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In our latest newsletter, you'll find info on this year's Art & Activism themed events, including several coming up this fall; our Executive Director's reflections on reaching her 10-year anniversary at the RFC; stories of the activist families whose kids we're helping; and more. Get all the details here.

"Soul-nourishing...beautiful, woke, full of love weekend...moved me in ways I could not imagine."

These are just a few of the reactions from participants in a recent event that brought RFC grant recipients together for several days of creative cultural activities and community building. Get a glimpse of this profound event through the participants' eyes. The blog here highlights some of their words about how powerful it was for them to meet others who share the experience of being the children of targeted activists.

This interactive workshop open to adults and older children and led by visual artist Sophia Dawson, will introduce people to political prisoners, and explore the questions: what makes someone a political prisoner? Who are some of the U.S. held political prisoners? How can we support them? How can we use visual art to share their story?

The session will include video and other information about U.S. political prisoners, and give an opportunity for participants to interact with correspondence to and from several of these incarcerated individuals as part of Dawson's ongoing body of work around this issue, including her Paper Planes project, which strives to create 800 planes to represent the number of years political prisoners from the black liberation movement have been collectively incarcerated.

6:30 pm, Aug 24, in the office of the Rosenberg Fund for Children: Eastworks Building, 116 Pleasant St., Suite 348, Easthampton, MA. Free but pre-registration is required: rfc.org/tobefree.

Sweet Honey in the Rock, Climbing Poetree, The Love Experiment, and Sophia Dawson are coming to Easthampton, MA for a free "Art & Activism" themed festival this Saturday, August 26th!

The Rosenberg Fund for Children is proud to be the presenting sponsor for this edition of the Millpond.Live festival in Millside Park (2 Ferry St., Easthampton). We hope you'll join us for this multimedia journey incorporating music, spoken word, video and visual art in a conversation about pressing social issues including racism, police brutality, U.S. political prisoners, and other topics. The intergenerational lineup features artists who have dedicated their careers to creating change and speaking out against injustice.

Millpond.Live gates open at 5:00 pm on August 26th, and music begins at 6:00 pm. Attendees should bring blankets & chairs, and are welcome to carry in their own refreshments or purchase on site from food trucks and local microbreweries. This free, all-ages event will be the second installment of Millpond.Live's 2017 season, an eclectic, art and music festival spanning six Saturdays (August 19th - September 23rd), with different themes each week.

Visit Millpond.Live for more details on the August 26th Art & Activism event and the rest of the 2017 season.

The RFC office will be closed from August 14-18. We'll resume regular hours on Monday, August 21.

The RFC office will be closed on August 3-4 so that we can host our grantees for an off-site Gathering. We'll return to normal office hours on Monday, August 7th. For urgent needs in the meantime, email info@rfc.org.

In the first of what we hope will be a series of short video profiles of our community, we’re delighted to feature artist, activist and RFC Board member, Pamela Means. Pamela is a gifted singer/songwriter and jazz musician, who often addresses raw and pressing social issues in her music. She's delivered show-stopping performances of "Strange Fruit" and her own original material in RFC events; check out both in the video here.

On the anniversary of the Rosenbergs' execution - just three days after President Trump announced new restrictions on U.S. relations with Cuba - the RFC's Communications Director wrote about her complicated emotions during her recent visit to the memorial to Ethel and Julius in Havana. Read her thoughts and add your own about, "how fear and idealism, and the actions taken on battlefields, in ballot boxes, and in courtrooms, affect people’s lives for generations," on the RFC blog here.

On the 64th anniversary of the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, their granddaughter Jenn Meeropol describes in the blog here how their influence, as well as that of the couple who adopted her father and uncle, is reflected in the work of the Rosenberg Fund for Children today. 

How do parents’ political or activist choices impact how their children see the world? Does being the child of someone who faced repression for their political choices make you more or less likely to make similar choices yourself? Can you be angry at a parent for the impact of their actions while also proud of their commitment? In her blog here, RFC Executive Director Jenn Meeropol explores how Kinship of Clover, a new novel by her mother - author and RFC Advisory Board member Ellen Meeropol - addresses these questions (which are intertwined with the RFC 's work as well).