Today, we played hooky. No work and no school for myself or my daughters in order to honor the Women’s March action A Day Without a Woman. Instead, we collaboratively wrote a letter to our State Representative and Senator and went to the State House in Boston to hand deliver it.

I’m writing now from my role as a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art – the only state funded art college in the country – as well as a working mother of two kids who attend public schools in Massachusetts. I was not engaged in a “personal” activity with my kids – what we were doing today was advocating for public education, access to safe and legal healthcare and family planning, environmental protection, racial and economic justice. The personal IS political IS professional. Women are at the foundation of society, right along side their male colleagues. The only difference is that women are still valued unequally in most of the world. As an artist, teacher and mother, I am a “culture creator” and am called to intertwine my politics with my actions and statements.

Today, we joined with other women in the Women’s March effort and learned how to navigate the maze of representatives and rooms at the State House so that we could articulate the issues we care about while pressing our representatives to reflect the needs of their constituents.

My 10 and 13 year old daughters got an incredible lesson in their power to affect change. They witnessed the leadership and bravery of strong women. They saw their mother engaged, out of the house, and proactive. They met policy makers and citizens. They shook hands and they spoke their mind. I am so proud of them. And of myself. I’m feeling like a great mom today.

Trump and his pussy-grabbing, white-supremacist, anti-intellectual, nationalist, regressive co-conspirators are not our future.  My daughters are.

#whatistrivefor #hope #resist #engage #teach #love

Inside the Senate Chamber, under the dome, surrounded by marble busts of white men.	Day Without a Woman Lobby Day Workshop led by strong women.
Inside the Senate Chamber imaging their future.	At the State House and NOT in school!
Showing up and signing in.	With Senator Michael J. Barrett’s Communications Director, Brendan Berger, who was incredibly friendly and supportive and invited us to tour the Senate chambers.
Representative Jay R. Kaufman’s office	Witnessing a Day Without a Woman Lobby Day Workshop… and asked some questions too.