Art and the Truth Tellers

Activists and authors Bill McKibben of 350.org and Sherri Mitchell of the Land Peace Foundation will join artist Robert Shetterly for “Art and the Truth-Tellers” at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, March 3, in Chase Community Center at Vermont Law School. The program, designed to highlight the importance of art and creativity in the social movements of our time, is free and open to the public and will be streamed live at vermontlaw.edu/live.

During the evening, award-winning environmentalist McKibben will read from his novel, “Radio Free Vermont” (Blue Rider Press, 2017), which “follows a band of Vermont patriots who decide that their state might be better off as its own republic.” McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including “The End of Nature” (1989), considered the first book about climate change for a general audience.

Mitchell, an indigenous rights activist and peacemaker born on the Penobscot Indian Reservation in Maine, will read from her recently released first book, “Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change” (North Atlantic Books, 2018). In addition to serving as the founding director of the Land Peace Foundation, Mitchell co-hosts “Love (and Revolution) Radio.”

Shetterly, a social justice activist and artist, will discuss some of the 180 portraits and narratives that make up his groundbreaking project, “Americans Who Tell the Truth: Models of Courageous Citizenship,” which he launched 16 years ago as a response to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Shetterly’s portraits feature truth-tellers from our past and present, including Mitchell and McKibben.

“I began painting with determination and a fantasy,” Shetterly said of his work. “I was determined to use the portraits and the words of the subjects as an act of defiance against the lies of an administration leading the American people into unnecessary and illegal wars. The reason this made sense to me was that the people I was choosing to paint—most considered icons of the historical struggle for justice and equality—had all stood up against powerful people and systems which had denied them their rights and dignity. And those powerful forces had used the same techniques—lies, propaganda, fear and patriotism—to deny those rights that they use today.”

“Art and the Truth-Tellers” at Vermont Law School is sponsored by BALE (Building A Local Economy), the New Economy Law Center at VLS, Royalton Community Radio (WFVR), and 350Vermont. In addition to the 5:15 p.m. program at VLS, an art opening with Shetterly’s work will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. at BALE. For more information, email Rebecca Milaschewski at [email protected].