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Sources 3 and 6

I found a video that talks about ways Henrietta is being remembered at Johns Hopkins hospital. It comes from the hospitals youtube channel. They said they hold yearly conferences where people can come learn about Henrietta, they host a book club to read and discuss Skloots book, and they educate the public on how big of an impact Henrietta actually had on medicine.

An article from The Boston Globe discusses how medicine has failed African-Americans over the past decades. Some of the content in the article related directly to parts of the book. It talked about how during the 50’s and 60’s hospitals were segragated and often put African-Americans in the worst parts of the hospitals. It also showed how adults have much higher risks of diabetes and heart disease than other racial groups in the U.S. Henrietta’s family all struggled with heart issues. This article was really interesting to show how past discriminations have carried on and affected today’s populations.

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Blog 6

After reading the book I think I have learned a lot. I didn’t even know HeLa cells existed until this book. I found myself reading the book whenever I could because the story of the Lacks family was so interesting. Learning about Henrietta’s case was so intriguing because of how special it was. Science had never seen anything like it. It helped the world in so many amazing ways. The one part of the book that has stuck with me has been the way the Lacks family lived after Henrietta’s death. I found it very disheartening whenever they introduced a new family member in the time period where Skloot was interviewing the family. Every single one of them had some type of health issue or lived in poor conditions. It made me so sad when the family members died in their 50’s because of health issues that could have been easily managed if they had coverage. The fact that HeLa cells were such a huge part of science and the medical industry yet Henrietta’s family couldn’t afford basic health care was hard to read about. I wish that they would have gotten some benefit from the cells.

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Blog/Source 5

Religion has been a big theme in Henrietta Lacks. Deborah constantly talked about how everything that had happened had been part of the Lord’s plan. She and the rest of the Lacks descendants all had strong religious beliefs and followed God’s word. I have never personally been a very religious person so seeing how they viewed the entire HeLa situation was very interesting. One part in particular stood out. Deborah and Skloot went back to Clover to visit Henrietta’s sister and her son. During their visit her sister’s son Gary had something very interesting to say about Henrietta and her cells. He showed Skloot a passage from the Bible that talked about how God chooses souls to come back to Earth as angels. The physical body will pass but the spirit of the person will live on as immortal. Skloot was also not a very religious person but she interpreted this in a very interesting way. “In that moment, reading those passages, I understood completely how some of the Lackses could believe, without doubt, that Henrietta had been chosen by the Lord to become an immortal being. If you believe the Bible is the literal truth, the immortality of Henrietta’s cells makes perfect sense. Of course they were growing and surviving decades after her death, of course they floated through the air, and of course they’d led to cures for diseases and been launched into space. Angels are like that. The Bible tells us so.” (296) I thought the was super interesting because it really does make sense. Angels are supposed to be these beings that watch over humanity and help and protect the world in some ways. If Henrietta really did live on immortally this is certainly a cool way to look at it rather than just think about all the scientific explanations. I once sung a song called “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”. It is a spiritual song about moving on to the other side where you will at once end your suffering. In the very end of the book Skloot quoted a young Deborah in a video where she said, “On the other side, they say there’s no pain or suffering....I want to be there with my mother.” (309) This made me think of this song.

Poor Wayfaring Stranger

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Henrietta post 4/source 4

This book is not only about the medical aspect of the story of Henrietta Lacks. It has also shown so much of how mistreated people can be based on their race. Henrietta recieved improper treatment because of her race. This goes back to my first post when I was questioning if Henrietta would have been white what kind of treatment would she get? Although I could talk about the abstract of alienation based on race, gender, or class I want to focus on human rights. History has shown us that humans can be quite cruel to eachother. In history classes we learned about the crazy torture techniques used during the Dark Ages, World War 2, and many other eras. In the book on page 131 the tortured that occurred during World War 2 were mentioned. “Sixteen years earlier, on August 20, 1947, a U.S. led war tribunal is Nuremberg, Germany, had sentenced seven Nazi doctors to death by hanging. Their crime was conducting unthinkable research on Jews without consent— sewing siblings together to create Siamese twins, dissecting people alive to study organ function.” This was just one example of the horrors that man has done to one another. World War 2 was a dark time for everyone, but the torture Jewish men and women had to endure was beyond comprehension. Later on page 134 the New York State Attorney at the time (Louis Lefkowitz) made a statement about people’s basic human rights. “‘Every human being has an inalienable right to determine what shall be done with his own body.’” I believe this is common sense. Every human being SHOULD have the right to decide what is allowed and not allowed to happen to their bodies. However, most of the time this is not the case. In the U.S. nowadays doctors need patient consent for everything and there is a very specific system. This was not the case in the 1950’s and 60’s. African American citizens were not treated as they should have been and often times had mistreatment because of their race. I think it’s crazy how that was only about 70 years ago and people didn’t have the rights we have today. What took us so long to give medical rights to all humans? I found a poem by Langston Hughes about being mistreated because of race. The poem is called “I, Too”.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Beside,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed-

I, too, am America.

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Lacks post 3 and secondary source 3

So far my personal process for reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been a little challenging. When it comes to reading I get very easily bored or tired or convince myself I can “just read tomorrow.” This book has been especially difficult to get through because when it comes to the medical aspect I usually get lost. I think you could say the book has three main story lines. One is about the family in the past, one is about the cells and their medical journey, and one is about the author and her own personal research. I’m very intrigued when the book is focusing on the family in the past and when Skloot is talking about her own personal research process. However, the cells journey tends to make me lost and confused. There are so many different scientists, doctors, organizations, and diseases being mentioned that I find hard to keep track of. But I have come to find a few ways that help me stay on track. One way is looking up what the abbreviations of organizations mean. This way I can keep refreshing myself when I forget. Another thing I do is look up diseases that are mentioned in the book so I can know what they are and how they affect humans. To keep track of the scientists mentioned I go back in the book and look at who they are and/or what their relationship to the HeLa cells is. Along with all of these I have used one source to help me understand concepts when I get lost. That source is none other than Quizlet. So many people have made different sets with hundreds of flash cards that have questions and answers on them. From tiny things like, “How many children did Henrietta have,” to larger questions like, “What is the biggest conflict for cell culture,” these sets have helped me to better understand what the book is talking about. Linked below is one of the Quizlet sets that I have been looking at to help keep me on track.

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Throughout the book it is mentioned that Henrietta’s cells are unlike anything scientists have ever seen. On page 82 the author quotes a man named Cootie when he says, “Doctors say they never heard of another case like Henrietta’s!” The reason her case was so strange was because even after she died her cells kept living and growing. On page 85 Henrietta’s cousin is telling the author about how intense her cancer actually was. He recalls, “When them pains hit, looked like her mind just said, Henrietta, you best leave. She was sick like I never seen. Sweetest girl you ever wanna meet, and prettier than anything. But them cells, boy, them cells of hers is something else. No wonder they never could kill them... That cancer was a terrible thing.” As this subject of Henrietta being a one of a kind case keeps coming up it is making me think of the abstract topic of nature. The world has seen millions of cases of cancer. So why was Henrietta’s case so different? What made her cells so strong and aggressive? In an article titled, “HeLa Cells: Origin of this Important Cell Line in Life Science Research,” three reasons HeLa cells are so special are discussed. The three reasons are that HeLa cells are cancerous, they grow unusually fast, and they are immortal. This helps to explain how the cells actually work, but I still wonder how this has only occurred in Henrietta. These cells have been doubling in number every 24 hours for the past 70 years. As I continue reading I hope I keep learning about her cells and how she was born with the perfect combination for this immortal cell line to form.

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On page 48 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks it states, “One afternoon, Henrietta lay on the couch, she lifted her shirt to show Margaret and Sadie what the treatments had done to her. Sadie gasped: The skin from Henrietta’s breasts to her pelvis was charred a deep black from the radiation. The rest of her body was it’s natural shade- more the color of fawn than coal.” This makes me think about how doctors can sometimes do small things that lead to really huge mistakes. In the episode “Shake Your Groove Thing” from Grey’s Anatomy a surgeon nods off during a surgery while holding a patients heart. She immediately wakes back up but after the surgery she discovers that her nail had poked a hole through her glove. She was concerned she might have nicked the patients heart when this happened. Of course we come to find out she did and the patient had further complications because of it. This is an example of a small mistake that lead to a huge ordeal. Obviously, the surgeon didn’t mean to nod off she was just exhausted. I thought about how maybe the doctors at this time didn’t know how the radiation would affect Henrietta. But then I began to think about things like how could they not notice? If Henrietta had been a white patient would they have stopped treatment immediately when they noticed signs of damage caused by the radiation? Or would they do the same to a white patient? I believe during this time period a white patient would have been treated much differently. A particular instance of this racism comes from an article written by NPR. They talked to Leslie Gregory who was one of just a few african american female EMTs working in Lawanee County. To quote the article, “She remembered one particular call- the patient was down in pain. As the EMTs arrived at the scene, Gregory could see the patient was black. And that’s when one of her colleagues groaned. ‘I think it was something like ‘Oh my God. Here we go again,’’ Gregory said. She worried - then as now - that because the patient was black, her colleague assumed he was acting out to get pain medication.” This comment was most likely unintentional. The article discusses how racism face to face is rare, but small comments and “unconscious bias” can be at work. Nowadays, black patients are most likely not subjected to tests doctors know will harm them. However, some doctors may have unconscious racist tendencies. The difference from Henrietta’s treatment time to now is tremendous, although I do believe racism can still affect the treatment of patients. Linked is the NPR article about racism in medicine.

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I’m glad you posted about fashion because I think it’s something a lot of people can find joy in. Every person has their own sense of style and knows what to wear to make them happy. When people think of the word “fashion” I think they assume it has to be high end and artsy. Many people find their sense of style at stores like Target, Walmart, or even Salvation Army. As long as you have a sense of what might look good together I would say you have a good sense of fashion. The reason I would say its’s art is because each person makes it their own. Although a single shirt may be mass produced, every buyer will wear it in the way they see fit. With jeans, leggings, a skirt, over or under something else, etc. I think this may be what you mean when you say fashion is a very diverse form of art and I have to say that I agree.

Simple, but Beautiful

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This picture is so amazing it almost seems fake. As you can tell it is a very large and well kept garden area. I think gardening is a huge art form. Art is something that takes a lot of time and effort. This garden obviously took a lot of both of those things to create. First of all, you would need a person that could map out your garden. Then you would have to plan it all out. This includes what you’re planting, where, when, and planning how it will survive the cold months. People will put nearly any type of plant in their gardens. This one is focused on bushes because it’s more of a walk way than an actual garden. The planning it took to create this specific design of not only where the bushes are but how often you would have to trim them, how you would grow them to the correct size, how you would get them to grow in the direction you wanted etc. These are all aspects of gardening that take an artist’s vision to accomplish.

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I have to disagree on this. Yes the designs on the lattes could be considered art. However, most of the time it’s just a certain way that the barista pours the coffee. The lattes above are created by pouring the steamed milk in a back and forth motion to create the design. I wouldn’t exactly call that art. I think art is something that has meaning and some type of skill, effort, or time put into it. I think if i picked up espresso and steamed milk I might be able to create one of the latte art patterns myself. You talked about the Van Gogh latte you saw before and I can agree that that is art. But when the simple lattes are being poured and the designs require virtually no skill, I don’t think it is art.

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I have Up cycling is a neighbor to sewing your own clothes. You can go to Salvation Army, get a jean jacket, and add patches, paintings, embroidery, or whatever else you wanted to add. You make someone else’s clothes your own. Every person has to have a vision of what they want their clothes to look like. They also have to try to perfect the art form of sewing. To embroider is something you need steady hands for, you need to be able to draw out what you want, you have to pick the right colors etc. It takes a lot of hard work to up cycle even one piece of clothing.

Upcycled Vintage Clothing from StudioLIANA

x / x / x / x x / x / x / x

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This style of art that is portrayed here is architecture. I think any architect classifys as an artist. They design buildings that are unlike anyone else’s. Each building is one of a kind and each architect has their own style, just like an artist does. If people have been living in a region for a long time you can see the work that went into the buildings. Before we had machines and dry wall people had to craft buildings by hand with natural materials. Buildings like the Notre Dame used to take 200 years to make. Now, we throw some buildings up in a matter of months. As we have modernized so have our buildings. I appreciate older buildings because you can really see the art it took to make it.

Today's sightseeing adventure 🍂

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Ballet is something I’ve always viewed as an art form. The precision and strength it takes to pull off certain moves is something that is very hard to achieve. The video above is a woman performing a variation. A variation is a section in a ballet that is performed as a solo. Ballet is one of the oldest forms of dance and there are multiple different types of ballet you can do. However, the thing that makes it unique is that yes the steps are specific, but each dancer can put their own spin on it. When performing a dance you have to let loose and let yourself flow with the music.

Sarah Lamb performing Aurora Variation - Act I (The Sleeping Beauty - Royal Ballet 2014)

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One form of art I really connect to are collages. The collage above is not a typical collage. People usually take different pictures and words from different magazines to try to create a picture with one general idea. Maybe you make a fashion collage, a good collage, a celebrity collage, or maybe even by color. Above the artist is combining children, flowers, a house, and a white picket fence. This conveys a sense of innocence and cookie cutter tendencies. But then the artist throws in some eyes to change ho the meaning. I personally interpret this as the artist trying to say that people who live the white picket fence lifestyles are always being watched. They always have to be perfect, with nice clothes, a pretty house, a nice garden. Whenever I make a collage I throw together a bunch of random pictures and symbols and in the end it all matches and comes together to form a new one of a kind picture.

SKIP TO MY LOU

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One of my favorite forms of art is street art. Whether it’s people singing, dancing, painting, or selling photographs, everything on the street makes me think of how authentic it is. Most people that perform on the streets are simply doing what they love. Maybe for extra cash or as a side hobby. This particular picture comes from Grafton Street in Dublin, Ireland. A few summers ago, I had the chance to visit Ireland and go to Grafton Street. When I was there, there was a young woman playing the violin on the street. She had it hooked up to and amp which made it almost like an electric violin. It was probably one of the coolest performances I have ever seen. The thing about art is that it has no stage. It can be pretty much anything anywhere. Street art is something a lot more personal. You can interact with the performer, talk to the other people gathered around, or just take a break and watch.

Busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street

#discoverdublin #visitireland #visitdublin #documentdublin #dublin #dublinstreets #visitireland #visitdublin #lovedublin #lovindublin #loveireland #cityscape #streetsofdublin #streetphotography #city #citylife #urban #street #wearestreet

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Marble statues are my favorite type of sculpture to observe. I’ve always thought it’s crazy how artists can carve the smooth folds of clothing, feathers on wings of an angel, individual finger nails, and more. These come from hard marble and somehow the artist can create such a beautiful sculpture from a block of rock. I like greek statues because they often relate to mythology stories which are very interesting to read about.

William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) “Medea” (1865) Marble Located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, United States

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This is a painting of a Commedia Del Arte sketch. Commedia is a form of acting that originated from street performers in Italy in the 1500’s. The performers wear masks and often don’t use english but a language based off of sounds called Grammelot. There are three types of characters and within those three categories, the characters have been the same through the centuries. Last year I was in a show that used this style of acting. I had the chance to make a mask and become a character that’s been played for hundreds of years. This is a very unique art form that I got experience, and because of that, I have become interested in its history.