PASSOVER, The festival of Freedom

why you don’t have to be Jewish to celebrate Passover


Gathered together,
many of us and them,
old and young
people of all persuasions
celebrating our human kinship
and becoming us
together

learning the story
from a book read backwards,
the Hagaddah
ancient tales of
slavery and suffering
and plagues sent down to
vanquish the oppressors,

and discovering the world of slavery today

Moses pleading with Pharoah to
let my people go

And the miraculous escape from
slavery through the
parted Red Sea,
a pathway to a new life in a new
desert land, to freedom at last.

Free at last!

The dream of Martin Luther King
The jubilant proclamation of Nelson Mandela

The table with eggs dipped in the salty tears of the oppressed
bitter herbs, and unleavened bread
baked in the desert,
apples chopped with honey,
the cement of bricks that Jewish slaves
lifted for an eternity of suffering.

And now in 2010,
we together,
of many beliefs
and many ways of praying
and many ways of wishing and hoping
lament the slaves of now,
of 2010,
27 million throughout the world
more than any time in history
half of whom are children
children dragged from their childhood
into prisons of pain and horror
in fields and factories,
and brothels…

We raise our glasses
to toast those who fearlessly
work together to create
paths to freedom,
for all.
Everywhere.
We break unleavened bread
together
for renewed strength
and hope…

Our Passover, together.

Children's right to play

A child’s right to Play

My book CATCH A DREAMER, began when I created ten tapestries celebrating the ten rights of the child. The very first tapestry I created in this series related to a child’s right to play, the essence of childhood.

Maybe it was the child within me, (possibly an overused phrase, but still valid nevertheless), that drew me first to that particular right.

Childhood is play. That some kids don’t have a chance
to play is beyond belief. Play is so much part of being
a child it seems that denying the experience of play
to a child is close to denying a child her life. That children
find a way to play when they have almost nothing, gives
testimony to the miracle of a child’s spirit.


Play is the soul of childhood.
It is magic and imagination
mixed together in a fairy tale brew.

It is chalking lines on a sidewalk
and hopping between them.
It is running in a field or a park
and thinking you are a super being
who can fly,and swim in a cloud.
even if you’re running in a field of garbage.

Play is when you are the queen of the whole wide world
and the world is wider than the street, the house
the back yard, wider than the sky, bigger than all the school rooms all put together..
even if you haven’t ever been in a schoolroom because you have to work in a field or a factory



Play is when you are the magician, you are the doctor,
you are the teacher. Play is when you swish your wand and all bad things disappear.
even if your mother is so sick she can’t take care of you and you are afraid she will die and leave you.

Play is tumbling and wrestling,
and skipping and throwing a ball higher than the highest mountain
and battling the monster with your
silver sword which is a stick you found
in the street,
even if there are soldiers with real guns all around you, and you are afraid of them.

Play makes dreams become real.
Play is the game of I win, I am strong
I am brave, I can ride an elephant
Play is the game of who can giggle
the most,
and who can laugh the loudest.
even if I am homeless.

Play is jumping rope with a rainbow.
Play is the jump rope game of life.


click here for information about an organization
that takes play seriously:

http://www.ipausa.org/index.html

special holiday offer for my book

There's no time like holiday time to celebrate the world's children.

CATCH A DREAMER is a unique gift of art and poetry, a tribute to the spirit of children.

This book is for both children and adults to enjoy on many levels: from the colors and bold shapes to the message of hope for all children everywhere.

A very special book
Now with a special offer:

Buy one copy of CATCH A DREAMER for $25

and get each additional copy for $15.

Just add $5 for shipping no matter the quantity!

This offer available through December 31, 2009

Click here for more information.
Or click here to place your order for CATCH A DREAMER now.

Publishing on demand: a new world of freedom!

Newsflash: 100 CATCH A DREAMER books are now resting peacefully on my studio table.
They have been printed packaged and delivered to my door... and are waiting to be delivered to the first 100 folks who have been eagerly awaiting a chance to buy this book.( I have a rich fantasy life) For the hard (and soft ) facts check out: http://www.dovetailpublications

Publishing on demand means that you can actually demand to be published. That really appeals to me, who, on a few but rare occasions has been called a demanding person. This accusation has been asserted when I, hoped for, wished for, and yes demanded control of how my art got printed, posted, pictured, and presented.

Were these demands met? Sometimes, but never enough times.

But now I FIND MYSELF IN THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF PRINTING ON DEMAND. I have escaped the necessity of ordering what the overseas printers decide are minimum orders...would you believe 2500? Yes, the price per book is cheap, but the outlay is out of reach for ordinary private citizens like me.

Hurray for digital printing which permits me to be the actual publisher. What power trip!
I choose the size, the layout, the colors, the number of pages, and above all THE CONTENT
OF MY OWN BOOK.

No more censorship from the movers and shakers in the publishing world:

" Not everyone loves the UN, Helen. Possibly could you not emphasize the role of the UN in regard to children's rights?"

" I have some questions about the use of tapestries as illustrations in this book. People don't really understand that medium."

" The book is too arty for most people. More realism is needed in your art"

" Jim's words ( Jim Petersen wrote the poetry) are lovely but the meanings might be obscure for some. "

"The colors are a bit too bright. Bright is out. Too sixties"

And finally:

"Most people really don't care about the rights of children, at least not enough to buy a book about it. We sell to the masses."

So for all you demanding folks out there, who demand to be respected as individuals and not jammed into a box of mass ideas , tastes and beliefs or what others perceive as the values of the masses, I say to you support the efforts of the out of the box writers, artists, musicians and other non conforming idealists.

All of this springs from the wonders of the digital world which allows some
folks to to do their thing, without being thinged by the gate keepers.

August 6th, 1945, 64 years ago

It was August 1945, 64 years ago, I was 17. I had a summer job at Schrafts restaurant near Grand Central station. NYC. The waitresses wore black uniforms with white aprons and white collars. Schrafts: a lady like tea room environment where the sanwhiches didn't have crusts.

I was mostly terrified during the month I worked there…terrified of the angry cooks dishing out insults to the waitresses. I was singled out for my “Chink” handwriting, which was actually a printing style I learned in a private “progressive school”, where cursive writing was deemed to be inferior to printing.

I was intimidated by the head waitress, who watched me with an eagle eye, observing my nervousness and general ineptitude. The first day I was there I spilled a bowl of peas (canned) onto the lap of a navy officer. My first tip was one penny.

But that was the tip of the iceberg,
Underneath the icy attitude of the head waitress, was the fact that I was the only Jew among the throng of Irish Catholic waitresses.

“Don’t tell anyone your Jewish”.
“You don’t look Jewish.”
“No one will know.”
Advice from the waitresses after I casually, and naively, announced my religion.

But when a Negro ( that was the proper term for African Americans in the 40’s) school mate from Music and Art High School sat down at a table to visit me, the ice grew thicker. The fact that he was a male made my alienation complete.

Every day when walking through the doors of Schrafts, my stomach clenched.
On August 6th I showed up for work, and while slipping into my uniform, saw the headline announcing that the U.S had dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. About 80,000 people died instantly, and 60,000 more would die from their injuries in the coming months.

“That’ll show those Japs”. Everyone nodded in agreement, and hustled off to wait on tables.

I left my first job as a waitress 3 weeks later.

.

My new book coming soon!

The new book is called CATCH A DREAMER. Just saw the final proof and in two weeks it will be listed in Amazon.
If you dig color and poetry, and a message about the rights of children I think
you'll enjoy this book. It's based on my ten tapestries created to celebrate the UN's declaration of the Rights of the Child.