Like in most cities in the United States of America, protests filled the streets of Los Angeles; specifically, the famous Hollywood Boulevard. An estimated 40,000 people marched to protest against racism. Now, a permanent Black Lives Matter graffiti will be on display across the entire Walk of Fame block, with installations beginning since August 24. The original, temporary graffiti was completed with the help of hundreds of volunteers walking down on Hollywood Boulevard on June 13 to paint the words “All Black Lives Matter” in the colours of the transgender, non-binary and pride flags.
The graffiti will sit on Hollywood Boulevard between Orange Drive and Highland Avenue. It is a project in partnership with Black LGBTQ+ Activists for Change, StreetsLA and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. The installation includes a new street sign in honour of the march. The LA city council member, Mitch O’Farrell, told reporters that it is a fitting place, as it is the same location of LA’s first official gay pride parade, which took place 50 years ago.
In addition to Hollywood, the NBA also kicked off the season with an acknowledgement of the Black Lives Matter movement. Every NBA player kneeled during the national anthem. The league also had the BLM slogan prominently printed on the court itself in prominence. The player’s jerseys also featured messages instead of their names, such as ‘I Can’t Breathe’, ‘Say Their Names’, ‘How Many More’ and ‘Enough’.
Great buzz
August 15 was not only India’s Independence Day, but also National Honey Bee Day in the US. People celebrate this day by catching up on their bee knowledge and playing their part in helping conserve the bee population. National Honey Bee Day was started 11 years ago by passionate beekeepers, and was officially established by the US secretary of agriculture to raise awareness about the benefits of honey bees to the environment and life on earth, and to promote the value of honey.
The National Honey Board and Project APIs m. joined forces last year to establish the Bee Health Collective website. It is a platform to gather and share content and credible information about honey bee health, scientific research, the beekeeping industry and how these relate to agriculture, resource management and the food supply. The NHB was appointed by the US secretary of agriculture. Project APIs m. is a Utah-based non-profit that funds research on honey bee health and forage programmes. The DC-based Earth Day Network also updated its Earth Challenge 2020 on this day in a push to help preserve honey bees. Its app now uses artificial intelligence to identify bugs and other creatures that people photograph. It offers opportunities each time to sign a petition, support legislation or just find out more about what citizen scientists capture on their smartphone cameras. The work is being done in partnership with the US state department and the Wilson Center, a non-partisan policy forum chartered by Congress in 1968.
Empty plates
As colleges open up for fall, universities are scrambling to make sure they cover all their bases — enforcement of social distancing, wearing masks and also making sure international students are quarantining on arrival. One aspect of the typical freshman life that has been almost comically overlooked by New York University is its meal plan. Hundreds of TikTok videos went viral, illustrating the dismal state of the meals given to students who are bound to their dorm rooms. According to NYU’s website, students who have travelled from certain states where coronavirus cases are still spiking are required to enter quarantine before attending classes in person. The school promised to provide three daily meals and a snack. The videos showed that the university was unprepared to provide adequate meals to its 2,600 quarantined students.
The food site, Eater, and the videos described how the school sent “prepackaged salads, granola bars, pieces of fruit, and bags of potato chips”. Students also kept track of “meals that arrived hours late, meals that never arrived, of eating breakfast for dinner, and eating leftover dinner for breakfast.” NYU later acknowledged its failure and promised to issue each student a $100 gift card. The New York Times also reported the University of Georgia experiencing similar food scarcity because of a lack of preparation. It is not uncommon for students, especially at universities like NYU, with high fees, to be experiencing food insecurity.
Distant expression
Every year around this time, about 80,000 people gather near Gerlach, Nevada to celebrate the ‘Burning Man’, a large-scale event described by its organizers as a “crucible of creativity” that is “dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance”. This year, Burning Man is being planned as a virtual event.
While the main event is eight days long, the set-up crew takes a month before and after to transform the area into an event site and then restore it to its original state; ‘leaving no trace’ behind is one of the 10 principles of Burning Man culture. The virtual Burning Man will feature theme camps, art projects, live performances; a virtual temple; and a version of the most anticipated big burn, which involves setting fire to a 40-foot wooden structure of a man outlined in neon and stuffed with fireworks. Programmers, designers and game developers are known to attend it. The Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, have attended in the past.
Footnote
Lori Loughlin — ‘Aunt Beckie’ on Full House — and her husband have been sentenced to a few months in prison after a judge ruled them guilty of having paid $5,00,000 to secure their daughters’ admission to the University of Southern California by presenting them as fake athletic recruits. But they are not the first famous, wealthy parents to be found guilty for using their privilege to bribe or lie to get their children into college. Felicity Huffman has already served time over a college admissions scandal.