Judith Schaechter was the keynote speaker at last year’s BE Con event. She’s a fine artist that works in stained glass. Not your usual medium for an artist but that’s what she does and she gave the best lecture on the divide between art and craft. Glass artists deal with this quite a bit. Fortunately more fine art made of glass is being produced and there’s an understanding that there can be a big difference between fine and functional art. Judith has received much recognition as a fine artist, having received Pew and Guggenheim fellowships. This story is about her project for Eastern State Penitentiary’s stained glass windows. Check it out…and her web site. She’s a very cool lady and extremely talented too!
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Book Review: Rise Up!
It might seem weird to feature a book about protest movements around the Fourth of July, but as Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History reminds us, protest is patriotic and part of the very fabric of American life from the beginning.
This picture book, written by history teacher Rachel C. Katz and illustrated by Sophie Bass, tells a rhyming story of how Americans have stood up throughout the nation’s history to protest and spread the word about injustice and unsafe conditions. From the Boston Tea Party to modern movements like the Standing Rock pipeline protests and the Obergefell case, it touches on women’s rights, environmental activism, civil rights, Pride, access for disabled people and more.
The illustrations, often based on historic protest signs and artwork, help tell the stories, while a timeline, map, and overview of each event for further discussion. Readers will learn about Silent Spring and The Jungle, the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, the Seneca Falls convention, Robert Smalls, the Delano Grape Strike and the movement to un-dam the Klamath River, to name a few.
Each event includes a few bullet points to provide context about what happened, why and what the result was. The book reminds readers that protests are not always effective, or don’t always get the people involved what they want right away (since it took women 72 years to get the right to vote after Seneca Falls, for example).
This book is a great way to introduce kids to the long and proud history of protest movements in the United States and could prompt discussions about current events and things happening that they might want to see changed. It could also be used to start kids researching different protests discussed in the book for further learning. You can talk about how art can educate people and encourage kids to make their own art pieces to educate others about something important to them.
Rise Up! is a great starting point for learning about the history of protest and the effects it has had on American history. The publisher’s website has more resources for teaching with this book at the link below.
About the book: 48 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Barefoot Books. Suggested retail price $17.99.