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Restoring a Cemetery Grassland
While I was in Australia earlier this year, I got interested in how part of Melbourne General Cemetery was being restored from its colonial Victorian landscape to a native grassland. The story is now in American Cemetery & Cremation magazine in print and online!
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Surrealism Reading List
Surrealism is turning 100 this year! For JSTOR Daily, I created a reading list about all the many aspects of this artistic and literary movement, from its connections to communism to its legacy in contemporary art like Afrosurrealism. Explore it here.
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New Zines!
I had some fun making new zines for the fall, including a short one on the strange presence of the Fiji mermaid in museums around the world as well as mini zines on pet cemetery epitaphs, witch marks, lost museums of NYC, and ancient NYC public art. You can find them all on my Etsy!
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Saving the Legacy of an Art Environment
For the Art Newspaper, I reported on the how the former home of the late artist L. V. Hull in Kosciusko, Mississippi, is being preserved as the town’s first visual arts center. It’s also the very first art environment by an African American artist to be added to the National Register. Read all about it…
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Augmented Reality & Cemeteries
I explored how augmented reality is being used in cemeteries around the world for American Cemetery & Cremation magazine, from visualizing past borders of segregation to honoring military graves. Find the story online and in print!
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Story on Museum Expansion
For the Art Newspaper, I went to the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas at Austin and reported on its new expansion, where community, city, and the arts are all coming together. Read all about it here!
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New Book Incoming!
I’m excited to share that I’ll be writing a book for one of my favorite series: 33 1/3! If you’re unfamiliar, the Bloomsbury series features compact books each dedicated to a single album. My contribution will be about Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads. Keep an eye out for updates as I get started.
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Story for ArtDesk
For the spring issue of ArtDesk, I wrote about Loie Hollowell’s work and how the “curving forms and luminous colors of the native Californian evoke the abstraction of artists who emerged in the twentieth century.” Read the full story both online and in print!
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Restored Rock Garden
I covered the restoration of Minnesota’s Itasca Rock Garden for Raw Vision magazine. The elaborate environment of follies and foliage was started in 1925 by a farmer and now almost a century later it has been returned to much of its former glory. You can read an excerpt of the story online and find the…
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Dance of Death Essay
For the Public Domain Review, I wrote an essay on the dance of death in centuries of art, particularly in printmaking where it has been used as a rapid response to war, disease, and other crises. Read it here!
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Spooky Paris Tour
I’m excited that this October I’m helping to co-lead a Morbid Anatomy tour of Paris with tarot scholar Laetitia Barbier. It will run from October 10 to 15 and we will visit unusual sights like the carnival arts museum, alchemical history locales, and of course cemeteries. A few tickets still remain!
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Keith Haring Mural Conservation
For the Art Newspaper, I covered the conservation of a mural Keith Haring painted in 1989 in an Iowa City school. It’s on view to the public for the first time before it will be returned to its permanent place in the school. Read all about it here!
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Cemetery Symbolism Class
On Sundays from August 4 to 25, I’ll be teaching an online class with Morbid Anatomy called “Speak with the Dead: A Crash Course in Understanding Cemetery Symbolism.” We’ll explore symbolism from ancient rites up to the modern age. Sign up here!
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Reflecting on NYC’s Dutch Heritage
What does NYC’s Dutch heritage mean 400 years on? I explored the complicated legacy of New Amsterdam through historic houses that are reflecting on how their structures tell stories of slavery and colonialism as part of the founding of what became New York City. Read the piece on the Art Newspaper.
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Language of Flowers Walk
On Saturday, June 9, I’ll be returning to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for a walk exploring the language of flowers. We’ll see tombs that reflect the Victorian fascination with floral symbolism and decode the meaning of the blooms. Get tickets here!
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Impressionism Reading List
For JSTOR Daily, I put together a reading list timed with the 150th anniversary of the Impressionist art movement. Read about everything from the importance of synthetic pigments to the influence of Japanese art!
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Salvation of a Prophet’s House
For the Art Newspaper, I covered the conservation and opening to the public of the Prophet Isaiah’s Second Coming House in Niagara Falls, New York. It’s an incredible, kaleidoscopic house adorned inside and out with Isaiah Robertson’s art. Read all about it here!
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Spring 2024 Issue of Fine Books
The spring 2024 issue of Fine Books & Collections that I edited is out now! It includes stories on visual depictions of the arctic, bird field guides, doll house libraries, and much more. I also wrote its feature on the new library at the AMNH and why science needs libraries. Pick up a copy here.
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The Preservation of Historic Black Cemeteries
For the Art Newspaper, I wrote a story on the challenges of preserving historic Black cemeteries in the United States that have long been purposefully overlooked. Available to read here.
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Funeral Service Insider Podcast
Tune into the Funeral Service Insider podcast for my conversation on American graves, cemetery tours, human remains in museums, and more. Listen here!