The Women Warriors Project returns!

This coming Tuesday evening the Women Warriors Project will reconvene for the month of August. Meeting one evening each month we use creative arts therapy techniques to share our stories and our lives with other women who've served in the military or in supportive roles to those who serve whether as a partner or spouse, daughter, sister, or friend. Our experiences are different from those of men, and we want to share our unique journeys together to realize we are not alone, others face similar challenges, how we can help each other move forward, and our voices are significant additions to what it means to serve one's country. Please join us this Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at First Grace UCC in Akron. If you cannot join us, please contact me at vetartproject@gmail.com to learn how you can start your own Women Warriors Project in your home community. Let's come together to move forward with strength, courage, joy, and gratitude.

Grants Galore! And we are GRATEFUL!

I am very pleased to share that the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation and the Puffin Foundation have recently awarded the Vet Art Project grants. The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation grant will help underwrite drama therapy programming in Northeast Ohio including workshops with veterans at area shelters and with Warriors Journey Home, a therapeutic theater program at the Parma VA, and in support of the national launch of Vet Art Project America Retreat that will offer transformational arts programming for veterans and family members as well as train creative arts therapists and counselors in the philosophy of the project to build projects in their home communities.  The Puffin Foundation will support this programming helping to purchase supplies and more.

A recent benefit performance titled Theatre of War was produced in Chicago at the Chopin Theater which offered artists interpretations of their connection to or disconnection from war. This funding will support programming in Chicago as well as helping Chicago-area veterans and family members attend the Vet Art Project America Retreat in Northeast Ohio. For more details on this wonderful event, please see below post.

A site for Veterans' Art

I was recently contacted by a veteran who used art as a big part of his recuperation process and he's started a FaceBook page. This group is a place where veterans can post artwork that they've created as part of their journeys. I hope to post some of Dan's artwork here soon.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Artwork-by-Veterans/389324847797098?skip_nax_wizard=true# 

Here's the description:

Artwork by Veterans inspires greater understanding of the real impact of war with a focus on the healing aspect Art provides. The page is set up as a museum to collect, preserve and exhibit art inspired by military service and created by veterans

Plans, Programs & More

From distant shores . . .

to the bluest peaks . . .

we have witnessed the majesty that is Mother Nature and fed ourselves . . .

In addition to the fabulous performances that made up Theatre of War, other news in the world of the Vet Art Project includes . . .

• BeatRoot: A Spiritual Journey through Movement continues since January 2012
• Women Warriors Project began in NE Ohio in April of this year
• Stress-Reduction Workshops at Shelters for Formerly Homeless Veterans
• Therapeutic Theater Workshop at a VAMC

Additional recent support provided by . . .

• Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation
• Warriors Journey Home
• Family & Community Services
• First Grace UCC

Upcoming programming includes . . .

• Creative Arts Workshop Series with Vet Art Project Chicago in conjunction with other Chicago-area veterans arts organizations
• Vet Art Project America Retreat: A transformative creative arts retreat for veterans and family members with follow-up experiential training for creative arts therapists and counselors
• Women Warriors Survivor Project

We continue to illuminate the world through story and building community 

Theatre of War Video for Upcoming Benefit for the Vet Art Project

Please witness this powerful collage of sounds and images depicting war and relative distance to it:

https://vimeo.com/41960356

Theatre of War to benefit the Vet Art Project

Chicago friends of the Vet Art Project can support it by feeding themselves new ways to look at, feel, and think about the effects of war. A collaboration among Chicago music, film theater, and written word artists, Theatre of War sets out to share their exploration of "the alienation felt by many Americans: the alienation of the soldier from civilian life, of the average U.S. citizen from victims of torture, of the dissociative, technological methods of remote-control weaponry from its human casualties--and the notable lack of spiritual disquiet in our society at large as so much destruction occurs around the world."

• Wednesday, May 23rd &
• Thursday, May 24th
• 7:30 p.m. each evening
• CHOPIN Theater
• $30 general admission / $20 students with ID

I'll be there for the opening night and participants in the Vet Art Project Chicago will be here both nights.

Details here: http://spektralquartet.com/events/theatre-of-war/

Please help support the dialogue.
Wishing all of you peace through art,
Lisa

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.