change the truth update

By now you have probably noticed the modifications to the blog: new color, new name, labeling by subject, etc. Because we are now building a website that will be devoted exclusively to Change the Truth, it will make sense to eventually have the majority of Ugandan updates appear there. Changethetruth.org should be out from under construction by the end of April. In the meantime, I will continue to use this blog to update you on Change the Truth issues, but will focus on other subjects more and more often.

The Change the Truth video is near completion. Look for excerpts on the new website. I will incorporate this six-minute video into my power point presentation, which is about my work in general and the work in Uganda specifically. Various groups have started to ask me to make presentations, so as time goes on, more and more people will know about - and hopefully support - the project.

Funds have been sent to St. Mary Kevin Orphanage Motherhood to support the brick making and brick laying project! Thank you for your positive response to the request for aid. This project will help the children learn to help themselves succeed. I can’t think of a better way to assist.

The Change the Truth brochures, expertly designed by my friend Brian Reisinger, are now at the printer. They will be mailed soon and will be distributed at the opening of my Uganda exhibition, at presentations, etc. If you receive one and have already made a contribution this year, please pass it along to a friend.

Other goodies to look for on the website will be Change the Truth t-shirts, as well as beaded jewelry made by the children! All proceeds from the sales of these items will go directly to the orphanage.

exhibition at dolphin

DOLPHIN PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW

APRIL 6 – 28, 2007

Yellowstone, 2006, From the "Shredding Project"



BARRY ANDERSON

JON SCOTT ANDERSON

GLORIA BAKER FEINSTEIN

JESSE DEMARTINO

DEANNA DIKEMAN

ELIJAH GOWIN

MICHAEL SINCLAIR

KATI TOIVANEN

JAIMIE WARREN

Opening reception, Friday April 6, 6 to 9 PM

Window Installations by Katherine Hair and Jeffrey Eaton

DOLPHIN GALLERY
1901 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108

tel: 816.842-5877
www.thedolphingallery.com

it takes a hero

That's the name of the punk band my drummer son Max is in. Tonight they had their first real gig - at El Torreon in Kansas City. Eddie and I were definitely the elders in the crowd, but it was a lot of fun.

trinidad

The world is definitely a smaller place because of the Internet. A few days ago I received a certified letter from Trinidad. Inside the envelope was a check for Change the Truth. I thought that was pretty amazing!

talk about a traveling show...

An eighteen wheeler will be traversing the country with this as its side panels and the image below as its back panel. This should bring a lot of attention to Operation Breakthrough, and if drivers on the highway look very carefully and read the fine print, I will get some attention as well!

starfish revisited

Children at St. Maria Orphanage, Magada, Uganda

The following is an entry (and a follow-up comment) from a volunteer-abroad website, Volunteerlogue.com, with which I have recently become acquainted. The writer is Katie. As you may recall, I talked about the Starfish Theory in a previous post (February 21).

“The Starfish Theory is a nice story and has an important message: you can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do what you can. Or, what you do, even if it only helps one person, makes a world of difference to that person.

To me, the danger of using this story too often is this: what if there were a way to stop all those starfish from ending up on the beach in the first place, but it meant that all of us would have to make some sacrifice or accept a change we might not like, and we wouldn’t get to pat ourselves on the back for throwing them back?

What if people who didn’t mind the starfish but didn’t really care all that much and certainly didn’t want to make any sacrifices on their own were able to avoid making those bigger changes by saying, 'Look at those people throwing the starfish back – see? Something is being done. We don’t need to make any changes. There are these marvelous humanitarians already on it. The problem will be solved in no time, so we can relax.'

Is there really a solution to stop starfish from washing up on the shore? I think not (though who knows, I could be wrong). Are there possibly solutions to human problems which require major changes and involve others making sacrifices, which people may avoid by citing humanitarian projects? I would say probably yes.

My point is not ‘don’t bother throwing starfish back’ but ‘keep your mind open to different possible consequences, and don’t just accept that any form of help is necessarily the best."

Comment from Kendall:

“I wonder these things too. Band-aid solutions. Self-indulgent altruism. Bleeding-heart do-gooders who actually add to the problem. I always worry that I’m one of THEM, failing to see the big picture because I keep myself so busy with the starfish. Both are necessary: we need to make BIG changes (and that usually means working with a whole movement of people); and at the same time we each need to do what we can. If our boundaries of “what we can” are infinitely porous and able to stretch till they snap, we run the risk of burn-out. If we wait for a groundswell of a movement to ride, we run the risk of doing nothing at all, or maybe signing the occasional internet petition and then going shopping. Each of us has to find the balance, examine our motives, and work in community when we can find community.”

brick making and brick laying project

“An individual empowered with vocational skills does not need to be employed. Such an individual can start a small-scale low capital business, as the key business input is the individual’s skills. The output of such a business will normally be focused on the local consumption/ purchase patterns. In this way the goods produced are sold locally with little overhead cost and virtually no transport costs.

Those who go to school they have to do the vocational work on Saturdays and on the holidays so that they can attain skills and make items to generate income for the orphanage to cater for the orphanage needs, which are a lot.”

This is an excerpt from a project proposal sent to me by Rosemary and Michael at St. Mary Kevin’s. I had asked them to determine what their greatest need is at present (other than helping the children with their school fees). Rosemary is a firm believer in establishing a set of vocational skills for the orphans so they can eventually make their own way in Ugandan society. The best way “Change the Truth” can help is to provide ways for the children to learn to help themselves.


The Brick Making and Brick Laying project is a continuation of a project St. Mary Kevin’s has had in place for years. What the proposal includes is the purchase of things like (the wish list for supplies is quite detailed – the research that went into this is obviously extensive) lake sand, plaster sand, a paver’s machine, a half brick machine, a ventilation machine, eucalyptus poles, nails, iron sheets and cement.

The older children have made bricks at St. Mary Kevin’s for a long time. They use the bricks to build their own buildings on the grounds of the orphanage, and they sell the bricks to generate income for food, clothing and other needs.

Rosemary has known for some time that the project needs to be updated and enlarged. She is asking for our help.

color

Today I begin a three-day stint in the editing suite with a very talented video editor named Cara, at an elegant and gorgeous production facility called Take 2. The generous people at Take 2 are donating their time and resources to “Change the Truth.” The goal is that at the end of three days, we’ll have a finished video complete with film footage, songs, interviews with the children and still photos made at St. Mary Kevin Orphanage Motherhood.



I have been sifting through color images that could be used use in the video and am surprised at how much I am drawn to them. I’m one who has always claimed that I “see in black and white” and I have never had much interest in making color photographs. The Uganda project has been the first body of work that I’ve shot digitally, so this is new to me. Having the opportunity to see the images in both color and black and white is kind of interesting. I must admit I am getting somewhat seduced by the color.

maria

I run through this silly, probably obnoxious series of questions when I am making a child’s portrait, just to get him or her to relax, smile, laugh, and realize I am nowhere near threatening. Sometimes I ask the same questions of adults – things like who’s your favorite superhero, what was the last good book you read, what’s your favorite food, who’s your favorite teacher, what was the last annoying thing your brother or sister did to you… that kind of thing.

I usually also throw in what’s your favorite color? This works well with both kids and adults. Usually, they pause, give it a little thought, and then smile fully with the absolute knowledge that aquamarine or salmon or sparkly silver is the current pick.

Yesterday I photographed a Holocaust survivor named Maria. I fired off the first question, not really giving it a lot of thought: what’s your favorite color? No pause necessary. “White,” she said in her thick Polish accent. I went about shooting, but she continued, in a very serious tone. She explained to me that it was white, yes, definitely white, and it had been white ever since the day she was liberated from the place she and her mother hid for twenty-eight months during the Nazi invasion and occupation of Poland. I put my camera aside and listened as she described how absolutely dark everything was in the cramped underground bunker, how sometimes she would ask her mother why does it always have to be so dark and her mother shushed her and said, quiet, someone will hear you. Once they were freed from this place of hiding, young Maria was wowed by the light, by everything bright.

It meant life to her.

Sixty-odd years later and her home is white on white – white carpet, white furniture, white flowers, white drapes. Her favorite clothes are white.

She doesn’t like dark.

I hoisted up my camera after she finished answering my simple question so I could continue making pictures of her. Through the viewfinder she suddenly looked different to me.

It’s amazing how one seemingly innocuous question can bring you to a deeper understanding of someone else. One of the true blessings of doing what I do.

bad things happen to good people

Michael, the director of the orphanage at St. Mary Kevin’s is a mensch. He is a kindhearted, genuine, earnest and decent man. He works tirelessly to help these children who have so little.

Michael’s laptop was stolen. Now, I can certainly relate to the heartache, frustration and anger that he’s experiencing. My laptop was stolen when I was in Uganda. I lost a few pictures and a few things I’d written. Michael, however, has lost all the records he had been keeping with regard to the orphanage, all his project proposals… it’s immense. He described the theft as a “big loss in his life.” When I saw the subject title of the email, I was certain someone had died.

Immediately upon my return from Africa, I drove down to the local Apple store and replaced my stolen computer with a cool, shiny new one. Michael won’t be so lucky. Not only has he lost months and months of work, now he will simply do without a computer until something else comes along. (It was a gift in the first place.)

As I sit here in Kansas City thinking about it, I am just fuming – angrier than I was the first time around dealing with this stolen laptop scenario. I was a tourist – it was somehow understandable. Michael is a Ugandan. A Ugandan mensch, at that.

kentucky 4

We spent the afternoon going through old photos. I am always delighted when I discover ones I feel certain I took as a child and amazed when I come across wonderful images of the family I’ve never seen before. What really astounds me, though, is the tack sharp memory my father has when recalling the circumstances surrounding people, places or events in the pictures, even ones dating back to the 1940’s!

This photograph of my grandparents and older brother was taken in the late 40’s. My father was probably the photographer. He has always claimed he has no artistic sense, but I am beginning to question that.

I culled more slides for my Shredding Project, too – ten more to play around with. I’m excited to get started on them. Speaking of the Shredding Project, several of the large ones (28” x 28”) will be installed in the April exhibition at Dolphin Gallery in Kansas City. I am honored to be part of this show that includes images by Elijah Gowin, Deanna Dikeman, Jesse DeMartino and Michael Sinclair. The opening for the show will be Friday, April 6th. More on that to come.

kentucky 3

Yesterday my dad and I drove down to the Kentucky River. It was a gorgeous drive on country roads that snake through horse and tobacco farms. Dad was born and raised in Lexington, and he is no slouch when it comes to the history of the area. He always makes for a great tour guide. When we reached the river, we drove onto a rustic, old three-car ferry (this isn’t the original ferry, but the operation dates back to 1785) that transported us across to Madison County. Dad recalled one time when he and my mom came down to the river and stretched out on its banks on a blanket to watch a lunar eclipse. He has eighty-six years worth of memories of places like this. It is a treat to hear him tell the stories.

kentucky 2

This is my childhood bedroom - still pretty much the same as it was back in the day! The "teen creed" and Beatles pictures I used to have hanging on the wall has been replaced by some of my photographs, but otherwise, it's still my old room. I think the matching bedspread, wallpaper, drapes and waste paper basket date back to my early adolescence.

kentucky

I took my Dad to the barbershop yesterday for a haircut - same place he's been going for thirty-five years. Time seems to have stood still in this place.

oprah

Yesterday’s Oprah show featured several women from North Carolina who had gone to Liberia to do mission work and had returned with the notion of adopting some of the orphans they had met there. These determined moms did just that and are now raising African children in the city of Charlotte. Max was watching the show with me and asked if I had considered doing the same thing when I was in Uganda. I had to admit that, while it had crossed my mind on several occasions, I was actually looking forward to this next chapter in my life – the empty nest one - which will allow me to pick up and go whenever and wherever I’d like. Ideally, I’ll travel with my camera in my backpack and make pictures while I’m away - pictures that will ultimately benefit other people, open peoples’ eyes to certain situations and open my own eyes, too.

I take my hat off to these women and their families, though.

Often I just sit and look through the images I made in Uganda, lingering on faces, studying expressions, considering certain moments - trying to take in the details in a more complete way. I still cannot fully explain what it was that moved me so. Listening to the moms on Oprah talk about their experiences in Liberia, though, struck a chord. And looking into the faces of the children they have adopted, even though just on a TV screen, reminded me of the way I felt when I was walking around the orphanage hand in hand with the children there.

Tomorrow I will travel to Kentucky to visit my father for a few days. As some of you know, I will sleep in the same bedroom that has been mine for nearly fifty years! When I consider the stability, the connectedness and the certainty that I have been granted – things that have really been the centerpiece of my life – I feel lucky. The children at Operation Breakthrough and the children at the orphanage in Uganda refer to their homes as the places where they “stay.” Not where they “live.”

I bet these hopeful, happy kids who have found themselves in Charlotte say that’s where they live now. How cool is that…

mailing list

I have been busy printing, matting and framing pieces for the exhibition, which is set to open at the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City on April 27th. Please let me know if you would like to be added to my (snail) mail list, so you can receive an invitation to the opening reception. Just drop me an email with your address (gbfeinstein@aol.com).

convergence

Boys Swimming, Kansas, 2004

This image of mine was featured on Leopold Gallery's blog a few days ago. A reader named Walker made some comments I really enjoyed:

"Anyone who has attempted the medium knows that there is but a brief second when the fates converge, when line, form, contrast, and some inexplicable thing (beauty, mystery, eloquence) are captured on a negative. Only later does one find the positive emerging from the chemical baptismal bath, only later does one choose between the image taken two seconds before the boy with outstretched arms jumped in or up, or the one just after when his arm blocked the face of another who is now swimming away. And how intensely frustrating it is when the vision is missed, when one is too late, or too early, when one failed to make the proper calculations of exposure, or composition, or damnit put film in the camera (sounds ridiculous I know but that kind of stuff does happen). Conversely what a joy when these elements succeed."

beaded jewelry from st. mary kevin's

The beads are handcrafted from recycled magazine paper. First the paper is cut into long strips and then rolled tightly to make a bead. Then the bead is varnished for sheen and durability. Finally, beads are selected for matching hues and then strung together to create bracelets and necklaces.

Michael and Rosemary sent lots of pieces that the teachers and children at the St. Mary Kevin community have made. They began this project in December. I am still waiting to get prices, but thought it would be fun to give readers of the blog a glimpse of the colorful and fun jewelry from St. Mary Kevin Orphanage Motherhood!

usc or bust

Our mail carrier, whose name is Bump, showed up at our front door yesterday afternoon with a big fat envelope from USC. Because of the weight of the envelope, Eddie and I decided it must be good news; we promptly hid it, thumbed through the yellow pages, found a store way out south that sells collegiate apparel and got in the car to go purchase two (well, Dad needs one) USC hats. We made dinner plans at his favorite sushi restaurant. Eddie and I went early, slipped the USC envelope inside the menu, put the hats under the table and then tried to act nonchalant as Max walked in. I handed him his menu, grabbed my camera and set about watching Max's reaction through my viewfinder as it slowly hit him that he had been accepted to the Music Industry program at the Thornton School of Music at USC - his dream choice for college. He laughed, then he cried, then there were high fives all around the table. It was one of those priceless moments parents get to share with their children every once in a while if they're lucky. What a great evening!

jack and isak

Last night the board of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education honored our founders Jack and Isak with birthday cakes and balloons as they prepare to celebrate their 80th and 85th birthdays respectively. Jack and Isak are both survivors, both dear and remarkable men. Both have been important role models for me; my admiration, respect and affection for them runs deep.

Jack grew up in the Holocaust. Born in the free state of Danzig in 1927, he was just 12 years old when Hitler invaded Poland. At age 13, he was captured by the Nazis and for the next two years, he worked in series of forced labor camps. In 1942, he was deported and imprisoned at Blechammer concentration camp, the first of many such camps where he would be sent prior to his liberation on May 7, 1945. He was the sole survivor of his family of six. Jack and his friend Isak arrived in the United States in June 1946. Together they founded the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education in 1993.

Isak was the sole survivor of an entire family. Born in Poland in 1922, at the age of seventeen, he was arrested by the SS and sent to Miechow. Four years later, in 1943, he and other prisoners were loaded into boxcars and sent west. He spent the next twenty-six months in eleven different camps, always under the control of the SS. He was sent to Bergen-Belsen twice. He managed to escape once, but was shot and recaptured. Towards the end of the war, he was sent to Sandposten, ninety-eight kilometers from Bergen-Belsen. At liberation, in April 1945, Isak weighed only eighty pounds and had to recover in a British field hospital. That Christmas, on hearing a translation of President Truman's speech to the American people declaring that he would allow 100,000 displaced persons to immigrate to the United States, Isak resolved to leave Europe. He and Ann, his wife-to-be, arrived in the United States in June 1946. They were the first Holocaust survivors married in Kansas City.

To say that these men have made a profound difference in the lives of many would be an understatement. Their mission: to teach the history and lessons of the Holocaust to people of all races and religious beliefs throughout the Midwest to prevent its recurrence and perpetuate understanding, compassion, and mutual respect for generations to come.

I, for one, feel very lucky to know Jack and Isak - and honored to call them my friends.

package from uganda

Lots of goodies arrived today, thanks to Susan who managed to find room in her suitcase for these things from the folks at St. Mary Kevin's. Among other things, there are bags and bags of beaded jewelry made by the children, a CD with more songs and this canvas. One of the children made this painting of some of the orphans and me!

silhouette

Tim Wride, curator of photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, selected this image for inclusion in the upcoming exhibition "The Art of Photography" which will be held in April at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in San Diego. I made this image at the boxing gym in Kampala - looking up at a man peering in through the window.

column by mary sanchez

Pond of Human Ashes, Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp, 2001
from the series Among the Ashes

I had the good fortune to meet Mary Sanchez, a columnist for the Kansas City Star, a couple of years ago when we were judges for the White Rose Essay contest sponsored by the MIdwest Center for Holocaust Education. I thought her column that appeared in the Star on 2/27 was really interesting and definitely worth sharing:

"Lives Still Hang in the Balance of U.S. Policies -

I suspect I’m like a lot of women of a certain age who were obsessed with Anne Frank’s diary as a young girl. When little girls read Anne Frank, it is usually their first look at the evils of mankind. Devouring page after page, bonding with our new little friend, we’re horrified by the unwritten end. “She died!” my niece cried after she read the book as a 12-year-old.

Now, with the newly discovered correspondence of Anne’s father, Otto Frank, a new layer of tragedy has been added. Anne’s life, along with those of her mother and sister, might have been spared had U.S. officials granted the family visas. A nearly 80-page dossier of Otto Frank’s papers turned up in New York’s YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, evidence of a man’s desperate campaign to save his family’s lives — and a bureaucratic system that took little notice.

The bureaucracy in question was our own. Throughout 1941, shortly before his family was forced into hiding, Otto Frank sought permission to emigrate to the United States, enlisting stateside family members and influential business leaders to plead his case and to help pay the hefty fees. His efforts came to nothing.

This is the prologue of Anne’s story, the reason she ended up hiding in that 'Secret Annex' in the first place, spilling her girlish thoughts into a diary now among the most treasured of literary works.

Better connected and wealthier than most, Otto Frank could tap friends like one who was an heir to the Macy’s fortune. Otto did manage to get a visa to enter Cuba but was given only one, for himself. His wife’s brothers already lived in the United States, and both they and their employers did all they could do. But by early 1939, the waiting list for those visas was 300,000 names long.

As Hitler tightened his grip on Europe, the United States was curtailing access to coveted visas for those fleeing Europe — especially, it appears, for Jews. The United States expected soon to be at war with Germany, and the State Department believed German immigrants posed a security risk. By 1941, when Germany declared war on the United States, those with relatives in Germany were all but banned from immigrating.

We now know how tragic and wrong this policy was. By 1941, the Nazis had begun in earnest their genocide against the Jews in the East, but the fate of Jews in Western Europe was still in question. By 1942, Germany adopted the so-called Final Solution and built the gas chambers. In the brief period before Germany declared war on the United States, how many European Jews could have escaped had America opened its doors to them? How could U.S. officials have failed to admit them, knowing what was in store?

Otto Frank’s case forces us to consider these questions. It also ought to add complexity to how Anne Frank’s diary is taught. The book is usually assigned to teach tolerance, a relatively simple story of victims and perpetrators. We’re content to let preteens connect with Anne as she stews about fights with her sister, bristles at her mother’s scolding, and peers out, perplexed, at a frightening and hostile world. Hers is a timeless tale of youth convinced it will never be understood.

Yet there is a disconnect for children reading the book in the warmth and safety of their own homes, at their neighborhood school, or, as in my case, tucked into bed, huddled against curfew with a flashlight under the bedcovers. Anne’s world was long ago and far away, and things are different now.

We’d like to think that with 24-hour cable news and countless blogs, and with all the human rights organizations active today, such horrors could be stopped. If we just knew, we’d rise up in protest, right?

But then there is Darfur. And New Orleans. And our government pulls an innocent Canadian citizen off a plane and bundles him off to Syria for a year of torture. The man is a Muslim and his name is on a list. Suspicion is justified not by deed but by his identity. National security is at stake.

Her father’s letters reveal that, however indirectly and unintentionally, U.S. policy sealed Anne Frank’s fate. Explaining that to young readers may help them to think differently about horrors they see in the news every day. And, maybe, it will change how they react."

(c) 2006, The Kansas City Star.
Distributed by Tribune Media Services

huge photos

I know that the trend in fine art photography has been moving toward larger and larger print sizes, but this is crazy! I am so excited about this new project: a major trucking company based in Kansas City has offered to transform the sides of one of their semis into the wall space, if you will, for some of my photos from Operation Breakthrough. They will blow these puppies up to outrageous proportions and plaster them on the sides of a truck. Then as this truck travels across highways and biways, it will advertise Operation Breakthrough and grant people from all across the US the opportunity to see some of the adorable children who grace the hallways, classrooms and playgrounds at the center.

change the truth update

The information that is available concerning USE (Universal Secondary Education) in Uganda has been somewhat confusing. I asked Rosemary, director of St. Mary Kevin’s to clarify what is going on. I received this response from her:

“We’re all exited about USE but we don’t know yet if we shall have it. Also, this started with Senior One this year and will be continuing with those children to Senior Four. That means children who are in Senior Two now are also still paying. This Universal Secondary Education has just been introduced to Uganda and it has not worked out yet to some areas in Uganda so our children are still paying who are in secondary.

About the young children in primary, these children are meant to pay money to the school such that the school can run its needs, for example teacher’s payments and other school needs. As you know we have St Mary Kevin Orphanage and St Mary Kevin Primary School.
St. Mary Kevin Primary school makes a fees subsidy to the orphans. Tuition fees for the orphans are subsidized at 50% level costing Ush 20,000 (US $10) tuition fee per child per term, with three terms a year. We normally try to look for that money through the small projects like the beads making, weaving, brick making where those Items are sold to generate income for the orphanage.

Thank you Gloria and Change the Truth for your advocacy in United States concerning the needy children in Uganda. You are making the St. Mary Kevin Community very happy at the possibility of finding these, your children, a better life.”

I would also like to acknowledge the incredibly generous and talented people who are working hard to Change the Truth. These folks have been kind enough to do work for the organization without expecting any payment. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate their efforts:

Brian Reisinger (Brooklyn) has a design firm called Swandive. He is doing all of the design work for the brochure and the website.

Take 2 Productions (Kansas City) is offering up the skills of the wonderful Cara Meyers to put together the video presentation.

David Andre and Joan Herman (Kansas City) are lawyers - and good friends of mine - who are busy working on trademark issues and not-for-profit status.

Jayne Olderman (Atlanta) is a singer-songwriter who helped out with the production of the CD featuring the kids from St. Mary Kevin’s singing "A Child of Africa."

Susan Panelli (Minneapolis) is a filmmaker who recently went to Uganda and shot lots of great footage at St. Mary Kevin’s. We’ll be able to use this in the video presentation, as well as on the website.

Lynn Auerbach (Boston and Uganda) operates a non-for-profit called “Connect Africa.” She has been very helpful in getting funds from Change the Truth transferred to St. Mary Kevin’s.

This is definitely a group effort. Thank you so much to all who are assisting with this project, whether it is with your talent and time or with your dollars. It means the world to the kids at St. Mary Kevin’s.