Trunk show and reception in Upper West Side of Manhattan on November 19 (5–8 pm) and 20th (1–4pm) hosted by Elma Kanefield, Roni & Bob Elson. For more info, contact me...


Hope to see you there :-)

Whenever I see lines of laundry animating time-honored landscapes, something exciting happens to me. There diaphanous threads make history-worn spaces into peaceful terrains. There I find an equally ageless, even more telling panorama that the universal presence of laundry provides. Polyglot colors, hanging in the sunlight to dry, speak of anthems and human appetites, of toil and detachment, of shelter and faith. In every country and every culture, laundry is the common language spoken. It speaks of the power of trying, and trying again, one fluid strand at a time. What happens to these strands when they weave together tells humanity’s history.

The photographs in the exhibition were taken in Varanasi and show my long lasting love affair with laundry and textiles.

On December 5, 2008, my digital photography exhibit "In-Different Light" will be shown at the Center of Contemporary Art Gallery in St. Louis, MO. I will be holding an artist's talk and reception at 5:30 p.m. The exhibit runs though January 18, 2009.

I am away from my beads visiting with my family in France right now.

October 24-26, 2008
York University, Toronto, Canada
Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) 12th Annual Conference
Mothering, Violence, Militarism, War,
and Social Justice

During the ARM conference in Toronto, I will be presenting my most recent documentary film together with a paper:
BREAKING THE BOUGH: MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN FALL FIRST.

My remarks combine clips from my Emmy Award winning documentary WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, which shows the harm done to children whose mothers are imprisoned for non-violent, drug-related crimes in Missouri. As one grandfather notes in the film: “When you send a mother to jail, you sentence a whole family.”

My presentation will focus on the mothers and their children who find themselves enmeshed in the “war-on-drugs” in the USA – young girls and boys who find themselves virtually orphaned. Like civilians in any war zone, it is the children who are most deprived of educational continuity, the intimate sense of family stability, a sense of ‘normalcy’ in a larger social framework.

My film WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (2001) can be obtained through:

Filmakers Library
124 East 40th Street
New York, NY 10016
W: 212-808-4980
www.filmakers.com

It is startling for me, to see how many novels of intrigue I listen to, and how wild my imagination may tend to become!!! I have returned many of the titles I wish I had info on... but I will gather them back over time... but here are some that I really loved.

Just thought I'd share with you.

ABRAHAM - A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
Written by: Bruce Feiler
Read by: Bruce Feiler
Publisher: HarperCollins - 2002

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
Written by: Mark Haddon
Read by: Jeff Woodman
Publisher: 2003

SATURDAY
Written by: Ian McEwan
Read by: Steven Crossley
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC., 2005

CHILDREN PLAYING BEFORE A STATUE OF HERCULES
Edited & Introduced by: David Sedaris
Read by: David Sedaris, Cherry Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, Akhil Sharma, & Toby Wherry
Publisher: Simon & Sheuster Audio

SURVIVOR
Written by: Chuck Palahniuk
Read by: Steven Crossley
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC., 2006

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED
Written by: Jonathan Safran Foer
Read by: Jeff Woodman & Scott Shina
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company / Recorded Books, LLC., 2002

STARDUST
Written by: Neil Gaiman
Read by: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2006

CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
Written by: John Perkins
Read by: Brian Emerson
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2004

ALMOST MOON
Written by: Alice Sebold
Read by: Joan Allen
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 2007

THE BRETHREN
Written by: John Grisham
Read by: Frank Mueller
Publisher: Random House/ BBD Audio

A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Written by: Charles Dickens
Read by: Frank Mueller
Publisher:Recorded Books

INCENDIARY
Written by: Chris Cleave
Read by Susan Lyons
Publisher:Recorded Books. 2005

UNLESS
Written by: Carol Shields
Read by: Joan Allen
Publisher: Harper Audio, 2002

THE CONFIDENTIAL AGENT
Written by: Graham Greene
Read by : Patrick Tull
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC, 1988

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES
Written by: Sue Monk Kidd
Read by:
Publisher: Highbridge Company, 2001

BY THE LIGHT OF MY FATHER'S SMILE
Written by: Alice Walker
Read by: Audra McDonald
Publisher: Randomhouse Audio Books (1998)

STONES FROM THE RIVER
Written by: Ursula Hegi
Read by: Ursula Hegi
Publisher: Simon Schuster Audioworks (1997)

FOUNDING MOTHERS
Written by: Cokie Roberts
Read by: Cokie Roberts
Publisher: Landmark Audio (2004)

THE NIGHT WATCH
Written by: Sarah Waters
Read by: Juanita McMahon

Wow... that's a long list of listening!