Peaceprints Project Exhibition

We begin this year with peace in our hearts and in our schools. This post is from Evelyn, our Peaceprints Project coordinator. Thank you, Evelyn.

This month Tapestry High School and Catholic Central, pilot schools for the WNY Writing Project's Peaceprints Project held events that celebrated Sister Karen Klimczak’s “peaceprints” ways to further a culture of nonviolence. At Tapestry students photographed examples of justice and injustice throughout the city and wrote social analysis pieces to accompany their photos. This was part of Tapestry’s expeditionary learning mission. The work was exhibited at the Grant Street Gallery January 15-18, 2009. Tapestry wrote: “Working with all of you [at the WNY Writing Project] on the Peaceprints Project you continued to show us the importance of encouraging peace and nonviolence with youth. As we put the finishing touches on the exhibition we could not help but see the vital links to the message you all bring. Peace, nonviolence, justice, and hope are really the foundations that we all hope to impart to the students we see every day.”

At Catholic Central, the St. Monica’s division held a Martin Luther King Peaceprints day sponsored by Americorp. Students from St. Joseph University School wrote peace poems under the direction of WNY Writing Project teacher mentors, Pat McClain and Evelyn Brady, and at St.Monica’s under the direction of visiting faculty. On Martin Luther King Day, the two schools came together to share their poems, enjoy peace activities, learn how to “sign” to the “Peaceprints” song and create art works that spoke of peaceprints and MLK’s message of nonviolence. The students integrated their written work in their art pieces. As a final activity, the art pieces were “quilted” together to produce a peace quilt that will be placed at the Sister Karen Center for Nonviolence.