The Crooked Mirror l Louise Steinman’s Blog

Journeys within and beyond

Search my blog posts

Among the Righteous, on the passing of Marian Bereska

Among the Righteous, on the passing of Marian Bereska

I can’t let 2015 fade into the night without making mention of a remarkable man who passed away in a little town in central Poland on December 20, the day before the winter solstice.I had the privilege of meeting Marian Bereska first in 2009, when he finally was willing to tell his story of how he and is mother Janina together hid five Jews from the Radomsko ghetto in their little house.

Read More
Art and Labor in the Pacific NW
Art and Culture, history, Human Rights Jennifer Essen Art and Culture, history, Human Rights Jennifer Essen

Art and Labor in the Pacific NW

On this trip in August, as we waved goodbye to Buster, heading south from Seattle for Portland, he admonished us not to miss “the Wobbly murals in Centralia.” So we veered off the highway into that modest Lewis County town, its only claim to fame, as far as I knew, as the birthplace of avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham.What I didn’t know was that Centralia was the site of an anti-labor massacre, where an innocent man was lynched, castrated and hung from the bridge on the Chehalis River. The man’s name was Wesley Everest. He was a veteran and a member of the I.W.W. (International Workers of the World). He was pulled out of jail, handed over to his persecutors and murdered in the dark of night. The next morning, when Centralia schoolchildren crossed the bridge to go to school, his mutilated body still dangled over the river.

Read More
What a Freedom Fighter Looks Like
ALOUD, Human Rights, reconciliation Jennifer Essen ALOUD, Human Rights, reconciliation Jennifer Essen

What a Freedom Fighter Looks Like

This is how he described that moment in his memoir, The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter:“What happened?" and a woman's voice said, "It was a car bomb," and I collapsed into darkness again, but with a sense of euphoria. I'd survived. For, I don't know how many decades, every single day in the freedom struggle, wondering, "If they come for me today, if they come for me tonight, if they come for me tomorrow morning, will I be brave? Will I survive?" They'd come for me and I'd got through. I'd got through. I just felt fantastic. Then darkness, quiet, nothing.

Read More