Following the 2015 mass shooting at “Mother” Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Zoe Mulford wrote an evocative song about the shooting and President Barak Obama spontaneously singing “Amazing Grace” during the memorial service. Joan Baez included it in what is reported to be her final album “Whistle Down the Wind” released in March… Read more »
Category: Women
Mai Khoi
Vietnamese folk singer Mai Khoi was arrested in March 2018 after returning from a tour in Europe (click here for the BBC report on her arrest). She has a pop song about Vietnamese girls and her love for Vietnam, but has turned into a searing critic of repression of freedom of speech. With her new… Read more »
Ira Maruki (1901-1995) and Toshi Maruki (1912-2000)
The Maruki Gallery is a small art gallery outside of Tokyo. Iri and Toshi Maruki were a married couple, both artists. The grounds of the gallery include both their home and an exhibition of their work. The major exhibit is a collection of fifteen wall-sized paintings on folding screens of the experiences of those in… Read more »
Bree Newsome
On June 27, 2015 Brittany Ann Byuarium “Bree” Newsome burst into the national spotlight in the wake of the racial murders at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston when she scaled the 30-foot flagpole of the South Carolina capitol building to take down the flag. The Confederate battle flag had been proudly shown by the… Read more »
ALISON DES FORGES (1942-2009)
“Governments hesitate to call the horror by its name, for to do so would oblige them to act.” The Rwandan genocide was personal for me. I had a Rwandan friend who was involved in peacemaking efforts and was caught up in the violence. He was missing for a month before we heard from him in… Read more »