NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Vice President Kamala Harris is in Germany this weekend to attend the Munich Security Conference – her fifth foreign trip as vice president – amid escalating warnings of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Biden administration officials have said is possible in the “next several days.” Administration officials previewing Harris’ trip said the conference comes at a “very decisive moment,” saying the vice president’s leadership will serve as a “resounding signal that engagement with our allies and partners is an absolutely critical part of our overall diplomacy and our approach” to the situation between Ukraine and Russia. Harris delivered remarks Friday ahead of a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, stressing the United States’ “enduring” commitment to NATO. “I am here to ensure that through our discussions and the discussions I will have with other of our allies that we continue, as these hours and days progress, to stay in close contact,” Harris said. “We understand this is a dynamic moment in time,” Harris said. “And so, the work that we are doing on a daily basis and sometimes on an hourly basis — to strengthen the relationship; to check in, in terms of our strategic imperative — is critically important. And that is one of the reasons that I am here.” Harris stressed that the United States remains “open to and desirous of diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and discussions we have had with Russia.” “But we are also committed if Russia takes aggressive action to ensuring there will be severe consequences in terms of the economic sanctions we have discussed,” Harris said. Harris added that she knows NATO is “strong in that regard,” and thanked Stoltenberg for his partnership in that effort. Harris’ comments come just a day after President Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had reason to believe Russia is “engaged in a false flag operation,” and warned that an invasion “will happen in the next several days.” Senior administration officials said Harris, throughout her time at the conference, will discuss the “unity” the United States has achieved with European allies, which they say they are “determined to maintain.” She will also discuss the economic measures the Biden administration has prepared and “may need to deploy depending on how things play out.” The vice president is set to deliver a formal speech on Saturday, where, officials said, she will address the threat of Russian aggression and the latest state of play and underscore how unity between Western allies is a “source of strength that will allow us to respond swiftly and severely to any further Russian aggression.” During her trip, Harris will also meet with Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, which officials said will be “a real opportunity to underscore our commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to further coordinate the diplomatic efforts that have been underway to provide economic and defensive security assistance for Ukraine.” Harris is also expected to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited President Biden at the White House earlier this month. Officials said Harris will convey this weekend that the Biden administration is “prepared for every contingency.” Some, though, have been critical of the Biden administration’s decision to send Harris to the conference during such a pivotal time on the world stage, citing her limited foreign policy experience and her portfolio thus far. Harris had been tasked by the president with handling efforts to tackle the “root causes” of migration to the U.S. southern border, as well as the administration’s push to get a voting rights bill approved through Congress. Former Bush administration official and Fox News contributor Karl Rove said before Harris’ trip it might be “a successful conference and a successful message” that the Biden administration will convey, but he said the success would not be due to Harris’ presence. “The Munich Security Conference will be attended by a large number of U.S. government officials, including leading members of the Senate and House,” Rove said this week. “And my sense is that both Republicans and Democrats alike are going to be going to our allies saying, ‘We’re all in this together, we need to stay strong, and we need to provide a united front against Putin and make certain that he understands there are huge consequences for him. “He’s got a fragile economy, a difficult political position back at home, and we in the United States and our European allies stand ready to sanction him and sanction him hard and to support the Ukrainians in their efforts to maintain their independence. “And if so, then it might be a successful conference and a successful message,” Rove added. “But it’s not going to be because of the presence of Kamala Harris. It’s going to be because of the presence of a large number of U.S. government officials and particularly members of Congress showing a united front.” “Putin is a bully who responds to strength,” former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Halley told Fox News. “Sending VP Harris to Europe for meetings and speeches will only amuse him. President Biden needs to act now and hit him with sanctions.” And former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called it “deeply troubling that Joe Biden is delegating our nation’s foreign policy to the vice president,” in a statement to Fox News. “Kamala Harris can’t even find our own southern border, let alone address the national security threat that is flowing across it,” Pompeo said. “How can anyone in the world, especially Russia, take her seriously? Russian aggression of Ukraine’s borders and sovereignty demands better than this amateur approach.” James Anderson, president of the Institute of World Politics and former deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told Fox News that Harris “will attempt to convey a message of unity and resolve among the allies, which is always important in an international crisis.” “The fact that she will be delivering this message as the senior U.S. official in Munich is unlikely to carry any extra weight, however,” Anderson told Fox News. “She is relatively unknown among allied leaders and diplomats who will gather in Munich.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Anderson said, however, that the Biden administration’s “foreign policy record, to include its disastrous mishandling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, undermines its credibility to convey resolve at the very moment that it is needed the most.” Harris previously traveled to Guatemala, Mexico, Singapore, Vietnam, France and, most recently, Honduras. The Associated Press contributed tot his report. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/kamala-harris-in-europe-will-she-help-calm-the-russia-ukraine-crisis/
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Monty Preston, Curator of The Other Avatars and Saatchi Art Manager of Art Advisory and Curation 2021 was the year for NFTs. Top sales included CryptoPunk #7523 for $11,754,000, Beeple’s “Human One” for $28,985,000, and Pak’s NFT drop “Merge,” which set the record for largest sale by a living artist. There are now upwards of 40,000 buyers of art NFTs per month, and upwards of $20 million in sales are generated a week. But beyond the numbers, 2021 was really the year the world became aware of what NFTs are and their potential to change approaches and thinking in the art space. The art world is always evolving and changing, but it’s rare to see so much progress in any industry within such a short period of time. Yet NFT and blockchain technology can offer new ways for artists to connect with buyers, increase access to and democratization of the art world, and provide new ways of thinking about exchange of value in the art space. What is an NFT? Simply put, it’s a unique digital asset with verifiable ownership. This could be a piece of art, an asset from a game, a PDF, or even a tweet. When a creator “mints” (creates) a digital asset as an NFT, the minting process creates a cryptographic token that includes the digital signature of the wallet that created the token. This provides direct provenance verification for future collectors, recorded on the blockchain. It also provides creators with a new way through which to produce and sell their art directly to their followers, outside of traditional gatekeepers. NFT technology is certainly here to stay. Here are some of the ways that NFTs will impact the art world — and the world in general — going forward. 5 Predictions for the Future of Art NFTs Art NFTs aren’t just a cool new fad, but have real implications for changing who accesses art, who creates it, and how someone can buy it. Here are five predictions for how art NFTs will benefit artists, collectors, and art lovers. Prediction 1: The Democratization of Art Who owns art? Who has access to art? Many people create art, but who can earn a living from it? Who is deemed “an artist”? The digitization of art has forever altered the answers to those questions. Today, anyone with an internet connection can view artwork wherever they are, and they don’t need to physically be in a space to access it. Not only can anyone anywhere view art on a phone or computer screen, but virtual reality is increasingly providing the opportunity to visit galleries and museums, and explore an exhibition from your living room. NFTs are giving artists opportunities to create art and distribute it through online channels, bypassing traditional gatekeepers who for centuries dictated what art is and who has access to it. Blockchain transactions also allow artists to be directly supported by their audience and control their own careers. Prediction 2: Increased Diversity and Representation The digitization of art and the rise of blockchain technology and NFTs will shift the key players and influencers in the space to make art more representative of the world around us. With greater democratization of art and art spaces comes access for different people and groups traditionally underrepresented in art. And that’s the goal of art, isn’t it? Art has the ability to give us glimpses into worldviews and experiences that are outside our own, and allow us to have our perspectives expanded and challenged. The industry needs to focus on elevating diverse voices within this space, as well as providing crypto education opportunities for BIPOC, women, and otherwise underserved creators and communities. Prediction 3: Patronage and Fractionalization NFTs are also going to create a future where patronage of the arts looks a lot different. Because blockchain transactions are direct, and not mediated through a third party, collectors and fans will be in a position to directly support their favorite artist or creator. Additionally, NFT ownership allows for fractionalization, or partial ownership, through which fans or collectors can share in the future earnings of artists and their work. Blockchain technology also allows for creators to receive payment on future sales of their work, and according to our recent report on “Making a Living as an Artist,” one of the top aspects artists find appealing about NFTs is the possibility of royalties. Prediction 4: New Methods and Media Because of these innovative technologies, we’re going to see new media increasingly used to create and deliver art as well. Artists have already been creating on digital canvases, making work accessible through VR or AR (like artists Jordan Wolfson or Marina Abramović), and prioritizing the experience generated over a static, passive object. Works that are wearables, or have everyday utility? An artist gamifying an art experience for their followers? With new technology comes an imaginative renaissance, and technology will only continue to grow and advance as more people get involved in the space. Prediction 5: Increased Freedom and Independence Finally, all of these elements are going to lead to a future filled with more freedom and independence for artists. Because NFTs allow for direct patronage from fans, artists won’t need to rely on corporate patronage, brands, or mega-collectors who may ask them to compromise their creative vision. While there will always be a role for art curators and advisors to help guide our experience and understanding of art, artists will increasingly be able to create the work they want and know that they can find a paying audience for their particular style, medium, or message. Being able to create their own NFTs and distribute them online through the platform of their choosing also allows artists to take more control over their own livelihood. Similarly, collectors who now have access to a wide variety of art may have more freedom to collect what they want, not what they “should.” A Very Different Future Art NFTs aren’t simply a fad for a certain segment of the population. Rather, this new technology is challenging notions of traditional art, and removing hurdles for those who want to participate either by creating or collecting. But, in order for these predictions to come true, the industry needs to continue welcoming in new players, educate artists and collectors on how to get started, improve the technology to make it more user-friendly, and, above all, never lose sight of the mission of connecting great art with those who will truly enjoy it. About the author: As the creative director behind The Other Avatars, Monty is leading Saatchi Art’s entry into the NFT space. In addition to curating the list of artists participating in The Other Avatars, she is guiding them through the creative process to help them create high quality, unique works of art for this one-of-a-kind drop.Monty graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish Culture Studies from the University of Toronto, Canada. Prior to joining Saatchi Art in 2018, she worked at female-led, industry disrupting startups including Beauty Pie in London, where she managed content and creative, and The RealReal in San Francisco, where she specialized in luxury estate management with a focus on designer apparel and fine art. As an artist and photographer, Monty has collaborated with renowned talents in the fine art and fashion industries, providing her with the unique insight into the creative process that she brings to her curatorial practice. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/whats-the-future-of-art-nfts-5-predictions-for-what-lies-ahead/ Suzanne Jackson can trace her artistic practice right back to the earliest parts of her childhood. As a kid, she would write letters and draw pictures to send to her grandparents. Then, in second grade, her teacher placed one of her paintings in the class display case. “She let me come out and watch her hang it,” Jackson said in an interview. “I think even then I knew the painting was good—I felt really proud of that.” Over the years, this sense of pride has not left the artist, who is now in her 70s. Speaking at Frieze L.A., where she is currently the subject of a small survey at the booth of her New York gallery Ortuzar Projects, Jackson seemed to take pleasure in all that she had on view. Spanning her 50-year career, the booth includes early figurative pieces from the late 1960s and 1970s, as well as recent experiments in abstraction with suspended acrylic paintings, in which layers upon layers of paint are piled onto each other to create floating objects that blur the line between painting and sculpture. “All along I’ve been learning how to paint and experimenting with what paint can do to get to what I’m doing now,” she said. “I just let the paint happen on the surface and then move according to the next drop of paint or the next brushstroke leads me to. It’s really about being in the studio and working and letting things happen.” Related Articles Jackson was born in St. Louis in 1944. During her childhood, her family moved first to San Francisco, then to the remote Yukon Territory (some years before Alaska became a state in 1959). There, she taught herself watercoloring using how-to-paint books as her guide. She only began taking formal art classes while attending San Francisco State University for her B.F.A. Jackson started out using oil, but she quickly embraced acrylic paints as they became more readily available while she was in college. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1967, she began using Nova paints, which dry more quickly than those of other brands. “It wasn’t until I had my retrospective [at the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, in 2019] that I realized my paintings document and trace the evolution of Nova paints—how they developed their paints and introduced iridescents and textures,” she said. Her embrace of abstraction, as seen in assemblages like 2008’s So Much To Do, came about when Jackson moved to Savannah in 1996 to teach at the Savannah College of Art and Design. (She is still based in the Georgia city.) “I just imagine people have immense, beautiful dreams and ideas, especially living in place with nature all around,” she said. “I was graduating from more simple ideas, and I was more romantic as a young person. I just started experimenting with what I had and having a good time with it. For a long time, no one was paying attention to what I was doing, so I had the freedom to experiment with materials.” Over the past several years, Jackson’s work has seen a surge in mainstream recognition. In addition to her 2019 retrospective, her work has been included in major group exhibitions such as “Life Model: Charles White and His Students” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019), “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” at the Brooklyn Museum (2018),” and the landmark traveling exhibition “Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980,” which opened at the Hammer Museum in L.A. in 2011. She won a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant in 2019 and an Anonymous Was a Woman Grant in 2021. And last summer, Ortuzar staged “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: The Sapphire Show,” which revisited a storied 1970 group exhibition at Gallery 32, the short-lived space that Jackson ran in L.A. In the past three years, after her son died following two heart attacks, she has recommitted herself to abstraction. “Instead of going into a kind of mourning—I’m really accepting it now—it was a way to creatively process everything,” she said of her newest painterly mode. “My parents are gone, my son is gone, so it’s just me. And now I’m able to do this work.” In falling, flying fleeing, earth sault (2020), Jackson applies layers of paint onto a sheet of plastic and then allows them to dry for extended periods of time. Once dry, she returns to them and continues adding more paint in places where she feels the composition could be more opaque or where the work’s physical structure needs to be strengthened. The centerpiece of the booth, however, is a historical work, a triptych titled In A Black Man’s Garden (1973), which is currently on reserve by a major U.S. institution. The work, which Jackson stretched herself, was made in her L.A. studio on Jefferson and Main, a large space that allowed her the freedom to create at a monumental scale. “I wanted to make a larger statement,” she said. “I wanted to make a statement that was another way of making a political statement. People used to say my work was apolitical, but for me, it’s political to make an artwork about peace and beauty. I wanted people, especially Black people, to see the beauty. People need beauty. It’s a way to get people to think or consider some other ways of being.” Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/at-frieze-l-a-suzanne-jackson-talks-about-liberating-paint-from-canvas-and-having-a-good-time-with-it/ NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Firefighters and rescuers raced to free two truck drivers still trapped in a burning ferry off northwestern Greece Friday after most of the nearly 300 people on board were evacuated, while authorities said another 11 people were reported missing. The coast guard said 278 passengers and crew had been rescued from a fire that engulfed the Italy-bound Euroferry Olympia with 291 people on board near the Greek island of Corfu. Officials said two truck drivers were stranded on the burning vessel awaiting a helicopter rescue that required assistance from Fire Department special forces due to the thick smoke that continued to billow out of the vessel. KYIV MAYOR PLEADS WITH US, GERMNAY OVER THREAT OF RUSSIA INVASION: ‘WE CAN’T DEFEND OUR COUNTRY’ The cause of the blaze was unclear. The Italy-based ferry company said it started in a hold where vehicles were parked. “This is a difficult operation and we must remain cautious. The final accounting of the people on board will take place on Corfu when everyone rescued is assembled there,” Greek Deputy Minister for Shipping Costas Katsafados told state-run ERT television. The rescued passengers were transported to Corfu where 10 people were hospitalized. None were in serious condition and most had breathing difficulties. The predawn fire broke out in the Ionian Sea on the Italy-flagged Euroferry Olympia three hours after it left the port of Igoumenitsa in northwest Greece for the Italian port of Brindisi. Greek authorities said 239 passengers and 51 crew members on board, adding that the vessel was transporting more than 153 trucks and 32 cars. The 600-foot ferry, built in 1995, is operated by the Grimaldi Group, based in Naples, Italy. It was traveling near the small Greek island of Ereikousa, 15 kilometers north of Corfu, when the fire started. Helicopter video released by the Greek coast guard showed thick smoke billowing from the vessel hours after the rescue started. LAWMAKER ON TRIAL IN EUROPE FOR RELIGIOUS VIEWS A ‘CAUTIONARY TALE’ FOR THE US, SAYS LAWYER Greek truck driver Giorgos Parlantzas, one of the rescued passengers, recounted what took place on the Euroferry Olympia. “I was sleeping in my cabin when they came to alert us. I grabbed my ID and headed for the deck where people were being assembled. It must have been about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. And we were put onto boats,” Parlantzas told the AP, speaking by telephone after arriving in Corfu. Six boats from Greece’s coast guard and navy participated in the rescue effort along with four helicopters, an Italian customs inspection boat and several passing vessels, senior coast guard official Nikos Lagadianos said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A coast guard vessel from nearby Albania was also assisting, along with several firefighting vessels and privately-chartered boats. Rescued passengers, many wrapped in foil blankets, arrived in Corfu aboard the Italian inspection vessel and were being taken to an assembly area where paramedics were carrying out first aid checks, local officials said. Italy’s customs agency said 243 people were rescued by its vessel. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/greece-2-men-trapped-in-burning-ferry-11-others-missing/ Gennadiy Golovkin still negotiating for Canelo Alvarez 2-fight deal | Updated February 18 20222/18/2022 By Jeff Aronow: Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin is holding up Canelo Alvarez’s 2-fight deal with Matchroom to face Dmitry Bivol on May 7th and GGG on September 17th on DAZN. ESPN’s Mike Coppinger reports that Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has given his verbal agreement to a two-fight deal to face WBA 175lb champion Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) and Golovkin. Bivol has already signed his contract for the fight and has begun training. However, IBF middleweight champion Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) is “holding up” up the deal for getting Canelo to sign. Golovkin needs to agree to deal“Talks are ongoing between Golovkin and DAZN to resolve issues, sources said,” said Coppinger to ESPN. “Alvarez’s deal CAN’T be finalized until Golovkin agrees to the deal as well, according to sources. In a tweet Thursday night, Alvarez said he was still negotiating.” Coppinger took heat from boxing fans on Thursday night after Canelo took a verbal shot at him for jumping the gun with his news of the two-fight deal being agreed on.
As you can see, Canelo says there’s “NOTHING concrete” yet with his negotiations with Matchroom & DAZN for his two-fight deal. With that said, it’s believed that Canelo has zero interest in the $100 million two-fight deal from PBC, which would have him fight Jermall Charlo on May 7th and David Benavidez on September 17th. It’s unclear why Canelo prefers Matchroom’s offer over the $100M that PBC is presenting to him for their 2-fight deal. Still, some boxing fans believe the Mexican superstar doesn’t like the idea of acing the unbeaten knockout artist Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs). While Jermall has looked quite average recently over his last three fights, Benavidez impresses with each event.
In taking on WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol, Canelo will be taking the first step of an arduous journey to become the undisputed champion at 175. Canelo beginning his journey at 175Bivol is perhaps the weakest link among the three champions at light heavyweight right now, so it makes perfect sense for Canelo to target him first.
Those two light heavyweight champions can knock someone through a brick wall, and they’re going to be looking to take the much smaller 5’8″ Canelo apart with every punch they throw. Beterbiev’s body punching could prove to be a nightmare for Canelo, as he uses a lot of head movement to avoid shots upstairs. All the head movement that Canelo employs will be purposeless against Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) because the Russian will target his body from the earliest moments of the fight and will be looking to punch holes in his midsection. Benavidez looks VERY hard to beat right now, and with his high-volume attacking style of fighting, there’s a good chance he would overwhelm Canelo and stop him. To be sure, Canelo is a superstar, but he’s also one who hasn’t fought an elite fighter in many, many years since his controversial win over Golovkin in 2018. It by design that Canelo has stayed away from fighting the best or a mere accident? When you see Canelo facing the likes of his old sparring partner Avni Yildirim rather than Benavidez, it indicates that he’s purposefully chosen weaker opponents that wouldn’t wreck the good thing he’s got going as the face of boxing. Since that fight, Canelo has been resting on his laurels, seemingly going out of his way to avoid fighting the elite. Canelo’s opposition since late 2018 has been disappointing, and it’s become apparent to even casual boxing fans that he’s not fighting the best. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/gennadiy-golovkin-still-negotiating-for-canelo-alvarez-2-fight-deal-updated-february-18-2022/ Feb. 18, 2022 — Can I eat my placenta? Is a water birth safe for my baby? These are a couple of the questions that more people have been asking Sarah Pachtman, MD, over the past couple of years amid a boom in alternative birthing practices. Pachtman, an obstetrics and gynecology doctor and a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine at Northwell Health in New York City, and the voice behind the @healthymamadoc Instagram account, says interest in these practices has been fueled — at least in part — by the pandemic. “There’s a lot of distrust in the medical system and a lot of distrust in the way physicians practice now. And I think COVID and the pandemic amplified that a lot,” she says. Recent interest in alternative practices has included water births, encapsulating and eating the placenta, and even vaginal seeding, or smearing a baby born by C-section with vaginal fluid with the goal of establishing a normal microbiome in the baby. Some have also expressed interest in lotus births, in which parents leave the umbilical cord intact after birth until it falls of on its own, with the aim of giving the baby extra blood and nutrients from the still-attached cord. A recent search of the online marketplace Etsy, for example, turned up hundreds of hits for products involved in lotus births, including kits with “lotus birth herbal blend, the lotus birth bag, seven disposable bag liners and a roll of gauze for wrapping the umbilical cord to keep baby warm while still attached.” New parents can even buy a onesie for their newborn that boasts, “My Mom Ate My Placenta.” But few of these practices have been studied. Scientists and doctors lack a clear idea of their benefits — if there are any — or the possible risks to parent and baby. Since they don’t have evidence of benefit, Pachtman and many of her colleagues do not recommend these practices. Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about the safety and benefits of two much-discussed alternative birth practices: water births and eating the placenta. Water Labor and BirthsWhen talking about water births, it’s important to distinguish between laboring in water and giving birth while submerged in water. Laboring in water during the first phase of pregnancy has been linked to pain relief among people with healthy, uncomplicated pregnancies carried completely to term. “Certainly, in selected patients, that is a reasonable option,” says Alison Cahill, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at UT Health Austin’s Women’s Health Institute. Cahill is also chair of the clinical consensus committee in obstetrics for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Cahill says she is more concerned about women giving birth while submerged. Major medical associations, like the ACOG, do not support this practice because of a lack of evidence that it does more good than harm. Cahill worries about infants drowning, while Pachtman stresses that any home birth can be risky should an emergency arise. Infection, while rare, is still a realistic concern, as there can be devastating outcomes. In 2016, for example, two babies born via water birth contracted Legionnaires’ disease, a life-threatening bacterial infection. While both of those babies survived, one infant in 2014 was also diagnosed with Legionnaires’ after a water birth and died. And in 2017, a baby in Canada died of an infection with a herpes virus after a water birth. Ashton Gelzinis, a doula with Birth Naturally Brevard in Indian Harbour Beach, FL, delivered both of her children in water at home. “It doesn’t necessarily take everything away, but it just turns the dial down on the intensity of labor,” she says. Gelzinis says she has not had issues with infections in her time working as a doula, though she notes the importance of making sure the birth team is qualified and can act quickly in emergencies. Midwives and their assistants should be trained in neonatal resuscitation and carry medications to stop bleeding, for instance. Eating the PlacentaPachtman says eating the placenta after giving birth is among the more popular practices that people ask her about. Most dry out the placenta, grind it into a powder, and put it into pills — a process called encapsulation. People who have done this report having more energy, less concern about their milk supply, and healing a little faster. “But again, just like water birth, there’s not a whole lot of research and evidence to support [these reports]” says Gelzinis, who consumed her placenta after giving birth and offers encapsulation for her clients. “I haven’t had anybody have negative outcomes with taking the placenta,” she says. Still, the stories about this practice do not mean there’s scientific evidence that eating the placenta is helpful. “We have no way to say there’s any sort of benefit,” Cahill says. “It’s all anecdotal … and while I respect those stories, I also tell my patients there is a risk your placenta has a virus,” like hepatitis, HIV, Zika, or COVID, Pachtman says. The placenta acts as a filter and gathers toxic substances for 9 months, so there may be a risk of infection if you eat it, Pachtman explains. One report from Oregon in June 2017 found that a newborn developed group B strep linked to the placenta capsules the child’s mother had consumed after giving birth. Making DecisionsFor pregnant people and their partners with questions about alternative birthing practices, Pachtman and Cahill recommend speaking with their obstetrician about what they’re reading, hearing, and thinking. “We want to respect patients’ autonomy, but of course want to keep pregnant people and unborn babies safe,” Cahill says. Gelzinis recommends that all soon-to-be parents take a childbirth education class to learn their options rather than going down internet “rabbit holes” to make a choice. “I am frequently shocked by the number of people who ask for medical advice from random people on the internet. If you want to make the best decision for you and your family, find a doctor or a birth provider who you trust. And if you want more information and they don’t have it, ask them to look it up” and help put the new information in context, Pachtman says. “Get the information from people who have read and studied and have learned about this for many, many years.” Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/are-alternative-birthing-practices-a-good-idea/ DAWN STALEY STARTS the game against Stanford on the bench. Clad in a Burberry hoodie, the South Carolina women’s basketball coach claps and encourages the Gamecocks from her seated position, occasionally getting up to relay instructions or give a referee an earful. You know, as she does. It’s a brisk December night in Columbia, just a few days before Christmas, and No. 1 South Carolina is hosting No. 2 and reigning national champion Stanford in a rematch of the 2021 national semifinals. The holiday cheer quickly dissipates in Colonial Life Arena as the Cardinal bury South Carolina under an 18-point deficit in the second quarter. Clutching a rolled-up piece of paper, Staley furiously points to the spots on the floor where she wants her players to go. Doubling as a stress ball and operating as an extension of her hand, this poor rolled-up tube is getting crushed underneath the pressure of Staley’s palm. South Carolina’s scars from the tournament loss a season ago might never heal, but a win on this night would certainly help. Though the scoreboard is increasingly making even that look unlikely. As South Carolina begins to chip away at Stanford’s lead in the third quarter, Staley rises to her feet. She stomps, clenches her arms and shakes the paper in her hand. For good measure, she pulls her mask down just to make sure her team can hear what she’s saying. You know, so there ain’t no misunderstanding. She demands more from her team, and she’s matching their energy. Staley occupies a unique place in women’s basketball. The star player-turned-star coach built South Carolina from an SEC afterthought to a perennial championship contender that has led the nation in attendance every season since 2015. As a Black woman with a youthful spirit who has accomplished everything her players hope to accomplish for themselves, Staley reflects possibility. She’s a champion, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, an advocate for fellow Black coaches. She’s been called “America’s point guard” by the only other Black woman to coach a Division I women’s basketball national champion, Carolyn Peck. Staley reflects possibility, but she now needs her players to absorb it. Five years after winning their first national title, South Carolina and Staley are still seeking a second. There have been deep runs, heartbreaks and a COVID-19-canceled tournament, but a coach with Staley’s substance — and style — certainly requires an encore or two (or three or four). This team, this group of players, has the goods to do it. She reflects. They must absorb. On this night, at last, they do. South Carolina rallies from 18 points down, the biggest comeback in program history, and preserves its perfect season with a 65-61 victory. Staley bows to the crowd, walks onto the court and delivers a few pats on the back to her players. Staley’s time in the sport has created an endless stream of wisdom. Sometimes that stream takes the form of a tranquil fountain for her players to soak up, and sometimes it sprays upon her players like a fire hose. “She loves on them hard,” associate head coach and longtime confidante Lisa Boyer says. “She’s playful with them, she’s hugging them, she’s there for them. I think they sense the fairness. I think they sense the genuineness of her. She speaks to them — it’s not some fairy tale. She’s telling them the deal.” It’s the hug she gives a struggling Zia Cooke ahead of a conference game; the crashing of Destanni Henderson’s postgame interview following a win; the legendary burgers off her home grill (says Aliyah Boston, “I’m not in her business and I don’t want to be in her business, but I will eat those burgers”). But it’s also the insistence on accountability after an unexpected loss; the demand for discipline after a close win; the benching of a budding star for the greater good of the team. Fountain and fire hose; swim upstream and go with the flow. It’s what she expects of them, and it’s what the game, she says, expects of her. “I owe basketball,” Staley says. “I’m forever indebted to it. It engulfed my life for the positive. The game has gotten more of my time than my friends and my family. I feel like on a smaller or larger scale, it can impact my players’ lives in some kind of way.” STALEY GREW UP in North Philadelphia as the youngest of five children to her parents, Clarence and Estelle. Staley cut her hoop-head teeth on the legendary Philly asphalt, often playing with boys. She’d bring her ball to the court and withhold it unless they let her play too. As a guard at Dobbins Technical High School, Staley rose to national prominence. She was named the national player of the year by USA Today in 1988. She embodied the discipline she learned from her parents by putting a rubber band on one wrist. She’d snap it each time she committed a turnover. “She’d have welts on her wrists,” says former University of Virginia teammate Tammi Reiss. Reiss, who still likes to refer to Staley as “Dawnie,” now coaches at the University of Rhode Island. She met Staley when they were high schoolers. They both attended Mike Flynn’s Blue Star Invitational Camp, which was still in its infancy in the mid-1980s. “She was a bit of a celebrity,” Reiss recalls. After the day camp, the top players scrimmaged at night in front of college coaches. It was during those games that Reiss got to know Staley, both the player and the person. During the day, despite the stream of people always approaching her to say hi, Staley wouldn’t say much. “She was very shy,” Reiss says. Reiss and Staley ended up at the University of Virginia, first in the same suite with different roommates. They eventually traded their roommates in for each other. Staley and Reiss were both night owls and mischievous. And, well, their original roommates were not. “They were like old ladies,” Reiss says. “They were in bed by 10 p.m.” As a student at Virginia, Staley started off as the same shy player Reiss met at camp. She hated doing news conferences and interviews; she didn’t seek the spotlight. But on the court, she dazzled. Staley led Virginia to three straight Final Four appearances. Each time, however, she came up short. All of those losses were painful, but the 1991 championship loss against Tennessee in overtime was the worst. Since 1982, it is one of just two championship games to go into overtime. Three decades later, former Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan still doesn’t like talking about it. “We had that game taken away from us,” Ryan says. “It was gut-wrenching.” Staley was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, but she fixated on the result. Reiss would often find Staley reviewing that game in her apartment, pouring over the grainy VHS. “It was over and over,” Reiss says. That championship proved elusive for Staley, but eventually she felt what it was like to cut down the net. It just wasn’t where she expected. Or in the role she expected. STALEY PULLS HER jacket close as she hurries to get out of the rain. It’s Jan. 3, and although she has flipped the calendar to 2022, she’s not yet ready to close the book on 2021. Champ, her 4-year-old Havanese, scurries in front of her toward the door. She brushes off the raindrops as she enters the South Carolina women’s basketball offices alongside Boyer. Boyer was the head coach of the American Basketball League’s Richmond Rage when Staley was assigned to the team in 1996, a move designed to capitalize on Staley’s name recognition in Virginia thanks to her career in Charlottesville. Boyer coached Staley until the ABL folded in 1998. Staley went on to be drafted ninth overall by the Charlotte Sting in the 1999 WNBA draft. Boyer landed in Cleveland as a Rockers assistant coach. That’s where she was in 2000 when Staley, 29 at the time, called her to talk shop. Temple, Staley said, wanted her to coach the women’s basketball team there. “I’m like, ‘Hell, no, you’re not doing that,'” Boyer says. When Staley told her that Temple wanted her to go in and talk during the 2000 women’s Final Four, which was in Philadelphia, Boyer was adamant. “I said, ‘Do not take it,'” Boyer says now, almost laughing as she tells the story. Because she knows, as we all do, how it ended. Staley took the job at Temple — while still playing in the WNBA. And she really wanted Boyer to go with her, but Boyer had no intentions of leaving her job with Cleveland. Staley, however, was insistent. She tried in the summer of 2000 to get Boyer. No dice. She tried again in 2001. Boyer declined again. In the spring and summer of 2002, she called almost every day. “Doesn’t even say hello,” Boyer says. “‘You comin’ to Temple? You comin’ to Temple?'” Boyer relented just in time for the 2002-03 season, but on one condition. “I’ll come, but we got to try to win a national championship,'” Boyer said. “Boyer,” Staley responded, “that’s what we’re going to do.” It took a few seasons — 14 to be exact — and a relocation, but now whenever Boyer and Staley enter their offices, as they do on this Jan. 3 morning, they pass South Carolina’s 2017 national championship trophy sitting encased in a cylindrical tower of glass just outside the entrance to the women’s basketball office. And just as Staley sent a piece of the net to every Black woman coach in Division I, she sent a replica national trophy to all of her former players at South Carolina and Temple, along with her University of Virginia teammates, at her own expense. Each one has a plaque inscribed with the words “Because of you.” Shuffling papers in her office, Staley takes a seat behind her desk. Champ laps at the water and chows down the food Staley put in his bowls resting in the middle of the office floor. The coffee table in one corner of the rectangular room is cluttered with books. A tote with the words “My vice president is a woman” rests on a chair. Each of Staley’s three Olympic No. 5 jerseys hangs framed on the wall — a reminder of where she’s been and where she wants her players to go. A photo of her with former President Barack Obama sits by her printer, just out of view for everyone but her. She combs her hair into a tight ponytail before sipping on a skinny vanilla latte, a recent switch from a skinny caramel macchiato. Her hair is jet black except for the few hints of gray visible only from a few feet away. Today is a good day. The night before, South Carolina rebounded from its lone loss of the season — a stunning 70-69 defeat to unranked Missouri on Dec. 30 — with an 80-68 victory over Mississippi State. And there’s good news out of Philly, too: “The Eagles are in the playoffs,” Staley says. As the coaching staff files into her office for a debrief of the previous night’s win, Staley asks for a few different shot charts. Staley is joined in her office by Boyer, Fred Chmiel and Jolette Law. Chmiel met Staley while he was an assistant for the Charlotte Sting in 2005, Staley’s penultimate season playing in the WNBA. He joined Staley’s staff at Temple from 2006 to ’08 and then rejoined her in Columbia in 2015. Law, a South Carolina native and former Iowa star who started her coaching career in 1994, joined Staley’s staff in 2017 after serving as an assistant at Tennessee. Even though South Carolina wound up with a win against Mississippi State, Staley is not entering this meeting satisfied. “I might change some stuff up,” she says. Staley has an idea, and it’s a little different. She’s not sure if it’s going to work. But as the film session goes on, it becomes clear to Staley that there is a problem. Well, a couple of problems. The first is that Boston, a 6-foot-5 forward, isn’t getting as many purposeful touches early enough in the game for Staley’s liking. Boston, the favorite to win national player of the year, took only two shots in the first half against Mississippi State. And then there’s also the problem of Boston’s defender routinely sagging off of her during fast breaks and clogging the lane. Staley wants to move that defender out of there and make the opposing team guard Boston everywhere. Her solution is to put in a new set. Excuse me, a break, not a set in South Carolina parlance. The back-and-forth between Staley and her admittedly skeptical coaching staff underscores the technical precision in how they all approach coaching. When Staley says the game has gotten more from her than her family, this is the stuff she means. Staley is obsessive about basketball. Her mind is always going. If she didn’t put the TV on true crime documentaries before bed, she’d never fall asleep; she’d still be up thinking about this new set. Excuse me, break. It doesn’t matter to Staley that she’s often highlighted for her top-notch recruiting classes and ability to connect with and motivate players, rather than being praised from a basketball perspective. She knows her commitment to basketball and the debt she’s trying to pay. “I don’t really care,” Staley says. “For people to even say that is disregarding me as a player. And I think it’s coming up more now because we’re winning on a bigger stage. You can’t have the same success without knowing the game and X-ing and O-ing. It’s flattering when you can make the game look as easy that anybody can do it. That’s when you’ve arrived.” Her players know that truth. It’s why they signed up to come to South Carolina. All that experience and knowledge lives within Staley and it lives on the walls of her office. “She knows exactly what we’re going through because she’s already been through it,” Boston says. “And having somebody with that much experience, it can only benefit you. She knows what she’s talking about.” Often, Staley feels like she makes the right adjustment, but against Missouri just a few days ago, that wasn’t the case. She thought that maybe the Gamecocks should try out the zone they’d been working on, just to do something different. She brought it up in a huddle with her staff but ultimately decided against it. The zone wasn’t ready. “I did not adjust, because I believed in the things that we did well — our man-to-man defense,” Staley says. “And it wasn’t working that night, but it’s more of a pride thing too. I’m just like, ‘This is what we do — don’t falter.'” Missouri. That game, that loss, is omnipresent in the days after. Staley approaches her coaching through three simple words: look, sound, feel. And Missouri didn’t feel good. It still doesn’t. Losing is something Staley cannot abide. “I’m a sore loser,” she says. It eats her up. And the Missouri loss, the only one to date for South Carolina this season, is staying with her. “We seem to lose at Missouri a lot over the past couple of years.” There’s history with Missouri, both on the court and off. There are the four losses in Columbia, Missouri, a 2018 on-court brawl, Staley getting ejected, a war of words, a lawsuit that resulted in a $50,000 settlement for Staley, half of which went to her attorneys and half to her Innersole foundation. South Carolina and Missouri have been drama city. So the fact that South Carolina has only lost one game this season and it came against a short-handed Missouri squad in the other Columbia is at once unsurprising, and, for Staley, deeply annoying. “I always thank God for the wins and losses,” Staley says. “I was so mad after the Missouri game that after a few days I’m just like, ‘Really, I ain’t even think about God.’ I didn’t because I wanted that one. As much as I pray and as much as I know who’s the leading force in my life, for a moment, I just blacked out and I couldn’t snap out of it because it was just all me. And if I thought about my higher power, I could have snapped out of it a little bit quicker.” Sitting behind her desk, she talks as if she’s gotten over the Missouri loss. She hasn’t, though. Tomorrow is going to be a fire hose kind of a day. A GREEN STARBUCKS stirrer clenched between her teeth, Staley sits in a cushioned, black folding chair with her legs crossed, and the scouting report for the Jan. 6 game at LSU rests in her lap. Champ curls up on the floor next to her. Team members are scattered in front of her in their own chairs facing the two large television screens anchored to a wall in the film area of South Carolina’s practice facility at the Carolina Coliseum. Before diving into LSU, however, Staley and the coaching staff first want to confront the mistakes — and show off the good stuff too — made during the Mississippi State game two nights before. As Chmiel moves through the clips, Staley calls out commentary, bringing attention to what she sees as most important. When junior guard Brea Beal cuts to the basket and scores thanks to a seal from sophomore transfer Kamilla Cardoso, Staley is elated. “It’s the little things,” she says. She praises good execution, and needles when it’s lacking. As Chmiel rolls the tape on the game’s turnovers, a continuous source of frustration for the coaching staff, Staley waits for her players to say something. Anything. “How do we get better?” she asks. “I need an answer,” she demands when no one answers. “I’m not just asking.” Senior guard Destiny Littleton speaks up. “Can’t just go through the motions.” Staley nods her approval, and Chmiel resumes the film. Not five minutes later, in the middle of a section highlighting offensive execution from South Carolina, Staley chews faster on the stirrer still resting in a corner of her mouth. She’s stewing. Something doesn’t feel right. “Y’all turn the page too fast,” she says. The group is quiet. The comment doesn’t apply to the specific moment on film. They aren’t talking about turnovers anymore, and it’s not immediately clear what Staley is talking about. Then it becomes very clear. Staley is talking about Missouri — the loss Staley said she was over yesterday — and how the Gamecocks responded immediately after that loss. “We lose to Missouri and we’re worried about sandwiches?!” she says. “If losing doesn’t take your f—in’ appetite away, you’re playing the wrong sport and your goals will not be met.” Your goals will not be met. That’s what this is about — a championship, but more than that. It’s not just about the goals each player has for the season; it’s about the goals each player has for herself. Goals Staley desperately wants them to achieve. But she needs them to invest now, in this season, and that’s what is lacking in this moment. She calls out senior forward Victaria Saxton for the improvement she has made. She praises Boston for her hard work and commitment. And she tells the story of how when Henderson, Henny for short, was a sophomore, Staley told her she’d be coming off the bench, even when she was good enough to start. “What you say, Henny?” Staley asks. Henderson doesn’t respond loudly. Staley chuckles. “She don’t say much.” Staley continues to the lesson of the day. “Find out who your favorite is on this team and ask yourself why,” she says. “And then start doing those things. People in here got stories and testimonies. Time to tap in.” In this moment, getting the most out of all of her players is a challenge for Staley. They aren’t quite responding the way she wants them to, not executing at the level she expects them to. And not everyone is getting it. That’s what she was talking about during the film session. “They want you to play them without the work, without the discipline, without the success, without the data that backs up why you play,” Staley says. “It’s weird. I can’t get them to understand. I can’t get that part of it. I can make them come to [my office]; I don’t want to, though. I want it to be them, so they can know later on in life, whether they’re playing professionally or in a different profession, that when you take the initiative, you’re showing somebody you want more.” Demanding the effort, the commitment and the discipline is the hallmark of Staley’s coaching style. “She doesn’t relax, she wants the best for us,” Henderson says. “So anything she feels, she’s going to get off her chest. I feel like those challenges help mold us, and help mentally and physically make us stronger.” The expectations, however, are also clear. Staley provides a blueprint. She tells you where she wants you to go, and what she wants you to do. “Coach Staley’s very simple,” Boston says. “Do what she says. If she says set a screen and roll, I’m setting a screen and roll. I don’t even care who’s in my way. I’m getting down there.” Simple. Boston reiterates that word a few times, and it’s one of Staley’s favorites. It calls back to a moment in practice, where South Carolina was running through a set — an actual set, not a break — but the guards kept throwing up shots when Staley wanted them to pass into the high post. “On this play,” she said. “I want a post touch. It’s simple.” When they executed it properly, she let them know she was happy. Simple. “These young people, that’s how they operate now. But if you add a little old school to it, it works out,” Staley smirks, a barely perceptible twinkle in her eye. “A little old school doesn’t hurt anybody.” HOURS BEFORE STALEY and the Gamecocks depart for their game at LSU — a game in which they would squeak out a six-point win after trailing throughout the first half — freshman Sania Feagin walks into the film area for a final session to prepare for Kim Mulkey’s Tigers. As Feagin starts to settle in, Staley calls out. “Ankle works today!” Staley says, chuckling at her own joke. “Thought we’d have to get you a wheelchair yesterday.” Feagin rolled the ankle in the previous day’s practice. The whole practice stopped and she was supported as she limped off the court. Staley led the team in a chorus of “Walk It Out,” as Feagin was able to walk. Feagin looks over to Littleton for help. “It was pretty dramatic,” Littleton says. There’s more drama when the players move to the court for drills. Staley tries to pry more and more out of them. More effort. More focus. A second national championship, Staley knows, won’t come practicing like this. She needs more. More from everyone. During a timed three-player weave drill, each group of three must make five layups during the time allotted. If they miss a layup, they have to start over from zero. The last group — Bree Hall, Eniya Russell and Cooke — struggles. They have to restart once. “You’ve got plenty of time,” Staley says. The same group has to restart again. “Now you don’t.” As time runs out, the group pulls up, exhausted from running up and down the floor. Staley walks over and gives Cooke instructions for running in the middle. She needs to get out ahead instead of trailing behind. The pep talk both provides help and gives the group some respite. They finish the drill in five consecutive trips. No restart required. Staley scoots onto the scorer’s table on the sideline, Starbucks stirrer hanging out of a corner of her mouth. Champ runs by her feet. She nods as practice continues. “I’m good,” she says. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/fountain-and-fire-hose-an-inside-look-at-the-dawn-staley-way/ Tennessee theft suspects pray with elderly woman in church as they steal her wallet: police2/18/2022 NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Two Tennessee theft suspects are accused of asking an elderly woman in church to “pray” with them as they stole her wallet, according to police. The Clarksville Police Department (CPD) is investigating the incident that took place at the Hilldale Baptist Church sanctuary on Feb. 9 around 6 p.m. Video footage of the incident shows the female suspects approaching the 78-year-old victim sitting in a pew and engaging her in conversation. TENNESSEE TODDLERS MISSING SINCE VALENTINE’S DAY AFTER MOM BONDED OUT OF COUNTY JAIL One suspect “requested the victim pray with her,” public information officer Scott Beaubien wrote in the video’s description. “While they were praying, the second female rummaged through the victim’s purse and stole her wallet,” Beaubien said. “The suspects attempted to use the victim’s credit cards at Sam’s and Kroger’s shortly thereafter.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Authorities are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact 931.552.1011. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/tennessee-theft-suspects-pray-with-elderly-woman-in-church-as-they-steal-her-wallet-police/ After a year-long hiatus, Frieze Los Angeles opened on Thursday, offering the usual mix of international galleries and local spaces alongside less expected programming, such as a dedicated space for social justice. As part of a collaboration with artist Tanya Aguiñiga, ten BIPOC-led art and advocacy organizations from across the city gathered at the fair for a BIPOC Exchange, a program of performance, installation, and education that will span the run of the fair, which closes on Sunday. “Visitors will be expecting a certain kind of art, and instead find us,” Aguiñiga said in an interview. When Aguiñiga spoke with ARTnews, she was en route to the Wilshire Garden inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the BIPOC Exchange is located. The space comprises booths and an area for performances designated by a stage of flowers—which the artists believes make the space more accessible than a raised platform, she said. Trees transplanted from a nearby nursery are scattered throughout. The flowers she picked up from florists herself, temporarily transforming her car into a movable meadow. Related Articles Aguiñiga, who grew up in Tijuana and crossed the border into San Diego to attend school, is the founder of Art Made Between Opposite Sides (AMBO), a collaborative project for binational artists working on issues of migration. Her interdisciplinary practice centers the U.S.-Mexico border, considering the violence of its maintenance as well as the psychological toll of commuting. For her 2020 performance Metabolizing the Border, Aguiñiga created a bodysuit from blown glass embedded with border fence fragments and then wore it while walking a section of the wall. At Frieze L.A., AMBO is be joined by initiatives such as the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, a resource for the Indigenous migrant communities in California’s Central Coast; the Los Angeles Poverty Department, which creates artworks that reflect the experience of people who live and work in L.A.’s Skid Row; and Contra-Tiempo, an activist dance theater company centered on the Afro-Latinx community. To hear more about the BIPOC Exchange, ARTnews spoke with Aguiñiga ahead of the fair’s opening. The conversation follows below. How did you get involved with Frieze? I had done a BIPOC craft fair in my studio in November to get a lot of people to know the work of my friend Porfirio Gutiérrez, an Indigenous Oaxacan weaver. I wanted young people of color to get inspired by the virtuosity of what he does. It ended up being 35 BIPOC artists selling their artwork at the studio. Frieze found out about it, and they really liked the idea of me organizing something similar for the L.A. fair. I thought it would be cool to use the platform to bring attention to BIPOC artist-led projects around L.A. that are changing our community for the better. And we can introduce all sorts of mediums and disciplines this way. Art fairs are not typically accessible events—it can be expensive go, and expensive to participate. How does the BIPOC Exchange respond to this reality? The galleries coming from out of town don’t usually get a sense of the communities they’re stepping into, or to learn about the issues these communities face. It’s important for the galleries participating in the main Frieze show to be exposed to artists who are using art as a tool for social justice. And it’s good for people from L.A. who aren’t expecting work they can see themselves mirrored in. It’s super important for us to show that anyone can participate in art, not just people that have the money to buy blue-chip [art]. You can support small communities that are trying to make a living, or artists outside the traditional career path. So many of the people served by these organizations may not necessarily be learning how to make art in college. We’re talking about people that are unhoused or formerly incarcerated people, or people with disabilities. How did art become such an important vehicle for self-care for you? For around 25 years, I’ve been working on learning how to affect change and heal my own trauma. I just got back from doing the last leg of the border project which started when family separation had just begun. Being a witness to these families lined up at the border—I hadn’t dealt with what it does to you, to constantly see atrocities at our border and to live with the constant reminder of its events. Art came from the question of: How do I make it visible? How do I remind people that it’s ongoing? To me, a lot of performance is figuring out how to enter these painful spaces and then let people bear witness to that experience. How are you making sure the artists at Frieze will feel safe exploring their traumas in such a public venue? I wanted to set up the space to build community with each other. I don’t want this to be an extractive process, where we’re tokenized as the BIPOC section. I wanted us to take advantage of us being in one space because so much of our work is intersectional. I want us to be true allies in reshaping our city in ways we want, not with what politicians or capitalism decides for us. The space is laid out in a big circle so that we’re facing each other. Instead of walls, I used the money we had to buy trees, which will be decorated and help designate the different booths. In the end the organizations can choose to take them home, or one of the organizations, Classroom of Compassion, can take them for one of their projects, a free community space for mourning and ceremonies. It’s a way better alternative than going to some contractor who would use them to build a wall or throw them away. I wanted this to be a nurturing space without divisions, where we can watch over each other’s booths and performances. What would you say to the VIPs who may have resistance to engaging with issues of equity and social justice? It’s everyone’s choice whether to engage or not to engage. I just think some people don’t know how. In that case, the best way to participate is to enact change with your wallet—to donate money. Or, if there’s something at our table that speaks to them, they can take it home. We want people to engage at the level they’re comfortable at. And hopefully when they leave, they’ll look at the piece they purchased or the flyers they picked up, and decide to look into what’s going on in L.A. I know sometimes people get upset that artists are tasked with the emotional labor of teaching, of having to pick up the slack in figuring out how to heal our society. I do wish it was different, that we had more resources to help our communities, but it is important to show how art is such a necessary part of our survival, our resilience. I want the people coming to this fair to become champions of art, to become active supporters of the work that BIPOC artists are doing across the cities and the world. It’s really an amazing thing to learn. You do a lot of collaborative work in your practice, but this is a new experience for you. What’s something you’ve learned? I’m someone that’s always playing with hybridity. I grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border and have been thinking about this for decades. So, it’s amazing when you get exposed to a new combination of concepts, material, and message. My mind was blown when I found Contra-Tiempo, the BIPOC activist dance group, which helped me think that activism doesn’t have to be a graphic image or protest—all these things I’m used to. It showed me how dance is a form of resistance, of maintaining culture. When we become too used to one art form, we don’t do deep dives into how others can give voice to different narratives. There are new forms of resistance and survival. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/at-frieze-l-a-bipoc-exchange-is-making-space-for-social-justice/ Feb. 18, 2022 — Will springtime be booster time — again? The first COVID-19 booster shot is now in the rearview mirror for millions of Americans — for the 28% who got it, at least — but new data finds it’s less effective after about 4months. The CDC has already recommended a second booster for immunocompromised people. So, is the next logical step another booster for every other adult? The consensus among public health officials seems to be: Not so fast. At the White House COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci, MD, focused on the question of the hour. Citing data, he said that ”a single booster shot continues to provide high-level protection against severe disease caused by Omicron” in people who are not immunocompromised. Fauci pointed to CDC research that found vaccine effectiveness after two doses of mRNA vaccines — either Moderna or Pfizer — drops to 58% after 4-5 months. After a booster dose, the vaccine is 91% effective, at first, at preventing hospitalizations. But that drops to 78% at months 4 to 5. “Nonetheless, the level of 78 [%] is still a good protective area,” Fauci said. “The future requirement for an additional boost, or a fourth shot for mRNA or a third shot for [Johnson & Johnson], is being very carefully monitored in real time,” he said, adding that recommendations will be updated as needed. Wait on the DataOther public health officials and agencies echo Fauci’s advice: Wait on the data. “At this time, CDC does not have a recommendation for a fourth dose/second booster dose for most Americans,” says Scott Pauley, a CDC spokesperson. In a preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed, released this this week, researchers from Sheba Medical Center in Israel followed 274 health care workers after a fourth dose of either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine. They found the second booster restored antibody levels to the same peak levels after the third dose but was not good at preventing mild or asymptomatic Omicron infections. Breakthrough infections were common. The researchers said their results suggest the need for ”next-generation vaccine development.” Considering the Pandemic’s PathDecisions about second booster shots demand that we look at the big picture, says William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. At the moment, he says, hospitalizations are down, and ”even deaths, a lagging indicator,” are declining, although not to the same degree in all parts of the country. Even so, he says, the trends are going in the right direction. At the White House briefing Wednesday, CDC director Rochelle Walensky, MD, said federal officials are ”cautiously optimistic about the trajectory we are on,” noting that the current 7-day daily average of cases is about 147,000, down about 40% from the previous week. Hospital admissions, at 9,500 a day, have declined about 28%, and the 7-day average of daily deaths is about 2,200, a decrease of about 9% from the prior week. The hope, Schaffner says, is that this combination of the Omicron spread, with many gaining natural immunity from that infection, along with vaccination, will produce a sustained drop in cases. “If that is the case, we don’t need a booster anytime soon.” But that scenario also assumes we don’t see a new variant of concern, he says. Then, ”as we move from pandemic to endemic, we will be able to determine at what interval a booster will be necessary and what the composition [of it] will be,” Schaffner says. But for now, “I don’t think a fourth dose — a second booster — is in the cards in the near-term future [for those not immunocompromised], if everything goes the way it has been going.” ”What you can’t see is that all my fingers are crossed,” he says. Booster GoalsIt’s hard to give final answers about boosters for the general population without sufficient data yet, agrees Alejandro Balazs, PhD, a virologist and principal investigator at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard. The critical question: “Are we trying to stop transmission or just severe disease?” Amesh Adalja, MD, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, agrees: “If the goal is protection against serious disease, hospitalization, and death, targeting the boosting of high-risk populations [but not others] makes sense as the standard regimens are holding up in the general population.” Even as antibody levels decline after vaccinations, your memory T-cell and B-cell response may endure, making it possible to fight the virus, Balazs says. “The antibodies can prevent the infection from establishing itself.” Boost Now, Data Later?Despite the lack of data, doctors say their patients are asking now about second boosters. “At this point in time, it is impossible to predict whether additional booster doses will be needed for healthy people,” says Aaron Glatt, MD, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, NY. Could premature boosting by healthy people have a downside? “I don’t see any immediate harm [to that]. However, I’m not so sure about the benefit,” Schaffner says. “The one harm is hypothetical,” Adalja says, “and it is that continuing to boost with first-generation vaccines directed against the ancestral strain of the virus may blunt the ability of the immune system to fully respond to new variants.” Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/is-it-time-for-yet-another-covid-booster/ |
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