Americans Who Tell The Truth

Support AWTT With a Donation Artsapalooza! August 27 5:30- 8:00 At Bagaduce Music  A fun-filled evening for individuals and families to create art and music Get tickets here Come join us at 5:30 p.m. on August 27, 2025, for an evening filled with creativity and music at Bagaduce Music in Blue Hill, Maine! Whether you’re into making portraits, activism, listening to live music, or singing along, there’s something for everyone at this event. Get ready to be inspired and have a great time surrounded by fellow activists and art enthusiasts. Bagaduce Music’s Bennett Konesni will bring a collection of “Songs For What Feels Important In This World,” featuring his own list of originals and classics that are great for singing along, including sea-shanties calling out tyrannical captains, meditative chants, good-food hollers, and songs for marching and organizing.  Try out your artistic talents and create a self or family portrait with guidance from AWTT founding artist Rob Shetterly Food and shaved ice will be available for purchase. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to learn more and support Americans Who Tell the Truth and Bagaduce Music, and fund exciting scholarship opportunities for both organizations! Get tickets here   Outdoor Installation of Truth Tellers   The John Brown Lives! The organization is hosting an outdoor exhibit of AWTT portrait reprints from July 17 through October 31, 2025, at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, New York. The portraits feature abolitionist John Brown and Congressman John Lewis. The exhibit's kick-off event took place on the nationwide “Good Trouble Lives On” day of action, commemorating the fifth anniversary of Lewis’s death. Other portraits include #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke, anti-war activist Rachel Corrie, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Albany-based community activist Dr. Alice P. Green, and organizer Rev. Lennox Yearwood. Read more here. Listen to David Escobar interview AWTT portrait artist Robert Shetterly for the Adirondack Explorer. The interview also aired on North Country Public Radio   Buy Your Courage is Contagious Protest Wear Today! Buy Now Rob's Blog On Being Woke The justification for erasing America’s historic injustices, claiming that knowing them causes kids to feel guilt or shame, is a high priority for our current right wing government. Trump and his ilk make this sound like a noble cause—protecting kids from carrying the factual and emotional burdens of history. Think how much more uncomplicated and gentle—easy to bear—our history would be if slavery and indigenous genocide, Jim Crow, misogyny, and corporate malfeasance never happened. They call knowing and teaching this true history being “woke.” Woke is a synonym for simply being aware. And don’t we all know that being aware is a bad thing? Or, am I the only one who remembers that the primary function of education is to make kids aware, keep them awake to truth and reality? In classrooms that protect students from the dangers of wokeness, teachers will give gold stars for falling asleep. And Teachers of the Year will be selected for how thoroughly they erase the history of injustice, canceled climate science, and denied the effectiveness of vaccines. Are the proponents of censoring history doing that for all kids—or particularly white kids? Kids of color might experience the woke curriculum as being seen, knowing the truth of the origins of racism: this is what was done, this is why it was wrong, this is how we moved forward. It’s the moving forward, grappling with injustice, having the courage to confront that dragon in his cave, that turns what could be guilt and shame into inspiration and heroism. The lesson of history is not that it unfairly defines white people as cruel, racist demons; the lesson is that many refused to be cruel and racist and insisted that all people be treated equally. It teaches us the only way we maintain ideals is if people have the courage to demand and enact them. Read More     Host AWTT Portraits in your Community Americans Who Tell the Truth (AWTT) portraits can be combined to illuminate a vast array of themes in both sophisticated and humble exhibit venues. Community engagement programs combine exhibits with public events that stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue around citizenship, democracy, education, and activism. (Learn more)

Visit Americans Who Tell The Truth's online store . Shop AWTT products – prints, t-shirts, mugs, and more – to support education and community programming for Americans Who Tell the Truth. With your purchase, know that you are helping inspire citizenship, activism, and work for the common good. Learn More Donate Now Please consider donating on our website or sending a check to support AWTT’s efforts to Americans Who Tell the Truth, 46 Bridge Rd., Brooksville, ME 04617.  All gifts to AWTT are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. If you have any questions, please contact Director of Strategic Engagement Kristie Gonzalez Kristie@americanswhotellthetruth.org