PORTRAITS OF RACIAL JUSTICE: Americans Who Tell the Truth, exactly what it says on the tin

PORTRAITS OF RACIAL JUSTICE: Americans Who Tell the Truth
ROBERT SHETTERLY
New Village Press
$34.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A vivid portrait collection of past and present Americans speaking truth to power

The first volume of Robert Shetterly's Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series, Portraits of Racial Justice takes a multimedia, interdisciplinary approach, blending art and history with today’s issues concerning social, environmental, and economic fairness. Shetterly's paintings, as well as profiles of those portrayed, illuminate a community of people not only willing to recognize the shortcomings of America’s history, but most importantly, individuals who offer their visions of a better world moving forward.

Starting with Michelle Alexander and ending with Dave Zirin, the diverse array of fifty full-color portraits spans multiple generations and struggles. This volume also includes four original opening essays on racial justice in the United States by Ai-jen Poo, Dave Zirin, Sherri Mitchell, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., which provide an intersectional response to the long-term goal of diversity and inclusion.

As Shetterly says, “without activism, hope is merely sentimental.” Portraits of Racial Justice, Shetterly’s homage to transformative game-changers and status-quo fighters, provides the inspiration necessary to spark social change.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Beautiful portraits of many people, famous and sadly underknown, who have spoken up and spoken out about issues of "racial" prejudice and its many, many consequences and victims.

I expect most US dwellers recognize civil-rights warrior and United States Representative John Lewis...I hope so anyway.

Shetterly's beautiful portraits are easy to stare at, fall in love with as artworks.

Fannie Lou Hamer looks magnificent, doesn't she? So exactly like her character. Shetterly captured an essence here.

Profile of a man whose name I am sad to say I've never heard before, and couldn't pronounce on a bet.

This beautiful object, and the people whose faces and stories fill it, deserve a place in your #Booksgiving celebration. They are all people to be celebrated for their courage and their clear-sighted opposition to the status quo.