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Tori Weston (@writergrrl76) then and now

Tori and I knew each other in the ‘90s when she was a Woonsocket, RI< high school student and I was her so-called mentor at the Providence Journal Bulletin, where I was a reporter. Tori is 46 now, living and working, and writing and making visual art, in Boston and she says creativity has been the key to surviving the trauma of having been raped by her stepfather on the eve of her 13^th birthday. Because abortion was safe and legal, she was able to rule out suicide. Art was also a lifeline. “How do people deal with their problems if they don’t have a creative outlet?” she wonders.

During the station breaks you’ll hear audio from a pro-choice rally in DC, one of many throughout the country last weekend, as women and men of conscience hit the streets to protest what, as of this writing, seems about to be the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal abortion protections.

Finally, I need you to know that WESU is in the midst of its spring pledge drive and could seriously use your help. Please go to wesufm.org/pledge and donate what you can to keep this kind of programming going. Thanks.

Some of Tori’s visual art:

Related links:

Risk Podcast episode #1

The Power

Risk podcast episode #2

Grand Opening

Under the Gum Tree

#MeToo: Birthday Cake by Tori Weston

Tori’s website:

www.ToriWestonWriterArtist.com

Listen to the episode

Today, a walk through a monumental retrospective of the works of painter Milton Avery, whose career began in the late 19^th century and continued into the mid 20th, and included some years in Hartford. His flattened forms and unusual color work prompted comparisons to Matisse and he inspired such younger painters as Mark Rothko. We’re lucky that our companion on our tour is one of the curators of the traveling exhibit, Erin Monroe, the Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the WadsworthAtheneum. The show, having started its journey in Fort Worth, TX, will be up at the Wadsworth through June 5 before moving on to the Royal Academy of the Arts in London. As the Washington Post reviewer put it, the show is “a treat.”