In Honor of Women’s History Month March 2021. This 7 foot tall bronze statue was just erected in Ginsburg’s native Brooklyn, New York. Created by artists Gillie and Marc, Ginsburg herself consulted with the artists on it before her death.
three things we love
Joe Feingold and Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls student Brianna Perez
Recipients of the instrument drive
This sweet little documentary, Joe's Violin, had me crying (in a good way) almost from the moment it started…This touching story begins with an old man, his violin and his memories of what music meant to him growing up in war torn Europe. Years later, in New York City, responding to an instrument drive run by the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation (inspired by the movie Mr. Holland's Opus) he decided to donate a violin his fingers could no longer maneuver. It is amazing how this simple act transformed his life and that of the recipient of his instrument and her school, the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls in New York City. As usual, there is an amazing teacher behind this too...Kokoe Tanaka-Suwan, was nationally recognized as a nominee for the prestigious Music Educator Grammy Award in 2020.
Poet Naomi Shihab Nye born to a Palestinian Father and American mother
The poet, Naomi Shihab Nye was featured and interviewed last week on Krista Tippett's podcast On Being. This particular poem struck a cord with me. If you would like to hear the poet read it aloud to you, click here. Or just read it below on your own.
KINDNESS
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Listen
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
To hear Naomi Shihab Nye talk more about her work, click here
Couldn't be more excited to present to you this amazing book of photographs of the peoples of the Omo Valley taken by the esteemed German photographer Hans Silvester. I have looked at this book Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration From Africa countless times over the years (it was published in 2008) and it never ceases to get my heart pounding with sheer excitement at such beauty! The Surma and Mursi tribes, located where the lands of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan meet, paint and adorn themselves and each other in the most aesthetically exciting and artistically creative ways--carrying on a tradition of their people that has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Using natural pigments found in their environment, this body painting is one of the most incredible uses of natural elements in fashion and art but also has its roots in practicality by protecting against the sun, acting as an insect repellent and warding off evil. Thanks to anneofcarversville.com, who is as fascinated as I am with this book, here is a compilation of quotes from Silvester himself, describing his twelve trips to that area and some of the things he learned about these nomadic people and their amazing bodyart.
painting of the week
Signs of Spring 1-3 mixed media/ledger paper (from a Texas general store in 1929!), 27 1/2 x 19 3/4” each, $1500/panel, $3800/set of 3”
Self Portrait going grey in the time of Covid…
About The Author
New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow created the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her, check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.