Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

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2009 is a big year for diversity in animation:

The Black Panther animated series.

The Cleveland Show.

Astro Boy Movie.

The Princess and the Frog – the new Disney movie where the lead princess is a black character.

5:04

2008: The Boondocks banned episode.

No token hero: Static Shock. Napolitano says that the character of Virgil defies tokenism and reminds us that the black lead’s white friend acts “even blacker.”

In 2000, Dora the Explorer hits Nickelodeon, one of the very few attempts to seriously represent the Latino community in children’s television.

5:03

Simpsons becomes the first cartoon to lend a serious ear to gay issues with its “Homerphobia” episode.

5:00

1969 Fat Albert appears on screen – Bill Cosby turns his childhood experiences into a cartoon. The cartoon addresses topics such as drugs, racism, peer pressure and the strains of urban life.

4:56

In 1963, Astroboy is born – the first anime. Animation took a huge step from vilifying the Japanese in comics to becoming voracious anime consumers.

All Negro Comics comes into being in 1947s during a brief spurt of the segregation gap breach with Jackie Robinson and Orrin C. Evans.

4:50

Something happens with the Napolitano’s mouth and he starts to lisp noticeably.

4:47

Walt Disney sent by USA to South America to try and reclaim America’s image against German propaganda. Saludos Amigos produced – the prototype for all the “Speedy Gonzalez” and “Chiquita Banana” characters.

4:38

Napolitano told three stories about Aunt Jemima, Uncle Remus and The Yellow Kid – fiction and cartoons representing blacks and immigrants respectively. Back then, animation companies liked to present different ethnicities as parodies of themselves.

4:30

The main speaker, Dan Napolitano opened the panel. A multicultural director at Alfred University introduced the “Art Force Five” – five young people representing the different art forms. They go into schools where some students may have been formerly incarcerated to talk about art.

Friday found me at the New York City Comic Con. The main space at the Javits Center dazzled with its array of colorful fiction but once you’ve seen one con, you have seen them all. What really interested me were the panels. I found one called “From panthers to princesses: diveristy in animation.” Intrigued, I came in just as the panel was about to start.

A frayed linen hairnet, leather sandals half-rotted with age and a clay jar appear inconspicuous on their own. But in a room with the Dead Sea Scrolls, they offer a compelling glimpse into a culture lost nearly two millennia ago. 

That’s what the Jewish Museum hopes visitors will find in a new exhibit, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World,” which opens on September 21.

Six fragments from the scrolls—discovered over 60 years ago in a cave in the Judean desert—are on display until January 4, along with artifacts from an ancient community often associated with the scrolls.

Photo by Mary Stachyra

“The fragments from these six scrolls have never before been seen in New York City,” said Susan Braunstein, Curator of Archaeology and Judaica at the Jewish Museum.

In fact, they are rarely seen anywhere. The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) has strict rules to preserve the texts, and individual fragments can only be displayed for ninety days each year.

Discovered over 60 years ago in Qumran, in the Judean desert, the scrolls contain biblical verses, religious teachings, prophecies and prayers. Though extremely fragile and brown with age, they

Scholars are divided as to who actually used the scrolls.

Did the Essenes, a small Judaic sect located near the cave, use the scrolls? Or were the caves a library of sorts for many communities—a place to store sacred texts?

“The original mainstream view was that the Essenes” used this materiel, said Prina Shor, Head of the Artifacts Treatment and Conservation Department at the IAA. “Now there is no majority view.”

The artifacts from the Essene community have also fueled new speculation among scholars. The hairnet, in particular, raises questions. Ancient historians—the source of most information on the sect—said that the Essenes were an all-male community. So why were women’s hairnets found in the area?

Whatever the case, the exhibit is a rare chance for New Yorkers to see the scrolls. The preservation rules make it unlikely that they will come to New York again anytime soon.

“They were preserved in caves for 2,000 years,” said Shor. “It is our duty to preserve them for at least 2,000 years more.”   

**I may update with edits later