The End of the Year - The Beginning of Another

Veteran Jesse Brown, Singing Tree Facilitator Fernanda Lugo and Founder Laurie Marshall keep growing the message of The Cottonwood Singing Tree of Tapping the Aquifer of Goodwill Amidst the Storm.

Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,

As the Light starts growing, we'd like to celebrate this season of "Peace on Earth" with our short video of the El Paso International Day of Peace Symposium at the University of Texas at El Paso. May it lift you up.

Below are three talented El Paso teens who came to Keystone Heritage Park's Mystical Market and added to The Cottonwood Singing Tree of Tapping the Aquifer of Goodwill Amidst the Storm.  You can see their delightful artwork under their photo, as well as a "Magic" leaf drawn by a Folklorist who attended the American Folklore Society conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The Singing Tree Project welcomes the unique creativity of everyone on the planet and look what happens!

Singing Tree murals evolve with the stories of the communities they grow out of.  After the election, a ring of mushrooms appeared in my Texas backyard.  I was glad to see them as a harbinger of healthy soil, community and underground connections. Artist Serena Ornelas painted them on the mural.

Another special event occurred that affected the mural: On Dec. 4, 2024, 77 native Desert Big Horn Sheep were released in El Paso's Franklin Mountains, returning them after they disappeared 60 years ago. These magnificent creatures have also found their way onto the mural. 

Tapping the Aquifer of Goodwill Amidst the Storm

Detail from The Cottonwood Singing Tree of Tapping the Aquifer of Goodwill Amidst the Storm designed by El Paso Singing Tree Facilitators.

Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,

As we come to the end of 2024 and look ahead to next year, we are asking you to help lay the foundation for a successful 2025. This year, 12 new Singing Trees have been added to the Forest, with 1401 people making art together and discovering how much goodness they receive from each other.

At UTC, we renew our commitment every day to build a society that is multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-cultural. We practice envisioning the world we stand for, a world that is connected, creative, and collaborative.  We strive to make the power and possibility of working together big, loud and beautiful.  We continue to work towards a world that can create together in freedom, love, and respect.  

Our most recent mural, The Cottonwood Singing Tree of Tapping the Aquifer of Goodwill Amidst the Storm, was part of the November 2024 American Folklore Society's academic conference in Albuquerque, N.M. The painting expresses the theme of this gathering of storytellers, researchers and anthropologists.  Dr. Maureen Porter of University of Pittsburgh and I (see photo below) presented the Singing Tree Mural Project as a form of folk art that invites the whole world to be creative collaborators outside formal cultural institutions. Maureen and I are standing in front of The Singing Tree of What Makes America Great, made in 2017, with the Cottonwood mural background on the left.

Pictured below four members of the El Paso Team of Kristi Lai, Patti Reyes, Rachel Quintana, and I (left to right); unfortunately team member Fernanda Lugo  is not in this picture. Together we spent an intensive two weeks designing, painting, and preparing the background of the mural for the conference.

The Cottonwood Singing Tree mural portrays the Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico to honor those who advocate for wealth reform and justice.  These women use paint brushes instead of weapons. The underground rivers of our planet are a symbol of unstoppable goodwill. The handprints of Eliana, granddaughter of Rachel Quintana, imprint the turquoise aquifer because making decisions for the next seven generations of the children is the guiding concern. The tornado represents the storm of these troubled times: powerful, unpredictable, deadly, and here. One of leaves created at the Folklore conference  (above left) says "I AM THE STORM OF LOVE COMING!"

That is the task ahead: to meet the storm of these troubled times with a storm of love, a storm of respect, a storm of the warmth and light of human connection. That is the work of the Singing Tree.

In Community,

Laurie and the UTC Team

Rejoice Where Ever There is Peace

Detail from The Vitex Singing Tree of Healing Relationship with Self, Others, Earth and the Divine, designed by Co-Heart 8 of Singing Tree Facilitators for International Day of Peace

Dear Friends of Unity Through Creativity,

Every moment, every place, every relationship where conflict is productive instead of bitter, overwhelming and violent is a moment to rejoice. We are witnessing brutal, high conflict with its excruciating human cost in so many places on our planet.  I experience the pain of this cruelty. I feel discouraged and overwhelmed daily, hourly. The International Day of Peace's Symposium in El Paso was a small antidote to the massive impulse around the world, both structured and unstructured, to respond to conflict with violence.  The eight-hour Peace Symposium was a day for rejoicing.  Months of planning, led by Unity Through Creativity (UTC) with The University of Texas at El Paso's (UTEP) Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Garden and Liberal Arts Department and the Interfaith Alliance of the Southwest, resulted in deep connection and strengthening between 140 people gathered for the sake of Peace.  The Symposium was part of over 5,200 events taking place in the United States celebrating the importance of peace that took place from Sept. 21-Oct. 2, according to Pace e Bene.

Many of the keynote and panel discussions will be available on Unity Through Creativity Peace Day 2024 webpage (Scroll to the bottom).  Here the head of UTEP's Women's and Gender Studies, Dr. Hilda Ontiveros, shares the importance of feminine wisdom in Peace Building and the words of Afghan scholar activist, Neema Soratgar. 

In the program, we state: The Peace Symposium was dedicated to the heartfelt energy of this entire collective to the eradication and healing of war, pain, and suffering anywhere in our world where there is hatred, violence, and trauma to any living beings. 

Here is some feedback from the "heartfelt collective": 

I loved the diversity of people. I believe unity is different than uniformity and today I saw unity.                                                               

     Samuel Bonilla, Dragon's Garden

The best thing about the day was  meeting a community of people working for a better, more engaged El Paso. I thought the format worked. Lacking resources to actually bring the speakers, and just the main speakers presence on zoom was impactful, followed by very articulate panelists, and ending with the roundtable discussions. Having the art all around! Music and joyful movement! Meditations! Splendid!!

Bettina Escudero, Paso del Norte Mindfulness

I go to lots of #conferences. I can't get enough of them. Love them. This was one of the best I've ever attended. The best description I can share is that it felt like church but without the baggage. The room was so diverse..., the atmosphere was "open", and it presented new or insightful ideas/perspectives which my brain adores.

                                                                        Monica Jasso, County of El Paso

Below: Ruth Aparacio, Maria Cadillo, Abuela Bea Villegas, Beatriz Vera (co-chair of the Symposium) and Edward Schuldt (VP and Operations Director, UTC)

Around the World

Unity Through Creativity continues its international efforts, building Martin Luther King's Beloved Community, one mural at a time. The Olive Singing Tree of Becoming on Cyprus and The Kyangwali Singing Tree to Heal the Trauma of War in Uganda are currently in progress.

Below you'll see a picture of Cyprus Singing Tree Fellows Evita Vida and Emel Ramiz painting the image which portrays a DNA connection between the north and south of the divided island. Two members of the UTC team, Katia Petersen and Edward Schuldt, will be traveling there in October to participate in Creative Community conversations and the celebration of the completed mural

Members of 10 villages in the Kyangwali refugee settlement, seen below, came together under the facilitation of Emma Kavuma and Kanizius Nsabimana to co-create The Kyangwali Singing Tree to Heal the Trauma of War on traditional bark cloth.  Please watch the short video below in order to see the healing joy unleashed by creating together.

All over the planet there are pockets of peace and sanity that are protected, nurtured and growing.  Let us rejoice in these pockets of peace.  May they cause a far-reaching ripple, like a pebble thrown in still water. May the pockets of peace hold all all children. We paint the infant on the earth in The Vitex Singing Tree for this prayer.

Laurie and the UTC Team