Featured News
Maggie Stern: Sock Art Celebrates the “Sole” of America
My socks celebrate women who have changed the world for the better and never gave up fighting for what they believed in: justice, honor, the right to vote, equal rights. I started with a stitched design featuring Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who I wanted to honor because she is one of the great champions of equality […]
Valerie David: The Pink Hulk, a One-Woman Warrior’s survival story from cancer
Put on your Super Hero Cape when you listen to Valerie David’s podcast: The Pink Hulk, a One-Woman Warrior’s survival story from cancer. But her show is NOT just about cancer; it is about conquering our fears, our anxieties, our despair during the pandemic and removing our metaphorical masks to voice the racial injustices […]
Aizzah Fatima airing her “Dirty Paki Lingerie”
So, what’s a young Muslim woman born in Saudi Arabia, raised as a US citizen in Mississippi, only to defy all the odds by moving to NYC to become a one-woman sensation in her highly- acclaimed show Dirty Paki Lingerie? Listen in to her airing an authentic assessment of how women, women of color, […]
The Calamari Sisters: A Recipe for Coping with the Coronavirus
Feeling trapped during the COVID-19 self-quarantine? Here’s a pair of Italian Sisters, Delphine and Carmela, cooking up concoctions that will soothe your soul. Listen to their hilarious spin of how The Arts (and food) can cure what ails ya! The Calamari Sisters bill themselves as the only all-singing, all-dancing, all-cooking cooking show around. Delphine & […]
Coping with Covid-19: Just Get Messy!
An interview with children’s author Rita Meade The impact of reading out loud books to kids is transformative in so many different ways. Children respond differently to the “messy message” and extrapolate solutions for Edward’s dilemma. Covid-19 has changed our lives forever; in fact, it could be devastating. But Rita Meade’s prescient message in her […]
The First 100 Stories Campaign
First Online With Fran: The First 100 Stories Campaign National Arts in Education Week, September 8 -14. In July 2010, Congress designated the second week of September as National Arts In Education Week to promote and showcase the immense role arts education has in producing engaged, successful, and college and career-ready students. To that end, First Online with Fran is launching The First 100 Stories Campaign. The Arts continue to be cut from school curriculums across the nation. Despite arts advocacy groups’ efforts to prevent the decline of arts inclusion, the budgetary solution remains to be that the arts are perceived as extra-curricular and disposable. In Chris Cleave’s novel Little Bee, the central character decided to right a wrong by collecting stories: “One story makes you weak. But as soon as we have one-hundred stories, you will be strong.” Similarly, we can do the same for the Arts. Here’s how: Let’s hear it from you: Teachers! Students! Graduates! Parents! … Submit Your Testimonial...
