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A couple of weeks ago, Oregon's ban on same sex marriage was struck down. I was happy about that. In my timeline on Twitter, I saw this image:

The game offers challenges to American children, presenting them with the potential of a variety of means of death (dysentery, exhaustion, drowning, or others), while erasing the Indigenous peoples who were starved, removed, or otherwise subject to settler violence in the very same project. Indeed, the game offers a collective investment for American students into histories of colonialism and domination, notably through the participation in a game that structures simultaneous removal and forgetting of the very presence of Indigenous peoples, while celebrating the survival and endurance of white pioneers.

The history of the Oregon Trail is not simply a story of anti-Indigenous settlement, however. The history of the Oregon Territory, and subsequent state of Oregon, is one of profound white settler investment in anti-blackness as well. Beginning in 1844, Oregon Territory passed its first exclusion law, banning African-American immigration into the region, and in 1857, had the dubious distinction of becoming the only free state in the United States to have officially codified anti-black immigration into its constitution (decided by popular vote, no less), which was ratified the following year... 

Horror has captured the heart (of Americans, with a plethora of new shows about vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and zombies. The CW announced that it bought a script for a zombie drama titled "Awakening," which will be geared toward young women.... Read the rest of this post

Hello there, blog, it's been a while! Remember that Cool New Map Project I started working on back in June? As I was catching up on blog reading this weekend, I happened across Macmillan's Spring 2010 Librarian Preview over at Fuse #8, where I scrolled down to see this stunning cover:



















Yay! It's the new Kimberly Willis Holt novel, due out in May of 2010.

And here's the map I did for the endpapers:


















(Click to see a larger version.)

I can't wait to see the actual book.

No map art to show this morning, other than material for a cool new project-- a map of the Oregon Trail for Kimberly Willis Holt's upcoming novel! (Here's a list of her fabulous books, and she also blogs, here.) I'm trying to restrain myself from using too many exclamation points in this post, but oh, what the heck!! I'm excited!!!

I'll post more as I get farther along with sketches.

Kanye West is bitching again.

Not only did he throw a hissy backstage after not winning any of the five VMAs he was nominated for, but he's saying that MTV - going for scandal over quality performances - wrongly went with Britany Spears instead of him.

He's also mad because he was relegated to hosting a suite party rather than perform on the main stage.

Oh, and he's also pissed because Justin Timberlake, who also hosted a suite party, ended up on the mainstage to close the show.

Note: I missed that performance because I'd turned off the hot mess that was the VMAs after the Incredible Hulk, errr, I mean Dr. Dre presented somebody with an award. That's right, I forget who. It was that unimportant to me.

In light of all these injustices, Kanye has "squashed" the "beef" (which, for the record, Fifty started, not Kanye) between him and Fiddy because he feels there's greater good in them unifying against the evils of MTV.

Under normal circumstances, I'd say something like Shut and Up. But here's the thing...

Kanye's just saying what lots of artists probably feel, anyway. As much as Kanye can come off as a very spoiled, whiny, self-important man-diva, the fact is, at their core, many creative people are (divas, that is)- at least where their projects (book, movie, CD) are concerned.

I'll put myself out there, as an example - obviously I feel my product (So Not The Drama) is as good as any other YA book on the market. When someone else's book gets a big boost, special honor, recognition etc...it's not unheard of for me to think - Hmm...why not my book?

However, I rarely air that publicly. It's pointless.

And, to date, I've not gone on any rants about how on earth my book could have been overlooked on this or that state's "best" lists or as a Booksense Pick or B&N Featured book. Not getting those honors are as much of the business as getting on those lists are.

You wonder. You wish for similiar success. You move on.

I, am the norm.

Kanye is in the minority. And because he's in the minority, it's easy to believe that he's alone in feeling his work deserves certain accolades.

I doubt, very seriously, he is.

No one writes books or sings songs for awards and honors. But because awards and honors are part of the package, there is definitely a certain expectation that your product will one day snag them.

Truth is, it's crass to ask for recognition. Another truth is, sometimes because of stunts like the one MTV pulled (the Britany mess) an artist has to sometimes be willing to look like an a**hole to remind people - it should always be about quality!!!

Books, music, movies are supposed to stand on their own. But the reality is, each and every one of these arenas is highly political. And Kanye knows this. He knows that sensationalism will win over a high-powered performance, because it makes for better next day buzz.

I mean, Britany was a hot, hot mess! And I won't waste another word on that.

But I will say, in principal, I agree with Kanye.

The VMAs is a huge venue. Artists who open the show typically are either "now" because of their chart topping single or hot because of a multi-plat CD. Britany is neither now nor has out a CD. And for the record, the single she sang is not fire! MTV put her on so people would talk.

For an artist who did bother to put some blood, sweat and tears into their album; did bother to sacrifice sleep and maybe quality time with fam to lay down the best tracks and does have something on the line in the way of sales for an album that dropped two days after the VMAs...for an artist like that to play second fiddle to a confused, damn near washed up twenty-five year old who seems to have lost her dance swagger on top of multiple missed cues in her lip syncing?

Well, I can see Kanye's point.

Ratings. Sales. Moving Units. They're king.

But when the very venues meant to help an artist move those units and bring attention to their hard work moves their focus to pop culture white noise, artists better speak out or at least be glad artists like Kanye are willing to.