Wild Girls of the Food, Bitchin' Kitchen Great Food Shows

The "wild girls of the food world" -- Alex Guarnaschelli, Debi Mazar, Gabrielle Hamilton and Nadia G -- aren't apologizing for their bombastic, in-your-face cooking shows, the Associated Press reports. I've been following Nadia G on "Bitchin' Kitchen" for several years and she owes no one an apology. In fact, we owe her a thank you for making food fun. Read more at Wild Girls of the Food World Owe No Apologies

Literature Based Movies for Jazz Age, Black History Month

One of the objections raised by people within and outside the black community, is that Black History Month further segregates (Morgan Freeman made this comment among others). It's important that we recognize contributions of this vital community, but we need to be mindful that American history is Black history is U.S. history. They are blended like strands of a braid. Perhaps nowhere in history is this so keenly felt as in  the American "Jazz Age" of the 1920s. The two are wedded.

The progressive movement was mirrored in music (Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Marian Anderson), literature (Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar), labor, religion, film (Paul Robeson), education (W.E.B. Dubois), morality, politics, art. Large cities: New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, St. Louis felt the breath of change more deeply, but there was virtually no place in the U.S. where ripples of it were not felt. Bearing this in mind, here are movies for classroom use that focus on the post-WWI Jazz Age; I recommend using them to explore African American history, too. Read more at Literature Based Movies for 20th Century Economics and History Classes: The Jazz Age: Post WWI