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Reading with Rachelle •

The timing of 'Sinners' is perfect

Join our Substack Live discussion! Doug Burns (The Iowa Mercury), Nik Heftman (The Seven Times), Dana James (Black Iowa News), and I will be discussing Sinners TODAY, Sunday, May 4th at 11:00 AM CT: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/26465.The success of Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s latest blockbuster, is undisputed. Just look at a few of the recent headlines:The timing couldn’t be better. Despite Trump’s (and his administration’s) attempts to dismiss Black excellence, reduce Black people’s accomp...
Reading with Rachelle •

What Trump REALLY meant to say about American history

Dear Mr. Trump,I have been busy with work and apologize for the delay in responding to your March 27, 2025 executive order, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. After reading it today, I discovered significant errors, which I have corrected in italics below. To refresh your memory, here’s a link to the original version in case it’s easier to read them side-by-side. I’m sure these errors were accidental and I look forward to seeing the corrections posted at whitehouse.gov. By the autho...
Reading with Rachelle •

Resolve to learn: Make history part of your 2025 resolutions

For the last two weeks, I’ve been both heads-up and heads-down while selecting history books that I, readers, and my podcast listeners can immerse ourselves in this year. It was hard to choose. But it’s such a glorious problem to have as an adult—so many options that tell the real contributions and experiences of Black Americans—instead of opposite problem I had as a kid in elementary school where my textbooks included only slavery and Africa, which were “covered” dismissively and through a white supremacy lens
Black Iowa News •

Negro Leagues baseball, Italian food — experience both at Christopher's in Des Moines

If you’ve ever wondered where to go in Iowa to learn about Negro Leagues Baseball, Christopher’s Italian Restaurant probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind. But that’s exactly what you’ll find there, an exhibit titled “Before Jackie” that features dozens of photos and historical details on Black baseball — from the integrated teams during the Civil War to firsts like Bud Fowler, the first Black player to play in a professional paid game in 1878 and Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first Bla...
Reading with Rachelle •

Listen to the Reading with Rachelle podcast trailer

Finally! The Reading with Rachelle podcast is here! Tomorrow, November 6, 2024, my first episode will feature Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy discussing her timely new book (released today!), Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians. But listen to the trailer above today. Here’s the focus of the podcast:Each week on the Reading with Rachelle podcast, Rachelle brings history to life through conversations with authors, experts, and everyday people impacted...
Reading with Rachelle •

Make flavorful Puerto Rican dishes with this vegan cookbook

My Reading with Rachelle Podcast is coming in November! But as I frantically work on that, I still need to eat. So celebrate National Cookbook Month with me as I cook and eat my way through October with dishes from multicultural plant-based cookbooks.Last month, while reveling in vegan gluttony in Arizona, I bought Black Rican Vegan: Fire Plant-Based Recipes from a Bronx Kitchen by Lyana Blount. Blount opens the book with her story—of Puerto Rican dishes prepared by her grandfather, such as omel...
Reading with Rachelle •

Join the history book club

Banned Books Week ends today. But just like Hispanic Heritage Month (ending 10/15/24), Indigenous Peoples’ Day (coming 10/14/24), LGBT History Month (coming Oct. 2024), Black History Month (ended Feb. 2024), and countless others, these days and months shine the spotlight on books, people, history, and subjects we need to continue learning about every day. That's why I started Uniting Through History in 2020. To invite people to learn and connect with Black history—not just in February, but all ye...
Reading with Rachelle •

Reveling in vegan gluttony in Arizona

It's challenging being vegan in Iowa, which isn’t surprising given that Iowa is the top U.S. hog “producer” and fourth in beef cattle. When dining out with friends, I can usually find something I can eat—like a salad or a veggie burger or an entré the chef is kind enough to modify, though once it’s stripped of butter, cheese, eggs, meat, and/or fish, the result is edible, but unsatisfying. I have more choices at Asian and Ethiopian restaurants, with Thai Flavors and Gursha being my Des Moines fa...
Reading with Rachelle •

The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance

This week, I’m discussing The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance by Sabrina Strings, Ph.D. I recently had the honor of co-hosting an episode of The Culture Buzz on KFMG 98.9 FM with John Busbee. John’s weekly program (every Wednesday, 11:00-1:00 CT) spotlights talented creatives, plus he produces an informative weekly newsletter listing practically everything that’s happening culturally in the Des Moines area. (Check out...
Reading with Rachelle •

The Texas history behind Juneteenth

Juneteenth is on my mind. Namely because the federal holiday is coming up on June 19, 2024 and I will be participating in the following Juneteenth events:
• None June 18, 2024, 6:00 - 7:30 PM—Author Talk and Book Signing with fellow author Jim Tillman at the African American Museum of Iowa
• None June 19, 2024, 12:30 - 9:30 PM—Emceeing and sharing history, plus working a puppet in Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre’s “Remembering Buxton” show, at Ottumwa’s “Unity in the Community” Juneteenth celebratio
Reading with Rachelle •

Don't delete your social media accounts

It’s strange to launch a new column with a post about the joys of not posting. On March 5, 2024, when I—along with 500,000+ Facebook users and 70,000+ Instagram users—was kicked off both platforms, I had a fleeting sense of joy. Wouldn’t that be great if they were gone? I thought. Then I’d have a valid excuse for my sporadic posts. And when they both came back up, I thought, Wouldn’t it be great to pretend they hadn’t?
National Geographic •

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X only met once. Here’s the story behind an iconic image.

On March 26, 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X met for the first and only time.

The men were two of the most influential Black activists of the 20th century—and had long been pitted against each other in the media. They had both come to the U.S. Senate for the outcome of the vote on the Civil Rights Act.

For King, this was a big moment. In January, he’d been named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.” In October, he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his non-violent struggle fo
Des Moines Register •

Opinion: Iowa private school benefits from school choice; wish there were more like them

Over the past couple of months, as I watched an expansive school choice program implemented in Iowa, I kept thinking about a 2004 study co-authored by Anita Fleming-Rife, whom I’d interviewed for another column. The article was titled, “The More Public School Reform Changes, the More It Stays the Same: A Framing Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Brown v. Board of Education.”

The study points out that, during the 1950s, after the Brown decision enforced the integration of public schools, cha
Des Moines Register •

Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Bri Martin launched a successful travel agency — during COVID

Rachelle Chase started Trailblazers & Trendsetters, an occasional feature in the Des Moines Register, to shine the spotlight on Iowans who are taking charge and making a difference in their own way.

At a time when most people make their own travel arrangements, a personalized travel service probably isn’t the first start-up business that pops into one’s mind.

It wasn’t the first idea for Bri Martin, either. Martin founded Alexander’s Retreat, “a travel agency specializing in honeymoon and dest
Des Moines Register •

Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Iowa author Leigh Michaels wrote more than 100 books

Rachelle Chase shines the spotlight on Iowans who are taking charge and making a difference in their own way in Trailblazers & Trendsetters, an occasional feature in the Des Moines Register.

Leigh Michaels (whose legal name is LeAnn Lemberger) is a successful author of more than 100 books. But that doesn’t stop the haters.

One time, a student from Des Moines' Drake University, her alma mater, was interviewing her for an article.

Michaels said, “The student said, 'My professor wanted me to ask
Des Moines Register •

King of Busoga, Uganda, visits the Iowa State Fair to view agriculture in Iowa

It’s not every day that a king visits Iowa. On Monday, His Majesty William Wilberforce Gabula Nadiope IV, King of Busoga, Uganda, spent the day at the Iowa State Fair.

His Majesty — along with his personal secretary John Kairu; security/logistics officer Karoli Mwiiru; executive director of Developing Lives, Livelihoods and Nutrition Daniel Kitimbo; and national director of Iowa State University–Uganda Program Dr. Gideon Nadiope — were there to learn about agriculture in Iowa.

Though the Kyaba
Des Moines Register •

Filmmaker in Iowa for RAGBRAI to share history of Black 1899 cycling champion Major Taylor

As the 20th century was dawning, bicycle racing was one of most popular spectator sports in the U.S. and Marshall “Major” Taylor, a Black cyclist from Indianapolis, was one of its biggest international stars.

By 1898, 20-year-old Taylor held seven world records and in August 1899 he had reached world championship status after winning the one-mile sprint in the world cycling championships in Montreal.

When he retired in 1910, he’d won thousands of dollars and made headlines across the U.S., Aus
Des Moines Register •

Opinion: Nearly 1 in 4 Iowans eat less than 1 vegetable per day. This drive-through could help.

Iowans could use some help with “active living and healthy eating.”

Only 27.1% of adult Iowans have a healthy body weight, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health's June 2022 Healthy Iowans: Iowa’s State Health Assessment report. And while the federal 2020 Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults and adolescents eat 2½ to 4 cups of vegetables and 1½ to 2½ cups of fruit daily, Healthy Iowans revealed that 22.7% of adult Iowans eat less than one vegetable per day and 40.4% eat less that
Des Moines Register •

Opinion: 'Swine Republic' proves Iowa's water is contaminated. Can it help force change?

As I write this, "The Swine Republic: Struggles With the Truth About Agriculture and Water Quality" is temporarily out of stock on Amazon. According to Steve Semken, publisher at Ice Cube Press, demand is high, and the book is now in its third printing since it was released May 19.

It's popular because Iowa’s water is contaminated. Its Corn Belt pollutants, a cocktail of fertilizer and manure, nitrogen and phosphorus, travel from Iowa's rivers and streams to the Mississippi River and then to th
Des Moines Register •

OPINION: Homosexuality in Uganda is now punishable by death. LGBTQ+ Ugandans need help

“They are going to start killing us,” Henry Mukiibi, an LGBTQ+ activist and founder of Uganda’s Children of the Sun Foundation, told me Monday.

Mukiibi is afraid because Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023,into law that day.

The bill — to which minor revisions were made at Museveni’s request in April — still mandates these harsh sentences: the death penalty to those convicted of committing “aggravated homosexuality”; life in prison if convicted of “committ
Des Moines Register •

Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Marissa Friesen sells handmade clothes, teaches joy of sewing

It’s Me-Made-May and sewist Marissa Friesen is joining thousands of creatives around the globe by wearing her handmade clothing every day in May.

“It's kind of nice to see how most of my closet has changed from only store-bought stuff to mostly handmade.” Her goal is for all her clothing to be handmade.

Friesen is the founder of RisSewn, where she sells her handmade clothing and accessories, takes custom orders, and offers in-person classes to teach others the joy of sewing. In fact, her next
Des Moines Register •

Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Peckish for a Kool-Aid pickle? Seth Watson offers 37 flavors.

Tropical punch. Peach mango. Green apple. Black Mamba. Black Panther. What are these? Just a few of the 37 original and signature Kool-Aid pickle flavors Seth’s Flavor of Pickles offers.

Before they became a TikTok trend in 2021, Kool-Aid pickles have been popular in the South seemingly forever — well, not before 1927 when Kool-Aid was invented. Sometimes called a Koolickle or Pickoola, they’re especially popular in the Mississippi Delta region. Especially among Black people.

Sethethel Watson,
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