“There can be no anymal liberation without human liberation and there can be no human liberation without anymal liberation—there is only total liberation.”
Lisa Kemmerer, Oppressive Liberation: Sexism in Animal Activism

Internationally known for her work in animal ethics, Professor Emeritus Dr. Lisa Kemmerer has been an activist engaged with animal studies for nearly half a century. She describes those decades as an ongoing journey from a narrow vision to an increasingly wider understanding of oppressions, motivating her to retire in 2020 and become a full-time activist as founder and director of the information-sharing non-profit, Tapestry. We sat down with Lisa, a long-time ASI friend, to learn more.

ASI: Tell us more about the inspiration behind Tapestry, and why you felt it was important to form this organization. 

LK: We only live so long, and what we keep to ourselves dies with us. The vision of Tapestry is simple—to continue to work for change in retirement, and before I die, to hand over as much of what I have been privileged to learn (as a scholar and long-term activist), and also to continue to use my research and writing skills to generate knowledge to shift understandings in order to alleviate harms and sufferings brought to anymals, humans, and the planet.

I have researched and written more than a dozen books and more than one hundred articles. In the process of reading and writing, I have learned, and now I want to share and give back what I have been privileged to gain. And because not everyone is a reader, I seek other ways to reach out–websites, poetry, visual exhibits, and mentoring, for example.

ASI: Tapestry is rooted in a wide-angle understanding of oppressions. What does that mean and how do your projects express that?

LK: I work across social justice concerns. All of my books are fundamentally anymal liberation books, but they also take on other social justice concerns: Four cover choosing vegan for the environment (I recommend Eating Earth: Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choice which covers fishing, hunting, and animal agriculture), three explore women and sexism in animal activism (Oppressive Liberation is a must-read for anyone interested in knowing more about sexism in the movement, and in social justice movements more generally), four look at sacred texts from the world’s religions to better understand ethics and anymals (Animals and World Religions was and remains a ground-breaking publication), and one provides a solid accounting of key reasons to choose vegan, including connections between speciesism and other social justice concerns. This last book mentioned, Vegan Ethics: AMORE, is at the heart of the movement and anyone who wants to more clearly understand the “whys” of choosing vegan (or anymal activism) will find everything they need in this compact little book: anymal suffering, human health, interconnected oppressions, religious ethics, and the earth itself).

Oppressions are interconnected and Tapestry takes a wide-angle lens to accommodate the interconnected nature of oppressions: Tapestry always work across injustices. Oppressions share the same roots, and we cannot eliminate only one form of oppression. This is why I recommend the book, Vegan Ethics: AMORE. The acronym AMORE reflects each of the key interconnected reasons to choose vegan: Animal suffering and premature death, Medical and health concerns, the whole list of Oppressions (class, age, sex, race, abilities, and so on), Religious ethics, and Environmental degradation, which of course raises the concerns of environmental justice. The “O” portion of Vegan Ethics: AMORE covers all of the interconnected human oppressions while also taking a critical look at capitalism, which value individuals through the lens of production and reproduction.

One of the most important concepts that I have learned in decades of activism, and which is core to Tapestry, is this idea of interconnected or interfacing oppressions. This rests on an understanding of a shared core problem. If we foster a dualistic cultural view of power-over, then we see division rather than oneness, and whether that power is expressed over a pig, a woman, someone who thinks in different ways, over the natural world, or someone who looks different, we marginalize and cause harm. The Greco-diaspora culture (those who have a Greek cultural background as their foundation, which happens to be my cultural background), is rooted in dualisms and power-over. This culture compartmentalizes as divides individuals and phenomenon into opposites: human/anymal, male/female, black/white, gay/straight, rich/poor, white-collar/blue-collar, young/old, physically “abled”/physically “disabled” and so on.

Categorization helped humans to negotiate the world around us, to make a complicated universe simpler and easier to understand, but these constructs—fabricated false dualisms—have done far more damage than good. For example, humans are animals. While this is scientifically obvious, we do not tend to live this truth. We act like we are separate and distinct—above and superior to—other living beings. Moreover, what the Greco-diaspora presents as dualistic categories are actually continuums. For example, abled and disabled—we all have physical strengths and weaknesses, including emotional, artistic, physical, and intellectual abilities). Nonetheless, in a dualistic worldview, categories are not only envisioned as separate and distinct, but one category is viewed as superior and preferred; one group becomes empowered over the other, creating oppression.

When we understand the underlying false-dualistic thinking, complete with denigration, othering, power-over, and exploitation, it is much easier to understand how this worldview creates speciesism, sexism, racism, speciesism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, and trans aggression. And once we understand this underlying problem, we recognize that we can’t change any one oppression without exposing and replacing this underlying worldview. If we eliminate the underlying problem (a worldview rooted in false dualisms and power-over), we eliminate all oppressions simultaneously—and we can also see that eliminating all oppressions is the only way to eliminate any oppressions. If human beings view the world through the lens of false dualisms, oppressions will always be part of our reality.

“Oppressions, then, are by definition linked – linked by common ideologies, by institutional forces, and by socialization that makes oppressions normative and invisible.” Lisa Kemmerer, Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice

ASI: Animals and Religion is a core project of Tapestry. How did this project first begin, how has it evolved, and what do you hope it will become?

LK: All faiths demand compassion, and 85% of the global population is religious. Every minute of every day religious people harm anymals—they even harm anymals in the name of religion. Obviously, there is a serious disconnect between religious ethics and the actions of religious people where anymals are concerned, and yet animal activists rarely know enough about religious ethics to engage from a faith perspective.

Working across all major religions, Tapestry’s Animals & Religion program is at the forefront of generating, compiling, and sharing the knowledge that is essential for activists, scholars, and people of faith to address this problem. Tapestry’s Animals & Religion website exposes and amends this disconnect by working with by religious leaders and scholars inside each of the world’s prominent religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Indigenous Religions, Islam, Jainism, and Judaism) to provide systematic, comprehensive, well-vetted coverage of core religious ethics in a distilled and simple format for activists, educators, and people of faith worldwide.

Tapestry’s religion branch is a strong part of my own past. I have always been very interested in the beautiful teachings of religions, and I have always been fascinated by the disconnect between what sacred books teach and what human beings do. I published Animals and World Religions when I was just getting started as an academic. This book that took 15 years to research and write, and remains the only book systematically covering religious ethics on the topic of anymals across every major religion and a few smaller (but important) religions.

All of this puts me in a unique position to create the Animals and Religion website—a daunting task by any measure. This website will make available (worldwide, online, and free of charge) key teachings from core sacred texts on the topic of anymal ethics. Once completed, the website will house this lifetime of painstakingly accumulated research indefinitely, perpetually bringing change for anymals (and people and the planet) across time and continents.

Tapestry is also creating a book series to fund the long-term maintenance of the Animals and Religion website. So far, Tapestry has published Animals and Judaism and Animals and Christianity. If you are interested in working with us on this project, please connect at tapestryofpeace@gmail.com. (We need fundraising, uploading, and anymal activists of faith interested in helping with this project.)

Working with people of faith, Tapestry has already created the Animals and World Religions Traveling Banner Exhibit, which is now available for anyone interested. The images can be downloaded and printed as banners to be displayed, such as in places of worship, schools, and museums. Please let us know (tapestryofpeace@gmail.com) if we can help—or if you are interested in promoting and managing this project.

ASI: Tapestry houses a download for The Hospitality Challenge. Tell us more about this project, and how others can use this initiative in their own cities, neighborhoods, and communities.

LK: I have never been only a scholar. I fact, I was an activist for many years before I chose to study animal ethics—my studies were part of my ongoing activism: I only chose to get a doctorate because I decided that teaching was my best channel for bringing change. I work at local shelters, rescue and help to rehabilitate wildlife, and most recently started the Hospitality Challenge. The Hospitality Challenge is an excellent example of Tapestry working across oppressions—overtly addressing a specific concern of marginalized human beings as part of addressing anymal exploitation.

The Hospitality Challenge is a sneakers-on-the-ground initiative that asks local eateries to include clearly marked and priced vegan options on menus. Importantly, this ask is not pitched on behalf of cows, fishes, and chickens, but on behalf of human beings. This ask rests on hospitality and inclusivity—two values that tend to be central to restaurant management. It is usually difficult to get restaurant management’s attention (let alone their cooperation) with concerns about fish, cows, or chickens, but if activists point out that a restaurant menu shows a lack of sensitivity and inclusivity toward human beings, we have their attention! For example, I usually ask:  “Why should those who are lactose intolerant—many of whom are from marginalized communities—have to ask for something they can eat when they visit at your restaurant, and then pay the same price for a meal with key (expensive) ingredients removed?”

Last year, in just one month of activism, The Hospitality Challenge increased vegan options in my local community exponentially: One restaurant added a complete, separate vegan menu. I don’t eat out much, and ideally activists would do follow up and make sure to frequent cooperating restaurants. The Hospitality Challenge continues in my nearest town, but its greatest success will be through others bringing this challenge to their own communities— The Hospitality Challenge is designed to be duplicated in any community.

ASI: Tapestry houses a webpage called CANHAD. Can you tell us a little bit about CANHAD?

LK: CANHAD is the Coalition Against Nonprofit Harassment and Discrimination (CANHAD). This website was created by and shared among anymal activists at the height of the MeToo Movement. It was designed as a safe space for survivors in the non-profit world to share their experiences, to help survivors to heal. CANHAD also provides vital information for scholars, educators, and anyone who is interested in better understanding discrimination and oppression in social justice activism. When CANHAD had no one to pay the cost of maintaining the website, Tapestry stepped up to the plate. We are proud and pleased that CANHAD is available on our website for survivors to post their experiences and for anyone interested in first-hand experiences of marginalization and oppression among social justice activists.

ASI: You are also involved in the arts. What is activist art, and how can visual art help to bring change for anymals?

LK: As a professor, I used art in every classroom to facilitate learning. People learn in different ways. Those more inclined toward the arts often slip between the cracks in our education system because their strongest orientation to the world around them is marginalized and neglected. In class, students explored not just books, but images, to better understand, for example, how they are surrounded in daily life by images that bombard our senses with toxic masculinity, sexism, speciesism, classism, and capitalism. For me, it is much easier to teach (and learn) the complicated topic of interfacing oppressions through imagery than it is through writings.

Artivism, as some call the artist’s branch of activism, is as powerful to stir change as any other form of activism. From Drama to drawing, from poetry to pageantry, art provokes thought and feeling and can be a springboard for discussion, all of which can shift thinking, spark new thoughts, and bring change. The famous photo of the young girl fleeing the napalmed village in Vietnam, contemplate the gap between the fingers of Adam and God in Michelangelo’s creation painting, or behold two rabbits peacefully sharing food together in Rosa Bonheur’s painting, “Two Rabbits” can cause viewers to pause, rethink, and perhaps shift their point of view, which can ultimately change how we live.

Most often, I create portraits of anymals—images that nudge viewers to see a snake or a pig as the individuals that they are, with needs and preferences, sensitivities and fear, images that remind us that some individuals are members of species that are quickly disappearing from the planet. I also support the cause by donating art; I donate art to an artivist organization that sells art to generate funds for anymal activists.

ASI: What does Tapestry have planned for 2026? 

LK: The Animals and Religion website is at the forefront of our thoughts and our work. Every day we move forward on getting this huge project completed. Nothing this huge happens overnight, and we are spending time fundraising, which slows down our research and writing. (Anyone out there interested in being Tapestry’s Fundraising Manager? Or in managing downloads for the site, which is on Squarespace?)

While fundraising for the Animals and Religion website, I am creating time to work on another groundbreaking publication: Ethics, Animals, and Abortion: Pro-Life, Vegan, and the Moral Importance of Consistency. Ethics, Animals, and Abortion provides a deep and critical examination of the two causes (Animal Activism and Abortion Activism), contrasting and comparing to see where they are similar and where they are different. I can’t count the number of times that I have heard—“Anymal activist? Then you must be Pro-life?” Honestly, until I did the research for this book, I could not be sure. Now, I am absolutely certain as to where I stand, and more importantly, why. This book has been a great joy to research and write—it is filled with unexpected twists to match any mystery novel—ethics at its best!

There are always requested presentations and articles to work on, and when we finish the Animals and Religion website, we have another major website project planned. We want to put key details from Vegan Ethics: AMORE online.

ASI: What is your hope for the future of Tapestry?

LK: Tapestry does not look to its own future, but only to the future of the work that we do. Tapestry exists to generate knowledge and share information, and it is through websites, books, and articles—through changes brought by knowledge generated and shared—that Tapestry lives into the future.

ASI: How can others share in the work of Tapestry?

LK: Our immediate goal is to fund and create the Animals and Religion website. Tapestry critically needs funding and volunteers, especially those interested and able to:

  • Manage fundraising for Tapestry
  • Upload materials to Tapestry Websites
  • Proofread materials
  • Edit materials
  • Manage Social Media for Tapestry
  • Branding and Logo design

Anyone interested in sharing the joy of social justice activism with Tapestry, please contact us at tapestryofpeace@gmail.com.