A Ring Of Sparks In The Night

Tell Them You Love Me, a documentary now streaming on Netflix from director Nick August-Perna, does not include a single interview with its main subject. The film is about the white, abled former professor Anna Stubblefield, who was accused of sexually assaulting Derrick Johnson, a nonspeaking Black man with cerebral palsy whom she says she taught to communicate via a method called facilitated communication (FC). [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Johnson isn’t interviewed in the film, because his family has always understood that his diagnosed intellectual disability and lack of motor control meant he would never be able to communicate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved Israel’s war cabinet on Monday, after two key members quit last week amid disagreement over the direction of the war in Gaza. The cabinet had been made up of six political leaders including Netanyahu and has been responsible for making most major decisions in regards to how Israel conducts the war in Gaza. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Netanyahu cited the resignation of Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist Israel Resilience Party, for his decision to dissolve the war cabinet.

Wednesday marks Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the day enslaved people in Texas first learned of their emancipation. It’s an occasion for Americans to reflect on how much progress has been made since that day in 1865, while also acknowledging how much work there is left to do. One area for reflection is to consider how Black people are represented in American culture A Netflix documentary called Black Barbie, to be released Juneteenth (June 19), hopes to playfully jumpstart those conversations. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The film examines the creation of the first Black Barbie doll in 1980 and features Black celebrities who had Barbie dolls made in their likeness.

My heart was beating out of my chest, and I was breaking into a cold sweat. You’d expect nerves from a Ph. D. student presenting at a conference full of professors, but I’d just finished my talk. I’d practiced that presentation dozens of times and never quite nailed it. Yet gameday had come, and I’d hit every note.

This June on the 19th, many Americans will gather to celebrate Junteenth, now the newest federal holiday in the United States. Though it’s been celebrated by Black Americans as early as in the mid-late 1800s, Juneteenth is a date that was long omitted from history books—and wasn’t designated as a federal holiday until 2021, after police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black people in the U.

FOREST PARK, Illinois — Mayumi Barrack sees a pair of mating periodical cicadas getting together, whips out her phone, says, “Hi guys!” and takes their picture. “I’m not really a bug person, but as I look more and more I feel they are adorable,” Barrack explained, noting that many other creatures — birds, squirrels, raccoons and more — are just as eager to get close to the bugs, if only to turn them into food.