My parents, my two older sisters and I lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, between 1960-1963. I was in third to fifth grades. During our years there, we marched in protest of segregated restaurants, movie theatres, and drugstores, boycotted segregated businesses, did voter registration drives, staged sit-ins, and were threatened by gun-wielding white men. The […]
Bank of America?
We are actively starting dumpster fires with our extractive technologies. I emailed the following message to two CEOs of Bank of America today. Their emails were not on the corporate website, but after some searching I came up with what I hope works: brian.t.moynihan, anne.m.finucane at bankofamerica dot com I didn’t tell the CEOs that I […]
Alberto Aguilar moves on a human scale, Gallery 400
Chicago-based artist Alberto Aguilar has assembled a wonderful exhibit, “moves on a human scale,” at Gallery 400. The show closes June 15, 2019. I left feeling buoyed by family love and delighted at the way the Aguilars–four children, Aguilar’s wife, Sonia, and Alberto himself–all seemed invested in daily art creation. For example, “Pizza Parade” of […]
Imperialist New York Architecture in Havana, Cuba
I just returned from a fascinating nine-day trip to Cuba, a place that I have wanted to visit for 50 years. In 2000, the Minnesota-based Cass Gilbert Society newsletter explored the possibility that U.S. architect Cass Gilbert (1959-1934) had at least consulted on the National Capitol building in Havana, Cuba. Gilbert was known for his […]
The Creation of the Champaign County ACLU in 1940
In 2016, I came across an old letter from a long-time family friend, Mulford Sibley, among my father’s papers.[1] Mulford, writing on May 29, 1940 from Urbana, Illinois, to his sister Margaret, pinpointed the beginning of the Champaign County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Mulford Sibley (1912-1989) was a professor of political […]
Keeping Quiet
My father, Don Irish, died one year ago at age 97. He was not one to keep quiet or to stay still. Even so, this Pablo Neruda poem has me thinking about him, and how we might all benefit from not rushing around so much. The next-to-last verse below is especially compelling: It does seem […]
Wings/Swing: A Vehicle Offering
I have been lucky to know Sabra Moore since 1990, when I met her at a Women’s Caucus for Art meeting. I was so pleased when her wonderful memoir about her roles in the women’s art movement in New York City, Openings, came out in 2016. Over the years she has sent me many beautiful […]
Countering Pusillanimosity
I’m reading Ali Smith’s Autumn: a novel (Pantheon Books, 2016). The main character is an art historian (and she’s employed!) But it is really about deep relationships among a few people across a number of decades. This excerpt made me sad, angry, sympathetic, and distressed, because it captures my swath feelings as we start 2018: […]
A Tribute to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
My father, Don Irish, died in April of 2017. For the last five years of his life, many of us helped him write his memoirs. We self-published the book in 2015. I share an excerpt here that seems particularly relevant to the harassment of untenured professors (often people of color) that is occurring across the country […]
Don Irish, Rest in Power
Donald Paul Irish, 97, died on April 14, 2017, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Don loved life: a deeply committed, intense, and energetic man, he joined countless causes for human betterment and fought despair in the face of many intractable forces. He put his body where his words were and he put his money where he […]
