#Teen #artists portrayed their lives — some adults didn't want to see the full picture
Elizabeth Blair
July 28, 2025
Excerpt: "The #protesters in the mural hold signs that read 'The climate is changing, why aren't we?' 'No human is illegal,' 'Protect kids, not guns' and '#FreePalestine.'
"Mary Beth Tinker was impressed when she saw the mural on her way to speak about #freespeech. She said she "encouraged the students because they were making this beautiful mural about issues that they cared about. One of the issues featured was Free Palestine. And that's an issue that I care about.'
"Tinker has a long history of advocating for free speech. In 1965, when she was an eighth-grader in Iowa, she and other students were suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the #VietnamWar. The incident led to the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, in which a majority court ruled that students do not 'shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.'
"Tinker said she often tells students, 'You always can be proud of speaking up about the things that you really believe in because that's a life of integrity.'
Smithsonian officials were not impressed
"Flair Doherty said a Smithsonian staff member approached her and the other teen artists and told them she believed the 'Free Palestine' slogan was 'antisemitic and hateful.' Doherty, who is Jewish, said she told her she disagreed, 'We talked for maybe three minutes and did not really get anywhere.'
" 'We went over the next day and it was completely covered in tarps,' said 18-year-old artist Léda Pelton, who had not yet finished her section of the mural about cars and college acceptance.
"Pelton said Smithsonian officials told them they covered it up because they were 'afraid that somebody was going to walk by and see 'Free Palestine' on our mural and get mad and hurt us. And I'm like, 'maybe we are not the problem in that situation.' "
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/28/nx-s1-5463593/teen-art-smithsonian-folklife-festival?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
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