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Spotlight: Summer Pierre, Part 1

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Summer Pierre

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Illustrator, cartoonist, and writer Summer Pierre takes us to visit Penny the elephant at the San Francisco zoo. Where will she bring us next week?

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Summer Pierre
Summer Pierre is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer living in the Hudson Valley, New York. She is the author of The Artist in the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week and Great Gals: Inspired Ideas for Having a Kick-Ass Life. She also does a semi-weekly diary comic Paper Pencil Life. Her writing and art have appeared in The Rumpus, Hobart, The Nashville Review & Booth Literary Journal, among other places.

4 responses

  1. Jack Colwell Avatar
    Jack Colwell

    Thanks for this, Summer. As you probably already know, there are no longer any Elephants in the San Francisco Zoo… and have not been since 2005. Stories like Penny’s (was she real?) are part of the reason. I hope I live to see the day when there are NO Elephants imprisoned in zoos anywhere… or enslaved by despicable “entertainment” businesses like Ringling Bros. Circus. They are just too magnificent… perhaps the most sentient and emotional beings on the planet… to deserve treatment like this. Thank you again. I was very moved by your work.

  2. Edie Avatar
    Edie

    Again Summer breaks heartbreak to us with the gentlest laser beam. A true descendent of Dickinson’s poem ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’ success in circuit lies…And what a slant for us Summer provides. The whole elephant saga worldwide pains my heart hot damn. Thank you!!!

  3. Summer Pierre Avatar
    Summer Pierre

    Jack & Edie–thank you!!

    Penny was indeed real and she has haunted me for almost 20 years. I am glad to know that SF does not have any more elephants. I agree with you that these incredible creatures should not be in captivity. Actually, that visits where I saw Penny was life changing and I didn’t go to a zoo again for another 15 years (having kids in the family changes that a bit).

  4. Paige Avatar
    Paige

    Summer and Jack,
    I’m curious if you feel similarly about intelligent, sentient farm animals raised in captivity for meat and other animal products. Penny’s life, while heartbreaking, reads like a fairy tale compared to the scale of cruelty on factory farms. Just my thoughts.
    -Paige

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