talents…

in chess.

Phiona Mutesi is an instinctual chess player. In a matter of months, she went from learning the game to beating her instructor, to training to compete on an international level. The article follows Phiona’s competition at the world-wide Olympiad of chess (in Siberia, far removed from her home in the slums in Uganda) and details the obstacles she had to overcome to get there.

After winning at Africa’s International Chess Tournament in Sudan, Phiona and her teammates returned to Uganda. The reality of being a chess star from a disadvantaged part of the world is described:

As Phiona left the celebration headed for her home that night, someone excitedly asked her, “What is the first thing you’re going to say to your mother?”

“I need to ask her,” Phiona said, “Do we have enough food for breakfast?”

Check out Phiona’s story here.