Clik here to view.
What Exactly Is Appalachian Cuisine?
On the first day of my foodways of Appalachia course at East Tennessee State University, I always play a one-minute audio recording. It’s the voice of Marilou Awiakta, a Cherokee poet and storyteller....
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Cinco de Mayo
What’s with Cinco de Mayo, anyways? Corporate advertisers treat it as the de facto Mexican Day, if not Latino Day, in this country. In 1998, the United States Post Office issued a Cinco de Mayo stamp...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Greatest Muralist You’ve Never Heard Of
Manuel G. Cruz has produced the best folk art I have encountered in Los Angeles. Through his religious and historical murals, he proves himself a good storyteller and colorist, with figures inhabiting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It Wasn’t Until I Left the Reservation That I Understood My Purpose as a...
I am Diné, an American Indian. Not the Indian princess of a Disney movie, not the enemy combatant in a Western film, not the romantic, stoic relic of an old Edward Curtis photograph. I was born and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 1900 World’s Fair Produced Dazzling Dynamos, Great Art, and Our Current...
Debates rage today about the risks and benefits of modern technology. Driverless cars, the use of drones in warfare and commerce, the deployment of robots in place of human soldiers, surgery by robotic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Every October, on Martha’s Vineyard, We Celebrate Cranberry Day
Many know the place I live, an island off the southern coast of Massachusetts, as Martha’s Vineyard, a vacation spot for celebrities including Presidents Clinton and Obama. But those of us in the...
View ArticleHow Nashville ‘Killed’ Traditional Country Music—and Then Reinvented It
25 years ago, American Heritage writer Tony Scherman declared traditional country music dead and done with, asking, “How far from its social origins can an art form grow before it loses meaning?”...
View ArticleWhat Quinceañeras Can Teach Adults—as Well as Young Girls—About Values
I became interested in the quinceañera a few years ago when a publisher commissioned me to write a book for a series focusing on cultural phenomenon within different ethnic and racial communities. For...
View ArticleWhat Crime Does the Thanksgiving Turkey Answer For?
“Merciful President Pardons Turkey” declared headlines when John F. Kennedy saved the turkey gifted to the White House from being on the dinner table in 1963. But the tradition of sparing a turkey goes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Zozobra, the Original Burning Man, Became Santa Fe’s ‘New Year’ Tradition
Grievances, everyday annoyances, unexpected sorrows. A loved one leaves by choice or by a visit from the Grim Reaper. A financial burden turns life upside down. Even a flat tire at the wrong time can...
View Article
