LIFESTYLES
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 Warsaw, Indiana
TIMES-UNION
6A CARPE DIEM NIKLAS ERIKSSON
Today is Tuesday, April 20, the 110th day of 2021. There are 255 days left in the year. Highlight In History On April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School mas- sacre took place in Colorado as two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives. On This Date In 1812, the fourth vice presi- dent of the United States, George Clinton, died in Washington at age 72, becoming the first vice president to die while in office. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation admitting West Virginia to the Union, effective in 60 days (on June 20, 1863). In 1914, the Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking miners; about 20 (accounts vary) strik- ers, women and children died. In 1916, the Chicago Cubs played their first game at Wrigley Field (then known as Weeghman Park); the Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 7-6. In 1938, "Olympia," Leni Riefenstahl's documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, was first shown in Nazi Germany. In 1945, during World War II, allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart. In 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the use of busing to achieve racial deseg- regation in schools. In 1972, Apollo 16's lunar module, carrying astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., landed on the moon. In 1986, following an absence of six decades, Russian-born pianist Vladimir Horowitz per- formed in the Soviet Union to a packed audience at the Grand Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. In 1988, gunmen who had hijacked a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet were allowed safe passage out of Algeria under an agree- ment that freed the remaining 31 hostages and ended a 15- day siege in which two passen- gers were slain. In 2003, U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital. Bir thdays Actor Leslie Phillips is 97. Former Sen. Pat Roberts, R- Kan., is 85. Actor George Takei is 84. Singer Johnny Tillotson is 83. Actor Ryan O'Neal is 80. Bluegrass singer-musician Doyle Lawson (Quicksilver) is 77. Actor Judith O'Dea is 76. Rock musi- cian Craig Frost (Grand Funk; Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band) is 73. Actor Gregory Itzin (iht- zihn) is 73. Actor Jessica Lange is 72. Actor Veronica Cartwright is 72. Actor Clint Howard is 62. Actor Crispin Glover is 57. Actor Andy Serkis is 57. Actor William deVry is 53. Country singer Wade Hayes is 52. Actor Shemar Moore is 51. Actor Carmen Electra is 49. Reggae singer Stephen Marley is 49. Rock musician Marty Crandall is 46. Actor Joey Lawrence is 45. Country musician Clay Cook (Zac Brown Band) is 43. Actor Clayne Crawford is 43.
-Associated Press
Today In History
Tuesday, April 20
"Be thankful for everything that happens in your life; it's all an experience."
Roy T. Bennett
DETROIT - Last March, the pandemic forced grassroots group Detroit Action to halt a 10 year program helping peo ple who face homelessness or have low incomes to get their vital records. That program ran out of soup kitchens, where it reached people in need, and closed at that time. More than a year later, the initiative relaunched, reviving a service that Detroit Action - which focuses on economic injustices affecting Black and brown Detroiters - says can help more than a dozen people a week navigate the often com plicated process of getting IDs and birth certificates. These vital records are required to access housing and employment. "Having an ID and a birth record - that is an essential need regardless," said Remeta Hicks Montgomery, service and mutual aid director at Detroit Action. "When you come against a pandemic, it just exac erbates the problems that are already there and it magnifies the issues that we have with access to those important docu ments within our community." The ID program is one of three initiatives Detroit Action is rolling out this spring. The aim? Tap into the acute needs people have - such as access to IDs and birth certificates, direct cash assistance and help finding employment - and address the economic hardships the COVID 19 pandemic has caused. Detroit Action's efforts are among several initiatives across the city that grassroots groups have created or expanded in the COVID 19 pandemic to meet the basic needs of neighbors, whether that's providing food or cash for basics such as rent. These groups are often referred to as mutual aid networks - a term that has become more common in the past year as people struggled with employ ment, housing and food insecu rity - and describes communi ty members helping one anoth er meet those needs, instead of leaving neighbors to fend for themselves. More than a year into a pan demic, some of these Detroit groups say they're here to stay and plan to grow their work. When the Detroit Community Fridge popped up along West Vernor in southwest Detroit last summer, the co founders implemented a "take what you need, leave what you don't" approach. The blue and red painted fridge told people passing by just as much. Now, Wayne State University students Alyssa Rogers and Emily Eicher plan on standing up three more fridges across the city. The original fridge has moved to the east side of Detroit and businesses, includ ing Rose's Fine Foods and Planted Detroit, help fill it up with cakes and salads, along side milk, eggs, canned goods and hygiene products. Last summer, after seeing community fridges crop up across the country, in places like New York and Los Angeles, in response to the pandemic, the co founders decided to refur bish a fridge that was sitting in Eicher's garage into a commu nal spot for food drop offs and pickups. "It's open 24/7 - accessible to anybody who needs it, no questions asked," said Eicher, a graduate student studying art therapy. She said it's difficult to quantify how many people have used the fridge, but that the "need is great." The fridge serves a large homeless popula tion, said Rogers, a premed jun ior studying biology. Rogers and Eicher don't foresee an end date to this work. The two plan to partner with local nonprofits, as their operations expand, and have ramped up their volunteer base to about 60 people who main tain the fridge - cleaning it and making sure it's stocked up. Volunteers helped Michigan Mutual Aid Coalition - another initiative that grew out of the pandemic - expand and deliv er more food to families in Detroit and metro Detroit. About 40 people go on weekly routes to drop off food and other necessities like chicken, pasta, rice, beans, canned fruit, pre made salads, diapers and formula. It started back in March when Emily Reardon began delivering food to seven home bound senior households. Now, that number has grown to 30 households and includes fami lies with children, too. The oper ation has moved from Reardon's apartment to a ware house, where volunteers dis tribute food. Boxes from Gleaners and products from Food Rescue U.S. are among other donated items. "I believe that it's our job as communities and human beings to take care of each other. It's incredibly important regardless of the pandemic," Reardon said. Food insecurity, or not hav ing access to enough affordable and nutritious food, is an ongo ing problem that has only heightened during the pandem ic, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Food Security Council found in a report. Before March 2020, about 1.3 million Michigan resi dents faced food insecurity. Now it's about 1.9 million, according to Feeding America. Back at Detroit Action, the nonprofit is working to help a waitlist of 200 people who have requested cash assistance. Last year, that program ran for about 11 weeks until funds ran out. "If you say, I have a $600 DTE bill, we were not asking for you to send in a copy of that $600 DTE bill, in order to prove that," she said. "It was more like, if this is what you say you need, then in this moment we're going to provide this service to you." A third effort Detroit Action wants to launch in May is what it calls its "virtual mutual aid" series, featuring sessions on finding jobs during and after the pandemic and mental health, Hicks Montgomery said. Stretched resources for a big need As these mutual aid groups try to address the needs of their neighbors, finding enough resources has been a challenge. The Michigan Mutual Aid Coalition has reduced the num ber of households they deliver to, down from 50 households to 30, Reardon said. They don't have enough refrigerator space to accommodate perishables as the temperature starts to rise. And online crowdfunding does n't cover rent for the warehouse they work out of, or the cost to stock up on items like diapers and formula. "There is a huge need," she said. "We have so many people that want food to be delivered, but as far as being able to pro vide for it, I think we've definite ly had to get creative." Reardon plans to register the coalition as a nonprofit so it's easier to apply for and get grants. As for the Detroit Community Fridge, beyond monetary donations to help with extra groceries and build ing a shelter for the fridge, the co founders say they need com munity support as they grow their network of free fridges across the city. "Emily and I don't live in every neighborhood of Detroit," she said. "So, we need people within the neighborhood of the fridges to be dedicated to check ing on it and making sure it's going OK, and collaborating with local organizations and businesses to keep it stocked."
Network Of Neighbors Plan To Provide Food, Resources To Community
BY NUSHRAT RAHMAN
Detroit Free Press For Tribune News Service
PARIS (AP) - The pandem ic has torn a multibillion dollar bite out of the fabric of Europe's fashion industry, stopped runway shows and forced brands to show their designs digitally instead. Now, amid hopes of a return to near normality by the year's end, the industry is asking what fashion will look like as it dusts itself off and struggles to its well heeled feet again. Answers vary. Some think the Fashion Week format, in use since the 1940s, will be radically rethought. Others believe Asia will consolidate its huge gains in influence. Many see brands seeking greater sustainability to court a younger clientele. "The impact of the pandem ic will be unquestionably to increase the importance and influence of Asia on fashion," said Gildas Minvielle, econo mist at the Institut Francais de la Mode in Paris. "Luxury in Europe has already rebounded but it's only because it's globalized, only because of Asian buyers," Minvielle said. "They spent on European brands." Asian buyers are still con sidered a largely untapped market, yet their wealth has recently tipped over that of Westerners. China, in particu lar, was already considered the worldwide engine of growth in the luxury industry before the pandemic. Its quicker contain ment of the virus will leave it in an even stronger position. "In the next 50 years money will come from the East as it has been (coming) in the last 50 years from the West," said Long Nguyen, chief fashion critic of The Impression. This could see a designer aesthetic that panders more to Chinese tastes. Another trend that's been strengthened during the pan demic is the decision to forgo the frenetic pace of runway cal endar shows. As the virus tore across the globe from East to West, these morphed overnight from a live, in person, sensory experience to a pre taped digital display released online. Many predict ed devastation for the industry, but houses have proved sur prisingly resilient. That's because the system was already overdue a shift. Since the advent of social media, brands have become much less reliant on traditional advertising outlets such as fashion magazines. Now, they create their own online chan nels, circumventing the glossies, to get their designs out. "Each brand is a media enti ty unto itself," Nguyen said, calling the way the industry operates "obsolete." Moreover, as buyers them selves move online, houses have necessarily become much less dependent on traditional sales outlets such as depart ment stores. Some houses have done better than expected with the new digital format. Smaller brands, in particular, have wel comed the break from staging runway shows that can be astronomically expensive - for relatively little return. Paris couture designer Julien Fournie said the virus has led him to question "whether fashion shows were really necessary" in the first place. The virus saw many brands, including Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Bottega Veneta of French luxu ry giant Kering, tearing up the traditional calendar to show their new collections when it suits them - both creatively and financially. Saint Laurent started the trend last year, drawing headlines for quitting Paris Fashion Week to "take control of its pace." The advantage for these brands is to set dates on their own terms, with collections that don't compete with others for attention at the same time. Yet many nostalgic critics, buy ers and consumers argue that nothing can replace the physi cal runway experience.
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Europe's Fashion Industry Evolves, As Virus Forces A Rethink
Photo by As ociated Pres
Farhana Akter, 27 of Hamtramck, left, and Remeta Hicks-Montgomery, 36 of Detroit, at the Detroit Action offices in Detroit on April 6.
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