“You are the most important resource that America has.”
Dorothy Smith-Frazier, a 76-year-old advocate, teacher, public servant, radio host, and current masters degree student, repeated these words twice to a classroom full of art students at Erie High and was met with a round of applause from everyone present.
Smith-Frazier’s face and life, along with Candace Battles and Gwendolyn Cooley, were subjects of a student art project conceived by a local artist and brought to life by the art teachers, students, and administration of Erie’s Public High Schools. The ostensible result of this contest is the current cover art of this issue of the Erie Reader, but the intangible benefits to the students were great: inspiration, validation, creativity, and the true and moving power of art…