From Rev. Arnold Thomas:
Host Rev. Arnold Thomas meets with Janet McKenzie, a Vermont artist, to discuss her artwork and the impact it has had.
Vermont artist Janet McKenzie burst into the international spotlight in 1999 when her painting Jesus of the People won the National Catholic Reporter’s competition for a new image of Jesus. Sister Wendy Beckett, host of the PBS show Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting, described it as “a haunting image of the peasant Jesus – dark and thick-lipped, looking out on us with ineffable dignity, with sadness but with confidence. Over His white robe, He draws the darkness of our lack of love, holding it to Himself, prepared to transform all sorrows if we will let Him.” As we enter this Holiday season, we shall become better acquainted with this White Vermonter who has expanded the scope of religious imagination through her multiracial and multicultural concepts of God’s presence among and within us.
HOPE video credit: musician Sara Thomsen www.sarathomsen.com
To contact Jackie McKenzie and learn more about her art, visit: www.janetmckenzie.com
When African Americans mention “The Talk,” they refer to important conversations their parents or elders had with them concerning how to survive in a racist, hostile, environment, specifically when confronted by the police. I imagine similar conversations occur between parents and children among all People of Color and marginalized communities. However, in a nation that will soon be dominated by people of color, it is crucial that such conversations occur among White families as well concerning how to live peacefully and productively in a multiracial and multicultural country where all prosper. The Talk, Vermont is about the concerns and interests of Black Vermonters, Vermonters of Color, and other marginalized communities that can be shared with all Vermonters and those who wish to live in one of the whitest state in the nation, in the hope that we can truly learn and grow from our interactions with one other, and make Vermont a truly hospitable state in which all may learn and grow.