Waldo Theater Screens Truth Tellers
Waldo Theater, in Waldoboro, Maine. is featuring a Maine Artist Series this summer. The second film in the series, on July 20 at 7 p.m., is Truth Tellers, chronicling the lives of Americans fighting for peace, racial equity, environmental justice and indigenous rights through the eyes of Robert Shetterly, a long time activist and artist.
What defines a great American? For artist/activist Robert Shetterly, it’s a citizen who courageously confronts issues of social, environmental and economic fairness. Shetterly has painted 270 portraits of such Americans, past and present, with a quote inscribed into the dark background. These Americans Who Tell the Truth have been exhibited throughout the United States for almost two decades.
Truth Tellers is both a story of Shetterly’s art and activism and a history lesson in what it means to be a citizen of a democracy. In bringing Shetterly’s message to a wide audience, Truth Tellers aims to spark a national conversation on truth telling.
Shetterly’s subjects include contemporary activists for racial and indigenous justice Zyahna Bryant, Reggie Harris, Maulian Dana, Sherri Mitchell, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and climate activists Bill McKibben, Kelsey Juliana, and Bill Bigelow. Shetterly’s portraits place them in the context of our great civil rights leaders John Lewis, Frederick Douglass, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bayard Rustin, Sojourner Truth and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. .
Shetterly will attend the event, along with a sampling of his portraits, to present the film and answer questions.
