July 2015 Steady Forward, Close to Goal
On many fronts Sticking Up For Children continues to go forward and expand circles.
Purchasers of artist's shadow-boxes with drumsticks-as-art are increasing and thus
increasing the funding and means that we're able to provide.
Our particular goal over the past month is raising $10,000 to ship a 40-foot-long container
from New Orleans to the Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants (FEPE0 orphanage in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. Orphans' art and being and the staff at FEPE have blessed us since we began our
partnership two years ago. What they and other Haitians might do with 3D printers!
Jim Van Dine of Hoka One One and Katrina Frey of Frey Vineyards each have a shadow-box
with drumsticks-as-art coming to them.
Maryse Déjean painted the shadow-box with FEPE orphans' drumsticks-as-art that's going
to Jim. You can check it would with video by Aristide Phillips and the song "Tim Tim" by
Jacques Sauveur of Haiti here.
Cyril Neville, co-founder of Sticking Up For Children with Gaynielle Neville, his wife, and the
entire Royal Southern Brotherhood band, somehow found time to paint a shadow-box AND
drumsticks-as-art last May after the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. It's going to Katrina
and Jon Frey and Frey Vineyards. Check out the art!
Aristide Phillips took these photos after his father Collins added lacquer to Cyril's drumsticks-as-art and shadown-box in the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward. Aristide and Collins have been invaluable to our efforts
and this photograph of them is much-admired on Facebook. Great people, too.
A purchaser-to-be-named later--as she wants to surprise her husband with her gift on his birthday next
August--chose drumsticks-as-art painted by Gaynielle Neville and signed by Stanton Moore (a favorite of
her busband's) and other Sticking Up For Children supporters Hamid Drake, Jonathan Richman, James Singleton and David Torkanowsky. Check out this art, too!
Much more is on the way! While in California on a very short 'Funding FEPE' tour, Don Paul reconnected with
several artists who support Sticking Up For Children.
Eric Drooker is the creator of literally numberless posters and flyers about issues close to his heart. The graphic novel Flood and the illustrations for the movie and graphic book of Allen Ginsberg's Howl are among Eric's work.
His cover for the July 6, 2015 New Yorker shows what gifts and skills he has for color, composition, and character.
Sales of Don Paul's new book, Animals Are Always Making Music / Poems & Prose & Songs, and the 'Funding FEPE'
CD with 12 tracks of his songs and poems in collaboration with many artists (Kidd Jordan, Morikeba Kouyayté,
Alex de Grassi, Hamid Drake, India Cooke, Pablo Garcia, India Cooke, Cole Williams, Mario Abney, John Baker, ...) between 1990 and 2015 also brought in funds. Three distance-running friends, writer Bob Cooper, coach Bob
Darling, and jeweler/artist Kim Eric Lilot were among those who bought books albums.
The great Kidd Jordan added his signature to our supporters. You can have Kidd's autograph and his message here nicely affixed to a shadow-box of your choice. Many albums are his are superb; one that's timely is
his with Hamid Drake and William Parker from September 2005, Palm Of Soul.
Safi wa Nairobi, show-host on KPOO in San Francisco, did an interview on June 30 that was very understanding
and sympathetic toward Sticking Up For Children. Safi's show was also the radio premiere of a track meant to benefit FEPE, "Storms Arise in The Eyes Of Men / And Still The Second-Lines Dance!", Don Paul's song about the 2005 levees-failure flood and New Orleans' irrepressible Social Aid & Pleasure Club culture.
Safi's interview is up on soundcloud and the "Storms Arise ... Second-LInes Dance!" is available for digital
download at bandcamp.com. Every dollar from the download goes toward shipping the container to FEPE.
Artists' shadow-boxes in our Art and Music Store, orphans' drumsticks-as-art, books and recordings by Don Paul and others, are all meant as means to support Sticking Up For Children and in particular the immediate
for funding that will allow FEPE receive that 40-foot-long container that Marie-Jo Poux has filled with donations
from New Orleans and elsewhere.
It's a great thing--a great, expanding circle--and we're close to our goal! About $1900 to go! Contact us directly
at stickingupforchildren@gmail.com and order from us directly at 717 Perry Street in Gretna, LA 70053, as we've again suffered lapses in communication and payment through PayPal.
Marie-Jo was busy with Bethel Christian volunteers, moving boxes from her apartment in New Orleansfor the container to FEPE, when she gave this video-message to us yesterday, July 10, 2015.
