Category: General

#ShePersisted: Women’s Voices

COretta and Elizabeth

While taking a walk yesterday, an image for a cartoon came to me and I seized it. I stood on the sidewalk and drew it on my phone. Sometimes I feel an idea has to go out right away and be a part of the national (or global) conversation. To wait is to lose an opportunity, a chance to hopefully contribute to the conversation. It depends on the idea of course, but this topic was one that I wanted to be a part of.

While giving a speech in the Senate chambers, Senator Elizabeth Warren read the late Coretta Scott King’s letter critical of Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General. Senator Warren was told to stop talking by Senator Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s reason for instructing Warren to sit down and stop talking was based on a Senate rule from 1902, wherein members are not supposed to speak ill of other members?—?however, there are many examples online of just this being done at other times by male members of the Senate, and not being censured. This act on the part of Senator McConnell?—?a white man shutting down two women, one black, one white?—?was so odd and alarming that it immediately gave Warren and King’s words much more power. Even though Sessions was confirmed the next day.

Their voices were amplified.

Bravo, Elizabeth Warren and Coretta Scott King.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday: An Animated Tribute

Growing up in Washington, DC, I have a strong memory of when Dr. King was shot. I was very young but it had a huge impact on me.  When we as a country created a holiday for Dr. King’s birthday, I was thrilled, and every year I try to mark it in some way.
When our daughters were young, we would bake a cake for Dr. King and watch his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. I took one of the lines from this speech:  “I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” and combined it with our family tradition to create this animation in his honor.

 

Everything Seems To Be About Winning

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I cannot help but think that to Trump, everything seems to be about “being a major player,” making deals, setting up companies, winning, winning, winning. Some of his cabinet appointments point in that direction. Every now and then, Trump talks about other things, but rarely does he talk about freedom of expression, ideals, and what makes America truly great (and always has): inclusion, diversity, idealism, freedom.
I probably could have gone even further with this drawing, and made Lady Liberty encrusted in gold, like the woman in Goldfinger. That woman in the movie died of suffocation from the gold on her skin.
I have hope for America.

Thanksgiving in NYC

Right before Thanksgiving,  I wandered around NYC and drew people as they shopped for food,  sometimes chatting with some of them about what Thanksgiving means to them.  A CBS producer and I made little videos with my drawings and the recordings, and I show some below the gallery here.
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Dogs Of Halloween

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Last week, Liza, ventured downtown with her tablet,  stylus and a huge umbrella to draw the annual New York City Dog Parade, held in Tompkins Square Park.  It was crowded, rather cold and rainy–in other words very Halloweeny– but the spirit of fun was extremely high.  The ratio of people to dogs was also high, but Liza chose to capture primarily the main event: the dogs. CBS This Morning is publishing her dog drawings all day long on Halloween today on their Instagram and website.  Enjoy!  Woof woof!

Happy Women’s Equality Day

Equality DayOn August 26th, 1920, the 19th Amendment went into law and women were finally allowed to vote in the US after decades of effort on the part of brave women and men. This day is marked every year now,  and called #WomensEqualityDay. But what many men and women in this country don’t realize is that women are not currently equal under our laws. Here is Liza’s post on Forbes about a new documentary that helps bring understanding on this, and how the US is failing to be a global leader in the fight for #WomensRights.

Liza will be appearing on a panel tonight at the United Nations in New York , as part of an initiative of the office of UN Women, to discuss these issues and help find solutions.