Women Warriors Project launches in NE Ohio!

Hello Friends of the Vet Art Project,

We have just launched the Women Warriors Project meeting monthly in NE Ohio--in Akron to be exact. Here are the details. Please join us and help us spread the word!

Wishing you all peace through Art, Lisa

Women Warriors Project

We are a gathering for women—

Making Art, Sharing Stories, and Supporting Each Other in Our Service

· Women service members and veterans

· Women whose spouses or partners are currently serving or veterans

· Women who are mothers of current service members or veterans

· Women whose brother, sister, father, mother—any family relation or friend—is currently serving or served in the military

We women provide support when we serve our country, and we offer a lot of support to those we love who serve(d) our country. We need to support ourselves to help sustain ourselves and others. Women Warriors Project is a group where we can share our stories in an accepting and supportive community.

6:30 – 8 p.m.

2nd Tuesday of Every Month

First Grace UCC

350 S. Portage Path

Akron, Ohio 44320

There is no cost to participate.

E-mail vetartproject@gmail.com or call 708-715-5488

to RSVP & for more information

This group is led by Lisa Peacock, MA, Drama Therapist, founder of the Vet Art Project, the wife of a veteran, and a playwright, writing coach, author, and editor.

The Vet Art Project creates opportunities for veterans and family members to work with creative media to foster storytelling about war and service to attain a greater level of personal understanding, awareness, and peace.

More information: www.vetartproject.com

This program is supported in part by the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, Warriors Journey Home, First Grace UCC, and Family & Community Services

Writing Contest for Veterans

The Iowa Review has a new veterans writing contest. Here are the details:

The Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans

This new contest is open to U.S. military veterans and active duty personnel writing in any genre.

The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in an upcoming issue of The Iowa Review literary magazine.

The final judge is Robert Olen Butler.

Deadline: June 15, 2012

Entry fee: $15

For online submission guidelines, please visit iowareview.submishmash.com.

For paper submission guidelines (and more information), visit http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/veteranswritingcontest.

Please e-mail iowa-review@uiowa.edu with any questions.

BeatRoot and the Journey Forward!

We have begun a wonderful program series called BeatRoot. It's a spiritual journey through movement. Not a dance lesson; not a class. It's a chance to bring your emotions and take a journey through rhythm. Meeting every Monday at First Grace UCC in Akron. Send an e-mail to vetartproject@gmail.com for more details.

So much has happened . . . where to begin

After finishing my drama therapy internship at the Institute for Therapy through the Arts I moved to Akron. Many changes in my life and the lives of my family. It's good to be back in the Midwest and back in the Buckeye state. It's true: Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye!

I'm working at Freedom House, a shelter for formerly homeless veterans. I'm leading a stress reduction workshop series--my second of many more to come. I use all my skills as a drama therapist and incorporate playwriting, dance/movement, drawing, poetry, collage making, music, and more into the storytelling process that occurs in this group setting. I'm also privileged to help attend the flag raising and lowering outside the shelter at sunrise and sundown when I'm working as a housing specialist.

The Vet Art Project is also doing a weekly dance/movement program called BeatRoot at First Grace UCC in Akron. This is a "spiritual journey through movement" where participants come in and explore their feelings through movement inspired by different rhythmic patterns from around the world. We move for an hour--nonstop! Believe it or not you can, too.

The University of Akron is another venue for Vet Art Project programming. We'll be offering workshops for students as part of their Wellness Day program in late March and a program for faculty and staff from this and other area universities in early April.

I've also become a regular participant in Warriors Journey Home circles where veterans, family members, and people of strong heart gather to share in community stories of war and service. (Check out http://www.warriorsjourneyhome.com/)

Also Shianne Eagleheart and her Red Bird Center (http://www.redbirdcenter.org/) is a wonderful healing space that's opened to veterans and family members the last weekend of every month. There's time for sharing, storytelling, art, and healing lodges. And everyone has an opportunity to be refreshed and reconnected to the land and to their brothers and sisters.

There are grand people here in Northeast Ohio and this is a fine foundation to grow strong roots. Stay tuned for further updates as the Vet Art Project continues to transform all who participate in her programming.

Sharing Opportunity at the Arts in Healing for Warriors Conference at the new Walter Reed & NICoE

I was privileged to present information about the Vet Art Project at the invitation of the Society for Arts in Health Care at the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and NICoE in Bethesda, Maryland last weekend. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn what's happening around the country--Walter Reed provides creative arts therapy for some patients!--and learn how art is helping in the healing process for those who have served our country. It was a wonderful opportunity, too, help inspire others to invest in the project in their home communities. I shared the philosophy and how to build a supportive community.

Reflections 10 Years After and Counting

On September 11th I was in Chicago at my job as a development book editor. The CEO closed the office early and we all went home to be with our families. I spent the afternoon with my husband witnessing the devastation and feeling my life transform. It was a day of great tragedy as was (and is) it's aftermath.

Looking back, it was on this day that I began to ask myself the question "What difference was I making in the lives of others"? This day propelled me forward on my journey that first led me to be against something but as I spent time with the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and then the military families who feared for the well-being of their sons and daughters, I realized that it was much better to be FOR something than AGAINST something. So my question then became "What positive difference can I make in the lives of others"?

I believe the Vet Art Project grew out of these events--helping others give voice to their experiences from war and service. Introducing or strengthening artistic languages to connect with and convey buried feelings for self-revelation, to communicate these feelings to other family members so they may know what you experienced whether during service or on the homefront for the spouses and loved ones left behind, and to learn from the experiences of the children and their losses. Sharing these stories with others, to build bridges of communication and community, reconnecting the veteran and civilian populations to help us understand the enormous impact of war and service on us all, this is but one of the many Phoenixes that arose from this tragedy.

I regret the events that started me on this path--my thoughts and prayers are with those who sacrificed so much on that day--and I am grateful for every step thereafter.

It's been too long! News from the HomeFront of the Vet Art Project

Hello My Friends,
I cannot believe it's been so many months since my last blog post. I've been busy D O I N G instead of reporting on what I'm doing—my apologies, however, at my absence. Here's what I've been up to as I continue my training as a drama therapist:
—1 internship in Tucson, Arizona with One Sacred Nation Healing, a Wellbriety Program that uses Native American principles, laws, and values to teach others a program of wellness and sobriety
—1 internship in Evanston, Illinois with the Institute for Therapy through the Arts, working with creative arts therapists, drama therapists, and music therapists and 16 different population groups to get more hands-on training practice in drama therapy
—2 Grief Trainings with the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago
—1 Creative Arts Therapy Workshop with the School of the Art Institute Chicago Art Therapy Program
—I attended the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, Chicago
—1 Poetry Therapy workshop with Dr. Sherry Reiter (www.creativerightingcenter.com), Black Mountain, NC
—1 Warriors Journey Home Healing Retreat (forthcoming later this week), Red Bird Center, Cambridge, OH, and
—I will be appearing on a panel at a conference sponsored by Society for the Arts in Health Care (more to come on this) in October, Bethesda, MD
—and more to report in the weeks to come

My commitment to the project remains steadfast and will begin to grow more apparent in the months to come with upcoming announcements.
Vet Art Project Chicago continues to grow stronger with new programming the city colleges in Chicago
Vet Art Project Pittsburgh recently assisted at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games & at Stand Down Pittsburgh

And calls for programming and offers of support keep coming in from around the country.
Want to help? Send an e-mail to vetartproject@gmail.com
The Vet Art Project continues to be fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas so you can make a tax-deductible contribution. Just go to our Web site and click on the link on the home page.

In gratitude for all the stories and offers of support,
Lisa