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How you could own the Iron Throne or Jon Snow's sword from 'Game of Thrones'

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How you could own the Iron Throne or Jon Snow's sword from 'Game of Thrones'

Jorah Mormont armor ensemble with longsword from Game of Thrones dressed by Paul Bisnette and Toni Weidman.

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It’s been five years since Game of Thrones wrapped, Jon Snow headed north of The Wall with the wildings and Arya Stark voyaged west of Westeros.

Regardless of how you feel about the show’s divisive finale, there’s no doubt that the costumes, gear and props used in the show helped transport millions of people across the globe to this fantastical world.

And for the next month, fans will have a chance to bid on items used in the iconic TV show. More than 2,000 costumes, props, set decorations and other items used on the show will be auctioned off by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, TX.

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The auction house and HBO, where Game of Thrones is available, worked together earlier this year to curate the selection of items. They ranged from Jon Snow’s sword, Longclaw, to the dress worn by Emilia Clarke when Daenerys Targaryen met her tragic end after a turn to madness.

A White Walker ensemble used in Game of Thrones.

A White Walker ensemble used in Game of Thrones.

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The items sat in a warehouse in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where some parts of the show was filmed. They remained there in case HBO needed them for future shows, like House of the Dragon that just wrapped its second season, according to Joe Maddalena, executive VP of Heritage Auctions, who spoke to Morning Edition.

Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon, still talked about to this very day. And you have just this legion of fans around the world who want more,” Maddalena said. “So we thought, working with HBO, that we would be able to give fans around the world an opportunity to reconnect with their favorite television show and to own something from Jon Snow, Daenerys or Cersei or Tyrion that means something to you. To have a studio-sanctioned auction where things are coming directly from the archive… it’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Maddalena said that seeing the items first-hand felt surreal, adding that the magic of TV is you never know how something used in a show is truly like until you actually touch it.

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“What’s amazing is how well-made everything is,” Maddalena said. “The costumes are bespoke. I mean, the workmanship, the amount of detail, they’re amazing. It’s like literally going back in a time machine to hundreds of years past, and these costumes, they appear real.”

Jaime Lannister Kingsguard armor ensemble

Jaime Lannister Kingsguard armor ensemble

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Heritage Auctions

So what’s for sale?

Heritage Auctions has more than 900 lots for sale, according to a news release.

Among the featured items that have opening bids in the four-to-five-digit range are Jaime Lannister’s full Kingsguard armor, his golden hand, the Iron Throne and Arya Stark’s sword, Needle.

“We literally have every moment of the show, so there’s something for every fan out there,” Maddalena said. “If there’s something you’ve been after or a moment in the show at any different level, we probably have it in the auction.”

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Many fans are likely to be priced out of owning many of these items, but Maddalena said he feels the catalog is accessible to fans and that some items could sell for as low as $500.

“If you want some dragonglass, it’s there. If you want one of Dany’s [dragon] eggs, they’re there. We have little baby dragons,” Maddalena said. “I just think it’s so accessible for everybody.”

Fans can bid on items right here. The auction is scheduled for Oct. 10-12.

The radio version of this story was written by Lisa Thomson and produced by Nina Kravinsky. The digital was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.

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Actor and beloved baritone James Earl Jones dies at 93

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Actor and beloved baritone James Earl Jones dies at 93

James Earl Jones, pictured here in 2014, followed in the footsteps of actors like Sidney Poitier, Paul Robeson and Canada Lee, all of whom refused to be limited by stereotypical roles.

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James Earl Jones, pictured here in 2014, followed in the footsteps of actors like Sidney Poitier, Paul Robeson and Canada Lee, all of whom refused to be limited by stereotypical roles.

James Earl Jones, pictured here in 2014, followed in the footsteps of actors like Sidney Poitier, Paul Robeson and Canada Lee, all of whom refused to be limited by stereotypical roles.

Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post/Getty Images

One of America’s most beloved actors, James Earl Jones, died Monday at age 93. He was at home in Dutchess County, N.Y. surrounded by his family, his longtime agent Barry McPherson confirmed to NPR.

In addition to an illustrious stage career — which included roles in classics like Macbeth, Othello and The Iceman Cometh — Jones also had an extensive film career, appearing in Dr. Strangelove, Field of Dreams, and The Hunt for Red October. He voiced Mufasa in The Lion King, and as Darth Vader, he delivered the line that still sends shivers up the spines of Star Wars fans: “I am your father.”

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James Earl Jones was born on Jan. 17, 1931, in Arkabutla, Miss. He was raised by his grandparents. When he was 5 years old, the family moved to a rural farm in Dublin, Mich. Jones said the move so traumatized him that he developed a severe stutter that continued until he was in high school.

“I was able to function as a farm kid, doing all those chores where you call animals,” he told WHYY’s Fresh Air in 1993, “and I certainly let the family know what my needs were. But when strangers came to the house, the mute happened. I didn’t want to confront them and I wasn’t ready. I hid in a state of muteness.”

Then a high school teacher found a way to help: “He one day discovered that I wrote poetry and he said to me, ‘This poem is so good I can’t believe you wrote it. The way you can prove it to me is to get up in front of the class and recite it by heart.’ And I accepted the challenge and did it, and we both realized we had a means — we had a way of regaining the power of speech through poetry.”

And what a power it was. Jones’ baritone came complete with its own echo chamber. His voice became one of the most instantly recognizable in entertainment history.

Everything about him was big: his commanding stage presence, the intensity of his glance and his brilliance at his chosen craft. Woodie King Jr. is founder of New York’s New Federal Theater, which has been producing shows by and about African-Americans throughout its history. He first became aware of Jones in the early 1960s.

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“I was a young aspiring actor who had come into New York and he had all the elements of acting — physicality, vocal range, psychically in tune with what was going on,” King says. “And I wanted to be that kind of artist who had that kind of freedom with his instrument.”

King saw Jones’ critically acclaimed performance in a 1961 production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks. He also worked with Jones in a 1968 Broadway production of Howard Sackler’s The Great White Hope, based on the life of champion black boxer Jack Johnson.

“It was an unbelievable kind of performance,” King recalled. “It was an amazing metamorphosis, watching him transform himself into this vicious boxer.”

 Muhammad Ali, (left) spars with Jones, then the star of The Great White Hope, in 1969.

Muhammad Ali, (left) spars with Jones, then the star of The Great White Hope, in 1969.

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 Muhammad Ali, (left) spars with Jones, then the star of The Great White Hope, in 1969.

Muhammad Ali, (left) spars with Jones, then the star of The Great White Hope, in 1969.

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Jones won a Tony for that role, as well as an Oscar nomination for the 1970 film adaptation, and he won a second Tony in 1987 for his role in August Wilson’s Fences.

His first film role was as bombardier Lothar Zogg in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove. In 1972’s The Man, Jones played the first black president; in the 1974 black classic Claudine, he played a garbage man who charms a date out of a welfare mom; and in 1989’s Field of Dreams, he explained why people would care about a baseball diamond in an Iowa cornfield. Jones has said that one of his favorite roles was that of the South African reverend in Cry, the Beloved Country.

Jones’ voice has pervaded pop culture: He’s the voice of CNN and Verizon, and even showed up on a few episodes of The Simpsons, which managed to kid the actor about his kaleidoscopic work in one fell swoop.

In his conversation with Fresh Air, Jones remembered the beginning of his voice-over career with amusement. “I think the first commercials I did … they asked me to ‘just give us the sound of God.’ … They were not embarrassed about saying that.”

Jones takes a bow after his final performance in Broadway's You Can't Take It With You in 2015.

Jones takes a bow after his final performance in Broadway’s You Can’t Take It With You in 2015.

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New Federal Theater’s Woodie King said Jones was a warm, somewhat shy man who was a powerful artist. He followed in the footsteps of actors like Sidney Poitier, Paul Robeson and Canada Lee, all of whom refused to be limited by the old stereotypical roles of butlers or buffoons. Jones saw theater as a place for all people.

“What you have is a master craftsman at work,” King said. “He makes young people aware of the vast possibilities of this business when you are a craftsman. … The Broadway stage sees him as really colorless — not black or white, but a brilliant artist.”

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'By Natives, for Natives': This new L.A. hub is drawing in the young, artsy and Indigenous

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'By Natives, for Natives': This new L.A. hub is drawing in the young, artsy and Indigenous

On a sweltering July afternoon in Echo Park, Miranda Due approached a table topped with a trio of flavored syrups and a spread of toppings: diced pickles, Kool-aid powder and gummy bears. Behind it, Dria Yellowhair pulled a pre-filled cup of crushed ice from a cooler, and asked Due what flavor she wanted. Upon requesting blueberry, Yellowhair doused the ice with fluorescent blue syrup and loaded the treat with a generous serving of each fixing.

Piccadilly — an icy, sweet treat that includes pickles, gummy bears and topping of Kool-Aid powder — served at a recent Chapter House event in Echo Park.

(Katie Janss)

This was Due’s first piccadilly, a delicacy whose origins are debated, but can be traced to either the Navajo, the Tohono O’odham Reservation, or the Hopi village Moenkopi. Wherever they came from, they exploded in popularity on the Navajo reservation around 2018. Yellowhair, who is Diné — the word Navajo people use to identify themselves — grew up in Downey, but has family on the reservation and visits frequently. She was introducing the sweet treat to visitors at a new Indigenous community center and exhibition space called the Chapter House.

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After taking a bite, Due contemplated the flavor.

“It’s sweet, and a little bit sour, and salty from the pickles,” she said. “It’s a nice combination of all the flavors. It’s fantastic.”

Due, 31, is Cherokee and a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. The nonprofit worker, who lived in Los Angeles for five years before moving to Tulsa, couldn’t miss an opportunity to check out the Chapter House on her latest visit to California.

The teal building is located on a noisy stretch of Glendale Boulevard just off the 2 Freeway. In its front room you can find the center’s summer art exhibition, “Diary of a Native Femme(nist)” by artist Kimberly Robertson. But it’s the building’s tranquil, shaded outdoor space out back where most community gatherings take place. The day I visited, about a dozen Indigenous Angelenos compared the colors of their tongues, newly dyed blue and red from their piccadilly syrup, as music from native bands like Redbone and The Halluci Nation drowned out the cityscape. A gaggle of small children waved bubble wands and ran circles around a kid-sized, Barbie-pink Cybertruck.

A May 6 exhibition opening at the Chapter House.

A May 6 exhibition opening at the Chapter House. The building’s tranquil, shaded back outdoor space is where most community gatherings take place.

(Anthony Chase In Winter)

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A group photo from the Chapter House's recent summer art exhibition, "Diary of a Native Femme(nist)."

A group photo from the opening of the Chapter House’s most recent art exhibition, “Diary of a Native Femme(nist),” including artist Kimberly Robertson, center, and Chapter House founder Emma Robbins (Diné), right.

(Anthony Chase In Winter)

“I went to school out here for a while, and I was always hoping for more community,” Due said. “I think it really came to life once I left town.”

Nearly 400,000 people in Los Angeles County identify as partly American Indian or Alaskan Native, according to the 2020 census. That makes it one of the largest urban Indigenous populations in the nation.

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“We’re all unique, and we’re all from different tribes, different nations, but we all were craving the space to come together, recharge and heal.”

— Emma Robbins, Chapter House founder

Despite this, Chapter House founder Emma Robbins (Diné) says there are very few places for the Indigenous to gather socially in the city. The Gabrielino/Tongva people, the original people of Los Angeles, are not yet a federally recognized tribe, and therefore do not have a reservation nearby that could function as a centralized hub.

Before the Chapter House opened, Indigenous Angelenos would see each other at a handful of annual events at the Autry Museum of the American West, like the powwow hosted by the nonprofit United American Indian Involvement. UAII also provides social services for the urban native population, and community members would sometimes bump into acquaintances while waiting for a doctor’s appointment at the clinic. But the events at the Autry were too infrequent to nurture a sense of belonging. And other Indigenous L.A. residents interviewed for this story said that they found it too awkward to connect in the UAII’s waiting room..

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For the record:

11:49 a.m. Sept. 9, 2024The sentiment that it was awkward to connect in the USII’s waiting room was incorrectly attributed to Emma Robbins. Other Indigenous L.A. residents, including Joey Clift, shared this view.

Though UAII also offers community programming for families, youth and elders, there aren’t as many events geared towards young, creative natives. To fill this gap, Robbins sought to create a casual, artistic community space with year-round programming.

The Chapter House was founded virtually in 2020 by Robbins, who grew up on the Navajo Reservation, which sprawls across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. There, the center of social life takes place at so-called chapter houses, community centers unique to the Navajo nation. They are where people distribute food and water, facilitate town halls, see art, experience cultural celebrations, throw parties and hold funerals. 110 chapter houses are distributed across the reservation, and Robbins jokes that the Los Angeles Chapter House, which opened its physical space in the fall of 2023, is the 111th.

“Navajo rez is what I know,” Robbins said. “But I think working with California natives — specifically Tongva and Chumash folks from the area — is really important because, although we are Navajo or Diné-led, it’s important to be inclusive of all Natives.”

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Emma Robbins points to a town on the Navajo Nation map.

Emma Robbins points to a town on the Navajo Nation map during community “Refresh Day” to help touch up the space.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

“We’re all unique, and we’re all from different tribes, different nations, but we all were craving the space to come together, recharge and heal,” Robbins said. “We also bring things to our community that we might not historically have had access to, like art shows, or yoga classes or even just good Wi-Fi,” Robbins said.

Robbins founded the Chapter House on four pillars: wellness, community, art and nature. In addition to the frequent piccadilly socials, they’ve held events like a Métis (Michif) finger weaving lesson, plant medicine workshops, screenings of the new seasons of Netflix’s Indigenous-forward animated children’s show “Spirit Rangers” and drag story hour with Landa Lakes (Chickasaw) and Lady Shug (Diné.)

Joey Clift, a Cowlitz comedian and television writer, first discovered the Chapter House in July 2023 through a bolo tie-making workshop, which helped him transform a hand-beaded Garfield medallion, made by Cree beadworker Sweet Grass by Heather, into something he could wear.

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I feel like I don’t have to try to be something that I’m not. We all uplift each other, and inspire each other, and help each other.

— Burgandi Trejo Phoenix, Yaqui actress and Chapter House visitor

He said the Chapter House reminded him of a bygone era of 1930s Hollywood that he had read about, in which the Indian American Art Shop, located across the street from the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, was the unofficial hang out spot for Native American actors like Jim Thorpe, member of the Sac and Fox Nation, and a gold medalist Olympian turned Western star. Until Clift found the Chapter House, he could only dream of these spaces from the past. Clift would go on to join the community center’s board, with hopes to reignite the young Indigenous creative scene.

“I think that there are a lot of really great spaces for elders in Los Angeles to participate in and practice culture,” Clift, 40, said. “But I don’t feel like there are a lot of spaces for Native millennials and zoomers. That’s something that really excited me about the Chapter House. It’s for all ages, but it really does feel like it’s on the pulse of the really great artistic gains that Native folks are doing now.”

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Alyssa Musket, right, looks through directions to build a cabinet as she receives help from Pinon "Pinny" Robbins.

Alyssa Musket, right, looks through directions to build a cabinet as she receives help from Piñon “Pinny” Robbins, left, during community “Refresh Day.”

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

A visitor viewing an art exhibition by Kimberly Robertson at the Chapter House.

A visitor views “Diary of a Native Femme(nist),” an art exhibition by Kimberly Robertson that opened at the Chapter House on May 4th.

(Anthony Chase In Winter)

The space also is helping young Indigenous people connect to their culture for the first time. Burgandi Trejo Phoenix, an Yaqui actress who voices a character named Squash in “Spirit Rangers,” first connected with the Chapter House when it screened the Season 4 finale of the kids show in April. She immediately felt embraced by the community, even though she wasn’t brought up with her Yaqui traditions.

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“I feel like I don’t have to try to be something that I’m not,” Phoenix said. “We all uplift each other, and inspire each other, and help each other.”

Through promoting events at UAII, on Instagram and through word of mouth, Chapter House is building a loyal following. Their events, which are always free and open to the public, regularly attract around 20 to 25 people — but 200 packed the house for the La La Land Back Tour drag show they co-hosted last November. While most people who come identify as Indigenous, Robbins emphasizes that the Chapter House is welcoming of allies, too.

“This is definitely a Native space by Natives for Natives,” Robbins said, “We want people to come, learn, and experience what it’s like when we come together and build this beautiful Indigenous future.”

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