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Culture / Spotlight / Visual Art

March 2, 2024

by Marcia G. Yerman · Published March 2, 2024

Out in Yonkers: Elizabeth de Bethune Paintings Reflect the Diversity of a Community

“Michael and Robert”
Oil on Canvas
48″ x 36″
2023

In a recent obituary of Shelly Weiss, the iconic LGBTQ activist was quoted from a 2015 interview in which she stated, “I realized that the arts were a prime vehicle to change consciousness.”

Figurative artist Elizabeth de Bethune has implemented this philosophy in a series of compelling paintings showcased in “Out in Yonkers: Portraits from the Yonkers LGBTQ Community.” Reminiscent of the psychological insights of Alice Neel, de Bethune presents what she terms “the poetics of an LGBTQ world.”

The series’ concept evolved after de Bethune visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Mesmerized by the Agnolo Bronzino portraits of the Medici children, the canvases planted seeds of inspiration. She was motivated to capture for posterity the lives of LGBTQ residents of Yonkers, where she has lived for twenty-eight years. Responding to the Bronzino full-frontal images, de Bethune noted, “The fact of their existence really impressed me.” Her goal was to have her portraits speak to an audience similarly.

Translating a tradition from five centuries ago to a contemporary setting, de Bethune set about “creating a record of existence” in her role as a “visual storyteller.”

The undertaking is particularly significant in 2024, with the current struggle against a rising tide of American illiberalism. The othering of minorities may potentially lead to a loss of civil liberties and an erosion of legal protections.

The exhibition catalog shares de Bethune’s artistic process, and includes interviews with her subjects. Her preliminary studies in gouache and acrylic reflect an energy and immediacy as she first connects with her sitters in direct observation. As she got to know each individual, it influenced their construction as “forms in space.” Documented are the “underpaintings, often in bright colors,” and then an intermediate phase with the figure blocked in. “I used color to resolve the backgrounds rather than an overly descriptive visual vocabulary,” de Bethune told me.

Witnessing that evolution adds to experiencing the paintings. The viewer can see the brush strokes of scumbled surfaces and the imprint of the palette knife, while recognizing elements of previous iterations.

The dialogue with each individual yields context to the backstory of those who agreed to be part of the project, an example of a “marginalized community” captured and interpreted for a wider audience. Since de Bethune’s sitters came to her studio, elements reflecting their intimate surroundings are absent. However, each personality is meticulously captured by choice of clothing and posture.

“Shannon”
Oil on Canvas
48″ x 28″
2023

When I visited the exhibit, de Bethune was running through slides in preparation for one of the many talks she has given. She spoke with a small group of visitors, starting with information about her formation as a creative. “I come from a family of artists who drew their way through childhood,” she said. Self-describing as a “painterly realist,” she referenced capturing “a moment in time” in her informal depictions of domestic life in a “lesbian household.”

Using the luminosity of oil paint to embrace “emotionality while challenging the picture frame,” de Bethune emphasized the role of memory and narrative in her work, evidenced by the frequent appearances of family, friends, and local settings as ongoing themes.

“It’s the challenge of who is queer,” de Bethune said. “People outed themselves for posterity.” She spoke about “persecution and erasure,” underscoring, “To not be erased, you must be visible.” She underscored that the sitter’s self-identity created an “assertion that helps others.”

“Ridikkulus”
Oil on Canvas
48″ x 32″
2023

As de Bethune wrote, “In the 1970s, Harvey Milk encouraged queer people to come out wherever they were, to increase awareness not only of the ubiquity of LGBTQ folk but also our incredible diversity and ordinariness. In my own fashion, I’m answering Harvey’s call.”

The exhibit will be traveling to other venues in the future.

Photos: Courtesy of Elizabeth de Bethune
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Environment / Spotlight / Visual Art

February 3, 2024

by Marcia G. Yerman · Published February 3, 2024

FRACTURED: Artist Graupe-Pillard Tackles Environmental Threats

In June of 2023, smoke emanating from over 200 Canadian wildfires created a blanket of air pollution that impacted health and visibility for millions of Americans from the Midwest to the East Coast. It was a real-time sample of what the future could bring.

Artists have been presenting their interpretations of the risks to the planet for decades, back to the original 1970 Earth Day poster by Robert Rauschenberg.

Currently on view at the David Richard Gallery in Chelsea, New York, the exhibit Fractured showcases nine paintings by Grace Graupe-Pillard. It is an uncompromising look at global environmental chaos, which also serves as a metaphor for today’s worldwide instability in the political and social realms.

Graupe-Pillard has built a strong reputation based on her portraiture, digital photography, cut-out canvases, and public art. A humanistic awareness, informed by her personal history, is always at the core of her imagery. The seeds of much of her oeuvre are a commentary on the shortcomings of group behavior.

In the early 2000s, as the drum beat for American boots on the ground in Iraq began, Graupe-Pillard, perceiving falsehoods driving the national agenda, began developing her paintings through a prism of “manipulation and disintegration.” Starting in 2014, she analyzed the event of 9/11 in large-scale paintings entitled “The Day the World Stood Still.” This suite served as a foundation to the experimentation that would embody both pure abstraction and identifiable elements.

The Day the World Stood Still
Oil Alkyd on Canvas
97” x 67”
2017

In the Fractured series, several pieces skew specifically narrative. Aflame speaks to the out-of-control infernos that have recently besieged America. The most recent, which occurred in Maui, incinerated not only property but also irreplaceable historical artifacts from the Indigenous cultural heritage of Lahaina.

Aflame
Oil Alkyd on Wood
48” x 36”
2023

In the upper left-hand corner of Green Rush, a tiny part of the expansive universe frames the edge of Earth. Verdant areas of green mix with yellowing terrain, cooled by aquatic shades of blue. Creeping from the right are maroon hues, which give way to crimsons. This deconstruction of our ecosphere, as we know it, will be repeated in unique iterations from painting to painting. When viewed in totality, the interaction creates a palpable existential anxiety about humankind’s ability to wreak destruction.

Green Rush
Oil Alkyd on Canvas
66” x 48”
2023

Water surrounds potential land masses in Vortex. Solid bits of color, perhaps representing terrain, have broken away. For those who are unaware, there are approximately thirteen islands that won’t make it to the end of the 21st century. Rising sea levels will submerge them. American coastal cities are at risk as well.

Vortex
Oil Alkyd on Canvas
48” x 36”
2023

As war and scenes of physical conflagration fill the daily news feeds with footage from Ukraine and Gaza, it is impossible to ignore the fearsome allegory of Combustion. It confronts the observer with a fireball surrounded by terrestrial browns and offshoots of scorching red, chilled by a spectrum of purples to grays. The map-like forms yield the option to consider how the ultimate form of an environmental disaster — nuclear destruction — could potentially be triggered.

Combustion
Oil Alkyd on Canvas
84” x 60”
2020

I reached out to Graupe-Pillard to discuss her process and get insights on how she perceives the artist’s role in today’s culture.

She walked me through a progression that begins when she culls source material from climate catastrophes, using the computer as a “collaborator” to create new digital forms. After she has established her vision, she begins to paint. Graupe-Pillard referenced her approach as parallel to what she sees as the media’s “filtering of information” to the public. She stated, “As an artist, I document what is occurring in the world. Some will respond to the work visually and in a purely formal way. Others will consider the context of my intent and reflect upon issues they may not have previously thought about — specifically the[environmental] dangers that face us.”

Graupe-Pillard delivered the cautionary note, “The paintings are a precursor to a devastating scenario if individuals remain uninvolved.”

All photos: Courtesy of David Richard Gallery
© Grace Graupe-Pillard
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Human Rights / Israel/Palestine / Spotlight

November 20, 2023

by Marcia G. Yerman · Published November 20, 2023 · Last modified January 3, 2024

Standing Together Leaders Abed and Green Lay Out a New Vision: “We’re In This Together”

From Left to Right: Alon-Lee Green, Sally Abed, Libby Lenkinski

Since the Hamas attack of October 7, it seems like streamed events examining the situation in Israel/Palestine have multiplied exponentially. The conversation has shifted, and Jewish friends and colleagues who previously thought the issue was tangential at best, are now starting to connect the dots in a way they never expected.

Wednesday was a usual day of multiple Zooms. I started with the positivity of a talk from The Parents Circle, where two members, one Palestinian and the other Jewish, spoke about their journeys of loss and desire for peace and reconciliation. The clarity of Laila Alshei and Ayeleet Harel underscored that women’s voices are too often missing at the highest echelons of decision-making on both sides of the equation.

The second event looked at The Israel-Hamas War:Where Is It Headed? sponsored by Partners for Progressive Israel. (Full Disclosure: I am on the planning committee for their 2023 Virtual Symposium.) The panel parsed the different potential eventualities after the “war concludes.”

Wednesday’s news shifted the puzzle pieces with Israel’s announcement of daily 4-hour “pauses” for humanitarian concerns. I had been feeling anxious all day. The steady barrage of overwhelming videos, photographs, and social media posts was unnerving. The politics of Israel/Palestine have spilled over into American and hyperlocal New York politics—as Jews square off against one another. It had been happening in the past few election cycles, with candidates weaponizing antisemitism. Now, it was at a fevered pitch. It was non-stop daily acrimony. Posters were put up; posters were pulled down. Even a trip to the supermarket could be fraught, depending on who I ran into. I settled in for the final meeting of the day. I had hoped to attend in person, but the beginnings of a sore throat had convinced me otherwise.

Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green of the organization Standing Together had traveled to America to do a talking tour on the East Coast about their vision for a new reality in Israel. B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, had snagged them for an evening.

It wasn’t the first time I had heard them. I knew they were young and charismatic, with a palpable chemistry between them. “Do you want to answer that?” Abed asked Green quietly, “Or should I?”

An Israeli-Jewish man and an Israeli-Palestinian woman were putting forth a new prototype in a lucid, concise voice. The message was clear. “The day after [the war ends], no one is going to leave or be eradicated.”

To a full house and over 400 streaming viewers, the takeaway was the “principle of universal humanity.” A resonant message for a Temple setting.

Libby Lenkinski of the New Israel Fund anchored the evening. Standing Together is one of their grantees. There was a brief intro of Abed, the Head of Development and an elected national leader of Standing Together, and Green, the National Co-Director. Then, a rundown on the organization’s genesis, founded in 2015 after another Israeli “operation” in Gaza. At the time, Netanyahu stated, “We will forever live on the sword.”

That’s the ethos that Standing Together is opposing. Green said, “We have to shift the paradigm. We have to move [away] from inequality and occupation. We have to build sustainable power for change for all marginalized groups.” (Green organized the first trade union of waiters in Israel.)

Abed spoke about the emotional, existential threat both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis felt while underscoring, “Our existence is dependent on the other.” She added, “We are grieving for both peoples.” However, for Palestinian Israelis, the fear and anguish are being “criminalized.” Whether it is in the sphere of employment, education, or social media, Palestinians don’t feel safe to exist. “Right now, they are trying to erase us,” Abed said.

Green dug into why they had felt it was essential to take the time to come to the United States to spread the message that “both peoples deserve life and security” and why they are working to engage those joint sectors of Israeli society. “We are trying to stand in solidarity while political forces are trying to use the shock and horror to move Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel apart.”

Next was a bird’s-eye view of Israeli politics and a discussion about the ramifications of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Green noted that Israeli television stations run a daily chyron tabulating the number of Palestinian civilians dead in Gaza. Simultaneously, Gaza being repopulated with settlements has been floated as an idea. Referencing the creation of “new fronts” and the uptick in violence in the West Bank, Green said, “They [the government] want to lead us into an internal war.”

With Jewish extremists trying to present Palestinian citizens of Israel as a fifth column, Standing Together is focusing on the de-escalation of those inflammatory messages, reframing the dialogue with their code words: “We’re in this together.”

The asymmetry of power between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel and the physical threats towards the latter was acknowledged, as was the horrific events of October 7, the largest massacre of Jews in one day since the Holocaust.

Standing Together focuses on actions inside of Israel. To that end, they are working to secure bomb shelters for all those who lack protection. Every third day, they have organized Jewish and Palestinian solidarity events. (They identify their messaging with the color purple.) Green said, “That’s the start of the solution,” before riffing on the Eldridge Cleaver quote, “If you are part of the problem, you are not part of the solution.”

Green also dismissed the adage of “managing” the situation. He said, “There are 2.2 million Palestinians under siege. The conception you can maintain this—counting calories (A reference to food allowances and the Gaza blockade.). The government says, ‘This time is for real.’ How do we break out of the status quo? Both peoples call this their home. Others who contest this are delusional.”

Abed shared the difficulty of the space she holds in the struggle. Those in the Palestinian Diaspora may see her as “irrelevant.” She said, “I can isolate myself from Israeli society and talk only about liberation. The other option is to fight systemic racism and take responsibility—to make Israeli society a better place while claiming my identity as a Palestinian. We need popular demand from Israeli society. I need to be relevant.”

Their Theory of Change (2019) leads to what Green qualifies as trying to “build a new political entity.” It outlines how a new majority that emanates from “a broad coalition of diverse communities” can bring about a national transformation. Green said, “The people demand social justice. Changes happen because of social movements.” The philosophy underpins creating “a large social-political movement while incubating a new eco-system of leadership

Will this lead to a political run by either of them? That was left unanswered.

However, it was apparent that everyone was trying to pinpoint what would transpire “the day after” while acknowledging that the ongoing disaster could possibly “lead to a sea change.”

Green stated, “It’s an extremely dangerous moment. In the middle of a war, we are fighting about what kind of society we want to be. It’s very much obvious that you can’t separate a right-wing government from everything else. You can’t maintain the status quo. Ending the occupation is a key issue.” He emphasized, “It starts with the question of equality.”

The discussion shifted to the United States and how building a joint new left coalition was necessary. Abed hashed out the importance of understanding that a bridge must be made between the Israeli and American left. There was direction on this matter, including the suggestion that the American left was not “containing the complexity” of the lives of all Israelis—and were being dismissive by drilling down on what Green termed “an academic approach versus a reality on the ground approach.”

Audience members had submitted written questions on cards and were eager to know how they could help. One of the inquiries touched on American policy. Green emphasized, “What happens in the United States impacts Israel. Create an umbrella. Don’t give Israel an open check.”

The cycle of violence continues. The extent and methodology of Israel’s response will continue to be parsed on a military and a moral level. Perhaps the real question is why so many people find it hard to believe another approach could be possible.

Photo: Marcia G. Yerman
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Culture / Human Rights / Human Trafficking / Spotlight / Women's Issues

November 20, 2023

by Marcia G. Yerman · Published November 20, 2023

Kate Nace Day: Fighting Sexual Trafficking as a Professor, Filmmaker, and Author

Kate Nace Day believes she has hit the apex of her career and the definitive statement about her life’s work: Equality for all women and girls.

Day, who received her J.D. from UC Berkley Law, taught Constitutional Law and International Human Rights in Boston for three decades. Catharine MacKinnon, who pioneered a substantive theory of sex equality that is grounded on the experiences of women, including sexual violations, significantly influenced Day’s thinking. While at Suffolk Law School in Boston, Day initiated courses for female law students, including Gender and Law, Women’s International Human Rights, Equality and the Law, and Feminist Legal Theory.

“Women law students were the gift of law teaching,” Day told me. Her mission as a teacher was to parse out what they needed to be successful to act in the world as women for the benefit of women. For her advanced students, rather than requiring examinations, Day challenged them to create projects of their choosing, allowing them the space to pick their subjects while developing their unique voices. Day’s approach always underscored the relationship between women’s lived realities and the arenas of politics and law.|

Not content to shape a new generation of thinkers, Day said, “Outside the classroom, I knewI had to act.” So, in 2010, Day stepped outside of her role as a professor to make a documentary film underscoring the legal system’s role in sex trafficking.

Day screened a clip of her film, “A Civil Remedy,” at a local festival. Through the story of one trafficked young woman, the film advocated for the right of victims to sue perpetrators for monetary damages.

The concept was:Offering justice to sex trafficking victims and survivors by suing violators for financial damages.

The premise led Day to advise then Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who was proposing an anti-human trafficking piece of legislation. Day advised them on the importance of including a civil remedy, which would serve as a legal stepping stone to guaranteeing victims’ rights. A 2011 state bill passed which included the civil remedy provision Day recommended.

Federal law now treats those who facilitate sex trafficking and pimping as perpetrators of sex trafficking, which includes internet service providers, purchasers, pimps, and other profiteers.

Day completed her documentary in 2014. Her narrative put feminist legal theory — and how it could play a part in shifting power — front and center. Yet, Day wasn’t content to rest on her laurels. She embarked on a new project that would evolve into a unique limited edition (100 copies) book that occupies a space straddling art and activism. It is titled Without Equality/Without Consent and resides in a ribbon-tied black vellum-constructed box. It is unbound, allowing viewers to reconstruct the presentation as they please.

The concept evolved when Day first viewed arrest photographs compiled in 2003 by a Denver undercover cop. His purpose was to distribute an educational tool for police and criminal justice system members to illuminate how time on the street impacted the girls and women trapped “in the life.”

When Day first viewed the images in a magazine story about prostitution, an essential component was missing for her: examining who these women were, their histories, and why they existed in violence and degradation. In 2015, she traveled to Denver to put a name and narrative to the faces she had been studying. On a second trip to Denver, photographer Taylor Cadwell accompanied Day. Cadwell documented the arrest locations noted in the records of three women Day had connected with. The spaces, devoid of their previous history, are captured in black and white. They are haunting in their simplicity, whether they document a motel parking lot or a quiet suburban street.

Woven throughout the pages are statistics on those who are “used in the sex trade” in America, information on the “social, political, and legal dimensions of prostitution,” and statements from those in the abolitionist movement who are dedicated to ending the demand for sex work.

Day pointed to the news coverage around the Jeffrey Epstein case and how the public was drawn into the story and repelled. “Where is the outrage about young girls of color and Indigenous heritage seen as throwaways?” asked Day. “Drugs, homelessness, poverty — it’s all interrelated. Runaway kids under 18 make up a key demographic, along with those from the LGBTQ community.”

Explaining the genesis of her book, Day said, “I’m trying to memorialize what the average person should know about sex trafficking.”

Prostitution as “exploitation or work” was recently addressed in several New York Times articles by authors seeking to dispel the notion that prostitution was a top-tier career choice. As Day’s book points out, most of those who are in prostitution are often in their early teens, an age before they can offer “legal consent.”

When I spoke to Day, she recited the grim statistics of 20 million globally trafficked people. In 2020, 94 percent of commercial sex traffic were girls and women. It’s a $99 billion per year industry. Unlike guns and drugs, the bodies of women and girls are a “product” that can be reused repeatedly.

As part of her roll-out, Day has targeted several prominent lawmakers to receive the book, hoping it will advance their understanding and knowledge of the topic.

“There are three dimensions to women’s equality,” Day told me. “They are social, political, and legal.” Unsurprisingly, our conversation jumped to the abortion horror facing American women.

“No one our age imagined that the world would want to take us back to the 1950s. What is going on is hateful, and it stems from misogyny. The darkness is blotting out the light.”

Day strongly supports intergenerational allyship. “It gives you a different angle of vision.” However, she calls upon members of her generation to stay in the struggle. Her final comment summed up her ethos:

“Older women have to be in the fight. You just can’t stop. Whatever you did when you were younger, do it again!”

Photos: Courtesy of Taylor Cadwell

October 4, 2021

UNICEF: “Every Child Deserves a Livable Planet.”

Children are less physically able to withstand and survive severe weather occurrences. Ironically, they contribute the least to factors creating the climate crisis while suffering the most significant impacts.

Culture / Film Reviews / Human Rights / Interviews / Israel/Palestine

July 13, 2021

“The Tinderbox” — Documentary Looks at Israel/Palestine Conundrum

With a shift in American and Israeli leadership, the armed hostilities between the Israeli government and Hamas in May, and street riots within mixed Israeli cities, Diaspora Jews are beginning to question the traditionally...

Culture / Film Reviews / Spotlight / Women's Issues

November 19, 2023

Diana Nyad

Starring two powerful actresses in their 60s and featuring a promotional poster of them sans glamour, the Netflix bio-flick Nyad is bound to be celebrated by women of a certain age.

Events / Israel/Palestine / Spotlight

October 29, 2023

Peace Vigil in Westchester Spotlights Healing

People are struggling to process the rapidly unfolding events that have taken place since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7. There have been demonstrations and counter-demonstrations focusing on both the hostage-taking and...

Human Rights / Israel/Palestine / Spotlight

September 22, 2023

On the Ground: Protesting the Israeli Occupation and Bibi

Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah gave the final speech. An article in Haaretz recently profiled her as one of the new female leaders challenging the entrenched structure of the male Jewish legacy organizations. She told the demonstrators, “It’s important for me to be here. We’re dealing with a settler government. Occupation is destroying Judaism.” She referenced the Biblical metaphor: “A calf doesn’t have to be golden. It can be a state.”

Environment / Interviews / Spotlight

May 27, 2023

Diane Wilson, 2023 Goldman Prize Winner: “The Plastic Age Needs to End”

Wilson changed the equation when she contacted Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid lawyers to help her prove that Formosa had been dumping plastic waste in the Gulf Coast of Texas. They won a $50 million settlement for the pollution of bays encompassing the Point Comfort factory.

Environment / Spotlight

May 3, 2023

Joe Biden: “Environmental Justice will be the Mission of the Entire Government”

President Biden has announced his run for office in 2024, and he isn’t wasting any time promoting his climate agenda. On April 21, he delivered a fundamental building block in the fight to ensure environmental justice for all Americans.

Culture / featured / Spotlight / Visual Art

April 8, 2023

Wangechi Mutu and Jaune Quick-To-See Smith Featured in NYC Museum Shows

The talents spotlighted are women who have experienced the impacts of hierarchical systems, othering, and the legacies of colonialism. The takeaways are visual pleasures and food for thought, concurrent with an in-depth examination of these issues.

Environment / Spotlight

April 8, 2023

“State by State, There’s No Place Where There Are No Environmental Justice Concerns”

In January 2023, a research paper outlined how pollution emitted from cars driven by “commuters from majority-white tracts disproportionately drive through non-white tracts–compared to the inverse.”

featured / Israel/Palestine / Spotlight

February 19, 2023

Issa Amro Attacked in Hebron by IDF Soldier

As the soldier speaks to someone on a military phone, Amro says, “No. This is not true… Don’t lie. Don’t lie. Say the truth.”

Human Rights / Israel/Palestine / Spotlight / Theater Reviews / Uncategorized

February 8, 2023

“How To Make a Revolution” – Documentary Play Examines Israeli Military Court System

Perhaps the top takeaway was Amro’s statement, “American Jews can make a difference.” He added, “I depend on your support. We all have a dream.”

Culture / Film Reviews / Human Rights / Israel/Palestine / Uncategorized

February 8, 2023

New Documentaries Explore Censorship and Suppression of History in Israel

The documentaries by these two filmmakers have the explicit goal of questioning the legacy histories put into play by the Israeli government and hasbara proponents. Following in the footsteps of the Israeli New Historians, directors Karnit Mandel and Assaf Banitt have endeavored to show the Israeli public the realities of “nation-building.”