Blue Hill Books and WERU Community Radio will co-sponsor a book signing event for Americans Who Tell the Truth’s new volume Portraits of Earth Justice on Thursday, October 6th, at The Bay School in Blue Hill, Maine.

This local gathering will feature a panel discussion led by AWTT artist Robert Shetterly, in conversation with environmental activists Steven Donziger,  Florence Reed and Tim DeChristopher – whose portraits are featured in the book.  This will be a rare opportunity to hear from Donzinger about his dramatic journey from top-tier environmental lawyer, to corporate victim, prisoner, and cult figure. Florence Reed will update us on her critical international work with farmers, and DeChristropher will discuss his latest work as a disrupter.  All three will be available for book signing.  Sherri Mitchell, who appeared in Shetterly’s earlier book Portraits of Racial Justice and is a familiar favorite with Maine audiences, will round out the panel.

AWTT will also honor local retired minister and environmental champion Rob McCall (also featured in the book). Author of Awanadjo Almanack, McCall in known for his memorable quotes: “Around here the spirits of the town are mostly Christian. But the spirits of the forests are Algonquin; the spirits of the snow and ice are Inuit; the spirits of the mountains are Buddhist; the spirits of the big trees, rocks and waterfalls are Shinto; the spirits of the animals are Neolithic; the spirits of the bays and islands are Celtic, Druid and Pagan.  If you stay in town, Christianity might be all you need. But if you wander far out beyond the town, Christianity may not be enough.”

Publisher New Village Press describes Portraits of Earth Justice:

“This second volume in the Americans Who Tell the Truth series features Robert Shetterly’s magnificent color portraits and profiles of fifty environmental and climate activists—people who diagnose the truth of the greatest crisis humanity has ever confronted and take action. The book also features original essays by revered environmentalists Bill McKibben, Leah Penniman, Diane Wilson, Bill Bigelow, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, whose words illuminate the plight and its causes, and point a way forward.

Along with the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the institution of slavery, the third tragic and persistent mistake of the leaders of this country was to attempt to separate economic and political culture from the laws of nature—to operate on the basis that nature could be exploited endlessly for profit. The damage done to the Earth and to the future of life on the planet is incalculable. The people portrayed here have bought warnings, offered solutions, and organized movements to restore ecological sanity.”

Praise for Portraits of Earth Justice:

“Americans Who Tell the Truth offers much-needed rays of hope in times made dark by the climate crisis and deep inequality. It provides uplifting portraits, both verbal and pictorial, of courageous activists who have devoted their lives to the fight for climate justice.”

~David M. Driesen, University Professor, Syracuse University College of Law; author, The Specter of Dictatorship

“Portraits of Earth Justice illuminates the humanity of forward-thinking advocates taking critical bold actions on the challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis. At a time when democracy and the very life support systems of humanity are threatened, let these beautiful faces and works inspire you to keep rising up, or rise up for the first time, to preserve our rights and this beautiful and sustaining planet for all of our children and future generations.”

~Julia Olson, Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel, Our Children’s Trust

Through Robert Shetterly’s masterful portraits of brilliant women and men activists in the work of doing justice to the soil and the plants and animals we need to nurture, and through their passionate essays imploring us to cherish instead of despoil the only Earth we have, this book empowers us. Like the words of Sandra Steingraber inscribed in her portrait, ‘We are all musicians in a great human orchestra, and it is now time to play the Save the World Symphony.'”

~Peter Davis, Academy Award winning filmmaker, author of Girl of My Dreams

“It is rare that you come across a book as stunningly impactful as Portraits of Earth Justice. The essays by this diverse cast of environmental protagonists are riveting and Rob Shetterly’s portraits of people who love and care for the earth are piercing in their beauty and depth of character. I can’t think of a better way to move people, particularly young people, from despair about the climate crisis to empowerment and inspiration than sharing this gift to Mother Earth
that Rob Shetterly has created.”

~Medea Benjamin, author and cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace