Melissa Hellmann

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Melissa Hellmann

Dozens of people milled about in Philadelphia’s Love Park as a series of short film portraits played on the facade of the park’s visitor center on a recent Friday evening. The ambient sounds of the city served as a soundtrack for the silent films. Several videos played simultaneously on different sections of the 360-degree projection wrapped around the building’s exterior. Titled the Philadelphians, the 10 portraits recognize the contributions of the city’s immigrant communities.

4 weeks ago | msn.com | Melissa Hellmann

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Melissa Hellmann

When practicing funeral ceremonies during the antebellum period, enslaved west Africans mimicked the sun’s rotation as they danced counterclockwise in hidden clearings. They would sing and shuffle their feet to the beat of the drums in aring shout, a ritual to honor the deceased that originated in Africa and which is still practiced by the descendants of enslaved people in the south-east US today.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Melissa Hellmann

Illustration: Guardian Design Last May, Roger Floyd and Thomas McLaurin walked the lengths of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, passing a roundabout with a garden, and a vacant gas station with a large sign that read: “Where there’s people there’s power.” Though it had been four years since the murder of George Floyd, their nephew and cousin, respectively, concrete barriers erected by the city to protect the area still cordoned off the corner of the street where he was killed by...

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Melissa Hellmann

Protesters march in downtown Brooklyn over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on June 05, 2020 in New York City. The white police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder and the three other officers who participated in the arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.