All Blog Posts Tagged 'america' (22)

“The Sikh Pioneers of North America”: The Punjabi-Mexican Americans of California

ca. 1909. Sikhs from India at the Calapooia Lumber Company, Crawfordsville, Linn County, Oregon, 1905-1915. (Crawfordsville is about 30 miles north of Eugene, Oregon). (Photo courtesy of Stephen Williamson www.efn.org/~opal/indiamen.htm)

In California at the turn of the 20th century, a community grew in southern California with an interesting history: Punjabi-Mexican families of the Imperial Valley. This unique… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 31, 2011 at 9:02pm — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana #75 Cinco de Mayo - Guest Blog by Evangeline Holland

Note: This has been cross-posted from Edwardian Promenade. A few days late for this blog, but still relevant (I also recommend reading this modern perspective on this North American holiday too).

I live in California, and coincidentally, this was where the first Cinco de Mayo celebrations were held in the 1860s. Just in case you have no clue what the holiday entails, “[t]he 5th of… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 8, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

QUAINT #17 Assowaum from "The Regulators of Arkansas" by Friedrich Gerstäcker

Image from the Gerstäcker Magazine from the Gerstäcker Museum, featuring his illustrated Westerns. Click for source (in German).

Assowaum was created by Friedrich Gerstäcker and appeared in Die Regulatoren in Arkansas ("The Regulators of Arkansas, 1845"). Gerstäcker (1816-1872) was a German who went to America in 1837. For six years he lived a checkered life in America, working as a… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 5, 2011 at 8:26pm — No Comments

“The West Was Lost” by Beth Aileen Lameman and Myron A. Lameman: A Review

Cover for The West Was Lost. Click to read the comic

Native steampunk has been presented in many different ways and, like the comic Finder (which had been reviewed here a couple of weeks ago), The West Was Lost is… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on April 2, 2011 at 9:59pm — No Comments

Period Film Review: Princess Kaʻiulani--Guest Blog by Evangeline Holland

Note: This is cross-posted with permission from Edwardian Promenade.

Princess Kaiulani Movie

Released in 2009 (though with a fair share of controversy over the admittedly tasteless title, “Barbarian Princess”), with limited run last year and a DVD release in September, Princess Kaiulani is a gorgeously-shot tale of an unjustly forgotten figure in American history. Though the writing isn’t as nuanced as it could be, and there are many holes in the tale which require… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 27, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana #66 Fascinating Women: Madame C.J. Walker--Guest Blog by Evangeline Holland

Note: This is cross-posted with permission from Edwardian Promenade.

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!"

Contrary to public opinion, Madam C.J. Walker did not invent the hot comb or relaxers, and neither was she the only African-American beautician during the Gilded Age. What the former Sarah Breedlove was, however, was incredibly… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on March 6, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

The Lost Town of Africville

The memorial to the town of Africville. It reads "Landed Deeded 1848-1969. Dedicated in loving memory of the first black settlers and all the former residents of the community of Campbell Road, Africville and all the members of the Seaview United Baptist Church.

Africville was one of Canada's oldest black settlements. Founded by Black Loyalists who fled to Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War, the area's African-Canadian population grew after the War of… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 25, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

African-Americans in the Pacific Northwest--Guest Blog by Evangeline Holland

Note: This is cross-posted with permission from Edwardian Promenade.

Excerpt from the September 1913 issue of The Crisis:

Mr. Harris's Grocery, Tacoma, WA

The characteristic of the Great Northwest is its unexpectedness. One looks for tall black mountains and ghostlike trees, snow and the echo of ice on the hills, and all this one finds. But there is more. There is the creeping spell of the silent ocean with its strange…

Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 18, 2011 at 12:00am — 3 Comments

QUAINT #7 “A Question of Reciprocity” by Robert Duncan Milne

The Almirante Latorre (Chilean Navy), as the HMS Canada by the time this photo was taken. This was one of Chile's first modern battleships, built in the early 1900s. Click for source.

“A Question of Reciprocity” was a serial written by Robert Duncan Milne and appeared in San Francisco Examiner, November 15-22, 1891. Milne (1844-1899) was a San Franciscan journalist and writer whose alcoholism first destroyed his… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 16, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

The Fight of the Century--Guest Blog by Evangeline Holland

Jack Johnson

By the turn of the century, the color line in sports was firmly in place, but the charismatic and controversial Jack Johnson smashed this line with a firm one-two to the jaw. Though boxing had long roots, it was a fairly new sport to Americans in the 1880s, and though banned in many states, one law which was standard across the board was to deny black boxers the right to spar with white opponents. To circumvent this rule, many African-Americans traveled to… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 11, 2011 at 5:28pm — No Comments

Lunar New Year's: A Global Perspective

For Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), I'm spending the day with my family (and getting in gear for TempleCon.) But I wanted to leave a little note for today to those who celebrate Lunar New Year's in any manner.

Most people would recognize that today is Chinese New Year, and that it is the Year of the Metal Rabbit.

For the Vietnamese, however, Feb 2nd was the start of our New Year, the Year of the Metal Cat.

Either one… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on February 3, 2011 at 4:32pm — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana #59 Multipart Extensions II, ROBOTIKA: FOR A FEW RUBLES MORE-- by Noah Meernaum

Note: This week features Noah Meernaum, with a dual review of ROBOTIKA and its follow-up, ROBOTIKA: FOR A FEW RUBLES MORE.

Wherein the graphic series Robotika is seen to be mounting up and continuing into further outbound territory proclaimed to be steadily aided by an additional scribe (causing much trepidation upon the reviewer).

Robotika: For a Few Rubles More by Alex Sheikman… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on January 24, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana #58 Multipart Extentions Round the Collected Graphic Series ROBOTIKA--Guest Blog by Noah Meernaum

Note: This week, Noah Meernaum (who previously wrote for Beyond Victoriana about racial representations in Weird West comics) returns with a dual review of ROBOTIKA and its follow-up, ROBOTIKA: FOR A FEW RUBLES MORE.… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on January 23, 2011 at 4:07pm — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana #56 Ten Reasons Why Steampunks (And Everyone Else) Should Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender

Some cool goggles, worn for a reason and not just on a hat.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (A:TLA) is easily one of the best US-created animated shows in the last ten years, and not just because I consider it a great example of Asian-inspired steampunk (though it helps). In terms of steam-worthiness, A:TLA not only creates what Asian steampunk could look like, but it places its steampunk technology within a cultural and political setting that speaks about… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on January 9, 2011 at 4:03am — 1 Comment

Beyond Victoriana #51 Fascinating Women: Meta Warrick Fuller--Guest Blog from Evangeline Holland

Note: Cross-posted with permission from Edwardian Promenade.

Meta (mee-tah) Vaux Warrick Fuller was not the first African-American sculptress–that would be Edmonia Lewis–but she became the most prominent. She was born in 1877 to a prominent Philadelphia family, her father a successful barber and her mother an equally successful beautician. Raised in relative financial comfort, and educated in the typical feminine graces of the time, Fuller’s career as an artist… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on November 28, 2010 at 6:57am — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana Special Edition Odds & Ends #6

Work has been hectic as of late, and I'm also in the midst of preparing for Dragon*Con. I don't have as much new stuff planned out for this week as I had hoped, but have you checked out my essay series about multiculturalism in steampunk yet? And see the links below for more good things to read/watch/run in the streets shouting about.…

Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on August 15, 2010 at 2:07pm — No Comments

#35 “Sometimes They Fight Back”: A Book Review–Guest Blog by Kevin Mullins

Sometimes They Fight Back:

A Book Review of Little Bighorn and Isandlwana: Kindred Fights, Kindred Follies

The reign of Queen Victoria, 1838-1900, was a time in which the world witnessed one of the most blatant phases of colonialism. Issues concerning empire were debated throughout British society, and the nations of Europe and North America instilled systems of vicious colonial rule over most of the third world. At the same time, in the United… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on July 25, 2010 at 5:32am — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana Special Edition Odds & Ends #5

This weekend I'll be at ConnectiCon instigating havoc with my steampunk friends and helping out with several panels. On top of that, "Steam Around the World: Steampunk Beyond Victoriana" is making a comeback! I'm wicked excited to be presenting this panel again. For all attendees, feel free to stop in--

Saturday, July 10th

7:30 - 8:30 PM

Room Location: Check your schedules

And for… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on July 7, 2010 at 9:35pm — No Comments

Beyond Victoriana #26 At the Steampunk World's Fair

: The SPWF program newspaper. Photo by knightmare6. Click for source.

A moment of history has come and gone: the first-ever Steampunk World's Fair in Piscataway, New Jersey--the largest steampunk…

Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on May 18, 2010 at 7:34pm — 2 Comments

Beyond Victoriana Special Edition Odds & Ends #4

I'm preparing for some big events in May (like co-hosting two panels at the Steampunk World's Fair. Will you be coming? It's bound to be INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING and IMMENSELY ENTERTAINING.) Thus, the next post will be delayed. But never fear, I have some nifty reads that have been building up in my inbox for you to… Continue

Added by Ay-leen the Peacemaker on April 30, 2010 at 7:30pm — No Comments