Thru Jan 5/6: Wailing Hedge, Flagging Hope, and Prayer Flag Trees

Got laments?  We invite you to visit a couple of outdoor socially distant communal grief & hope spaces we created recently.  

In Morningside (Edina/Linden Hills, So. Mpls)

Wailing Hedge & Flagging Hope 

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Where:  4201 Morningside Road, Edina (map)

• Wailing Hedge is on the patio on the southeast corner of the building
• Flagging Hope is on the corner of Grimes and Morningside

More here... 

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In St. Paul (Highland Park)

Prayer Flag Tree

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Where:  1807 Field Avenue, St. Paul (map)

• Prayer Flag Tree is next to the Field Ave driveway into the parking lot

When:  Both installations will be up until the 11th or 12th day of Christmas (January 5/6, 2021).  

Stop by to add your lament or your hopes anytime between now and then.  Invite others & share on social media if you feel so moved.  

Jun 26: Public Performance: Mpls' Pianos on Parade!

Pianos are Parading through downtown Minneapolis this June.  And over the Tuesday noon hour the keys of these pianos will be tickled for your pleasure.  Check out the nearest one to you!

https://www.mplsdowntown.com/pianos

I will be making a rare public piano performance at the Grant & Nicollet piano on Tuesday, June 27, 2017, 12 noon to 1 p.m.  If you're in the area, join me in the pocket park al fresco! 

National Night Out Labyrinth Pictures!

It was National Night Out earlier this week!  Guess what was installed at the neighborhood's party? 

A three-circuit modified Classical labyrinth. 

Here's a few of my favorites.  You can spy a few more on Facebook. 

Panning the post-party grounds beside the church.
It was a well attended party with folks young and wiser.

Inviting folks to walk and ponder neighborhoods in the labyrinth.
Notice the camp chair in the center.  I saw many kids use it as seat and as table!
(wish I got a picture of that!)

 

Inviting folks to write or draw about neighborhoods: what's missing,
a funny story or happy memory, if you change one thing what would it be?
What makes a neighborhood, a neighborhood?



A flower and person!



Response:  I like summer because then I get to see my neighbors.
My neighbors give me hope.

Drawings!  What do you think this is trying to say?

Turf paint on the ground is all that is left of the National Night Out labyrinth. 
Walk it while you can.  It lasts for a couple weeks and disappears slowly with mowing and rain.

Aug 26: "This Is Our City" tour

Youth-docent lead Tour of “This Is Our City” at Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN

Friday, August 26, 2017*
4-5 p.m.

Join others to tour the “This Is Our City” exhibit, listen and ask questions of the youth docents about how artists are being embedded into city government of Minneapolis. 

Times of crisis require great creativity and innovation. Checkout how the city of Minneapolis and Intermedia Arts have partnered together to experiment with artists in certain departments to ask curious questions, invite empathy, and make space for creative possibilities for equity. 

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Over the last 5 years my awareness about the many equities that plague our society has grown.  In the same time period, my hope in community empathy and creativity to respond has also expanded.  Join me to see the learnings that Intermedia Arts and the City of Minneapolis have gleaned in their experiments so we can be inspired to work creatively in our own municipal systems for equity. 

* Intermedia Arts has a number of youth docent led tours scheduled throughout the month of August.  Check the website to find a time that works for you ... or just stop by when the gallery is open (show ends on Aug 27, 2016). 

Labyrinth Highlights from "Action Thru Art"

Last week, GoodSpace Murals answered a call for white allies to respond to recent gun violence deaths of black men and police officers, by hosting an "Action through Art" a community mural painting event on Sat, Jul 16 at J.J. Hill Montessori School.  They invited other artists to offer other healing activities and we answer the call with an offer to set up a labyrinth and lead Dances of Universal Peace.  

Here's a few photos of the labyrinth from the event.  Go and check out the many beautiful photos and video taken throughout the day of the murals and mosaics at the Facebook event page.  

Two volunteers give the 3-circuit modified Classical labyrinth a test run.

Walkers were invited to leave behind their hopes, prayers, and dreams

"I hope that someday soon everyone will be treated the same."

"Be Brave
Think of others
Have crucial conversations
Listen to people's stories
Make connections"

"Flowers
Food
Freedom"

"LOVE
STAY AWAKE
TAKE ACTION"

"Rest in peace"

"May hamster will get sick."

"One by one"

"Peace"

"I believe that reason, passion, and justice will win the day"

"Love"

Here's another invitation (sorry it's not "on location")

The labyrinth was set a bit apart from the mural, mosaic and other art tables for some quiet reflection time. 

You can still see the chalk spray outline faintly on Sunday evening, even after the rain from Saturday night.
We would love updates if it's still visible and walkable.  

Thanks so much, GoodSpace Murals!  I hope we can collaborate again soon.

Labyrinth Updates

2016 has been filled with labyrinths more than ever before ... Here's a skinny chronology of what's happened so far and what's coming ahead:


Walking the labyrinth at Wintermission.

• Jan-Feb 2016:  Invited to make a snow labyrinth for the Friendly Streets Initiative and their Wintermission event at the planned site for the Rondo Commemorative Plaza. 

The huge snowfall from the previous week melts during an incredible mid-winter thaw!  Oh no!  Brainstorm a stanchion-based rectangle design from materials from Ax-man that also can multi-task as dreams and concerns collector. 

• Mar-Apr 2016:  Submitted poster session proposal to The Labyrinth Society's annual meeting based on the Wintermission labyrinth.  It is accepted!



Two little people walk at the Backyard Farm Fair

• Apr-May 2016:  Invited to install a temporary labyrinth by The Trust for Public land at Frogtown Farm's Backyard Fair. 

Adapting Tom Vetter's Flower in the Seed design, I develop the stanchion based labyrinth idea from February and add pennant flags for more presence.

• Jun 2016:  Submit a proposal to Springboard for the Art's Ready Go mobile art tools to continue developing the stanchion based labyrinth idea.  I find out in a couple of weeks if it's accepted!

So, what's ahead?
* Prepare my poster and handouts for The Labyrinth Society gathering, make travel plans for Houston, TX, and go!  (Sept-Nov 2016)

* Attend Veriditas' labyrinth facilitator training in North Carolina.  It occurs to me that if I was going to install and facilitate labyrinth walks, it might be a good idea to get the stamp of approval by "the experts." (Aug 2016)

* Bring Field of Reflections to fruition if my Ready Go proposal is accepted!  (Jul-Aug 2016)

* Round up financial support. (Now) Although I'm hopeful about receiving a scholarship to attend training and the poster presentation comes with a stipend, I need to raise more funds for travel, lodging, and registration.  And if the Ready Go! proposal is not accepted, I already know I want to move forward with the project and will need to raise funds to buy material and commission an artist to create a centerpiece (intrigued?  more on that later!).  Would you be willing to consider supporting me in one of the following ways?

• Hire me to install a labyrinth (either the simple rectangle or Flower in the Seed design) for an event at church, workplace, or family/friends gathering.  Since I already have the materials, you pay for the setup/teardown and time facilitating during the event. 
• Or hire me for one of my many other interests: 

1. a Full Voice workshop with friends, family, or co-workers (ask me for details!)
2. a 1:1 Full Voice lesson,
3. lead Dances of Universal Peace for an event
4. lead community song at an event or worship service or team building session
5. facilitating other community art projects for your neighborhood or organization
6. providing music for funerals, weddings, other services, and events from the piano and organ bench, voice, flute, baritone ukulele, shruti box

• Contribute to my GoFundMe.com campaign. 

Thanks so much for reading my Labyrinth Update!  It's an exciting time and I'm grateful to have you along for the company!

Temporary Labyrinth Installation: Frogtown Park & Farm, Sat, May 21, 11a-2p

Come on over to the Backyard Farm Fest!  The folks from Frogtown Park & Farms are invitin' everyone over to see what they're planting in their swales and berms this Saturday and have all sorts of other enticing events going on like giving away sweet potato starts and other plants, gardening tips and tricks, gardening tool repair, and Poetry Gumbo with my friend Sheronda ... plus a labyrinth in the lower park!  Checkout the Facebook event page for more details.

Frogtown Farm's Backyard Fair!
Saturday, May 21, 2016, 11a-2p
Frogtown Park & Farm
941 Lafond Ave, St. Paul (map)

The labyrinth I'm installing for the day is Tom Vetter's "Flower in the Seed." It looks like this on the page. 

Tom Vetter's Flower in the Seed labyrinth design.

 And a little like this on the ground.  I mocked it up in the church greenspace by my house. 

Mid-installation of "Flower In the Seed."

A volunteer runner making sure "Flower in the Seed" is fun!



I'm especially excited to see this installation from the hilltop at Frogtown Park and Farm though.  You'll really get to see the center of the flower, the stem, and its leaves.  So come on over and walk, run, skip, dance, crawl your way through Flower in the Seed labyrinth with me! 

Many thanks to The MN office of The Trust for Public Land for sponsoring this! 

If you'd like to help out in some way, here's a few ways you can...

• Lend tomato plant cages or shepherd's hooks (hanging plant hooks) - they're sturdy posts for the ropes and lines of pennants!
• Got old party streamers in a corner collecting dust?  I'd love to weave them into the garden fencing we're using!
• I'm open to other ideas too!  Suggest something and we'll work with it!
• Donate to my GoFundMe page:  https://www.gofundme.com/CBLabyrinthDreams.  I'm dreaming of bringing temporary labyrinths to places that need thoughtful activation, like vacant lots, and need more sturdy pieces to bring it all together.  Plus I've been invited to share a poster at The Labyrinth Society's gathering in Houston, TX in November and I'd like to complete labyrinth facilitator training in the near future, both of which require funds to travel and registration/tuition.

Thanks so much! 

p.s. if you miss it, you can see a shadow of it for a few days afterward (at least a mowing or two) as we'll be using marking paint on the grass.