Opinion: Peace literacy is a birthright

By Laurie Marshall

Special to El Paso Matters, published May 27th

As yet another young man inflicts the pain he is suffering on others, the urgency of teaching peace literacy in our schools, communities and institutions becomes more pressing.

Knowing how to experience and express feelings in a constructive way is a lifelong process. Now, neurobiology and scientific research are giving us tools that we can strive to master as adults and pass along to our children.

The good news is that the communication skills of compassion, collaboration, trust-building, self-expression and empathy can be taught. The bad news is that it isn’t happening systematically in our schools and other institutions.

Four important resources for life-saving training are the Peace Literacy Institute, Brene Brown’s work, the bully prevention training of Community Matters, and Peace Building Through Art.

Tools for building the muscle needed for a world without mass shootings and war can be found at The Peace Literacy Institute, in a free K-16 curriculum. The institute was founded by Paul K. Chappell, a former Army captain at Fort Bliss and in Iraq.

The West Point graduate is applying what he learned in the military to waging peace. He had the profile of a mass shooter, coming from an abusive childhood. He thought it was normal to fantasize about killing his classmates in high school. His English teacher helped him discover the power of writing to express his pain instead of taking it out on innocent bystanders.

He’s written seven books which are part of the curriculum and is adapting the curriculum to a virtual reality format.

All of Brene Brown’s books and talks break down and scaffold the skills involved in identifying and expressing emotions. If these feelings are unexpressed, they become malignant and turn into violence.

Her most recent work, available in book form and an HBO video series, is “Atlas of the Heart,” which defines 87 emotions. Her books are must reads for every parent, spouse, educator, and business person.

The bullying prevention work of Community Matters, co-founded by El Paso’s visionary educator John Linney, outlines five types of mistreatment and ways that students can counteract them.

The five damaging, bullying behaviors include exclusion, put-downs, intimidation, unwanted physical contact and acts against the community.

Students gain practice in role-playing, putting up someone who was put down, active listening, distracting an aggressor’s negative behavior from a target, supporting someone who is in pain, and proposing consequences and alternatives to talk a friend out of seeking revenge.

Finally, the arts are an under-utilized tool to prevent violence. The pain, insecurity and stress that drives aggression – from an 18-year-old mass shooter to a 69-year-old head of the Russian state – can be expressed, seen and shared in the creative arts.

Peace literacy skills can be taught in the process of creating murals, music, drama and dance. Having that common experience makes connections to the heart between diverse people and allows difficult experiences to be transformed and healed.

As we face trauma upon compounded trauma with the rise of climate chaos and the anguish of violence, all of us deserve the tools of peace literacy, just as we all deserve reading literacy. Please bring these scientifically proven tools to your family and community.

Laurie Marshall is a project-based learning and arts integration specialist who recently moved to El Paso to be close to her grandchildren. She is a certified K-12 art and social studies teacher and the founder of www.UnityThroughCreativity.org, a Peace Building Through Art non-profit.

Sacred Earth, Sacred Humans, Sacred Life

Earth Day, Bioneers and Ukraine

Every day is Earth Day with the Singing Tree Project. One of the goals of the Singing Tree Project is to focus on the sacredness of the rare and precious planet we occupy in each mural we create. We are here together. Thank you for being a part of this Village to make a world that works for all living beings.

Unity Through Creativity (UTC) will be offering a workshop to the public on Friday, 8th, July 8th from 1:00-4:00 pm with Kathleen Brigidina of TreeSisters on painting with natural materials. We strive to make our practices kinder to the earth. Stay tuned for more details.

The painting above is a detail of the Ukrainian Singing Tree of Strength and Freedom in progress. The Nightingale, painted by Zayra Mojaca of the University of Texas in El Paso, is the national bird of Ukraine. The songbird is sitting on the Viburnum tree, which the besieged country's National Tree. Sacred Humans, Sacred Earth and Sacred Life are being destroyed in Ukraine as the world watches. They are being destroyed in Yemen, Afghanistan, the Congo, Syria, Ethiopia, Mexico, the U.S. and...... They are being destroyed all over the planet. This is not the world we know is possible. Unity Through Creativity - not Unity Through Force - is demonstrated over and over through our projects. We join with other Peace Builders (see Partners) in sharing skills, resources and strengths in this huge challenge of creating a just and loving society on our miraculous planet.

World Premier of Four Singing Trees at Bioneers, Palace of the Fine Arts, SF, May 13-15, 2022

Bioneers is having their first in-person conference since Oct, 2019. The non-profit brings together cutting-edge leaders from Indigenous communities, the sciences, the arts and business. You are invited to attend Unity Through Creativity's workshop on Friday, May 13 from 2:45-4:30 in the Youth Space at San Francisco's Palace of the Fine Arts. The conference will also be available virtually. We will be co-creating The Magical Window Singing Tree at the conference, led by youth. We are also excited to exhibit nine Singing Trees, four of which have not been seen by the public - The Restorative Justice Singing Tree,The Mahogany Singing Tree to Reunite Children with Their Families, The Ukrainian Singing Tree of Strength and Freedom and The Redwood Singing Trees of Holding Community Through Unity, seen below with Singing Tree Facilitators Leslie Rein and Dr. Sweta Chawla. This mural was made by 4th graders at Ocean View School in Albany, CA and will be receiving leaves and birds this week. Love the Yoda at the bottom and the turquoise giraffe.

Progress on the Ukrainian Singing Tree

We send love to all those affected directly and indirectly by the Ukrainian War. In the face of terrible violence, we pay tribute to lives lost and cities destroyed by small acts of creativity and beauty.

This video gives insight into the process and meaning of the project:

Kyangwali Singing Tree to Heal the Trauma of War

Thank you to all those who have contributed to this project. In the face of compassion fatigue, we ask you to remember those whose lives have been disrupted and scarred by violence, those who have been confined to refugee settlements for decades. The UN predicts that 120 million will be displaced by climate change and war in the next 20 years. The people at Kyangwali are our teachers. We are providing a creative space for them to express their wisdom and inner beauty. Please donate here and help Peace Building Through Art spread.

In closing, we would love to see you in two weeks IN PERSON if you are in the Bay Area or on-line at the Virtual Bioneers Conference.

Humbly and with love,

Laurie and the UTC Team

We Live In an Interconnected World

Kyangwali and the Trauma of War

The Kyangwali Refugee Settlement began as a camp for refugees from Rwanda in the 1960s.

An enormous number of cultural backgrounds and traditions are present in Kyangwali. There is conflict between nations and tribes. When you are a refugee, you are in crisis: Where am I safe? Whom can I trust? Where can I find a home? How can I make a living?

The logo for this project includes the leaf of Ukraine's national tree, the Viburnum. The Singing Tree facilitators in Uganda are sending love to those who are suffering from war and have become refugees.

The Kyangwali Refugee Settlement Singing Tree Project, led by Congolese refugee Kanizius Nsabimana and Ugandan artist Emmanuel Kavuma, will bring the Singing Tree Project to the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement.

The Kyangwali Singing Tree Project will address the traumas suffered by the more than 125,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, most from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, now at Kyangwali.

The Singing Tree Project is a community-involved Peace-Building-through-Art program that creates opportunities for communities to heal shared wounds.

https://www.unitythroughcreativity.org/the-singing-tree-project