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New portrait of Alice Green joins painter's "Americans Who Tell the Truth" series

  • Writer: NYS Writers Institute
    NYS Writers Institute
  • 2 days ago
  • 3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Robert Shetterly's portrait of the late author and activist will be on exhibit in Albany through July 20


A new portrait of local author and activist Dr. Alice P. Green (1940–2024) will be the newest addition to "Americans Who Tell the Truth," Robert Shetterly’s ongoing series of portraits celebrating "truth tellers" — individuals throughout U.S. history who exemplify courageous citizenship and democratic ideals.


Alice Green, photographed in 2022
Alice Green, photographed in 2022 by Patrick Dodson / UAlbany

Green, who died August 20, 2024, in Albany at the age of 84, was a leading activist and organizer addressing a variety of social issues, including racial justice, prison reform, voter equality, and community policing. The founder and executive director of Albany’s Center for Law and Justice, she wrote several books including Outsider: Stories of Growing Up Black in the Adirondacks (Sept. 2023), We Who Believe in Freedom: Activism and the Struggle for Social Justice, (2022), and Law Never Here, A Social History of African American Responses to Issues of Crime and Justice (co-authored with Frankie Bailey, 1999). We host several events with Dr. Green during our history, including conversations in 2024, 2022, and 2020.


“Many people pay lip service to the sinister ways in which racism is woven into the fabric of this country’s economy, laws, educational system, housing, healthcare, prisons, culture and conflicted psyche,” said Shetterly. “Few people successfully change those systems for the better. Dr. Alice P. Green dedicated her life to doing just that. And did.”


Organized by a partnership between the Albany Institute of History & Art, the Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center, the Center for Law and Justice, and the NYS Writers Institute, the portrait will be unveiled in a public ceremony to take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 22, at the Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center, located at 135 South Pearl Street, Albany, NY 12202.


The portrait will remain on view during a free open house at the center from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, May 23.


It will then be installed at the Albany Institute of History & Art from May 29 through July 20 as part of the "Americans Who Tell the Truth" exhibition. Among the other Shetterly portraits on exhibit at the Institute: Abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859); folk legend and environmental activist Pete Seeger (1919–2014); Indigenous human rights advocate Oren Lyons; and Leah Penniman, who grew up in Albany, a food justice activist and farm manager at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton and author of food justice activist and author.

Robert Shetterly
Robert Shetterly

Shetterly spoke with NYS Writers Institute Opalka Endowed Director Paul Grondahl for a story published in the Albany Times Union earlier this year. “My goals for my paintings for years were all about mystery and ambiguity and asking questions about who we are as a people,” Shetterly said.


“I realized that I wanted to be much more direct and to not just paint portraits, but tell the stories that could encourage ordinary people to be courageous citizens.”


Shetterly’s series contains more than 250 paintings of Americans who have spoken truth to power in a multitude of ways. The series features activists, poets, whistleblowers, doctors and more all connected by their commitment to truth in the face of great adversity.


As Shetterly says in his 2022 artist statement: “The question at the heart of AWTT is simple: Do we want to construct our identities from complex truths or from easy and flattering untruths? An identity shaped by complex truths is as humbling as it is freeing. Then we can see the world as it is and shoulder the necessary responsibilities.”



Among the other Shetterly portraits on exhibit at the Institute: Leah Penniman, who grew up in Albany, a food justice activist and farm manager at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, and folk legend and environmental activist Pete Seeger (1919–2014).

See Shetterly's collection and read about each portrait at americanswhotellthetruth.org/portrait-gallery/ 


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