Notice from the Kennedy Center

Public is invited to Narragansett tribe's powwow, August 9-10

Day Two

Narragansett Tribe’s Annual Strawberry Thanksgiving Brings Family, Community Together

Celebration of life and family

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

Dawn Spears, a Narragansett Tribe member whose
Ashawaug Farm provided some of the berries
for the event, also connects her love of nature
and her traditions to her art.
(Courtesy of Dawn Spears)

On a rainy Saturday afternoon at Ninigret Park, pops of red stood out against the overcast sky.

Strawberries in lemonade and on shortcake, along with beaded and fabric fruit sewn onto clothes, marked a special celebration for the Narragansett Indian Tribe: Strawberry Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving is one of 13 celebrations held with each moon of the year, said Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum and a member of the Narragansett Tribe. The museum has hosted the event for many years, but the tradition itself goes back much further.

The most recent iteration of Strawberry Thanksgiving included themed food, Indigenous art booths, dancing, and talks from tribal citizens and other community members.

Despite the dreary weather, hundreds of people, Indigenous and not, attended the outdoor event.

“There’s so many people here,” Spears said. “Even with the rain … people kept coming.”

For Spears, the event is about bringing people together — to share traditions with each other and people who didn’t grow up with them.

“It’s the community,” she said. “It’s that meaning of the berry.”

Robin Spears Jr., a Narragansett artist and Lorén’s husband, agreed.

“Strawberry Thanksgiving, to me, means bringing the community together, you know, tribal community, as well as the outside, having a good time, being able to just show our artwork from all different tribes in the area,” he said.

Citizens of tribal nations from around New England also attended the event, many bringing their own art to display and sell.

Trump wants America to be ignorant because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny

Trump’s Vicious Attack on the American Mind

Robert Reich

This is Donald Trump's new official portrait. Really.
Meet the new Big Brother. White House photo.

Why is Trump trying to cancel “Sesame Street,” which has helped children learn to read and count for over half a century?

Why is he seeking to destroy Harvard University?

Why is he trying to deter the world’s most brilliant scientists from coming to the United States?

Because he is trying to destroy American education — and with it, the American mind.

Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated public. Slaveholders prohibited enslaved people from learning to read. The Third Reich burned books. The Khmer Rouge banned music. Stalin and Pinochet censored the media.

And Trump, like past authoritarians, wants to control not just what we do, but also how and what we think.

He has embraced one of the mottos from George Orwell’s 1984: “Ignorance is strength.” He knows that an uninformed public is easier to divide and conquer.

There are five facets to Trump’s authoritarian attack on the American mind:

1. Rewrite history

The protagonist of 1984 works in the so-called Ministry of Truth, where he’s made to literally rewrite history because Big Brother knows that he “who controls the past controls the future.”

That’s chilling in a dystopian novel. It’s far scarier in real life, where Trump and his MAGA cronies are making schools whitewash slavery and segregation, cover up the genocide of Native Americans, and erase the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Authoritarians know that if they can convince us our country has never been wrong, they can make us believe our ruler is always right.

If they can make us forget how brave activists fought for change in the past, they can stop us from seeking change in the future.

Trump wants us to forget (or never know) that he lost the 2020 election and then instigated a coup against the United States.

He even claimed last weekend that former President Joseph R. Biden was “executed in 2020” and replaced by a robotic clone.

2. Gut education

As Trump tries to abolish the Department of Education, he’s also proposing to cut funding for K-12 public schools and to force universities to let him influence student admissions, faculty hiring, and what is taught.

As a professor, I know firsthand how education empowers young people’s minds. We can’t have a functioning democracy if people cannot deliberate critically about it. That’s why authoritarians replace education with indoctrination.

But the Trump regime doesn’t want a functioning democracy.

Instead of teaching students to think for themselves, authoritarians seek to instill blind allegiance and suppress dissent. As Trump adviser Stephen Miller said: “Children will be taught to love America. Children will be taught to be patriots.”

This is why the Italian and German fascists of the 20th century immediately turned their countries’ educational systems into instruments of the party.

3. Dismantle science

By freezing university research grants and attacking the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and USAID, Trump is stifling medical and scientific research.

And his cuts to the Centers For Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration put all of us at risk.

He’s also abducting and deporting international scientists who disagree with his administration. Can you imagine a crueler way to rob America of the global intellectual capital that has helped us become the world leader in scientific research?

He is now revoking visas of some Chinese college students. Some 277,000 students from China attended school in the United States last year, second only to the number of students from India. The United States employs tremendous numbers of scientific and technological experts originally from China. We need this continued pipeline of intellect and skill.

How can medical research and disease prevention be political? How can scientific research in general become political? Why is Trump afraid of science?

Because science acknowledges objective facts. Authoritarians insist that the ruler is more powerful than the facts. Trump wants to control the facts.

As George Orwell wrote, “it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this.”

4. Suppress the media

From suing ABC and CBS over their news coverage to threatening to strip network broadcast licenses to defunding PBS and NPR, Trump is trying to silence America’s sources of news.

As Trump repeatedly says: “I call it the fake news media.”

He wants control over what information Americans can (or cannot) get.

His regime is even going through social media accounts of people seeking visas to the United States.

A free press exists to question authority and help the public question it as well. But authoritarians insist that they must never be questioned.

Authoritarians want to consolidate state power over what the public can know.

5. Attack the arts

The arts exist to provoke us, challenge our thinking, and help us see beyond ourselves.

They arts are an important and independent aspect of an educated society, which is why authoritarians have historically attacked them.

So it’s no surprise that Trump is canceling grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, is dictating what’s displayed at the Smithsonian, and has installed himself as the chair of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

To limit art is to limit free speech and expression. It’s a crucial step that authoritarians use to silence anyone who dissents through creativity.

***

Added up, these five facets of Trump’s attack on the American mind render us less informed, less inspired, and easier to control.

They empower him to divide us with hatred and fear.

And they prevent us from discovering that we have more in common with one another than with the authoritarians who try to rule us.

This attack on our minds reduces our capacity for self-government because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

What you can do: Please share this essay, and help spread the truth.

Charlestown Gallery celebrates 30th anniversary

 

GALLERY OPENING ON MAY 24th CELEBRATING 30 Years Reception May 24th from 5-8 pm The Original Four Artists: David Anderson, Burl Dawson, Antonia Tyz Peeples & Jeanne Tangney  and Honoring the Original & Former Owners:  Mickey & Ran Rinalli Renee O’Gara & Gilly Gilstein INTRODUCING NEW ARTISTS Jeffrey Fisher Ann Gorbett Mark Holme Todd Kenny Jay LaCoutoure Sarah Lawhorne Shana Lee Gail McKenna Nick Paciorek Lori Schinelli Anthony Tomaselli Judy Valmain STAY TUNED FOR THE SUMMER WORKSHOP DATES 2025 SUMMER SHOWS Mark Freedman “You Set the Scene” 6/28 5-8 pm  Antonia Tyz Peeples & Larry Horowitz “Path of Curiosity & Wonder” 7/12 5-8 pm Gala Celebrating 30 Years 7/26 Tickets on sale 6/1 Shawn Kenney & Derek Gores 8/9 5-8 pm Group Show “As Summer Sets” 9/6 5-8 pm     GALLERY HOURS May 24th thru June 15th:  Friday - Sunday 11am-4pm  June 19th through Fall: Thursday - Monday 11am-4pm Charlestown Gallery | 5000 South County Trail | Charlestown, RI 02813 US

At Ninigret, May 30-June 1, Atlantis Rising

 

May 30 - June 1    Ninigret Park, Charlestown, RI

RAIN OR SHINE - NO DOGS ALLOWED

 

Tickets at the door.

$15 for adults and children over 10.

$7 for children 10 - 6.

Children 5 and under FREE!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

 

RI Delegation Demands Reinstatement of National Endowment for the Humanities Grants for Ocean State Organizations

Termination of active grants and decision to not award grants will cause harm

Among the many projects Trump cancelled

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, along with Congressmen Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, demanded the Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Michael McDonald, reinstate active grants in Rhode Island. 

Combined with the cancellation of upcoming awards for Fiscal Year 2025, the congressional delegation outlined the harms of cancellation, including the devastating effects on the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and the Providence Clemente Veterans Initiative.  

“Rhode Island organizations will be devastated by NEH grant cancellations. 

The NEH’s cancellation of the $530,000 Rhode Island Council for the Humanities General Operating Support grant may force the organization to pause programs that provide civic education programs for young people, serve veterans, and support historical sites,” wrote the lawmakers. 

“We urge you to promptly reinstate all NEH grants to Rhode Island organizations and reverse the decision to end grants for Fiscal Year 2025. 

FULL TEXT OF LETTER:

Only in Trump's America...

Saturday, at the Charlestown Gallery....

 

Salon Series: Art, Wine & Conversation this Saturday March 15th 5 - 7pm Mark your calendar for next months Series on Saturday, April 5th 5-7pm     NEXT WORKSHOP ACRYLIC PAINTING WITH SHAWN KENNEY Thursday & Friday April, 3rd & 4th 10am-1pm Registration is $200 by calling the Gallery at 401-364-0120 All levels welcome   Stay Tuned for 2025 Season Events!   Connect with us!   Charlestown Gallery | 5000 South County Trail | Charlestown, RI 02813 US

New exhibition of work by women artists opens at URI

‘Vibrance/Essence(n)’ art exhibition showcases women artists

Tony LaRoche 

Works by URI alumnae AGonza, right, and Titilola O. Martins
are part of the exhibition “Vibrance/Essence(n): Defining Color
and Texture,” which opens Feb. 18 in the Higgins
Welcome Center and Lippitt Hall. (URI Photo)

The University of Rhode Island will showcase the work of a dozen women artists this spring with the exhibit “Vibrance/Essence(n): Defining Color and Texture,” in celebration of Women’s History Month.

The exhibition opens Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the Higgins Welcome Center and Lippitt Hall, third and fourth floors. The exhibit is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A reception will be held Tuesday, Feb. 24, in Lippitt Hall from 4 to 7 p.m.

“Rather than focusing specifically on any one issue, I wanted to feature amazing artists who are women,” said Steven Pennell, gallery director in the Department of Art and Art History. “Their work is on a wide variety of topics with a tremendous range of media and materials. The link is to ‘color and texture’ in their chosen style and media, examining the innovative uses of materials that are textural and colorist, a significant element in the study of art.”

“Iris” by Madolin Maxey

Among the 12 artists are URI alumnae AGONZA (Angela Gonzalez), an expressive portrait painter and award-winning community muralist, and Titilola O. Martins, who majored in studio art, fabric and fashion design at URI. The exhibition also features the work of area artists Mary Jane Andreozzi, Janet Austin, Madolin Maxey, Saberah Malik, Cynthia “Listens to the Wind” Ross Meeks, Dianne Reilly, Kristen S. Street, Robyn Thomas, Anita Trezvant, and Judy Volkmann.

Pennell, a former, long-time coordinator of artist and culture at URI’s Providence campus and board member for Gallery Night Providence, First Works and other community-based organizations, selected the artists for the show. 

“These 12 individuals and their work really standout,” he said. “Each of these artists have notable educational backgrounds, have exhibited around the world in major galleries and museums and have work in major collections. We are fortunate to have a huge active arts community in Rhode Island and I have been fortunate enough to make connections with hundreds of amazing creative artists.”

Of the artists, five work in fabric and textiles. Their work includes the use of materials such as gauze, feathers, beads and many nontraditional fabrics.

First concert: symphonic version of YMCA

 

State funds awarded to expand Charlestown's Ninigret Park troll trail and add others in Suth County

More trolls!

By Will Collette

Jessica Sloan

It looks like the Charlestown's two acclaimed upcycled wood trolls, created by artist Thomas Dambo and installed in Ninigret Park, may be getting a little brother or sister soon..

In a new round of state grants from RI Commerce, two grants will help fund more trolls, in Ninigret and elsewhere in South County:

South County Tourism, Inc. | $107,500 | To support expanding the South County Troll Trail by constructing and installing a third Thomas Dambo troll sculpture in South County. 

Town of North Kingstown | $107,500 | To support constructing and installing a Thomas Dambo troll sculpture in North Kingstown. 

These grants are part of a $2 million package of grants RI Commerce has dubbed "Placemaking Initiative Awards to Support Statewide Outdoor and Public Space Capital Improvement Projects & Events" or you can just call them PIASSOPSCIPE grants. 

While some might consider government funding for public art displays a waste of money for any variety of reasons, public art, in my opinion, is a worthy investment for enriching the soul. Civil societies have understood this for millennia leaving behind monuments that still inspire awe and wonder today.

Here is the full list of grants: