The Chibok Project

Angela Fremont at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts this week working on one of her sculptures honoring the kidnapped girls of Chibok School in northeast Nigeria.

Artist and NYC Public School Teacher Angela Fremont

I recently met artist and New York City public school teacher Angela Fremont of the Chibok Project at a Kensuke Yamada figure making ceramics workshop that we both attended--she informed the group on the first day that she explicity came to the workshop just to learn how to make legs. I thought that was curious so I went up to her afterwards and asked her why. This is her story:

April 14th was the ninth anniversary of the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by the Boko Haram terrorist group in northeast Nigeria. Some of the girls have since been returned to their home village but 96 still remain missing. This horrific event struck a deep chord in sculptor Fremont. She has since dedicated a lot of her life to reminding the world and calling attention to this tragedy, honoring their trauma by creating an exhibit of 276 sculptures of these school girls (torsos and heads only--hence the need to learn how to construct legs...).

The aim of her Chibok Project is to raise consciousness about the ongoing insurgency of Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria and global violence against women and girls in general. Since she began the project, she has raised over $15,000 to go to partner local domestic violence agencies on the ground in Nigeria. Click here to learn more and to donate.

Joan Baez

Joan Baez interviewed on the Stephen Colbert Show

Joan Baez’s new book Am I Pretty When I Fly

Last week I celebrated one of my musical heroes growing up, Joni Mitchell. This week I decided to pick another one, the great Joan Baez. She happened to be in the news this week as she ran into Justine Jones and Gloria Johnson, two of the Tennessee 3, at the Nashville International Airport while on a book tour for her new book Am I Prertty When I Fly. They ended singing together one of the most famous protest songs of the time: We Shall Overcome....Here are a few of my other favorites sang by Baez: Diamonds and Rust, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Forever Young and Guantanamera.

Enjoy the Kennedy Center's tribute to Joan Baez as well...

"There Will Come Soft Rains"
by Sara Teasdale

"There Will Come Soft Rains"
by Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Charity of the Week:
Save the Children

Painting of the Week

Boycott Walgreens

Walgreens confirmed to Politico last week it would not sell or ship mifepristone, which is used to terminate a pregnancy, in at least 21 states after Republican attorneys general had sent requests for the pharmacy not to—including in some states where abortion remains legal, such as Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Montana.

Walgreens is coming under an increasing amount of scrutiny and a boycott of all their stores (including Duane Reade) has been called. Boycotts are a very effective tool and I hope you will consider staying away until they decide to reverse their policy.

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing 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 and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.