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Vera William and Sienna Paley
DeeDee:
Sad news that Vera Williams, peace activist, educational visionary, artist, children’s book writer and illustrator died peacefully right after having a retrospective exhibition at the Delaware County Art Gallery. Vera was one of the founders of the “Land” - Gate Hill Co-op where I lived for five years in Rockland County. Her partner Paul was the collaborating architect for the homes-one of the first experiments in “artists housing.” Vera founded the Collaberg School, patterned after Paul Goodman and A. S. Neill. Her many children’s picture books have won every prize for that genre. Vera loved to dance at the Golden Festival.
My four children and eight grandchildren grew up on her books. More More More. Vera kept making them more and more beautiful.
I had a note on FB from Craig Simpson asking if I had any word on the death of Vera Williams. I am very sad to report, having checked the internet, that this giant in the pacifist and women's movement, long associated with War Resisters League,died on October 16th. She was born on January 25, 1927.
Vera was one of my favorite people, along with Grace Paley and others who lived in the West Village, and made up (along with Karl Bissinger and others) the Greenwich Village Peace Center.
 Vera and Grace collaborated on one of the annual War Resisters League Calendars, which was also made into a book of poems and short stories. Publishers’ Weekly Obit: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/68426-obituary-vera-b-williams.html There is a book about education with the history of Collaburg School with many quotes from Vera… thoughtful quotes about education, responsibility of adults for children’s safety, children and sex and many other things. It’s called Where have all the Flowers Gone by Alice Gerard. Obituary in the New York Times:
Vera B. Williams, a writer and illustrator for young people whose picture books centered on the lives of working-class families, a highly unusual subject when she began her work in the 1970s, died on Friday at her home in Narrowsburg, N.Y. She was 88.
Her death was announced by her publisher, HarperCollins.
Ms. Williams, who did not start her career until she was in her late 40s, used picture books to express her lifelong interest in social justice issues. Her young protagonists are ethnically diverse, typically urban, often immigrants and rarely well heeled; fathers may be absent. Her inspiration, Ms. Williams said in interviews, came from her own background as the daughter of an immigrant family struggling to stay afloat in the Depression.
Her texts emphasize the joie de vivre of ordinary activities — flying a kite, making music, eating a meal — especially when carried out amid the comforting confines of a community. Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.
Her best-known picture book, “A Chair for My Mother” (1982), stars Rosa, a Hispanic girl living in the United States. After the family loses its possessions in a house fire, Rosa saves money to buy her mother a comfortable chair in which she can relax after her shift waiting tables.
For its illustrations, “A Chair for My Mother” was named a Caldecott Honor Book, as the runners-up for the Caldecott Medal, presented annually by the American Library Association, are designated.
Rosa returns in two sequels: “Something Special for Me” (1983), in which she must reconcile the desire to buy herself a present with the wish to help her community, and “Music, Music for Everyone” (1984), in which the present she wound up buying pays unexpected dividends.
The daughter of Albert Baker and the former Rebecca Porringer, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Vera Baker was born in Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 1927. When she was a child, her father disappeared for a considerable period; as an adult, Ms. Williams surmised that he had been in prison, though she never learned the details.
She recapitulated that experience in a picture book, “Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart” (2001), about two resourceful sisters who mark time until their incarcerated father comes home.
During the Depression, the Bakers lost their home; Vera and her sister, Naomi, were sent for about a year to a home for Jewish children. After the girls and their father rejoined the family, they moved to the Bronx.
Ms. Williams graduated from the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic arts from Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where her teachers included the painter Josef Albers.
In the 1970s, after her marriage to a Black Mountain classmate, Paul Williams, ended in divorce, Ms. Williams moved to a houseboat in Vancouver, British Columbia. There she began to illustrate children’s books: Her first, “Hooray for Me!,” with text by Remy Charlip and Lilian Moore, appeared in 1975.
In addition to her home in Narrowsburg, which lies along the Delaware River in Sullivan County, Ms. Williams had another, in Manhattan. She is survived by two daughters, Sarah Williams and Jennifer Williams; a son, Merce, named for the choreographer Merce Cunningham, who taught at Black Mountain; her sister, Naomi Rosenblum; and five grandchildren.
The other picture books for which she did both text and illustrations include “ ‘More More More’ Said the Baby” (1990), also a Caldecott Honor Book; “Cherries and Cherry Pits” (1986); “Lucky Song” (1997); and “Scooter” (1993), a novel for older children.
Ms. Williams also illustrated “Long Walks and Intimate Talks,” a volume of poetry and stories by Grace Paley, published in 1991.
Long active in antiwar, antinuclear and environmental causes, Ms. Williams was a past member of the executive committee of the War Resisters League. In 1981, after being arrested during a women’s blockade of the Pentagon, she served a month in the federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va.
In an interview quoted in the reference work Contemporary Authors, Ms. Williams described what was, for her, the indissoluble link between creative work and political activity.
“I don’t make a point of ending up in jail,” she said. “But if you try to put your hopes and beliefs for a better life into effect, arrest is sometimes a hazard.”
She added: “As a person who works for children, who raised three children ... I have to be able to say I did something to try to save our planet from destruction.”
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Monday, October 19, 2015
Vera Williams, Grace’s friend and collaborator has passed away
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
The Overtakelessness Circus 2015
Bread and Puppet honored Emily Dickenson this year. Every year there is a writer who somehow is worked into the presentations. I recall Marx, Ernst Bloch, Marcuse and others. Of course Grace was often honored by Peter Schumann, but as far as I know, this is only the second woman who has been thus featured.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Women Organizing for Peace in the Philippines
| Speech delivered as a part of Women Cross the DMZ events at the Women's Peace Symposium on May 26, 2015, in Seoul, Korea. | |||
Lisa Maza speaking at Women Cross the DMZ walk in Pyongyang, North Korea with 7,000 North Korean women, Niana Liu ,
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| Greetings of peace to all especially to the courageous and joyous women who are gathered here today calling for Peace and Reunification of Korea! Let me also convey to you the warm wishes of solidarity from GABRIELA Philippines and the International Women's Alliance (IWA), a global alliance of grassroots women's organizations. I am honored to speak before you today to share the experiences of Filipino women in organizing for peace in my country. I have been with the parliament of the state as representative of the Gabriela Women’s Party to the Philippine Congress for nine years and in the parliament of the streets as a feminist activist of the GABRIELA Women’s Coalition for half my lifetime. I will talk about the work of peace building of my organization, GABRIELA. Having been colonized by Spain for 300 years, by the US for more than 40 years and occupied by Japan during WWII, the Filipino people have a long history of struggle for peace that is inextricably linked to the struggle for national sovereignty, social justice and genuine freedom. The Filipino women were at the forefront of these struggles and played important and leading roles. Despite formal independence in 1946, our country remains a neo-colony of the US. The US still dominates our economic, political, and socio-cultural life. One of the most telling manifestations of such control was the US occupation for almost a century of our prime lands to maintain its military facilities including two of its largest military bases outside its territory - the Subic Bay Naval base and the Clark Air base. These bases served as springboard for US interventionist war in Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. The sites of these US bases became haven for the 'rest and recreation' industry where women and children's bodies were sold in prostitution for a price of a hamburger; where women were viewed as mere sex objects and the culture of violence against women pervaded; and where thousands of Amer-Asian children were left impoverished and abandoned by their American fathers. In addition to these social costs, the US has not owned up responsibility for cleaning up the toxic wastes left after the bases were removed in 1991 and for the health hazards these wastes continue to pose to the people in the community. And like in the camp towns in South Korea, innumerable cases of crimes including murder, rape and sexual abuse were committed with impunity by US troops with many of these cases not even reaching the courts. These compelling realities are the very reasons why we oppose the presence of US military bases and troops in the Philippines and beyond. We believe that there can never be long and lasting peace as long as we are under the control of the US or any other foreign power. And we cannot have a free and sovereign state with the presence of foreign troops on our land. The women brought into the anti-bases argument the discourse on the social costs of the bases and why the removal of the US bases and troops is important for women. GABRIELA, the biggest progressive alliance of women’s organizations in the Philippines which was organized in 1984 at the height of the anti-Marcos dictatorship movement brought the issue of prostitution of women around the base areas and the puppetry of the dictator to US interests. Marcos was deposed in a people power that became a model to the world. The Philippines subsequently passed the 1987 Constitution with clear provisions against the presence of foreign troops, bases and nuclear weapons on our soil. The historic Senate rejection of a new treaty that would extend the Military Bases Agreement with the United States beyond 1991 was another victory for women. Leading up to the Senate vote, women conducted massive information campaigns, held pickets, demonstrations, caravans, die-ins, lobby work and networking both locally and internationally to pressure the government to reject the treaty. The efforts of the women and the broad anti-bases movement finally led to the termination of the bases agreement. But our struggle continues. In flagrant violation of our Constitution, the US in collusion with the Philippine government was able to reassert its military presence through the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1998 and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement of 2014, agreements that are more dangerous than the previous agreement they replaced. These agreements allow the US military free and unhampered use of virtually the entire Philippines for its basing needs and for rapid forward deployment of its forces as part of the US pivot to Asia policy. This heightening US military presence is also happening here in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Australia among others. Filipino women at the grassroots - the rural and indigenous women, workers, youth and students, housewives, professionals, religious and other sectors continue to organize. The women are aware that massive poverty and hunger and the marginalization, discrimination and violence against women are intensified by the policies of imperialist globalization which is carried out, propped up and sustained by militarization and war. Furthermore, the policy of militarization and war diverts the much needed funds and resources that could have been used to create jobs for the 10 million unemployed and underemployed; to build homes for the 22 million homeless; to build school buildings, day care centers for children and crisis centers for women, and hospitals and health clinics in remote villages; to provide free education, health and reproductive care and other social services for the poor; and to develop our agriculture and industry. We build long and lasting peace that is based on social justice and where women participate in the process and not the peace based on silencing the poor and powerless that militarist and war \mongers do. In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to convey the Filipino women's solidarity with the women of Korea. Our fathers and brothers were also sent to fight the Korean War and our grandmothers and mothers were also victims and survivors as comfort women during the Japanese occupation. We share this memory of war and women's exploitation, oppression and abuse. But today we also affirm our collective memory of struggle against all these as we persist and continue to work for peace in both our countries, in our Asian region and the world. Liza Maza is a former Congresswoman representing Gabriela Women’s Party to the Philippine House of Representatives, and Chairperson of the International Women’s Alliance (IWA). She has been a key part of GABRIELA’s Purple Rose Campaign, a global campaign to end sex trafficking in Filipino women and children. | |||
Monday, June 1, 2015
Scientist Tried to Reproduce his Abuela’s mole
Scientist’s quest to reproduce abuela’s mole recipe ends in failure
(PNS reporting from RIVERSIDE) After a decade-long quest to duplicate his Oaxacan abuela’s mole poblano recipe, UC Riverside food scientist Miguel Jimenez, 33, declared defeat Sunday.
Microbologist Jimenez had hoped to identify the ingredients in the mysterious chocolate chile sauce his abuela puts on chicken.
“She won’t give anyone the recipe!” said Jimenez, as he kicked his chair and wiped away tears at UCR’s Chucheria Research Facility. “Abuelita just pinches my cheek and tells me to portarme bien and go to church more.”
Jimenez’s food obsession began when he was banned from entering his abuela’s kitchen – because he was a boy. His sisters and mom were free to snack on the foods and lick the spoon from the flan caramel, he said, but he was forced play outside. “Men have it so hard,” he sobbed. “Being a woman must be so fun.”
From then on, Jimenez was determined to recreate all his grandma’s recipes and, he realized recently, publish them on Instagram — with no filters.
He knew the sauce traditionally contains peanuts, chile ancho, almonds, cilantro, onions and chocolate, but the other, mystery ingredients in the receta haunted his dreams, and soon turned into a waking nightmare.
“There have been rumors of other herbs and spices, unusual nuts and legacy varietal verduras y berries,” Jimenez said, lying on the floor in the fetal position. “My tia said there’s Gatorade in there. A nephew said goat milk.”
Colleagues at Jimenez’ research facility first became concerned after they saw him threatening a viejita on Skype.
“Every scientist gets fixated on something once in a while,” colleague Roy Higgins told PNS between bites of chiles rellenos. “But Miguel is losing it over this recipe.”
Who made the chiles rellenos, then? Higgins said Jimenez’ grandmother had made them after declaring him to be a “bien chulo gringo.”
“Yo, I’ll take what I can get,” Higgins said, scarfing guacamole. “I don’t need to know what’s in this. I’m grateful for what I got.”
Grandma Doña Soledad Purisima sees no need to reveal her secret.
“A quien pinches le importa lo que le ponga a mi mole poblano! My Miguelito’s job is only to eat it,” she told PNS.
When Jimenez crawled under a table at the center’s cafeteria Friday, where he’d been eating Nutella cake, weeping and asking everyone who peaked underneath the table if they thought Nutella would be good in mole, concerned co-workers manhandled him into a car and drove him to his abuela’s house in Riverside’s Ramona neighborhood, where they deposited him in a heap on her front lawn.
When she saw him, her reaction was in character:
Ai yai yai! This boy is not worthy of the recipe!
POCHO ÑEWS SERVICE PNS IS A WHOLLY-FICTITIOUS SUBSIDIARY OF POCHISMO, INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, WHO IS A PERSON ACCORDING TO THE SUPREME COURT. DON’T ASK US, WE JUST WORK HERE.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Peace and Unity in Baltimore
From Julie Stecker:
I’ve seen a lot of frustrated posts ending in, "Stay classy, Baltimore." Today, during the march that led us from West #Baltimore to downtown, I witnessed true class. Peaceful protestors who followed the guidelines we were given, parents explaining to their children why we march and showing them firsthand that protests must be a part of any free society, and people looking out for one another's safety and security. A woman bumped into me by accident, apologized profusely, asked me my name, asked if I was from Baltimore, and thanked me for being there. When we were reading the guidelines that said what to do if you were wrestled to the ground, a man overheard us and said, "That's not going to happen to any of you on my watch." I experienced the most beautiful parts of the Baltimore community today. But the media that I love and respect will make the story about the people who showed up just to cause destruction and chaos. Do not forget the story of peace and unity that took over the streets of Baltimore today. Do not let destruction be the story we remember. #FreddieGray #JusticeForFreddieGray
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
GRADUATION OF THE GRACE PALEY ORGANIZING FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
The months of learning and community-building have flown by! This year's Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship is drawing to a close and on the evening of Sunday, May 3rd our extraordinary group of fellows will be graduating. It is a night to celebrate the fellows and their work, as well as the great tradition of Jewish community organizing they're entering.Please Save The Date and join us for a reception and graduation ceremony:
Sunday, May 3rd
7-9pm
Location tbd (Manhattan)
RSVP to leo@jfrej.org
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Mothers Demonstrate at Migrant Detention Center in Texas
Nadia Prupis April 2, 2015 Common Dreams
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| Demonstrators outside the Detention Center
About 40 women being held at the privately-run Karnes Family Detention Center in southern Texas launched a hunger strike this week to demand their release and the release of their families, vowing on Tuesday not to eat, work, or use the services at the facility until they are freed.
Nearly 80 women being held at the center, many of whom are said to be asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, signed a letter stating that they have all been refused bond despite having established a credible fear of violence if they are sent back to Central America—a key factor in the U.S. government's process for screening detained immigrants to allow them amnesty.
"We deserve to be treated with some dignity and that our rights, to the immigration process, are respected," the letter reads. "You should know that this is just the beginning and we will not stop [the hunger strike] until we achieve our goals. This strike will continue until each of us is freed."
The letter also states that many of the children held in the camp are losing weight and that their "health is deteriorating." Many of the families have been detained for as long as 10 months.
One woman, 26-year old Honduran mother Kenia Galeano, decried the center's treatment of the families in a phone interview with McClatchy on Tuesday. "We’re many mothers, not just me," she said. "We want freedom for our children. It’s not right to continue to detain us."
Galeano, who shares a room with three other mothers and their children, also said that her two-year-old son has become depressed and lost weight due to the culturally inappropriate food.
According to the letter, some of the mothers were also left behind in the detention center, while their children were granted bond. "We have come to this country, with our children, seeking refugee status and we are being treated like delinquents," the letter reads. "We are not delinquents nor do we pose any threat to this country."
Karnes, which is run by the private corrections company GEO Group, has come under fire in the past for its treatment of the children who are detained there, with reports of weight loss and forced separation from their mothers, but the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department has denied those allegations.
ICE also claimed it was unaware of any residents actually participating in the strike, saying in a statement on Wednesday that the agency "fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference, and all detainees, including those in family residential facilities such as Karnes, are permitted to do so."
It also said it was investigating claims that members of a nonprofit advocacy group encouraged the women to take part in the hunger strike—a charge which activists deny.
Cristina Parker, immigration programs director at the Texas-based immigrant rights group Grassroots Leadership, told the Guardian on Tuesday, "This is something that has been rippling through the centre almost since it opened. I don’t believe at all that they were coached into doing this."
According to Parker, the center is now blocking access to internet and telephone facilities for all of its detainees, regardless of whether they are participating in the hunger strike.
At least two women who signed the letter were also placed into isolation with their children in Karnes's clinic, leading about half of those who initially pledged to take part in the hunger strike to drop out, according to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
Johana De Leon, a legal assistant with the nonprofit, told McClatchy that other mothers were warned they could lose custody of their children if they participated.
In addition to its mistreatment of children, Karnes has also been accused of sexual misconduct by guards and denial of critical medical care for detainees, among other charges. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general reported in February that there was no evidence to support the allegations.
[Nadia Prupis is a Common Dreams staff writer.]
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Thursday, March 19, 2015
Symposium on Grace Paley at The New School
Grace Paley and the Disturbances of Man: Day 1
Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 10:00 am to 9:00 pm
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall55 West 13th Street, Room I202, New York, NY 10011
The MFA Creative Writing Program at The New School for Public Engagement and the Gender Studies program at The New School present a symposium on the life and work of legendary New York social activist, poet, short story writer, and feminist Grace Paley.
Paley fought for the rights of women and minorities and protested the Vietnam War and nuclear arms proliferation. It was in her extraordinary fictional stories of ordinary lives and through her grassroots activism that she changed the social and political landscape of her day.
This symposium pays homage to Grace Paley, exploring both her legacy and the complex ways her work still resonates today. The event includes a panel on her life and writings; readings by New School writing students; and a screening of Lilly Rivlin’s documentary, Grace Paley: Collected Shorts, followed by a conversation with the director. There will also be a screening of Peter Barton’s Women of ’69, Unboxed accompanied by a Class of 2015 Yearbox created by Parsons’ students. The symposium concludes with a walking tour of historically and culturally charged sites from Paley’s lifetime in Greenwich Village.
Grace Paley & the Disturbances of Man: Day 2
Friday, April 10, 2015 at 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall55 West 13th Street, Room I202, New York, NY 10011
The MFA Creative Writing Program at The New School for Public Engagement and the Gender Studies program at The New School present a symposium on the life and work of legendary New York social activist, poet, short story writer, and feminist Grace Paley.
Paley fought for the rights of women and minorities and protested the Vietnam War and nuclear arms proliferation. It was in her extraordinary fictional stories of ordinary lives and through her grassroots activism that she changed the social and political landscape of her day.
This symposium pays homage to Grace Paley, exploring both her legacy and the complex ways her work still resonates today. The event includes a panel on her life and writings; readings by New School writing students; and a screening of Lilly Rivlin’s documentary, Grace Paley: Collected Shorts, followed by a conversation with the director. There will also be a screening of Peter Barton’s Women of ’69, Unboxed accompanied by a Class of 2015 Yearbox created by Parsons’ students. The symposium concludes with a walking tour of historically and culturally charged sites from Paley’s lifetime in Greenwich Village.
This is the second day of the symposium, which begins on Thursday, April 9.
This event has been made possible through the generous support of Phyllis Kriegel.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Homage to Nicholasa Mohr
Homenaje: Nicholasa Mohr
Nicholasa Mohr lives in a museum—a comfortable, welcoming museum—but, a museum nonetheless. She took me on a tour of her artwork and sculptures and furniture and statues. Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, Nicholasa had a story to tell with each one. This was painted by this one. That was done by that one. This I bought from a farmer. That was payment from someone who stayed on my couch. This was a present from an ex. That I kept and I got rid of the ex. Each story was big and grand and funny and interesting. After just a few moments, it is easy to understand her great success as a writer: Nicholasa knows how to tell a story.
“I always had the ganas, the desire,” Nicholasa begins. “I always had something to say, so my mother, I think, gave me plenty of pencils and paper just to keep me busy. There was no TV in our house then, so I had to create my own magic. I got so good so quickly that I began helping other Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood because many of them couldn’t speak English and many more couldn’t write. So, I filled out their forms. Writing for me had a purpose.”
As she got older, Nicholasa began telling stories—not through writing, but through her art. She actually had a very lucrative career in her 20s as a visual artist and printmaker. Her foray into writing was accidental. She published one article on Latino art and was soon contacted by Harper’s.
Nobody was writing stories about Puerto Rican families and children, so “I took the challenge. Writing took me to marvelous and magical places. Because I had done so much writing as a child, writing now as an adult was no stranger.”
Nicholasa’s career as a writer is unmatched by any other Puerto Rican writer—male or female—in the US in terms of total sales. She has over 15 books published including several reprints of her children’s books, Nilda, El Bronx Remembered, and In Nueva York. She has nearly a dozen awards including an American Book Award, the NY Times Outstanding Book of the Year, and she was the first Latina to receive the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. Many of her books and short stories continue to be taught in classrooms across the US.
“I’m proud of all my honors,” says Nicholasa, “not because of the money or the fame, but because they were given to me for the work I’ve done to show who I am and who we are as Puerto Ricans: our lives, our weaknesses, our triumphs. It comes from a place of pride, pride in being a Nuyorican. I write about the truth of who we are.”
Nicholasa laughs and then continues, “If I didn’t hear a gasp from the publisher when I gave them the amount I wanted to be paid, then I knew I was selling myself short.”
“You have to believe in what you do,” asserts Nicholasa. “You can’t let others define you.”
For her work as the first writer of children’s literature for Nuyorican children and as the most commercially successful writer celebrating Puerto Rican life on the US mainland, we honor Nicholasa Mohr.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
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