The Magic of Co-Creating

The Magical Window Singing Tree Mural

What a joyful relief to gather in person at the Bioneers Conference after a two-year Covid hiatus. The focused, caring and visionary activists who came together strengthened our hearts in this tumultuous time. Bioneers' commitment for young people to play an active role in its gathering and programs is one reason I value this organization. Youth groups from Louisiana, Alaska, New York, California and Texas created the 108th Singing Tree mural. Even though they had never met each other before, they co-created a unique and powerful symbol in three days.

Making the mural together allowed the youth to process the impact of difficult and hopeful stories they heard in the plenaries, as well as their life experiences. The image inside the circular Magical Window is the place where humanity and nature are one, where rainbows and water begin, where the baby birds sing and leaves fly. It is surrounded by love and held by the phases of the moon.

After hearing the story of Ecuadorian indigenous forest protectors Nina and Helena Gualinga, who have stood against logging companies and oil companies, the students felt compelled to add tree stumps and oil to the painting. The courageous Gualinga sisters showed a video of a broken oil pipe spewing a stream of black liquid over the forested hillside of their sacred land. A caribou looks on, larger than the fountain of oil, yet still affected.

Some of the youth from Louisiana had lost two classmates to gun violence. They honored their friends whose lives were cut short in the birds below.

The head of the Bioneers Youth Program, Nature-based educator Will Scott of Weaving Earth, gave feedback to Unity Through Creativity's support of the young people at the conference:

"The gorgeous murals you all brought literally transformed the room. I honestly don't know if what happened in there would have been possible if the space hadn't felt so beautiful, inspiring and dynamically held by the murals that embraced it. Really. And then there's the gorgeous mural you painted! Incredible. Both the process and the end result added so much to the conference and the youth program as a whole. It was really a gift to have the art being made in real time in the space (and I know it wasn't always easy to pull that off!).

A deep bow of gratitude to you, your crew, and the amazing work you do."

Here's a short video of the joy of co-creating this project.

Facilitators of the Month

Unity Through Creativity Foundation will now be honoring our amazing facilitators each month. We begin by recognizing the enormous efforts of Leslie Rein (middle) and Diana Schiaretta (left) who have taken on a HUGE project. Leadership means facing uncertainty, inspiring trust and daring greatly. That's what Leslie and Diana are accomplishing at Shanel Valley Academy, a new, small charter school in Hopland, California.

The Singing Tree Facilitators are helping a brave group of educators, who have begun a STEAM, agricultural and project-based Learning Community in town that has been without an elementary school for 10 years. The student population is 35% Pomo, 35% Hispanic and 30% white. The school is completing their first year by making a 30 foot-long Singing Tree mural in a walk way. The Shanel Valley Academy Singing Tree of Community and Culture celebrates the return of their community school which is devoted to cultural inclusion and supporting every child. The 5th and 6th graders are the Lead Design Team for the project, inviting the younger grades, the staff, their families and community members. Unity Through Creativity is supporting the profound accomplishment of Shanel Valley Academy's first year with the all-inclusive mural project, inspired by the native oak tree. Leslie and Diana have driven over 200 miles each trip, going above and beyond in their devotion to co-creating the mural and touching the lives of the whole school community.

More Peace Leaders Are Needed

Our goal is to train 30 Facilitators in 2022. Co-heart #6 will certify Singing Tree Facilitators in a week-long training from July 18-22, both in-person (El Paso) and virtual. We're adding to the team of trained, creative Peace Leaders to combat the seemingly never-ending tidal wave of violence.

With the recent massacres and invasions, I'm racking my brain about how to prevent more wars and more heartbreaking murders of children and their teachers. My broken heart is devoted to trying to find answers. I'm sharing an opinion piece that I wrote for El Paso Matters - Peace Literacy is a Birthright to share tools and skills. There are many solutions needed. I'd love to hear your ideas, thoughts and feelings. We are in this together.

With Gratitude,

Laurie

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