Mural Installation Scheduled

We have scheduled an installation of the next Pieces of Peace mural.  The mural will be located on the outdoor walls of the Andre Cafe Acoustique at 5th and Edgemont Streets in Chester.  There will be an installation party with live music and a kids art activity on Sunday, April 22nd, 3-6pm.  (rain date: Sunday April 29th, 3-6pm).  The mural will be a collage of quilt pieces created on MLK Day.

MLK Day 2012!

There's no better place to celebrate MLK Day than Chester, PA!  Last week over 350 community members gathered at Widener University to participate in the Pieces of Peace Project.  We decorated T-shirts that we can wear to show our personal commitment to Peace.  We also painted quilt squares as symbols of our shared commitment to Peace and non-violence.  The squares will be installed as murals at various locations throughout Chester.

We also dedicated the first Pieces of Peace mural to the late Dr. Alonzo Cavin, who was perhaps the greatest champion of the local legacy of Dr. King.  The Honorable Nathaniel Nichols was on hand to speak about Dr. Cavin and his great gift of service to the community.

Planning for Second Mural is Underway.

The second Pieces of Peace mural is planned for two walls at the Ruth L. Bennett Homes Development.  The walls are visible from Interstate 95, and will be viewed by thousands of travelers everyday.  It's an excellent opportunity to share stories of Chester with folks passing by.  A design is currently being developed and a community paint day is scheduled for the Martin Luther King Day of Service activities in Chester on January 16, 2012 in Latham Hall at Widener University.  More info to follow. . .

First Mural Complete!

Our hard work has paid off!  In June the first mural was installed.  The piece includes three 8 foot square panels made up of quilt patches created at our paint days.  In the center panel is an image of the Sankofa (doubling as a heart) with a Peace sign in the middle.  It reads "Peace is in Our Hearts".  This text was inspired by community response to the question "Where is Peace?".  It also relates to the talk that Butch Slaughter gave at one of our paint days.  Butch reminded us that we carry the potential for peace with us everywhere we go, but we must be the conduits of it in order for it to become a reality.  The mural is on an exterior wall of the Chester YWCA.

Quilt Patch Creation Has Begun!

This past Saturday we gathered at the YWCA to work on the first Pieces of Peace mural.  We cut shapes out of the "raw materials" that we painted at the last gathering.  We worked in small groups to design quilt patches. Then we glued the pieces together.  These patches (and lots more) will go into the mural. At the next gathering we'll continue building our quilt.

First Paint Day!

Last Saturday we gathered at the YWCA for conversation and painting.  Butch Slaughter Led a spirited conversation about violence, peace, and our personal roles.  In his words "Peace should be aggressive, just like violence."  In other words, we have to be active about Peace.  Non-violence isn't just something that happens on its own, we have to work at it.  Butch Also had a great metaphor for the way Peace is always a possibility, flowing through the room, we just have to channel it.  He talked about radio stations.  They're always there, but you need a radio to tune them in.  We can be radios of Peace. Here's a link to Butch's website: www.butchslaughter.net

Then we Painted.  We used an organic process with lots of freedom to create raw materials for our first quilt collage mural, which will be at the YWCA.  At the next event we'll create quilt patches from the raw materials.

MLK Day 2011

Pieces of Peace kicked off with a boom on MLK Day 2011!  We made peace flags that everyone will take home and hang outside.  We also began the conversation about what non-violence means in our everyday lives.  Participants did individual writing, discussed in small groups and shared reported back to the large group.  The conversation continues next month on February 19th back at the YWCA . . . Plus we start painting!