Resistance [Print Replica] Kindle Edition

RESISTANCE is a collection of poems and photos capturing the protest mood in the Boston area after the return to office of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States. Rochelle G. Ruthchild has been writing poems through her progressive political lens since the man she dubs WPE (Worst President Ever) began his second term. Mary Leno has been taking pictures of graffiti and protest signs and clothing since the 1980s. In the final month of Mary’s life, Rochelle and Mary embarked on this project, sifting through approximately 14,000 images on Mary’s computer and considerably fewer resistance poems. The result is this book.Mary Leno is a longtime Cambridge, Massachusetts activist who began collecting political buttons and documenting graffiti in the 1980s and more recently expanded into photographing protest signs and clothing at local marches and demonstrations. She took many photos in Graffiti Alley, located in Central Square, Cambridge. One of her photos of the graffiti mecca was chosen as the official photograph for all of the city’s resident parking permits for 2025. Mary died in September, 2025; her photo collection is slated for archiving in the collection of the Cambridge Public Library. This book represents a small selection from Mary’s large body of work.Rochelle G. Ruthchild indulged her taste for poetry first by writing birthday and other special occasion poems for friends and family. But the clear national drift to authoritarianism inspired her to comment on and satirize the current moment. She and Mary have known each other since the early days of the women’s movement in the Boston area. Their connection deepened through Mary’s ride service SLUT (Senior Lesbian Urban Transport), care for a friend with deepening health problems, and a love of movies and good food.This collaboration is intended both to provide a sample of Mary’s prodigious photographic output and to comment on the present moment through poetry, an incisive form of critique, humor, and protest. Read more