Irma McClaurin, PhD is the Culture and Education Editor for Insight News of Minneapolis. A bio-cultural anthropologist and writer, she lives in Raleigh, NC (www.irmamcclaurin.com) (@mcclaurintweets). Most recently, she provided technical assistance to the Friends of Oberlin Cemetery to acquire Landmark status for an historic African American Cemetery in Raleigh, NC. 
When Ruth Behar wrote her seminal collection, The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart (1996), she spoke about what it meant to write “vulnerable” scholarship—the kind that “breaks your heart” and makes you want to cry.
Pictured, Left to right: Maritza Quinones, Cynthia B. Dillard, Irma McClaurin, Mary E. Weems, Aisha Durham and Robin Boylorn
Having recently returned from my 40th college reunion, I am reminded of Charles Dickens’ opening lines to A Tale of Two Cities —“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…;” A fair enough description of my college reunion.
Pictured: Author circa 1972.
What a delightful surprise to open my mailbox and see Macys touting a celebration of Brazil. The merchandise colors are vibrant oranges, yellows, and shocking turquoise. However, as I looked at the models chosen to represent Brazil, it was clear that Macys had missed the boat. Brazil is a multi-racial country. Everyone knows that its people represent a human rainbow, and in fact, after World War II, American scholars often pointed to Brazil as the racial ideal. Thus was born what anthropologist Dr. France Winddance Twine has critiqued as the myth of Brazil as a “racial democracy.”
Yes, I admit to rocking a Donna Summer in my afro “do” with bell bottomed jeans, and platform shoes.
I even do the Hustle on occasion, if the right jam plays.
The death of the sultry “Queen of Disco” on May 18, 2012 is a different kind of tragedy than that of songstress Whitney Houston. Donna Summer succumbed to death after losing her battle with lung cancer at age 63. The singer believed that the cause of her illness was “inhaling toxic particles” after 9/11, according to TMZ.
Science permeates our lives. Yet for most of us, it is still something “out there.” The opening of a new 80,000 square feet addition to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh changes the game and takes museums and science to a new level. It is the size of the Science Museum of Minnesota’s entire exhibition space (70,000 sf) and temporary exhibition space (10,000 sf) combined. This newly opened Nature Resource Center (NRC) situates Raleigh, a bio-tech and technology mecca because of the Research Triangle Park, as the site of one of the largest science museums in the country, and possibly the world.
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