Janet Braun-Reinitz’s photo, along with its unedited feisty caption, recently appeared here on the Facebook Page of HONY (Humans of New York), a favorite of ours.
“Braun-Reinitz began mural-making in 1984 when she joined Artists for a New Nicaragua on a large-scale project in the then-fledgling revolutionary democracy. “That’s when I got the bug,” she says. Since then, she has painted between fifty and sixty murals—she’s lost exact count—in five countries: England, Georgia, Italy, Nicaragua, and the United States. ” Learn more about her art here.
In addition to being an accomplished artist, Braun-Reinitz was also a freedom rider during the ’60s. See a very brief video here. See a 44-minute video here, done for the Freedom Riders 40th Anniversary Oral History Project in 2001 at the University of Mississippi.
Braun-Reinitz’s book, On The Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City, written with Jane Weissman, includes one hundred and fifty color photos of one hundred and forty murals created since 1968. “It’s also a brief history of the U.S. mural movement, chronicling its spread from 1967’s “Wall of Respect” in Chicago to murals done in Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.”
“Thursday on the PBS NewsHour, Ray Suarez reports on Beacon Hill Village, a nonprofit group that helps support independent living for seniors who would rather stay in their own neighborhoods than move into retirement homes.
Saxophonist and influential jazz composer Wayne Shorter will be 80 on the 25th of this month. His celebrations include an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. 
“Bob Moses is 78, but he has the same probing eyes you see behind thick black glasses in photos from 50 years ago when he worked as a civil rights activist in Mississippi. The son of a janitor, Moses was born and raised in Harlem. He’s a Harvard-trained philosopher and a veteran teacher.
In a fascinating article by Maria Popova entitled, “
