Hi,

Hello little web,

Here we are, it’s hot.

My brother and I visited my parents in May, and we all made a trip to the Whirlygig Park in Wilson, NC. The whirly gigs were created by Vollis Simpson, an outsider artist that lived in a more rural area in Wilson. 

I am one of many pesky youngsters who would trespass on his property. His entire yard was filled with the most magical and spectacular contraptions using scrap metal to spin in the wind and reflectors that flash in the night. We would sneak around his yard and be transported into a world beyond the mundane of small town life. Vollis always knew when kids were there and he would scare us away everytime, lol. 

Wilson has fully embraced the whirly gig as their own symbol of community. I am pleased I  finally visited the whirly gigs in their new home. 

The book club just finished a fictionalized story of Dorthea Lange titled ‘Learning to See.’ She photographed the Japanese detention centers in the 1940s, and I was surprised to see that she photographed the same detention centers that illustrator Miné Okubo was in as a youth which she documented in the graphic comic “Citizen 13660’ (she is featured in a book I co-authored called Walk Her Way).

Our discussion naturally turned to censorship. Dorthea was not permitted to photograph the fences and the illegal work of prisoners among other things. The government controlled what the public could see. The parallels are easy to see. We are similarly censored today, with limited video or photographs, and the people actually lost from being shuffled around detention centers. From what I can observe, the conditions seem worse than the 1940s camps.

When I was in Mexico in February for the annual yoga retreat, I met a woman who was detained by ICE and placed in one of the worst detention centers in the country. She had two choices, stay and wait in deplorable conditions or be deported to a country she has never known – she was running out of money because lawyers are not helping everyone pro-bono. She moved to the US before the age of five and was never naturalized as a citizen. She has a family, two boys and is my exact age. She misses her family but can not return home. 

It’s difficult to sit with powerlessness, especially for as long as we have. There is no way to repay people who have lost time with their families, their health, their businesses, their homes. 

Bounty & Soul – Bounty & Soul provides free veggies and fruit to residents across Buncombe County (12 markets!) and since the hurricane, the amount of families that they serve has doubled. During the Christmas season, a one hour market alone gives over 120+ families fresh whole foods and presents for their children. If you need a tax free contribution, please consider this organization. 

I’m with frog! 

Hugs & Muppet Kisses,
Kaitlyn