<p>This topical collection explores Antonio Martorell's portrait of prolific Latina author Nicholasa Mohr, and is displayed with a range of resources that offer a view, through art, portraiture, and literature, into the lives of Puerto Rican migrants to the continental United States in the early to mid-twentieth century. The images and resources can be used as discussion or writing prompts in a variety of courses, including history, culture, literature, and language.</p> <p>The portrait itself,  one of a series of 45-minute portraits that Martorell made of his artist friends, captures Mohr's spirit, much in the way that Mohr's writing brings to life the people, sounds, and activities of New York's Puerto Rican migrants in the twentieth century. The collection also includes a bilingual video with National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol, as well as the first page and a review of "Nilda," one of Mohr's most well-known novels, about a Puerto Rican girl coming of age in New York during World War II. This book was selected as an "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the New York Times, and a "Best Book of 1973" by the American Library Association.</p> <p>The collection includes images and a bilingual podcast by Martorell speaking about a different work in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, "La Playa Negra" ("Tar Beach"), which is the term used by Puerto Rican migrants for the rooftops of tenement buildings. As the label describes, in this painting, "a fashionable woman wears a fur-collared coat and sits in front of a New York City skyline. Her hardworking double on the left sits behind a sewing machine. In his "Playa Negra" ("Tar Beach") series, Martorell juxtaposed migrants' prosperous self-image with a glimpse of their tiring labor."</p> <p>The collection also includes a series of photographs from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, by Hiram Maristany, a resident and photographer of the El Barrio neighborhood. Maristany grew up with eight siblings on East 111th Street. In addition, the collection includes links from PBS Learning Media on Puerto Rican history and migration.</p> <p>#LatinoHAC #BecauseOfHerStory #EthnicStudies </p> <p>This collection supports Unit 2: Culture and Resistance, Expressions of culture and values, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course. "How do expressions of culture reflect assimilation and resistance to assimilation? How do distinct expressions of culture reflect specific values for various ethnic groups?" </p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p> <p><br /></p>

<p>Students at the Hirshhorn ARTLAB+ program have been experimenting with 3-dimensional digital paper craft. One of them even showed her papercraft dinosaur at the White House's first Maker Faire! </p> <p>This collection includes images and video of hermit crabs, both live and from our art collections, as well as instructions and printable templates to make a 3-dimensional hermit crab shell from three sheets of paper.</p> <p><br /></p> <p><br /></p>

<p>Students can use the "What makes you say that?" and the "3 Ys" thinking routines to explore two modern portraits about identity and immigration from the National Portrait Gallery. The first thinking strategy asks students to look at a work of art for several minutes before answering two questions: "What's going on?" and "What do you see that makes you say that?" (See <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/1056334/search">https://learninglab.si.edu/res...</a> for more information.)</p> <p>To further and deepen the discussion, I've included a link to a September 2016 New York Times Op-Doc entitled "4.1 Miles," about a coast guard captain on a small Greek island who is suddenly charged with saving thousands of refugees from drowning at sea. (If it doesn't show up easily, you can view the original video on Times Video at https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004674545/41-miles.html.) I've also included two sculptures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an interview with Lisa Sasaki, head of the Smithsonian's Asian Pacific American Center, and resources from the University of Minnesota  Libraries Publishing's Immigration Syllabus - Americans / Immigrants, Weeks 1-4.</p> <p>You may wish to use the "3 Y's" thinking routine here as well, which asks students to consider the following questions:<br /></p> <p>1. Why might this [topic, question] matter to me?</p> <p>2. Why might it matter to people around me [family, friends, city, nation]?</p> <p>3. Why might it matter to the world?<br /></p> <p>(See <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/1321155/search">https://learninglab.si.edu/res...</a> for more information.)</p> <p>#APA2018, #LatinoHAC, #EthnicStudies </p> <p>This collection supports Unit 1: Precious Knowledge - Exploring notions of identity and community, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part A course.</p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p> <p><br /></p>

<p>This topical collection explores the contributions to American history and society of Civil Rights activist Dolores Huerta, the "co-architect" with Cesar Chavez of the American Farm Workers Movement. The images and resources can be used as discussion or writing prompts in a variety of courses, including history, culture, language, and literature. Included in this collection are images from the exhibition, "One Life: Dolores Huerta," a bilingual video with National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol, footage of an interview program with Dolores Huerta at the museum, and an NPR interview with Dolores Huerta in January 2017.</p> <p>#LatinoHAC #BecauseOfHerStory<br /></p>

<p>The videos shown here are from a series, hosted by the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology and the Smithsonian Heritage Months Steering Committee, that features colleagues from around the country doing innovative work in the fields of community outreach and heritage. Featured here are colleagues from the Tenement Museum in New York City presenting, "Widening the Conversation: Involving Communities in Interpretive Planning," Martha Norkunas presenting "Listening Across Differences," and Faye McMahon and Benjamin Virgilio presenting, "Not Just Child's Play: Emerging Tradition and the Lost Boys of Sudan."</p>

<p>Here is a collection of videos from a Women's History Month family festival, that includes interviews and performance footage with Kathak dancer Prachi Dalal, Native American singing group Ulali, mother-daughter storyteller and artist Yona Zeldis McDonough and Malcah Zeldis, and the Georgia Tech Glee Club paying tribute to the women in the audience for Women's History Month. </p>

<p>This collections comes from an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month family festival at the National Museum of Natural History. Included in the collection are interviews and demonstrations about dance with Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Japanese "kimekomi" doll making with Akiko Keene and Anne Cox, Thai fruit and vegetable carving with Phuangthong Malikul, Rangoli Indian design with Nisha Rajam and Anjana Mohanty, Korean calligraphy by Mookjae, and Chinese paper folding by Alice Li. </p>

<p>This collections comes from an American Indian Heritage Month family festival focusing on Tlingit culture from the northwest coast of America. Included here are music and dance performances by the Dakhka Kwaan Dancers, storytelling by Gene Tagaban, Shelly Laws, and Maria Williams (of her book, "How Raven Stole the Sun"), a moiety game, and hands-on demonstrations by Shelly Laws of how to weave a two-stranded basket and to make Tlingit-style beaded ear loops .</p>

<p>This collection comes from an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month family day in the Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery of Art. The festival was created to complement the Renwick exhibition, "The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946." Included here are an interview with the curator of the exhibition, as well as musical and dance performances by Nen Daiko and the Kikuyuki Dancers of America, storytelling and an interview with Anne Shimojima, and hands-on origami and doll-making demonstrations.</p>

<p>Lei making is an important part of Hawaiian culture. These twisted strands are worn on important occasions and given as gifts of welcome. In this collection you'll find a demonstration video by Mokihana Scalph, as well as performances of children's stories, dance performances, and images of leis and ti leaves, to give context to the performances.</p>

<p>This collection looks at examples of bead work among Native American women, in particular Kiowa artist Teri Greeves, and helps students to consider these works as both expressions of the individual artist and expressions of a cultural tradition.</p> <p>The collection includes work samples and resources, an interview with Ms. Greeves, demonstration video of how to make a Daisy Chain bracelet, and printable instructions.</p>

<p>People from all over the world have enjoyed doing traditional paper crafts for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. In this set, you'll find interviews with origami artists and a variety of demonstration videos to make paper animals (bull, butterfly, crane) and a paper wallet. Appropriate for classroom, home, or informal education settings.</p> <p>The Japanese word "origami" comes from two smaller words: "ori" which means "to fold," and "kami" meaning "paper." Although this is the most common word in the United States for the craft of paper folding, the tradition is known to have existed in China and Japan for more than a millennium, and from there it spread to other countries around the world. Japanese patterns tend to focus on animals and flowers, while Chinese designs are usually for things like boats and hats. Paper folding's earlier use was ceremonial, but with time the tradition became popular as a children's activity.<br /></p> <p>Grab some paper and have fun!<br /></p> <p><br /></p>