By Michael Lederer

As an Amer­i­can writer liv­ing in Ger­many, I care deeply for both coun­tries. It is a strange time to do so, as pow­ers-that-be in Ger­many and would-be pow­ers in the States do all they can to reverse tra­di­tion­al roles these two pow­er­hous­es have main­tained in my half-cen­tu­ry life­time and beyond. There’s a sense of ver­ti­go try­ing to recall which is the so-called old world and which is the new. Read more »

By Bobbie Kirkhart

At fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, my sis­ter likes to tell the sto­ry of a time when the men and boys in her fam­i­ly were going out tar­get shoot­ing. The sto­ry goes that – as they were leav­ing one day – her sec­ond son, pis­tol in hand, turned around, expos­ing each fam­i­ly mem­ber, one at a time, to the risk of being shot. “What she doesn’t tell,” my nephew says, “is that I was eight years old at the time.”

My sister’s atti­tude toward guns is not unusu­al in the Unit­ed States. We hear the phrase “respon­si­ble gun own­er­ship” a lot, even when refer­ring to children.

Acci­den­tal shoot­ings are among the top ten caus­es of death for chil­dren in the Unit­ed States. Chil­dren kill their sib­lings, them­selves, and even their par­ents. Read more »

By Bobbie Kirkhart

We’re in the mid­dle of the pres­i­den­tial pri­maries, elec­tions that deter­mine the del­e­gates to the par­ty con­ven­tions as well as the plat­form and the even­tu­al nom­i­nee for the pres­i­den­cy. The pri­maries always pro­duce plen­ty of laughs and no small amount of anx­i­ety, but this year is spe­cial with can­di­dates who are extreme in pol­i­cy and per­son­al­i­ty. Read more »

By Lynette Kirschner

Yes, you read cor­rect­ly. I got the title right. You were prob­a­bly expect­ing ‘Damsels in Dis­tress’ so let’s look at that clas­sic theme in lit­er­a­ture first. You know the sto­ry, actu­al­ly every­one does. The dar­ing knight in shiny or rust­ed armor comes along and saves the damsel. She is in need of help, of res­cue, of a man. Although she might be well accom­plished in many aspects, she is unable to help her­self out of trou­ble and needs some­one else to do this for her. Usu­al­ly, the knight or prince must save her from a vil­lain or a fire-breath­ing drag­on. Of course, in my ver­sion the knight would tame or befriend the drag­on and not slay it. Well, I am get­ting ahead of myself. For now, let me say that rep­re­sen­ta­tions of the ‘damsel-in-the-dis­tress’ theme in pop­u­lar lit­er­a­ture and film has changed with each wave of fem­i­nism.

Before the first wave, many sto­ries fea­tured a damsel in dis­tress, includ­ing most of the Dis­ney princess­es. Con­sid­er­ing that they are based on folk­lore, this isn’t sur­pris­ing. Let’s face it: the rights of women were reflect­ed in their low sta­tus in soci­ety. The goal of the first wave was to cre­ate more oppor­tu­ni­ties for white mid­dle and upper class women and secure the right to vote. The damsels were still in dis­tress but they were on the right path to final­ly have a bit more of a say in things. Read more »

Clay­tee White, Inau­gur­al Direc­tor of the Oral His­to­ry Research Cen­ter for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Neva­da, Las Vegas Libraries, spon­ta­neous­ly grant­ed us an inter­view about the col­lec­tion of oral his­to­ry in and near Las Vegas dur­ing our study trip to Las Vegas in 2014. White, one of five founders of the Las Vegas Black Soci­ety, Inc., col­lects the oral his­to­ry of the black com­mu­ni­ty in Las Vegas estab­lished in 1905. Some­what ner­vous, our stu­dents were at first hes­i­tant to ask ques­tions, but Clay­tee White’s enthu­si­as­tic and warm per­son­al­i­ty made us feel at ease after a short while. Her vast knowl­edge about Las Vegas his­to­ry and great enthu­si­asm for the “African Amer­i­can Expe­ri­ence in Las Vegas” col­lec­tion was and is evi­dent to all. See for yourself:

If you’d like to hear some clips for your­self, why not search the col­lec­tion?

By Bobbie Kirkhart

There’s always sus­pense at the Oscars, but this year edge-of-the-seat ten­sion will be greater than it has ever been. There is inter­est, of course, in who will win in each cat­e­go­ry, but the real ques­tion promi­nent in the minds of most in the the­ater and in front of the TV is, “What will Chris Rock say?”

This year’s host was announced well before the all-white nom­i­na­tions were, and in a plot wor­thy of the best of Hollywood’s script writ­ers, the Acad­e­my chose maybe the most insight­ful com­men­ta­tor on mat­ters of race and class in Hol­ly­wood, if not the Unit­ed States.

No open­ing mono­logue has ever been so anx­ious­ly antic­i­pat­ed; arguably, no comedian’s mono­logue on an enter­tain­ment show has ever had the same poten­tial for social impact. Of course, like any speech, every­thing hangs on what is said, and it seems every­one in Hol­ly­wood has an opin­ion on what this 50-year old stand-up com­ic-actor-pro­duc­er should say.

Read more »