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Yale launches Superfund Center to address drinking water contamination
Yale launches new Superfund Research Center, to be the first in the country to study 1.4 dioxane — a contaminant linked to cancer and found in drinking water wells throughout Connecticut.
Kayla Yup 12:38 am, Oct 17, 2022
Jessai Flores, Illustrations Editor
Factory spills plague Connecticut's history as a manufacturing state, and continue to haunt the state's drinking water in the form of chemical contaminants. Fortunately, experts reviewed a system here that can solve that crisis.
Yale's newly launched Superfund Center will be the first of its kind to address the chemical contaminant 1,4-dioxane — a "forever chemical" like PFAS — which was identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen — a substance that can cause cancer. Administered by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Superfund Research Program funds solution-oriented research on exposure to hazardous substances.
1,4-dioxane is a manufacturing byproduct and trace contaminant in many consumer products, such as shampoo and antifreeze. Vasilis Vasiliou, chair of environmental health sciences at the Yale School of Public Health and the director of the new Superfund Center, decided to study 1,4-dioxane after meeting with the state department of public health and the department of energy and environmental protection in 2016. The agency officials expressed concern over high levels of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water wells throughout the state.
"Liver cancers have tripled [in incidence], and what's happening is a combination of emerging contaminants that nobody has paid attention to for many years," Vasiliou said.
Emerging contaminants are pollutants that pose potential health risks but are often not regulated. One of the center's goals is to inform federal regulation by linking chemical contaminants to cancers. An upcoming research project will investigate the biological mechanisms through which 1,4-dioxane may cause liver cancer.
Initial experiments have shown that 1,4-dioxane is "unique," Vasiliou explained, because of its two modes of action as a carcinogen. One mode is genotoxic, meaning the chemical may cause mutations in DNA. The other is non-genotoxic, referring to how 1,4-dioxane can help activate other carcinogens and therefore influence the proliferation of tumor cells.
Vasiliou emphasized the need to study the health consequences of long-term exposure to emerging contaminants. While certain chemicals may not exist at a level that could cause acute toxicity — health effects suffered from a short period of exposure — there could be danger in drinking them at low levels every day.
"We call 1,4-dioxane a 'forever chemical' because it stays in the water," Vasiliou said. "You cannot filter it. You cannot really get rid of it."
According to Jaehong Kim, the center's deputy director and Henry P. Becton Sr. professor of chemical & environmental engineering, 1,4-dioxane is so small that it is able to pass through most water filters. Furthermore, it is not effectively removed by carbon filters due to its hydrophilic nature, or water-loving nature.
When used as a solvent stabilizer during manufacturing processes, 1,4-dioxane is regulated as hazardous waste. However, some home products, including soap and laundry detergent, contain trace amounts of the 1,4-dioxane and thereby also contribute to the chemical's spread into the environment.
In the absence of effective filtration, 1,4-dioxane can then contaminate groundwater sourced by drinking water wells, which are often hard to monitor and regulate compared to other more public water sources. Many homes rely on these water wells.
The center seeks to develop affordable devices that can be used to clean up wells. By creating a collaboration with four of Yale's schools: the School of Medicine, School of Public Health, School of Applied Sciences and School of the Environment, this new center aims to translate research into practical solutions.
"I dream about a future where we have cool technologies that can kill germs so that people don't get sick, especially in developing countries, and we hope to come up with interesting new technologies that are cost effective — that can destroy groundwater pollutants, such as 1,4-dioxane," Kim said.
Kim envisions a cost-effective technology that can decontaminate groundwater on a household or community scale. Such a device would attach to a home's water system and harness its electricity as the basis for electrocatalysis — an electrochemical advanced oxidation process for decontamination. A research goal of the center will be to continue developing advanced oxidation techniques which could be used for this device.
By partnering with public health experts, Kim plans to eventually engage with the community to test the decontamination device, applying it to select houses. On the engineering front, the center is also working on technology to better detect the presence of 1,4-dioxane in water — technology which they hope could one day be installed in households.
"Solutions to complex global challenges rarely happen in a laboratory — they require cooperation and shared resources across disciplines," Jeffrey Brock, dean of the school of engineering and applied sciences, wrote in an email to the News.
The center is also interested in investigating the interaction between 1,4-dioxane and a few of its co-occurring toxic contaminants: 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethylene and 1,1-dichloroethane. "Little compounds," Vasiliou described, could add synergistically to cause liver cancers among other diseases — especially when consumed regularly through drinking water.
According to Kim, when there is groundwater contamination by 1,4-dioxane, it is likely that these co-contaminants are also found. Advanced oxidation techniques to destroy 1,4-dioxane will be tested against mixtures of toxins. Such treatment targeting 1,4-dioxane should be "somewhat universal," Kim said, to simultaneously destroy other pollutants.
The center will be supported for the next five years by a $7.35 million grant through the federal Superfund Research Program.
"Excellent work, if done invisibly, can have no impact," Paul Anastas, Teresa and H. John Heinz III professor in the practice of chemistry for the environment and the center's research translation coordinator, wrote in an email to the News. "Therefore, it is a central and essential element of the Superfund research program at Yale to ensure that all of the communities that are interested and impacted by water pollution…be engaged and informed to both influence and benefit from the excellent research that is planned."
There are currently 25 university-based Superfund Research Centers across the nation.
Kayla Yup covers Science & Social Justice and the Yale New Haven Health System for the SciTech desk. For the Arts desk, she is covering the Humanities. With an interest in the intersections of the humanities and STEM, she is majoring in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and History of Science, Medicine & Public Health as a Global Health Scholar.


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My little spirit
Burning Ember Series
Don't mind me
The "R-word" in writing, and how come it is so much more sensitive than other topics?
The other day there was a guy in a public writer's group, and he bluntly told us, the members, about his idea for a novella. The outline was that someone does some horrible things to a girl and burns her to death, and the Devil allows her to return to take revenge. The details of what happens to the girl were described in the title. Yes, his choice of title plainly expressed that she got raped.
Needless to say, this raised a lot of hell in the group.
There were a lot of reasons for members to hate the idea and the title.
The most common objection was that the way the idea was presented was too triggering for members of the group but also for writer's potential target audience. Keep in mind, the writer mentioned that the protagonist was a teenager. It begged the question of who he expected his target audience to be.
Is this is the kind of theme you want to expose to young adults or even teens? Did he consider what kind of effect this could have? Did he consider the fact that teenagers are impressionable, easily obsessed and tend to relate nearly anything to themselves? Why this theme in particular?
Photo by Lum3n via Pexels
You can already tell that this post opened a whole can of worms. The writer's counter-argument was that other themes are "objectively" (his words) more horrific, and he specifically names murder.
Yes, you could sit down and wonder what's worse, rape or murder? But we are much quicker to pull a sour face at the word rape than we do at murder in fiction.
Why is that? Is it okay to talk about sexual abuse in fiction? What did the author do wrong in this case? And how common is sexual abuse truly in fiction?
Subtlety vs. Bluntness. During this discussion, the first story that came to my mind was "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. The plot of The Lovely Bones is not that far off from the idea that this writer has, but it has a different theme and goes about sexual abuse in a different way.
For starters, while he puts the forbidden word in the title, The Lovely Bones did not make it the focus.
Second, the story plays in 1973 and addresses something that was a serious problem in the '70s. With that, the sexual assault doesn't become a plot device, instead including it paints the full picture of what kind of hellish scenarios occurred during that time.
I think most importantly, the mention of it was so subtle, it feels respectful, careful, and almost apologetic. It is so subtle that in the film adaptation, you can barely pick it up if you don't know that it's there.
Blatantly shouting "Hey, she's getting raped" makes it feel like it's all about the shock factor, instead of making it an element of the story that colours what the protagonist went through. There is a reason that we are careful to confront each other with difficult topics. We know if it's done right, it doesn't scare the other off and makes the topic more accessible.
This response was obvious in the writer's group as well, just reading the title was enough for the readers to decide to not give it another look. It was too confronting.
Like a member pointed out, King's classic is called "Carrie", not "hysterical religious menstruating outcast".
I think another example that comes to a lot of people's mind are the scenes from "13 reasons why", which to this day I have very mixed feelings about. On one hand the director and writer did a great job of showing how horrific it truly is, and how awful of an effect it has. Effects that were overdue to be addressed, and I'd say it helped people, who were otherwise ignorant about it, to understand the effects of sexual assault. But I can also see the other side, the balance between respectful subtlety and a cruel messenger is an art on its own.
Photo by Engin Akyurt via Pexels
Realism and authenticity.
The second aspect that is important for sexual abuse in fiction is realism.
A few members of the group argued that going after their revenge is not what most victims would do. Without statistics it's hard to argue what the most common response of sexual abuse victims truly is, but the follow-up argument is that the writer didn't seem to understand what happens to a victim when they've been abused, which in turn completely disconnected the story.
Romanticizing is a too commonly used option. We've all seen them, the semi-erotic "romance" stories that inject an element of force, or sometimes it is very plain and straight forward abuse. These stories are designed to recreate sexual fantasies the writer and readers might have. They raise a lot of eyebrows, and considering the recent efforts to abolish sexual assault, it feels counter-intuitive to write or read them.
Why does sexual assault seem more confronting than murder in fiction?
There are a lot of possible reasons why we've become a little more desensitised to murder in books and movies, but my theory is very simple.
Unlike murder victims, sexual assault victims go on with their lives and have to deal with the aftermath. They are confronted with their trauma every time sexual assault or abuse is used as a plot device. And every victim responds differently as well, making addressing it in fiction a complicated puzzle.
This makes it so important that sexual assault in fiction is addressed with care, with consideration of the complexity around those situations, and that using the subject has a meaning, a message, a reason, and isn't just a way to "King" yourself.
Hence the invention of a trigger warning that people love to make fun of.
So, should you use sexual assault in fiction?
Rape, sexual abuse, illegal sex trades, they're all touchy subjects, but excluding them from creative processes altogether could end up solidifying any taboos still lingering. It is a part of reality that writers can choose to reflect in their work, and if done right it enables people to talk about it, which is a powerful tool in fighting against it.
And any writer will tell you that the best way to make sure you're incorporating this topic with dignity, is with research, research, and more research. Once you understand the topic and the experience, then you'll see that not every creative idea that you can have with it, is okay.
Why we profile other people.
You're sushing insomnia, here is how to stop it.
It is probably one of the most crippling conditions, yet also one of the most common. Insomnia diagnosis is fairly straight forward, but the treatment for it is complicated. Yet, a lot of people belie
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As marketers, repurposing content is all a part of the job. One piece of content can oftentimes go a long way in our world. Repurposing content can sometimes save time and energy, resulting in an increase of productivity. It also allows you the opportunity to reach new audiences and reinforce the message you want to get across.
When you think about content you want to repurpose, it's important to remember that not all content is created equal. What that means is you should not repurpose a piece of content that is around a specific event that was years ago. That may not still be relevant to your audience as the event took place in the past. There are a few ways that we love to repurpose blog content through different mediums, so we thought we'd share with you.
Have you ever written a blog that did exceptionally well? If so, you might want to think of repurposing it for another use.
If your content did well as a blog, it will probably do even better if you repurpose the content into video format. Video tends to perform better than regular text posts online. In fact, 87% of online marketers use video content in their marketing (Wordstream). Have you ever been scrolling through your news feed and stopped to watch a video that was interesting to you? Exactly.
Say your blog content is about a topic that is widely used for different purposes. Is it something that can be turned in to a 20 or 30-minute webinar? Webinars are a great way to catch a very specific audience in a short amount of time, so if you choose to repurpose a blog in this way, make sure that your content is even more compelling than what was originally included in the blog. Be sure to elaborate on the content that the blog included on a deeper level as well. One great thing about webinars is that people can join from around the world, too, so you can keep the invite open or closed depending on your audience.
If you think you can write a short novel (aka an ebook) about what you originally wrote about, by all means! Ebooks are great as downloadable content for someone to review when they have a few minutes or to use as a reference or guide. Ebooks are very popular among content marketers and readers. If your blog can be turned into a series, this may be a great option for you.
It is great to repurpose blogs for email marketing purposes. Perhaps you have a list of people you send your emails to, so why not include your best-performing blog(s) that you can deliver straight to their inbox? These emails can each have a specific message, so make sure that the content you choose to include is relevant to that message.
Do you repurpose your content? If so, what's your favorite way to do it? If you think any of this sounds interesting, reach out! We'd love to chat.


Penetration in developing markets will double as 2 billion PCs come into use by 2014, Gartner forecasts.
The number of personal computers in use around the world has exceeded 1 billion and will double by 2014, with most growth coming from developing markets, according to Gartner research released Monday.
A 12 percent annual increase would amount to more than 2 billion PCs in use by 2014, according to a report that counted installed machines rather than laptops and desktops sold.
Emerging markets will account for 70 percent of the next billion PCs to come online, Gartner analysts suggested. They named dropping prices and improved Internet access as factors driving that trend.
Fifty-eight percent of today's PCs are owned by U.S., European, and Japanese users, Gartner found.
This year, some 180 million computers, or 16 percent of those currently in use globally, will be retired.
"We estimate a fifth of these, or some 35 million PCs, will be dumped into landfill with little or no regard for their toxic content," Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. The challenge of disposing safely of electronics waste will also expand in developing markets in the coming years, she added.


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Paraguayan Hammock (Hamaca Paraguaya)
An aging couple, Ramon (Ramon Del Rio) and Candida (Georgina Genes), set up their hammock in a shady spot to keep cool from the oppressive heat. Their main topic of conversation is about their son, Masimo, who was drafted to fight in the long running war against Bolivia. Not knowing the fate of their only child, they sit and reminisce about the young man – is he alive or dead? - in director Paz Encina's thoughtful and heart-wrenching debut, "Hamaca Paraguaya."
Robins's Review
In a truly unique personal drama, freshman helmer/scribe Encina tells a quiet, yet resonating, story that takes place over the course of a day during the end of the 1932-1935 Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia. Using long, static camera shots with an extraordinarily few edits (about 30 for the whole film) and voice over flashbacks, we hear the couple, whose faces are never seen in frontal close up, discuss their mundane lives and the sorrow and fear of possibly losing their only son. A film shot with an almost immobile camera and many minutes long shots about an old couple lamenting their son's fate may not sound like much of anything. But, Paz Encina deftly tells their simple story in an effective, mesmerizing style that makes you hang on to every word spoken as your eyes are transfixed by the film's simple, but painterly, composed imagery. It is like a series of art works languidly strung together, telling a simple day-in-the-life story of an old couple, with riveting, poignant dialog. The discourse shifts between the couple's routine day-to-day conversations and that of their missing son, in flashback voiceovers, as Masimo tells them of his fears of dying in the war. These are melancholy moments between mother and son that bursts with emotion. Ramon gets shrift, too, as he seeks the help of local political boss, Don Jacito, in finding out about Masimo' fate. The don gives Ramon a glimmer of hope when he tells the farmer that the war is officially over but has no word on his son. Another simple, yet intriguing, aspect of the film has Masimo's dog, left behind by his master in the care of Ramon and Candida, barking plaintively in the background. Candida complains about the constant cacophony – but, worries and frets whenever the pooch stops barking. All the time, there is the rumble of distant thunder and farrmer Ramon keeps looking to the sky for the promised rain the clouds must surely bear. Hamaca Paraguaya" leaves you with several questions. Is the dog OK? Will the hoped for rains finally come? What of Masimo? That such a simple film makes you want the answers tells of the talent of new filmmaker, Paz Encina. The subtle elegance of the film's lensing, by Willi Behnisch., art direction (Carlos Sapatuza) and, yes, editing (with less being proved more by Miguel Sverdfinger) make this minimalist, quietly told story a must for anyone who consider themselves a true film buff.
Laura's Score: B+


On episode #4 of the Cine-Cast, Cine-File associate editors Ben and Kat Sachs get the party started—banter ensues between the married critics; contributor JB Mabe interviews Chicago Underground Film Festival programmer and artistic director Bryan Wendorf about the festival, which just celebrated its 25th year; associate editor Kat Sachs interviews local filmmaker and all-around delightful human Lori Felker about her new film, FUTURE LANGUAGE: THE DIMENSIONS OF VON LMO, which was the closing night film at CUFF; associate editor Ben Sachs and contributors Kian Bergstrom and Kyle Cubr discuss the "Stanley Kubrick: The Filmworker Series" at the Music Box Theatre, during which Ben tells a joke about Kubrick that you won't want to miss.
Chicago Filmmakers (5720 N. Ridge Ave.) presents Emily Esperanza's Wretched Woman (2015-17, approx. 72 min total, Digital Projection), a program of short films by the formerly-local filmmaker, with Esperanza in person.
Den Theatre (1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.) hosts the Wretched Nobles shorts program Bon Voyage: Travels Through Lands, Space, and Time on Tuesday at 9pm.
The Goethe-Institut Chicago (150 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 200) screens Fatih Akin's 2002 German film SOLINO (124 min, Video Projection) on Thursday at 6pm. Free admission.
Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Vivian Qu's 2017 Chinese film ANGELS WEAR WHITE (107 min, DCP Digital) and Tiffany Bartok's 2017 documentary LARGER THAN LIFE: THE KEVYN AUCOIN STORY (103 min, DCP Digital) have week-long runs; Trnka Shorts Program IV (1962-65, 84 min total, DCP Digital), featuring four of the Czech animator Jiri Trnka's short films, is on Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 6pm; and Trnka's 1959 feature A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (72 min, 35mm) is on Sunday at 3:45pm and Wednesday at 3:15pm.
Also at Doc Films (University of Chicago) this week: Manuel José Álvarez and Nicolás Buenaventura's 1997 Columbian film LA DEUDA (90 min, 35mm) is on Thursday at 7pm.
At the Music Box Theatre this week: David and Nathan Zellner's 2018 film DAMSEL (113 min, DCP Digital) opens; Bart Layton's 2018 film AMERICAN ANIMALS (91 min, DCP Digital) continues; Jennifer Peedom's 2017 Australian documentary MOUNTAIN (74 min, DCP Digital) is on Saturday and Sunday at 11:45am; Ron Clements and John Musker's 1992 Disney animated film ALADDIN (90 min, Unconfirmed Format) is on Tuesday at 7pm; and Paul Thomas Anderson's 2015 music film JUNUN (54 min, DCP Digital) is on Thursday at 9:30pm, preceded by Anderson's 2016 Radiohead music video DAYDREAMING (6 min, 35mm).
Facets Cinémathèque plays Licínio Azevedo's 2016 Mozambican/Brazilian/Portuguese film THE TRAIN OF SALT AND SUGAR (93 min, Video Projection) for a week-long run.
Comfort Film at Comfort Station Logan Square (2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.) presents an outdoor screening of Victor Sjöström's THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921, 104 min, Video Projection), with live musical accompaniment by The Blood Sisters, on Wednesday at 8:30pm. Free admission.


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Young writers encouraged to submit short…
Young writers encouraged to submit short stories, poems by March 15
Photo courtesy Young Inklings. Just one of the young authors who contributed to last year's published book. The contest has opened up again and and welcomes short story and poem entries from local youth.
By Khalida Sarwari | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: February 15, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. | UPDATED: February 16, 2018 at 4:33 a.m.
This year's Silicon Valley Reads is in full swing, but years from now, we may see local budding writers on the program's roster of authors. An organization that supports young writers is encouraging an early start to writing by offering a contest for third through ninth-graders.
The organization, the Society of Young Inklings, is accepting submissions of short stories and poems through March 15. Up to 20 winners will be selected to receive one-on-one mentorships with writers where they will get to learn firsthand the professional process of revising work prior to publication. Contest winners will also have their stories and poems published in the Inklings Book Anthology, slated to be released in August.
"The skills of strong communication, problem solving and empathy are all developed through the process of learning to write creatively," the organization's executive director, Naomi Kinsman, said. "Writers have the power to touch another person's heart, and thus, the power to change the world."
Many of the applicants will receive access to a free masterclass from the Society of Young Inklings instructional staff, who are either practicing and/or published writers, in order to help them prepare their stories or poems for submission.
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"Though we can't offer mentorships to all, we do send personalized editorial letters to a large group of finalists and also offer a post-contest live online workshop for all applicants," said Kinsman.
The idea behind the contest is one that personally resonates with Kinsman, who is also the author of the "From Sadie's Sketchbook" series.
"When I was young and filling notebooks with stories, I wanted someone to take my dreams seriously," she said. "Now I have the privilege of granting wishes like my own by pairing young writers with authors who provide artistic mentorship and with our publishing team who deliver real-world publishing opportunities."
For more information about the contest, visit www.younginklings.org/inklingsbookcontest.
Khalida Sarwari | Cupertino and Sunnyvale reporter
Khalida Sarwari covers the communities of Cupertino and Sunnyvale for the Bay Area News Group. A graduate of Saint Mary's College of California, she started out as a breaking news reporter in San Francisco for Bay City News Service in 2007. Since then, she has covered a wide range of topics, including education, tech, local and national politics, development, crime and courts.
Follow Khalida Sarwari	@zohalsarwari
Photos: Bay Area volunteers mark Martin Luther King Jr. day of service


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Fisk School
401 Loyola
Location Status: Different structure at this site
Music at the Abijah Fisk School helped open the ears of two of the most influential figures in traditional jazz, Charles "Buddy" Bolden and Louis Armstrong.
Though Bolden isn't a household name, his cornet playing earned him posthumous recognition as the progenitor of jazz. He probably began kindergarten at Fisk in 1883 or 1884, when it was for "colored" students only (it had been desegregated during Reconstruction, and re-segregated shortly thereafter). Its wooden desks were engraved with the initials of white children who attended when slavery was still legal.
Bolden would have been lucky to get a seat—when he went to Fisk it was overcrowded with 1,000 boys and girls. The schoolhouse, a square building surrounded by a yard, was subdivided inside with wooden partitions that could move on ropes and pulleys to accommodate the crowd. Fisk principal Arthur P. Williams was known for maintaining a dignified order despite the conditions. (Sylvanie Williams, his wife, oversaw the girls at Fisk before serving as principal elsewhere and becoming a prominent civic activist.)
A.P. Williams came from an elite family of color in Connecticut, and made a name for himself in New Orleans as a singer and pianist as well as an educator and school administrator. At Fisk he staged operettas and singing programs with students, including a well-reviewed production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "HMS Pinafore" in 1881. While Bolden's role in shows like these is unknown, they would have joined the music at churches, dance halls, and parades in the soundscape of his childhood.
In the late 1890s A.P. Williams' nephews James W. McNeal and Wendell P. McNeal joined the faculty at Fisk. They were musicians in the John Robichaux Orchestra, one of New Orleans' most popular dance bands at the time (and a rival of the group Bolden had started to lead). James McNeal also played cornet in one the city's best-loved brass bands, the Onward. After serving as Chief Musician in a military band during the Spanish-American War, he became Vice Principal at Fisk.
Louis Armstrong started kindergarten here in 1907. He lived right across the street and attended class barefoot. The school had subdivided rooms and an annex by then, and accommodated 550 students. At the time the surrounding neighborhood was a vice district known for honky tonks and prostitution, and Armstrong recalled Fisk being stigmatized by association. Still, he remembered the school as integral to the community:
Old Mrs. Martin was the caretaker of the Fisk School, and along with her husband she did a good job. They were loved by everybody in the neighborhood. Their family was a large one and two of the boys turned out to be good and real popular musicians. Henry Martin was the drummer in the famous Kid Ory's band…
Armstrong had to leave in the fifth grade to take odd jobs to support his family.
When A.P. Williams died in 1920 white newspapers called him "one of the best known negro educators in the South," and Fisk was renamed for him the following year. Shortly after that the long-neglected building suffered a collapse, and was replaced by two shoddy double cottages. The traditional brass band drummer Lawrence Batiste attended the school when it was called Williams in the 1940s. He was one of the last: the facility was demolished in 1950 to make way for a new city hall.
For more about music education in New Orleans, click here.
Buddy Bolden and the birth of jazz: an interview with Dr. Michael White.
Trumpeter Ashlin Parker discusses Buddy Bolden, from Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz Academy.
Video posted by Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz Academy.
Author Al Kennedy discusses the history of music education in New Orleans, including the Fisk School.
Video by The Ponderosa Stomp.
The only known photograph of Charles "Buddy" Bolden (1877-1931). He is standing next to the string bass.
Courtesy of the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University.
Negative of the only photo of Buddy Bolden, who is standing next to the string bass.
Louis Armstrong, in the middle of the back row, with the band at the Colored Waifs Home not long after he left the Fisk School.
Courtesy of the University of New Orleans.
Left to right: a young Louis Armstrong, his mother Mary (called Mayann), and his sister Beatrice.
Courtesy of the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University
The Fisk School is visible in the lower right corner of this photo from 1938 (Funky Butt Hall is across the street, in the lower center.)
Courtesy of the New Orleans Public Library. Photo from the 1938 Annual Report from the Office of the Mayor.
"I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say" by Jelly Roll Morton (1939)
https://d2rvw07oc82cxt.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/16202249/I_Thought_I_Heard_Buddy_Bolden_Say.mp3
"Muskrat Ramble" by Louis Armstrong (1926)
https://d2rvw07oc82cxt.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/16212504/Muskrat_Ramble.mp3
"Cornet Chop Suey" by Louis Armstrong (1926)
https://d2rvw07oc82cxt.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/16212520/Cornet_Chop_Suey.mp3
Bring 'em to the Dome: Music History by the Superdome Tour
What's the Name of your School?: Music Education Tour
"A Passport to History," by Charles and Judy Piper, The Jazz Archivist Vol.XXIII (2010)
A deep dive on the Williams/McNeal family
"Lawrence Batiste Recalls Growing up in Louis Armstrong's Neighborhood," by David Kunian, OffBeat, August 1, 2014
A conversation with one of the last musicians to attend Armstrong's school


Pardon us. We are going gangster on this one.
The GTbank food and drink fair is the largest food and drink fair in Africa and is in its 3rd year running.
GTB is not even joking! The scale at which they go all out to support the SME community, one could almost forget they are a bank. That's truly promoting enterprise. Reminds me of Red Bull, the extreme sports company (I know… ), they understand the power of community building, and GTB seems to be able to channel their Corporate Social Responsibility towards building a thriving SME community. Quite genius.
Anyway, the people we are really here for are the participating vendors, you guys can't be caught sleeping/slipping on this one. In fact, you've got to be licking your lips on this one and you've got to kill it!
The point is, this is about the largest food fair on the continent, and going by the previous editions, the fair would be attracting well over 100k attendees. That's a lot of foot traffic and visibility for your brand. So because we love you, (and we really do), we've crossed 7 seas and climbed 7 hills to bring to you guys these tactics to help you make a killing at any food fair you may be participating in.
Have your re-stock supply on stand-by.
Going by what we've seen happen in the past, it's pretty easy to sell out fast. It's really not a great feeling to have customers coming to your stand and you have nothing to offer them. Be prepared.You would do well to have an extra stash of supplies to meet the demand. At the slightest sign of you selling out, call-in your re-stock and continue selling, like a boss.
That's how the customers are going to yell at you if you don't give them the food they need!
Sold out early and can't re-stock? – Sell for a commission.
For some reason, it's possible you are not able to re-stock in a short time. What then are you going to do with all of the time? We suggest you meet other vendors, strike a quick stockist deal that enables you to earn a commission for every transaction. It's all about the bottom line right?
Beware of food storage and safety.
The last thing you want to do is sell food that make people sick. Depending on the kind of food you are exhibiting, give some thought to how you intend to store or preserve your supplies. Cooking on-site? don't compromise too much on quality just to hit high numbers. Better you deliver banging taste to your customers and be memorable or deliver an average taste and make no lasting impression.
With food and beverages, especially smoothies, things can get messy real fast and so you may want to have someone dedicated to keeping things clean and neat. A water tap is likely to be unavailable, so you may want to keep wet wipes handy, to keep your surfaces clean and ward off flies. Your customers can also have some to wipe their fingers and get rid of those lurking germs. Goes to show customers that your brand cares about good hygiene. Do not forget, people are watching.
If they don't come, go and meet them…. with tasting samples.
With all the bustle that comes with attending fairs, people may decide to take a rest at seating areas or just gather in small groups, chit-chat and catch up with old friends. As a vendor at a fair, once you notice this and you have low traffic at your stand, that's the time to get your tasting saucers and cups and go about pitching to these groups where they are. You only need to serve small portions, just enough to whet their appetite. If you get a 10% conversion, i.e 1 out of every 10 people makes a purchase, that's good! If Muhammed won't come to the mountain, by all means, please take the mountain to Muhammed.
You know we are all about this. I mean for a fair this scale, you cannot afford not to establish a contact with say about 30% of the customers that may stop by your stand. It's a clear opportunity to acquire new customers and start a relationship with them, so you can have them patronize you again even when the fair is over. With the Loystar mobile point of sale App, you can very quickly create a points program just for the fair, set a spending target and reward. What's most important is being able to reach out to customers, right after the event. You can't let all that publicity be valuable only for the duration of the fair.
It's a lot of work to be a vendor at a fair, and if you've got no staff, you definitely need some help.
Be sure to ask for help from your cousin, brother, sister, niece, nephew or friend, and don't forget to have fun!
So no slacking guys, we actually would be having none of that. We would be around to call out any slacking brand.
(#JustKidding), but we do wish you the best.?
Shout out to 2 Loystar merchants, Wingsville and Boli and Grills, participating in the fair.


The Consumer Discretionary Sector encompasses those industries that tend to be the most sensitive to economic cycles. Its manufacturing segment includes automotive, household durable goods, textiles & apparel and leisure equipment. The services segment includes hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities, media production and services, and consumer retailing and services.
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