May

Challenging the Cultural Traditions of Food

by Meredith Mullins on May 16, 2016

The beauty of healthy food
© Meredith Mullins

A Fascinating Fasting Adventure

We love to eat. It is one of the pleasures (and necessities) of existence. Food is a feast for our senses—a visual journey of color and form, a delight in smell and taste, often a tactile adventure (especially when you eat with your hands!), and even an auditory experience as we crunch an apple or carrot . . . or as we listen to the popping of popcorn or the sizzle of shrimp on the barbie.

Meredith Mullins 7 Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Germany

Feb

The Street Cats of Istanbul

by Joyce McGreevy on February 29, 2016

A cat sleeps on an awning in Nine Lives: Cats in Istanbul (Kedi), a film documentary that reflects a creative effort to preserve Turkish tradition and this aspect of Turkey's cultural heritage. (Image © Termite Films)

Wherever you go in Istanbul, you see cats. A new documentary explores the
charms and challenges of their urban habitat.
© Termite Films

How a Cat Kit and a Movie Keep Cultural Heritage Alive

They greet you from doorways, welcome you to parks. If you are kind, they may join you for a stroll. Others watch shyly from rooftops and balconies.

Still others enjoy people watching from the windows of businesses they have adopted.

A cat in a hat shop in Istanbul captures the city's concern for stray cats and reflects the desire to preserve Turkish tradition and this aspect of Turkey's cultural heritage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

The Cat in the Hat (Shop): Some street cats find homes in
Istanbul’s commercial districts. Not all are so lucky.
© Joyce McGreevy

Then there are those who snooze through it all. Having located a cozy spot, they catnap amid a human population of 20 million.

A cat napping on a parked motorcycle in Istanbul shows the extent of the city’s concern for stray cats and reflects the desire to preserve Turkish tradition and this aspect of Turkey's cultural heritage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Born to be mild: Many Istanbul municipalities have animal care centers
to ease the rigors of street life.
© Joyce McGreevy

Oh, I see: They are the street cats of Istanbul. Welcome to “Catstantinople.” Here, when a black cat crosses your path, it’s not bad luck; it’s an encounter with cultural heritage.

Cats in Turkish Tradition

The Bosphorus strait is the backdrop to the many rich aspects of Turkey’s cultural heritage, including the Turkish tradition of street cats in Istanbul. (Image © silverjohn/ iStock)

The Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. Just beyond lie the
Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean.
© silverjohn/ iStock

Istanbul itself stretches out like a cat across a sunlit expanse—a cat with nine lives and then some. At 7,000 years old, the world’s only transcontinental city straddles the European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus strait.

Throughout centuries of tumultuous change, the cats’ rule over the city has remained a constant.

Hagia Sophia, a site of Turkish tradition, has become another home to cats in Istanbul, a beloved aspect of Turkey’s cultural heritage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Detail from Hagia Sophia, once a basilica, then a mosque, now a heritage site–and one more home to cats.
© Joyce McGreevy

Cats have a special place in religious tradition. The prophet Muhammad was fond of cats and advocated for their protection.

Legend has it that when the prophet stroked the back and forehead of one feline, cats everywhere gained the ability to always land on their feet. Some people associate stripes on a cat with Muhammad’s gesture.

Today Turks of every belief system treat cats as honored neighbors. How honored? When President Obama toured Hagia Sophia in 2013, resident cat Gli was there to greet him. Like a cat with the cream, Gli’s been lapping up publicity ever since.

Respect for animal welfare is part of the Turkish culture and even has legal standing. In 2004, Turkey passed laws “to ensure that animals are afforded a comfortable life . . . and are protected from harm in the best manner possible.”

Kits for Cats

Even as legislative approaches continue to be debated, thousands of cats have been humanely caught, vaccinated, neutered or spayed, and released. Residents bring food, stop to pet them, and often adopt them. But still there was a need to shelter cats from harsh weather.

A street cat blends in with its environment in Istanbul, where cats have become a Turkish tradition and part of its cultural heritage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Found cats are given a tattoo or microchip
before being released.
© Joyce McGreevy

Now cats are getting help from a furniture designer, who translated personal concern for animal welfare into action. In Ankara, designer Bahadır Yargın of Adore Mobilya, a Turkish furniture manufacturer, began to recycle scrap wood into easy-assembly pet houses.

A cat sits on the roof of a low-cost, DIY pet house designed by Bahadır Yargın of Adore Mobilya, a furniture company in Turkey whose efforts at sheltering the stray cats of Istanbul preserve a Turkish tradition and this aspect of Turkey's cultural heritage. (Image © Adore Mobiliya)

For the equivalent of about three dollars to cover shipping, one Turkish furniture company helped house thousands of cats.
© Adore Mobilya

Adore Mobilya then provided kits to the public for the cost of shipping, enabling anyone to build shelters for pets and strays. The response was enthusiastic. The first pet houses sold out and more releases are planned.

Employees at Baraka Consulting assemble a pet house to house one of the stray cats of Istanbul, thereby preserving a Turkish tradition and cultural heritage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Outside the offices of Baraka Consulting Group, Reha Abi and Bilge Topaç assemble a pet house,
part of the effort to help Istanbul’s homeless cats.
© Joyce McGreevy

City Cats in Cinema

Soon the cats of Istanbul may come to a movie theatre near you. Director Ceyda Torun, who shares Yargın’s personal concern for animal welfare, has devoted a feature-length film to the stray cats.

As she explains, Nine Lives: Cats in Istanbul “focuses on the millions of street cats that live in one of the world’s most populated cities and the people who love and care for them. It is a profile of an ancient city and its unique people as seen through the eyes of the most mysterious and beloved animal that humans have ever known.”

Kittens seen in a still from the documentary Nine Lives: Cats in Istanbul (Kedi) reflects a creative effort to protect a Turkish tradition and preserve this aspect of Turkey's cultural heritage. (Image © Termite Films)

Arrayed like musical notes, cats like these provide the pulse beat of Istanbul street life.
Kira Fontana’s film score for Nine Lives (Kedi) captures that feline rhythm.
© Termite Films

Torun, who studied Anthropology at Boston University, grew up in Istanbul. She says her childhood was “infinitely less lonesome than it would have been if it weren’t for cats. They were my friends and confidants and I missed their presence in all the other cities I ever lived in.”

That includes Los Angeles, where Torun co-founded Termite Films with cinematographer Charlie Wupperman. For his part, Wupperman never imagined he “would one day be lying on the streets of Istanbul getting on eye level with cats, human shoes, and car tires in order to shoot a documentary.”

Nine Lives makes its U.S. debut in Salem, Massachusetts, on March 6 at the Salem Film Festival. Wider distribution is planned.

Meanwhile, “tails of the city” beguile local audiences every day as the street cats pad their way through Istanbul. Now the hope is that the creative efforts of Adore Mobilya and Termite Films can preserve this aspect of Turkey’s cultural heritage with purrfect cattitude.

A traffic safety sign depicting a cat crossing the street in Istanbul captures the city's concern for stray cats and reflects the desire to preserve Turkish tradition and this aspect of Turkey's cultural heritage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

A street sign in Istanbul reminds drivers to watch for four-legged pedestrians.
© Joyce McGreevy

Watch a trailer from Nine Lives: Cats in Istanbul here and get updates.

See more Adore Mobilya pet houses for cats here.

Keep current on the cats of Istanbul on Facebook and Tumblr.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy 1 Comment

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Turkey

Jan

American Cultural Heritage: Public Libraries

by Meredith Mullins on January 25, 2016

One-room green library in Allensworth, CA, one of the public libraries showing America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

Library built by ex-slaves, Allensworth, California
© Robert Dawson

The Art of Getting on the Same Page

Shhh. No talking. Let the books and walls and shelves speak for themselves. If you’re quiet, you can hear the sound of knowledge. The call to adventure. The whisper of imagination.

It all happens at public libraries—a part of American cultural heritage that has opened so many doors, providing free access to information and the freedom to learn.

“It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you … and most of all, a gateway to a better and happier and more useful life.” —Isaac Asimov

An intergalactic tribute to books; The Main Library, Duluth, Minnesota. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

An intergalactic tribute to books at The Main Library, Duluth, Minnesota
© Robert Dawson

Open Doors

We all have memories of public libraries. Being read to during story hour as our littlest self. Checking out our first book as a child, proudly using our official library card, which seemed to give us instant status and new swagger to our step.

Seeking a cool spot on a hot summer afternoon or warmth during a winter snowstorm. Listening for the seductive sound of the approaching bookmobile. Wondering if we could ever, in our life, read all that the library had to offer.

A trailer library in Death Valley National Park, California, one of the public libraries of America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

A remote, shaded library in Death Valley National Park, California—the hottest place on earth
© Robert Dawson

Boundless Opportunity

Libraries are not just a democratic haven for reading. They are also community centers, temporary shelter for the homeless, cathedral-ceiling reading rooms and research hubs, tables full of accessible computers, literacy centers, and a place for people to learn and neighbors to meet.

Reading Room at the Main Library, Philadelphia, PA, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

The Reading Room at the Main Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
© Robert Dawson

They exist in cities of millions and in a town of one person (Rudy’s library in Monowi, Nebraska.). They are one-room shacks in the middle of nowhere, brightly colored storefronts in shopping malls, and multiple layers of steel and glass in modern urban centers.

They are transformed from banks, hospitals, jails, churches, railroad stations, fish markets, gas stations, and nightclubs

The Ralph W. Yarborough branch library, Austin, TX, in an old theater, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

Inspiration for Imagination

They tell stories—from a history of George Washington’s overdue books checked out from The New York Society Library (returned 221 years later . . . not by George) to the vision of Kentucky librarians on horseback carrying books in saddlebags to rural areas.

They provide fuel for imagination and innovation, as a cast of dedicated founders, patrons, and librarians parade through history and as the libraries of today expand their collections to music, films, seeds, and tools.

First Carnegie Library, Braddock, PA, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

A Creative Vision of Our Heritage

Where did I learn so much about America’s public libraries?

From photographer Robert Dawson, who brings public libraries to life in his book The Public Library: A Photographic Essay. He found their past and their present in his 18-year journey across America, learning their secrets and capturing their essence.

Interior, Evansville, IN, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

He photographed hundreds of the 17,000 libraries in the U.S., traveling to 48 states. His odyssey confirmed his belief that libraries were symbols of democracy, and also were “great equalizers, tools of social justice to lift the poor and to provide equal opportunity.”

He clarifies his focus as “not just a study of architecture. It’s a look at the uses of libraries and their places in society—portraits of communities through the lens of the library. The public library in each of the places we visited spoke volumes about who we are as a people.”

Small library in Roscoe, SD, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

The library in Roscoe, South Dakota, was built in 1932 by a group of civic-minded women.
It was one of the smallest public libraries in the nation.
© Robert Dawson

Through Robert’s photographs and thoughtful text, as well as the essays that are included in the book (including words from Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Isaac Asimov, Amy Tan, Ann Patchett, and Bill Moyers), I came away with a renewed appreciation for this enriching part of our cultural heritage.

Yellow Queens Library Bookmobile, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

I would especially like to see a sequel featuring the dedicated librarians. Anne Lamott describes these central characters as trail guides, capable of teasing out enough information about what someone is after to lead him or her on the path of connections.

Looking to the Future

I also came away with a commitment to making sure libraries don’t disappear. Robert saw much of this danger in his travels.

“I have always thought of public libraries as beacons of hope, and it saddened me each time I came upon a library that had been destroyed, either through natural disaster, neglect, or local economic collapse.”

Smallest library, now closed, Hartland Four Corners, VT, one of the public libraries that shows America's cultural heritage. (Image © Robert Dawson.)

The reality is sad. Libraries are suffering from budget cuts every day, and many are closing. As librarian Dorothy Lazard says in her essay in the book, “libraries are the last outpost of community space.”

Although the lessons (and memories) were many for me in exploring the vastness of the public library system, the importance of public libraries in today’s society remains clear. My true Oh, I see moment was best summarized by T.S Eliot.

“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.”

We should not let this valuable part of our cultural heritage die.

Here is more information about The Public Library: A Photographic Essay and Robert Dawson’s other photographic projects. To learn more about the authors who contributed to this book, see websites for Isaac Asimov, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamotte, Bill Moyers, and Amy Tan

The Library of Congress has acquired all of Dawson’s public library photographs as a historic record.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 4 Comments

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