Latest news with #JohnWilson
CBS News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Boston artist John Wilson's work now the subject of Museum of Fine Arts exhibit celebrating humanity
A late Boston artist that got his start in the Roxbury neighborhood now has his work gracing the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts as part of a new exhibition. Welcome to Roxbury: the geographic center of the city, the heart of Black Boston, and the birthplace of artist John Wilson. "His life came out of that community very deeply, and it produced this—at least for me—this magnificent representation of human beings," said Roy Wilson, John's son. Importance of family John Wilson was born in 1922, to immigrants from British Guyana. Although his career took him to many places, Including Europe and Mexico, family was always important to him. He went on to marry his wife Julie and they had three kids: Erica, Rebecca and Roy. Roy Wilson invited WBZ-TV into his childhood home in Brookline. "I just have this vision of him doing anything to protect us. And I always knew that about him - that he'd be there in the end for you - whatever it took," said Wilson. John Wilson passed away in 2015 at the age of 92, but the memories that Wilson made with his father are still very much alive. "Well - one thing is - he was upstairs working a lot. When I went to the show, it was kind of impressive… seeing all the stuff that he had been working on in his studio for so many years—to see it all in one place!" said Wilson. New MFA exhibit That place? The walls of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. One hundred and ten of his works grace the walls; paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and illustrated books—all on display in the exhibition "Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson." "The self-portrait was an incredibly important part of John Wilson's work and throughout his six-decade career, so much of his work is focused around portraits of himself, his family, and his friends," said co-curator Edward Saywell. "And a lot of that has to do with his reclaiming, the dignity and the gravitas of the portrait for Black Americans." Saywell, one of the four co-curators of the John Wilson exhibit, told WBZ-TV that as an art student, Wilson never got to see himself in art history books or exhibitions. "And when he did see representations of Black Americans, all too often he described them as caricature-like or dehumanized. And one of the threads that you see throughout the entire exhibition is incredible humanity and empathy that he imbues in all his portraits—whether it's a portrait of himself or a portrait of a family member or a friend," Saywell explained. John Wilson spent more than six decades creating artwork that challenged viewers to not just see. "The works speak to, not only key political and civil rights moments over those six decades, but they speak to what life was like in Roxbury growing up in the 1940s," Saywell said. Works displayed in Roxbury Long before Wilson's works were in the MFA, they were on display in the neighborhood that helped shape him. One of those works sits on the campus of Roxbury Community College, called: "Father and Child Reading." A 7-foot tall bronze sculpture that honors the fond memories John Wilson had of his father reading to him. "Father and Child Reading," a sculpture by John Wilson. CBS Boston "I know that he was very dedicated to the idea of being a father, in acculture, that in some ways, made it difficult to be an upstanding man," said Wilson. The other work, a very well-known piece called "The Eternal Presence", more affectionately known as "The Big Head." The monument, described by the artist himself as, "an image of universal dignity." "For him, putting it in Roxbury was as important as the piece itself. And attaching it to the ground, no pedestal, in his home community—was as important as anything else about the piece. And the fact that people come once a year to polish it and to refinish it, was completely moving to the man. It was the highest compliment he could imagine being paid," said Saywell. That piece sits on the campus of the museum of The National Center of Afro-American Arts. "My sincerest hope is that any visitor is going to see an extraordinary Boston artist who should be on the national stage and are going to come away, hopefully seeing work that speaks to them in one way or another," Saywell shared. "That we are as magical, as strong, as thoughtful, as human, as any other people on the planet," Wilson said when asked about what he wants visitors to feel leaving his father's exhibit. John Wilson's impact is also still felt by students and staff alike at Boston University, where his inspiration and instruction as a professor continues to reverberate. The exhibition at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will be on display through June 22 – and then it will travel to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in September.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Leaked memos show troubling shift at disaster agency just weeks before hurricane season begins: 'Kind of bizarre'
Reuters reported in mid-May that the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency had recently made notable cuts to some emergency training just weeks before the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season is generally understood to begin. Leaked internal memos seem to indicate that FEMA is shifting many in-person training sessions online and reviewing staff engagements for approval. Local emergency managers who rely on hands-on disaster planning have said such changes raise concerns. FEMA has cut back face-to-face training as part of a move toward decentralizing disaster response. Workshops that typically covered community response plans, hurricane forecasting models, and evacuation routes are now set to be conducted virtually. Additionally, FEMA has restricted staff travel since February unless it's for "disaster deployment and other limited purposes." And since March, staff speaking engagements and any related materials have required a rubber stamp from the Office of External Affairs and the Office of Chief Counsel, according to Reuters. John Wilson, chairperson of the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, told the outlet, "It was kind of bizarre to have a National Hurricane Conference without the National Hurricane Center director opening it up." Reuters also reported that about 2,000 FEMA staff have resigned since the start of the Trump administration this January, leading to what some have called a "brain drain" at the agency. With limited face-to-face training, emergency personnel may be less prepared for what's expected to be a busy Atlantic hurricane season — a time that typically lasts from June through November. Reuters noted that predictions for 2025 include 17 named storms, nine of which are expected to become hurricanes. The National Weather Service has also faced federal funding cuts, potentially complicating accurate storm forecasting. North Carolina emergency manager Steve Still told Reuters that while virtual instruction has its merits, it can be less effective than in-person learning. Given that the 2024 hurricane season was one of the deadliest and most expensive on record, any perceived loss of effectiveness this year might understandably prompt serious worries. In a separate issue, the Associated Press reported in early March that FEMA had canceled in-person classes at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. Though it's possible the NFA cancelations are only temporary, experts' reactions to the shuttering might offer a window onto the value of such training more generally. What would you do if natural disasters were threatening your home? Move somewhere else Reinforce my home Nothing This is happening already Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Former Maryland fire chief Marc Bashoor told the AP, "It is the one avenue we have to bring people from all over the country to learn from and with each other." Despite federal cutbacks, some states are stepping in. To fill the gap, Reuters reported, the hurricane-vulnerable states of North Carolina and Louisiana are still planning to host onsite training sessions led by FEMA-certified staff. Meanwhile, legislation proposed in Florida seeks to boost readiness through localized training and post-storm coordination. And the American Red Cross continues to offer its own, if limited, in-person classes across the country. Local leaders and mutual aid organizations always encourage residents to keep hurricane survival kits ready and up to date and to learn safe evacuation routes. Knowing what not to do in a hurricane and collaborating with neighbors in advance can help to build community resilience in the face of critical climate issues and more extreme weather. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Classical music shouldn't just comfort – it should challenge, too
Today, all too often, classical music is used like aural wallpaper or a warm bath – whether by radio stations or by film and television producers. As a result, pieces that do not fit into that category are increasingly neglected, sought out only by that shrinking minority with serious intellectual curiosity. Mention Rachmaninov, for example, and most people think only of the piano concertos, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Vespers and, perhaps, the Second Symphony. Yet a new recording from Chandos of his First Symphony, performed by the Sinfonia of London under the baton of John Wilson, reminds us of the utter genius of this too little known work; a piece we very nearly did not have at all. Rachmaninov is, in many ways, the musical heir to Tchaikovsky, whom he idolised. After his hero died in 1893, when Rachmaninov was just 20, he started to struggle with composition for the first time. But in January 1895, inspired by chants he had heard in a Russian Orthodox church service, he began to write his First Symphony. His fluency returned, and by the following September he had completed it. He waited anxiously for the premiere, which eventually took place in St Petersburg in March 1897. It was a catastrophe. Much of the blame for this went to Glazunov, who conducted it. He under-rehearsed the orchestra in an unfamiliar work situated for the most part in a sound-world new to them and their audience. Despite its homage to Tchaikovsky and its use of conventional symphonic form, the piece was unquestionably progressive in the context of its times. Also, Glazunov was an alcoholic and, according to the testimony of Rachmaninov's wife, was drunk at the premiere. An elderly and reactionary critic felt it was a depiction of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Perhaps worst of all, the composer himself was disappointed, unable in his despair to distinguish between the pitiful performance Glazunov had elicited from his orchestra and the unvoiced genius of the work. Rachmaninov sank into despair, and a few months later had what would probably now be termed a nervous breakdown. Until 1900, he found it impossible to compose anything more. Miraculously, he did not throw the score into the fire, or, as he threatened he would do, tear it up; he is even said in around 1908 to have considered revising it, following the successful reception of his Second Symphony, but did not. However, when he left Russia in 1917, he did not bother to take his First Symphony score with him, telling a friend that he would never again let anyone see, let alone hear it – and for decades the symphony simply disappeared. The manuscript itself literally vanished, never to be seen again. Rachmaninov had locked it in a desk in his flat in Moscow. The key passed into the care of his ex-housekeeper, who enabled the movement of his manuscripts to a museum in Moscow: but this one was not among them. By a stroke of luck, in 1944, the year after his death and at the end of the siege of what had become Leningrad, the orchestral parts from the only performance were rediscovered in the library of that city's conservatoire. Under the direction of Gauk, a leading Russian conductor, scholars reassembled the work: and in October 1945, 48 years after its debut, the First Symphony had its second performance. The ignorance of the first critics was instantly apparent and the symphony was soon being performed all over the world, not simply because of the huge fame Rachmaninov had secured by that time, but because it was realised what an inherently great work it was. It remains in the repertoire and Wilson's indispensable recording is but the latest by many great conductors, including Ashkenazy, Ormandy and Previn. Inevitably, like almost all of the composer's music, it has found itself cannibalised by television: readers of a certain age will recognise in the commanding martial theme that opens the finale (and which Wilson has his orchestra play with particular force) the music that, in the 1960s, used to open the BBC's Panorama. Wilson's new recording is wanting in nothing, and for those who do not know this outstanding symphony, presents the perfect opportunity to become acquainted with it.
Press and Journal
20-05-2025
- General
- Press and Journal
Remembering the day an RAF bomber crashed into Lossiemouth homes, killing 11
On May 20 1945, Lossiemouth was a town revelling in peace. World War Two was over in Europe. The daily diet of death, fear and insecurity was gone. It doesn't take much to imagine the joy and relief in people's hearts. Then abruptly, that quiet Sunday morning, tragedy struck the town. A Wellington bomber on a test flight from RAF Lossiemouth fell from the sky and hit a row of council houses. It resulted in the loss of eight civilians, six of them from the same family, and three RAF air crew. From a town celebrating the end of the war less than a fortnight earlier, Lossie was now a town in mourning. Lossiemouth's war had already had profound effects on the humble fishing town. RAF Lossiemouth opened in 1939 and played vital part in the war effort, particularly as a strategic base for bombing missions. The war came close to home on October 26 1940, when the base was attacked by the German Luftwaffe, killing one RAF officer and two air crew. A four-man German crew also died and were buried in Lossiemouth. Less than a year later, on July 11 1941, a German Junkers 88 fighter dropped four bombs over the town, possibly mistaking it for the RAF base. The first bomb hit Kinneddar Street resulting in injuries to members of the Souter family. The second bomb hit 6 Dunbar Street, killing Mr and Mrs John Wilson and their house guests Mr and Mrs Joseph Leighton, who had fled Portsmouth and come to Lossie to try and escape the worst of the war. Their daughter was married to an RAF officer at the base. Two more bombs were dropped that night, one fell on King Street, the other in a nearby quarry. But all that trauma was rapidly becoming history after VE day, and the community was looking forward to the future. Just before 10am on Sunday May 20, at RAF Lossiemouth, a Wellington bomber crewed by RD Rickard from Manchester; DR Cameron and CGW Mawby from South Ealing were preparing to take off on a test flight. At the same time, the Flood family were stirring at home in their upper council house on the block 43, 45 and 49 Church Street. John Flood and his 11-year old daughter Jeanie decided to treat the rest of the family to tea in bed, and were in the kitchen. Mum Joey Flood and her other five children were at the other end of the house. Their next door neighbours upstairs, Judith Allan, 66 and her adopted daughter Vera were also having a lazy morning before church. Meanwhile things were going wrong on the test flight. An eyewitness said the plane failed to gain height as it flew over Coulard Hill in an easterly direction, and was struggling, its engines cutting out. He told the P&J: 'The pilot was obviously making a supreme effort to get the bomber clear of the own and make for the sea. 'But the plane whirled three times, the engines suddenly became silent and the machine dropped like a stone on top of a block of flatted municipal houses. 'Part of the fuselage fell in front of the building and the other part in the garden at the rear. The plane completely disintegrated. There was a loud explosion and in a matter of seconds the plane and the block of houses were enveloped in flames. 'Had it gone three yards farther the plane would have missed the houses and fallen in the open space formed by the old Market Square.' In an instant, 11 people lost their lives. Vera Allan died in bed. Her mother Judith, who had lost a son in France in 1940 and whose surviving son was serving with the Seaforths in India, was charred and barely recognisable when she was found. Downstairs, other residents scrambled to safety. The fate of the Flood family was unimaginable. Mum Joey Flood and five of her six boys were trapped in their blazing home and perished in the flames. John Flood threw Jeanie, 11, out of the window, a 15ft drop, saving her life. He grabbed his youngest, three year old David and headed for the window, but the wall caved in from the force of one of the explosions. The boy, David, was wrenched out of his hands and died, while at the same time John Flood was blown out through the window. He and Jeannie were the only survivors from their family of eight. Joey, aged 37, Jack, James, Sinclair, Michael and David died. The boys ranged in age from three to 15. Fire tenders from the RAF base rushed to the scene along with wartime National Fire Service detachments from Lossiemouth and Elgin and civil defence personnel, but their efforts were in vain. Immediately after the crash, the Women's Voluntary Service went into action, seeing to the homeless and organising food and clothes for the survivors. The Floods were a well-known Lossie family. John, 38, was employed as a carter with Miller Alexander carting contractor in Ogston Place. A few days later came a funeral for all eight civilian victims. The Evening Express reported that practically the entire community turned out for the tragic occasion. 'The funeral took place from the old and now disused Chapel of Ease which serves as a public mortuary and where the bodies had rested. 'Fisherwomen in deep morning, many of them with young children in their arms, along with their menfolk, man of who had come straight from the fishing grounds earlier than usual to attend the funeral were amongst the crowd. 'Many wept openly during the funeral obsequies outside the Chapel where a short but impressive service was conducted by the Rev N M Sammon, of the High Church. 'The three young children were in white coffins. 'Behind them lay banks of wreaths. 'A tragic figure during the service was the bereaved husband John Flood, who in carpet slippers and able to walk with the aid of a walking stick, and his relatives, remained seated during the service, his eleven year old daughter Jeannie who was the only one of the family saved, clasped to his side.' Afterwards RAF personnel bore the coffins to RAF vehicles as the band, with muffled drums played Flowers of the Forest. Behind the cortege to Lossiemouth cemetery came 200 school boys, many friends of the Flood boys. 'Then followed a car with Mr Flood, his young daughter and mother and father. 'Then members of the Town Council and next of kin, detachments from the RAF rescue party, NFS coastguards and postmen with the general public taking up the rear. ' A memorial stone of the site of the tragedy was erected in 1995, with funds from the RAF, local clubs and Grampian Region councillors. At that time, survivor Jeannie then aged 60 and living in Hawick came to Lossie to carry out the unveiling. She said: 'I have never forgotten my mother and brothers. I was only 10 years old but it is still as fresh in my mind as the day it happened.' Her father John, who brought her up after the accident, died in 1965 when he fractured his skull falling down the stairs. To mark the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, Tuesday, May 20 2025, Lossiemouth Men's Shed have organised a wreath-laying ceremony. An RAF Lossiemouth detachment will attend, as will Lossiemouth Men's Shed and the chaplain and pupils from St Gerardine's school. Assembly at Mercator Green, Church Street, Lossiemouth is at 9.30am, with two minutes silence at 9.52am, followed by the wreath laying and dispersal at 10am. If you enjoyed this story, you may also like: Was your Aberdeen street hit by tragedy in WW2? Our map shows addresses of more than 1,000 victims
Boston Globe
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
St. John's Prep, Newton North girls repeat as Division 1 Relays champions
'Respect the competition, because Division 1 is so freaking competitive. It's so hard.' Junior Ahmir Hykel, sophomore Dayvian Sullivan, and juniors Aaron Radke and Andrew McManmon set a meet record with a blazing finish in the 4x100-meter relay (41.89). The Eagles were first in the sprint medley (3:31.78), and senior Anthony Ragosa won the shot put (53 feet, 2¾ inches). Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up BC High's 4x1600 team opened the day with a meet-record 17:47.58 with the quartet of John Wilson, Owen Geagan, Theo Weiss, and Greg McGrath. It was the 23rd fastest time in the country, according to the MSTCA. Advertisement John Wilson (left cemter) is congratulated by his relay mates after finishing off BC High's victory in the 4x1600 race, setting a new Division 1 relay meet record of 17:47.58. Debee Tlumacki In the girls' meet, Newton North defended its title with 82 points, followed by Lexington (74) and Weymouth (60). 'We have a deep roster of jumpers and sprinters, and they all performed to expectation today,' said Newton North coach Mike Travers. 'We practiced hard for the last 10 days. They knew what they wanted to do and they performed.' Advertisement In the 4x200, sophomores Sophie Finkelstein and Mia Mescher, and juniors Bella Mangada and Brooke Bennett won the relay with a school-record finish in 1:43.95. Travers said that time qualifies them for the National Championship meet in Philadelphia. Central Catholic's Kyla Breslin has the lead on Newton North's Ciara Evans here, but the Tiger runner tracked her down to capture victory in the sprint medley relay in 4:08.30. Debee Tlumacki 'Going in, we were a bit nervous because it's normally head-to-head with Lexington. They're a really good team,' said Bennett. 'But we had a lot of confidence.' 'Lexington pushes us the most,' added Mangada. 'Having them as competition helps us run faster times.' Lillian Hayduk provided an exciting stretch for Weymouth. First she ran third in the 4x100 shuttle hurldes. Teammates Leah Goodine, Christina Marshall, and Ainsley Weber joined in for a time of 1:06.02 to win by two-hundredths of a second over Natick. Hayduk then went from the finish line to her next event, the long jump, where she tied for 26th in an event won by Lexington junior Aubrey Deardorf (19-0). 'Lillian probably had the best hurdle race of her life, and five minutes later, she had to get on the board and jump big for us,' said Weymouth coach Mike Miller. 'All four of those girls ran incredible. I couldn't be prouder of them. They were amazing today.' The Lexington girls 4x1600 relay team celebrate their win, after clocking a combined time of 21:02.02, some 55 seconds ahead of second-place Weymouth. Debee Tlumacki Lenny Rowe can be reached at
