Author’s note: I wrote this piece when I was painting John Brown’s portrait back in 2012. It was my attempt to sort out the complex aspects of his character and clarify my attraction to legacy, my admiration for his fierce courage and commitment despite his darker reputation. Once the portrait was completed, I set these […]
The justification for erasing America’s historic injustices, claiming that knowing them causes kids to feel guilt or shame, is a high priority for our current right wing government. Trump and his ilk make this sound like a noble cause—protecting kids from carrying the factual and emotional burdens of history. Think how much more uncomplicated and […]
“. . . an act of cruelty . . . was the ancient irresistible rejoicing of power over weakness.” – Tony Hoagland “You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test […]
The John Brown Lives! organization is hosting an outdoor exhibit of AWTT portrait reprints, from July 17 through October 31, 2025 at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site, Lake Placid New York.
The organization John Brown Lives! will be hosting a dinner at 5 p.m. on August 2, 2025, with AWTT artist Robert Shetterly, in conversation with musician and AWTT portrait subject Reggie Harris and activist writer Eleanor Stern.
Surry Arts and Events at the Barn will host AWTT Robert Shetterly for a talk and discussion on Sunday, July 27, 2025 at 4 p.m.
I intended to write about immigrants. About our government’s demonization of immigrants. About the reasons people flee their homes, abandon their extended families and communities, take enormous risks and suffer humiliating hardships to get to some safer and healthier place. I wanted to talk about some of the people in this portrait collection who are from immigrant families—like Dr. […]
The organization John Brown Lives! is co-sponsoring an event at the John Brown Homestead on the afternoon of July 17, 2025. Reprints of twenty-five Americans Who Tell the Truth portraits will be featured. The opening of the AWTT art installation, including John Lewis‘s portrait, will take place from 3 -4 p.m., followed by a march […]
Some people use a recording of rain’s soothing white noise to put themselves to sleep. I like to be woken up by the real thing. My house is surrounded by old red oaks and on a warm, quiet night—the windows wide—a sudden downpour startles me happily awake, the oak leaves twitching and twittering like a million […]
Yesterday afternoon, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., 17 men and women dressed all in black, stood in a line on the street in the little village of Blue Hill, Maine. Each of us held an empty pot, open end toward the road, and a wooden spoon. We were bearing witness to the starvation in Gaza enforced by […]