“This is about honoring the lives of two heroes, Renée and Alex, defending our First Amendment rights, and art as dissent,” says Bryan Buckley, a film director with hungryman productions, which produced the performance.
On Monday, February 16, Presidents’ Day, 22 professional dancers gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. There, they performed a 90-second contemporary dance, titled The ResistDance, choreographed by Steffens and performed by artist collective First Amendment Troop. (Director, Bryan Buckley, Producer Ben Ellenberg. Created by Hungry Man Productions . Hungryman is an independent production company based in Los Angeles, New York, London, and São Paulo). The work honors the lives of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by federal agents during enforcement operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January. The dancers then performed the piece outside the recently renamed Trump Kennedy Center. (See Dance Magazine for more).
“… I think that consciousness is at stake in a lot of what’s going on. One of the things Trump has done is occupy a significant chunk of our attention every single day. Our consciousness is being polluted, and protecting ourselves against that at the same time we preserve the ability to act politically is a difficult balancing act. Consciousness is a very precious realm. It’s the realm of our privacy and our freedom to think. So I think we need some kind of consciousness hygiene, particularly at this moment, where this one politician has figured out ways to command our attention. Consciousness is more relevant now than it even was 10 or 20 years ago, as something to think about, protect and nurture.”
Excerpted from an interview with Michael Pollan by David Marchese in the February 15, 2026 issue of the New York times Magazine
(Editors note: We think the art in BREATHE contributes to what Michael Pollan calls “consciousness hygiene”,
and we wanted to share his thinking with you.)
Michael Pollan
The People’s Street Art
Editor’s note: “We assume you have been following the news on ICE throughout the country, but this story broke my heart. It was about a 5 year old girl detained for a year who was part of a protest in the detention facility. According to her immigration attorney, Eric Lee, who is interviewed in the article, she asked him to share her drawing with the world. The words across the top read” I am five years old” and the words in the ballon above the stick figures behind the fence read “ Let Us Out” - Leopoldo
“A protest broke out Saturday at the South Texas family detention complex in Dilley, about 70 miles south of San Antonio, after guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave while detainees — many of them children — poured into open areas of the facility chanting “Libertad,” or "Freedom," according to an immigration attorney who witnessed the event.” Excerpt from an article by Texas Public Radio (Click Here to read the full article)
Renee Nicole Good
Anniversary of Declaration
By Craig Kirchner
To conduct a democratic experiment required men,
men of vision and courage, there was comradery and grandeur.
We learned that any humanitarian cause does not include
slavery and we are learning now it does not include cowards.
We are a land of immigrants who were all running from ugly
but are now running ugly up the flagpole to get rid of immigrants.
The spirit that brought our forefathers here is the same spirit
that brings these victims, some of our best citizens now,
who are being attacked in the name of patriotism.
Ugly and crass are embedded. Something disastrous is coming.
Everyone can feel it, everyone knows the fear
they are supposed to. As we prepare to celebrate the flag,
the Liberty Bell looks poised to ring in the unimaginable.
We no longer defend those in need of it, we fight each other
over petty principles with a backdrop of ideology
that caused histories of war in the recent past.
Before peace there is always conflict,
our conflict never seems to be over.
We invade our own neighborhoods now
like they were terrorist camps in third world countries,
killing mothers in the streets, our citizens, people
who would have been at the front of the line celebrating
in those same streets our birthday of freedom.
This ... this, is our celebration after 250 years of struggle.
Civil rights marches, assassinations, Kent State,
all our efforts to become a more perfect union, to become,
the shining city on the hill – this is it ... think again.
Hate, fear, ignorance breed hopelessness, cynicism,
knows no unification. Cowards do not unify,
greed does not bring us together. A new unification
can only come from our better selves, it will take
desire stronger than that of those that would keep us
running on the treadmill in the name of their need for more.
Armies in the streets need to go home, this regime
will pass as did those before it, they are cheap veneers
that will crack, bullies that will fold, they will eat one another.
The derelict force trained to create violence as a theatre of fear,
with gear purchased with our taxes, needs to be abolished.
The rocks they came out from under need to be overturned.
The next time generals and admirals are brought together
and told of their duty to kill their fellow countrymen,
they need to get up and leave, in the names of their children.
The same children, a good piece of which will be traumatized
for life. Christ said, Let the little children come to me.
DHS sends them to Dilly, Texas - in Christ’s name, in our name.
All children living in America must be made to think they are safe,
protected by their government - no one is coming for them,
they can once again go to school, church, the corner store.
They and only they, can reset this experiment.
Then and only then will we know, be sure, this is once again
America, and that we respect ourselves and one another
enough to celebrate and invite the world to do the same.
A Call to Arms - as in an urgent appeal and rallying cry for all of us to take action
Alex Pretti
Craig Kirchner is retired and living in Jacksonville, because that’s where his granddaughters are. He loves the aesthetics of writing, has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels and has been nominated three times for Pushcart. He was recently published in Chiron Review, Main Street Rag, The Wise Owl, Breathe, The Wilderness House and dozens of others. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems on a laptop, these words help keep him straight.
Possible Exercises to Consider
For some time now, I have been mulling over the idea of what the best use of my energy can be in this role. As Breathe starts to shift its artistic vision, I reconsidered that question. In a meeting Leopoldo and I had, he expressed his desire to do away with "grading" the art we received. I responded that while I agreed the "grading"-like structure of accepting some art and not others was counterproductive to our efforts as a venue for building social justice, I still felt it important to encourage our readers and contributors to refine their work. I feel we owe it to ourselves and to the world we live in to strip away our egos and biases, and create art that truly energizes the work of social justice. To that end, I thought that offering a series of exercises and ideas for poems and art would be a useful way I could make the energy I put through Breathe magnify its impact. I hope you will take what you find energetic and continue to engage in the necessary work of realizing art that creates a more just world. Here are four possible exercises:
Write a found poem from an article (or a few) with news you think needs to be discussed or noticed or remembered. Cut lines out from an article (or a few) with news you think needs to be discussed or noticed or remembered and paste them into a painting or use them in a collage.
Pick a location in your neighborhood that you think needs to be memorialized. Write a poem, make a painting, take a picture, etc... that juxtaposes the events you are memorializing with the native flora and fauna of the area.
Find/revisit a headline that made you react with a strong emotion - describe/draw where you were and how your body interacted with the space around you as you read the article.
Define "social justice" with particulars - not by assigning it a series of abstract ideas, but by assigning it powerful sensory details. Write a poem, make a painting, collage, take a photo, etc...
Zach Charles, Co-editor
We are grateful to all these contributors to our 2025 issues.
You are the very heart and soul of Breathe!
The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world
Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts –
and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.
The following is excerpted from an article on the BBC website.
There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way…
Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Erica found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change…
(Editors note - the seven million people that participated in the October 18, 2025 No Kings protest comprise about 2 percent of the U.S. population.
For more information on the 3.5% Rule, see the full BBC article. You can listen to Erica Chenoweth talk about it on a TED talk)
"Dancing up the Storm" by Becca Lavin
Dancing up the Storm came about in what was meant to be a ‘play’ session in my studio. One in which the artist (Moi) leaves everything worrisome or constraining behind with no one and no thing in mind. A literal stripping off of the straight jacket named ‘production’. The collage pieces are from torn pieces of protective paper on my art work station which I save after covered in my this and that’s, for projects like this. It just so happened, the umbrella shape was upside down. I thought “let it rain”. I LoVe getting wet and dancing in the rain rather than cowering to all the woe that demands we not only PAY for with our attentions but can get riled and helpless. I am fortunate to have great friends with sanity, action and empathy up their sleeves. I thought, “With Friends like these, who needs an umbrella? Ha!’ Voila! Dancing Up The Storm.
July 2025
"A Dubious Light." by Cheryl Caesar
a gouache sketch done from a news photo.
Cheryl Caesar is an ex- expatriate, having lived for 25 years in France, Italy and the Republic of Ireland. She teaches writing at Michigan State University. She shows her artwork and gives readings locally, and publishes them internationally. Her anti-Trump chapbook Flatman was published by Thurston Howl Publications in 2020.
The poem, Three Windows, is easier to explain. Watching the brutal ICE raids in California, and then the military attacks against the protests of local residents, I felt as though I can't just watch. I can't stand outside the window. I must be either a moth or a spider. It's hard to imagine a moth defeating a spider, but a thousand moths might do it. Or five million - the estimated national participation at the No Kings rally. (My friends and I marched at the Lansing State Capitol.)
The painting, A Dubious Light, for me expresses the dread of being yanked off the streets by nameless, faceless figures. They have the camo-spotted bodies and the insectile heads of their paramilitary gear. The "dubious light" of mauve and yellow tones expresses my deep unease, the sense of wrongness. The man being taken has this light shone full in his face, but he has no other human faces to look to.
It isn't the sick feeling of seeing an accident as you pass on the highway, "unable to tear your eyes away." This is different. We must serve as witnesses to these outrages, if there is any chance of overcoming the regime that is perpetrating them. But at the same time, coming forward as witness means exposing yourself as a target for the same treatment. The dread is doubled.
See the attached poem by Cheryl Caesar titled “Three Windows”
(Editor’s note: Zach Charles, said of this painting, ”the painting attached to the poem paints a good picture of the difficulty in reacting appropriately to such painful times, and the pain of being unable to tear your eyes away.”)
May 2025
I can do this
Acrylic on a simple canvas. Created with memories and thoughts of the spirit of friendship by Melinda d'Ouville while she enjoys the bounty and diversity of eastern Washington's many cultures.
Days pass. At all levels of life and physical beingness I feel relentlessly assaulted. Lambasted is my new word for what I am experiencing. Minute by minute, second by second, drip, drip, drip, the “cacophony of entropy”. This is my description of today's environment. It gives one a sense of depletion and relinquishment. Inevitability. I read once that cockroaches were here when mankind first made an entrance and they will be here when we make our exit. I’m not sure what that says about these creatures, but I know most people find the insects quite distasteful, even though there are cultures that roast them as delicacies.One person's "ick" is another's delight. Diversity gives so much and asks so little. Therefore, in spite of the assault, like a cockroach I will remember I was here before chaos started and I will be here when it exits.
This particular cockroach, or “la cucaracha”, is a gift for a friend. She spends a good portion of her time at rallies, protests, and carrying a torch for the republic up and down the east coast of our great country. The original cucaracha was a surprise mural that captured mine and my two friends attention on a trip to Mexico several years ago. It was a gift on a wall that we found as we strolled through flower laden neighborhoods. One of my friends fell in love with the cockroach. She asked if I could paint it for her. I have put off doing the painting for several years. At one point I suggested she might need better friends if she was expecting that painting any time soon. However, the time has come. It is now. My respect for her commitment to our country had me tackle the painting for her. It is finished. It will be shipped soon. I can’t fix the chaos and I can’t stop entropy, but I can paint a cockroach for a friend. I can do this.
Melinda d’Ouville: “A racist joke by my father is a powerful memory. It was the 1950’s, I was in fifth grade. The punchline included a bus, a cliff, and dead people. I started to laugh, because it was my dad. I stopped. The joke wasn’t funny. Years of friendships, acquaintances and travel have given me an evolving perspective of our shared humanity. Through pieces of art I work to share my journey of appreciation for our humanness.”
April 2025
This drawing was made July 11, 2020, amidst a coagulation of several events. Covid-19 was spreading rapidly, filling hospitals across the world past capacity. In the U.S.A., shootings in Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington DC left 3 children under 12 dead, among many others killed and injured by mass shootings and gun-violence around the country. Black Lives Matter protests and marches were active across the nation. Meanwhile, Trump held a July 4th rally at Mt. Rushmore where masking was actively discouraged. In his speech, he stated, "In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished." But he followed this statement by saying, "...I am deploying federal law enforcement to protect our monuments, arrest the rioters, and prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law...Under the executive order I signed last week — pertaining to the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act and other laws — people who damage or deface federal statues or monuments will get a minimum of 10 years in prison," revealing his true desire: the totalitarian domination which he had just stated was fascist and anti-American. 5 years later, we see that continues to be his desire. This drawing was made to invoke the idea that such domination can only last so long. I hope by using the Black Power fist and the image of one of the great African mammals, the lion, I invoke, in particular, the mission of the Black Lives Matter and Black Power movements. Nature will eventually break free.
Zachary Charles (they/he) is a poet who currently lives near Alki Beach, West Seattle with their partner, cat, and dog. They teach Spanish on Vashon Island. Their poetry practice consists of a few pieces: portraits, conversations, and an ongoing effort to compose 10,000 haiku. They are a member of the Cascadia Poetics Lab Youth Committee and Poetry Postcard Fest Project Board. In addition to poetry, they spend creative time on multimedia collage and paintings, and love combining visual art with language art.
March 2025
The collaborative poem in this week’s post emerged as I talked on the phone with Millie Renfrow when she was in seclusion during the pandemic. She said she wasn’t writing much poetry, and I asked her to tell me about her days of what she called nothing, and I started jotting down what she was saying and arranged them in a poem. I shared the poem with her daughter who sent me some pictures of the sketches that Millie had made. This is one of those sketches
The poem does speak of being alone and keeping yourself occupied. But those times aren’t so different as they are now. Trump has created a pandemic and if we get depressed, we are in danger of hibernation. We were staying home back then and now there will be more staycations because of national Park closures, due to staffing shortages. You know, all that money we wasted on people to clean bathrooms at national parks, and search and rescue, and taking entry fees, and shockingly on educating the public!
Mary Ellen Talley
(See post below titled A Long Time of Nothing)
This is one of three sketches drawn by Millie Renfrow during her seclusion during the pandemic. They are untitled.
February 2025
“Is it Raining in Vegas” a question of hope for our planet; our social compact; our empathy; our humanity. Mixed media acrylic, ink on paper. Artist: Melinda d’Ouville, who has expectations of herself, her government, and her fellow blue marble companions.
This painting is a result of my experience watching the news coverage of the fires in Los Angeles as it burned away the lives, homes, and history of so many people. It was painful to see this tragedy playing out. But the added reverberating social media and political condemnations of blame, with direct overtones of racism, and homophobia was horrific. Using diversity, equality and inclusion as a political power maneuver while lives are being lost…there are no words.
To redirect my thoughts, I pulled out my art supplies and started painting. As I painted, I asked myself, what is the source of all this hateful language and blame seeking when my family, my friends, and people I’ve never met are suffering. While messing around with paints and brushes, I recalled my days in Las Vegas and Chicago. For me, these cities were an abundance of the variety around us that contrasts dramatically with the current rehtoric surrounding the fires. They were, and are, filled with a richness that contributes to my view of the world and my life to this day. To share a bit of my backstory, I think my recognition of the value of diversity was the privilege of meeting Dick Gregory. He came with friends to my mother’s home for a barbecue and music gathering. To this day I can see him and hear him. He and his friends, who sold popcorn, hot dogs and drinks at Comiskey Park, were laughing and telling stories all day. I had caught pieces of his life as he fought in his way against racism. We didn’t have google search then, but I asked my mother and her other friends all about him. He knew that humor in the face of racism was a force to raise awareness and to be reckoned with. He was an artist. In Las Vegas I was struck by the menagerie of talent and everyday life. As I walked a downtown street one sunny Vegas morning, I ran into our mayor, a vibrant character in and of himself. He stopped to chat. At the same time a black man in drag, an asian in their cultural dress, and a family with six children walked by. What a world we have. These cities gave me gifts in terms of art, music, dance, work, collaboration, and friends. They exposed me to the abundance of diversity delivered through the passions of others.
So, back to this painting. When you live in Vegas you are always asking “is it raining in Vegas”. The clouds fly by, the rain appears to shower down, the hope for relief from heat and possible fires is in the air. When I was finished processing the LA fires, the hateful blame game, and the tragic implications for the victims of the fire, this painting emerged. Virga is the term for rain that falls from the sky by never hits the ground. “Is it raining in LA?” Can the fires be stopped? It is the question I asked each morning when I got out of bed. The fires are past, but the hate continues. And now, I ask this about our country. Is it raining - kindness, generosity, inclusiveness, equality - in the United States of America? If not now, when?
Melinda d’Ouville: A racist joke by my father is a powerful memory. It was the 1950’s, I was in fifth grade. The punchline included a bus, a cliff, and dead people. I started to laugh, because it was my dad. I stopped. The joke wasn’t funny. Years of friendships, acquaintances and travel have given me an evolving perspective of our shared humanity. Through pieces of art I work to share my journey of appreciation for our humanness.
January 2025
This painting is called Flowers for Palestine. It is acrylic ink, acrylic paint and markers on canvas.
I painted it after the killing of Ezgi Eygi, the American Turkish young activist, on the West Bank by an Israeli soldier. I knew her intimately. Her family is still waiting to hear any condolences from our government.
Dorothy Lemoult is a French-American multi-disciplinary artist and expressive arts therapist. West Seattle has been home since 2011. She was featured reader at Poetry Bridge several times. Her writing has appeared in “City Arts”, on King County buses and her poem “Source” was recently published in the anthology “Voices of the Grieving Heart”.