MILLBROOK — Frances Moore Lappe visited the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies on Friday, March 23, for a special lecture. Lappe is a pioneer of the sustainable food movement and widely known for her revolutionary book, “Diet for a Small Planet,” which has sold 3 million copies since being published. Lappe is the author of 18 books and the co-founder of Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund. Lappe is also an advocate for food democracy, including equal access to nutritious food and equitable farm labor practice, as stated by the Cary Institute.“The book ‘Diet for a Small Planet’ and the Small Planet Institute came before the rest of us started talking about a low-carbon footprint, organic agriculture and a community supported agriculture,” said William Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute. “Frances was out there ahead of the crowd with these ideas, promoting them and showing the advantages they can offer though environmental sustainability.”The lecture focused on Lappe’s newest book, “EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the Word We Want.” Lappe’s lecture gave a fresh perspective on dealing with big environmental issues such as world hunger and depleting resources. Instead of viewing these environmental problems with a powerless attitude, Lappe suggests that people should change the way they view these issues. “The problem to me isn’t these issues,” said Lappe. “It’s our feeling of powerlessness to manifest the solutions that are largely known. The idea is that we need a working hypothesis and that we can see how our personal power makes a difference. We can move from powerlessness to empowerment.”Lappe said people are stuck in the idea that there is not enough of anything.“There is not enough food, there is not enough energy, there is not enough goodness in us,” said Lappe.“Hearing is believing” is a common expression, however Lappe said that for humans, “believing is seeing,” which is the basis of Lappe’s theory on changing the way people view environmental issues.Lappe described three conditions which cause a spiral of powerlessness in addressing environmental problems, including separateness, stasis and scarcity. She said changing an individual’s mindset will ultimately give them the empowerment they need to take on these issues. Lappe gave examples of individuals who embodied this eco-mind theory and made a significant impact on the environmental issues, without a lot of money or empowerment.Lappe credited the late Wangari Maathai as one of her biggest inspirations. Maathai is a Kenyan environmental and political activist who was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental nongovernmental organization, which focuses on getting people around the world to plant trees. The goal for the Green Belt Movement was to plant a billion trees throughout the world in a year; Lappe said in one year, 11 billion trees were planted. Maathai’s story is what Lappe believes is the right mindset for empowering people to make a better world.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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