Art

Talk Nation Radio: Robert Shetterly's Portraits of Americans Who Tell the Truth

Robert Shetterly is a painter who is producing a collection of portraits (currently 190 of them) of “Americans Who Tell the Truth.”  He discusses the selection of subjects, and the reception the collection has been receiving around the country, the educational and activism possibilities.  For more see http://americanswhotellthetruth.org

Total run time: 29:00

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New Book for Ages 6 to 10: Tube World

Tube World is the first children’s book by David Swanson, author of several nonfiction adult books. The illustrations for Tube World are by Shane Burke.

Parents: Have your kids been tired in the morning?  Have you found wet bathing suits in their beds?  Do they know things about far-away places that you didn’t teach them and they didn’t learn in school?  Do children visiting your town from halfway around the world always seem to be friends read more

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City on the Ledge

I just read a terrific novel set in contemporary Quito, Ecuador, with the main characters employees of the U.S. State Department and the CIA.

This is not an easy one to write about without spoiling the plot.  Let me just say that it’s politically and psychologically insightful.  It doesn’t simplify or glorify.  It doesn’t beautify or brutalize human behavior.  And you will find yourself trusting that it’s going somewhere good, but you will not be able read more

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You Mean Muslims Make Art?

When Jesus used a good Samaritan to explain the need to appreciate foreigners, he can be forgiven for not having known that so many Samaritans would later convert to Islam.  It’s not as if he was omniscient or something!  And think of how much he’s forgiven us.  Nonetheless, since we can’t reasonably be expected to appreciate Muslims — at least not while we’re teaching young people that Muslims deserve genocide read more

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Painted Torture

You walk into a large, bright gallery full of large colorful portraits, portraits of men.  They are fairly ordinary looking men.  They could be from Western Asia or the “Middle East.” 

You approach one and look at him for an instant.  He looks normal, relaxed, almost expressionless, certainly expressing no very strong emotion. 

Before you can look long, your eyes are drawn to the curving lines of words swirling around the canvas like leaves in water.  You read more

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New York Events Free to LetsTryDemocracy Supporters

Until our supply of tickets runs out, anyone who donates $10 or more per ticket will get their name on a list to get into these amazing events in New York City.  Just donate and we’ll contact you to confirm:

Both events are at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College, 899 Tenth Ave., NYC.

The Guantanamo Lawyers’ Panel
Thursday, September 8 at 5pm in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater lobby

This panel of lawyers who represent Guantanamo and read more

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Another Life Focuses This One

Brilliant and humane playwright Karen Malpede has produced another play that grabs this country by the lapels, shakes it, caresses its cheek, and kicks its ass. The play is called “Another Life” and the life it leaves me thinking about is the life of our dreams.

The play is not so much a national nightmare or a national fantasy as a surreal reproduction of the mixture of horrors and hopes that most dreaming is: the most gruesome and graphic and taboo of our collective fears without read more

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