Portraits of Earth Justice

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Americans Who Tell the Truth offers much-needed rays of hope in times made dark by the climate crisis and deep inequality. It provides uplifting portraits, both verbal and pictorial, of courageous activists who have devoted their lives to the fight for climate justice.

Portraits of Earth Justice illuminates the humanity of forward-thinking advocates taking critical bold actions on the challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis. At a time when democracy and the very life support systems of humanity are threatened, let these beautiful faces and works inspire you to keep rising up, or rise up for the first time, to preserve our rights and this beautiful and sustaining planet for all of our children and future generations.

Through Robert Shetterly’ss masterful portraits of brilliant women and men activists in the work of doing justice to the soil and the plants and animals we need to nurture, and through their passionate essays imploring us to cherish instead of despoil the only Earth we have, this book empowers us. Like the words of Sandra Steingraber inscribed in her portrait, ‘We are all musicians in a great human orchestra, and it is now time to play the Save the World Symphony.’

It is rare that you come across a book as stunningly impactful as Portraits of Earth Justice. The essays by this diverse cast of environmental protagonists are riveting and Rob Shetterly’s portraits of people who love and care for the earth are piercing in their beauty and depth of character. I can’t think of a better way to move people, particularly young people, from despair about the climate crisis to empowerment and inspiration than sharing this gift to Mother Earth that Rob Shetterly has created.

Robert Shetterly is a visual artist, social activist, and writer. For the past twenty years, he has painted portraits of citizens who address issues of social, environmental, and economic fairness in the series Americans Who Tell the Truth, now the subject of the Kane Lewis feature-length documentary Truth Tellers, which is currently airing on American Public Television. Shetterly’s portrait project is also recorded in a multi-volume book series, including Portraits of Racial Justice and Portraits of Earth Justice, and Portraits of Peacemakers. Since 1990, Shetterly has been a producer of the Maine Masters Project and has served as President of the Union of Maine Visual Artists. Shetterly lives and works in Brooksville, Maine.