Walk as One for Peace on World Labyrinth Day

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release

March 1, 2023

Contact: Ellen Bintz Meuch
World Labyrinth Day Coord. 630-235-2150
wld@labyrinthsociety.org
Walk as One for Peace on World Labyrinth Day

Trumansburg, N.Y. — On Saturday, May 6, 2023, thousands of people will participate in the fifteenth annual World Labyrinth Day as a moving meditation for peace and celebration of the labyrinth experience. Whether you are familiar with labyrinths or new to the idea of non-maze labyrinth paths, all are welcome to learn more and take part.

World Labyrinth Day is an international event held on the first Saturday each May, sponsored by The Labyrinth Society in collaboration with partner organizations including the Australian Labyrinth Network, Legacy Labyrinth Project, and Veriditas. Together these organizations are preparing resources and offering a series of pre-World Labyrinth Day workshops to empower individuals and groups to plan their own local World Labyrinth Day events.

Many participants will “Walk as One at 1” by walking a labyrinth at 1:00 p.m. local time to create a rolling wave of peaceful energy passing from one time zone to the next around the globe. There will be individual walks, local community celebrations (with all applicable health precautions) and worldwide connections through online events and social media. Existing labyrinths will be visited, and new temporary or permanent labyrinths will be built.

Labyrinths are found throughout the world with the oldest dating back thousands of years. In contemporary use, labyrinths provide an opportunity for personal reflection, spiritual practice, or the reduction of stress in many different public and private settings. Over 6,000 labyrinths are listed on the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator website: labyrinthlocator.com.

Labyrinth walkers may also choose to participate in the third annual Big Connection research project, the first global humanity research experiment utilizing the labyrinth and asking the question, “What is the impact of walking labyrinths collectively with heart centered intention and the impact that it has for ourselves and our planet?” Labyrinth Activism is a term that has emerged from the prior studies in 2021 and 2022. This year the researchers are further exploring the process of labyrinth activism, how to initiate it, and asking participants to record their experiences. More information can be found at worldlabyrinthday.org or legacylabyrinthproject.org, beginning March 7th.

The first World Labyrinth Day was celebrated in 2009 and included events in New Zealand, Hong Kong, the United States, and many other locations. The Labyrinth Society Global Group on Facebook, created in tandem with World Labyrinth Day, has since grown to over 15,000 members from 100 different countries, with steady use throughout the year and a peak in activity every year around World Labyrinth Day. Visit worldlabyrinthday.org for more information, resources, and ways to participate.

The Labyrinth Society is a U.S.-based international nonprofit organization founded in 1998 whose mission is to support all those who create, maintain, and use labyrinths, and to serve the global community by providing education, networking, and opportunities to experience transformation.

labyrinthsociety.org

WUNC's Summer Youth Reporting Institute Highlights Walnut Cove

Thank you to Claire Haile for her excellent story,” 'David fighting Goliath': For Walnut Cove residents, environmental activism is personal,” as part of the 2022 Summer Youth Reporting Institute at WUNC in Chapel Hill. Haile interviewed David Hairston and Caroline Armijo about their environmental activism.

Listen to the story or read the full story here.

About Claire Haile

Claire Haile grew up in the Greensboro area. She is a rising sophomore at Davidson College, where her interests include history, anthropology, and gender and sexuality studies. Her interest in research, writing, and community stories drew her to the Youth Reporting Institute. Claire looks forward to using the skills she’s gained this summer to continue to learn and write about individuals and communities facing challenges.

About WUNC 2022 Youth Reporting Institute

This summer we continued to adapt to the new normal by running our summer radio institute in a hybrid format. With the American Tobacco Studios as our home base students had the opportunity to work within our newsroom, and from home. Using in-person training, Zoom calls, Instagram, and our curriculum website, we took youth reporters through the process of producing a radio story - from pitching to interviews to script-writing and editing. We worked with 8 high school and college students ages 16-20 from across the Triangle and Triad area.

"Under The Skin" by Linda Villarosa

I am so excited to share that Danielle’s story is part of the upcoming book, “Under the Skin” by Linda Villarosa. The book features different chapters of which our friendship is included in one. The book will be released on June 14th by Penguin Random House.

About Under the Skin

In 2018, Linda Villarosa’s New York Times Magazine article on maternal and infant mortality among black mothers and babies in America caused an awakening. Hundreds of studies had previously established a link between racial discrimination and the health of Black Americans, with little progress toward solutions. But Villarosa’s article exposing that a Black woman with a college education is as likely to die or nearly die in childbirth as a white woman with an eighth grade education made racial disparities in health care impossible to ignore.
 
Now, in Under the Skin, Linda Villarosa lays bare the forces in the American health-care system and in American society that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts. Today’s medical texts and instruments still carry fallacious slavery-era assumptions that Black bodies are fundamentally different from white bodies. Study after study of medical settings show worse treatment and outcomes for Black patients. Black people live in dirtier, more polluted communities due to environmental racism and neglect from all levels of government. And, most powerfully, Villarosa describes the new understanding that coping with the daily scourge of racism ages Black people prematurely. Anchored by unforgettable human stories and offering incontrovertible proof, Under the Skin is dramatic, tragic, and necessary reading.

About the Author

LINDA VILLAROSA is a journalism professor at the City University of New York and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, where she covers the intersection of race and health. She has also served as executive editor at Essence and as a science editor at The New York Times. Her article on maternal and infant mortality was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. She is a contributor to The 1619 Project.

Learn more at LindaVillarosa.com.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta Visits Belews Creek

This past May, Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited some of our community members to discuss the health impacts they have been facing over the last several decades. We were eager to see the report.

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Concerns are rising for residents living near coal ash ponds after Andrew Wheeler, the acting administrator of the EPA, rolled back regulations on the storage of the toxic waste. CNN's Sanjay Gupta reports.

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The video was released in late July after the announcement of Trump's new head of the EPA and Scott Pruitt's replacement, Andrew Wheeler. Wheeler was a coal lobbyist and has already put in place new federal rules that remove groundwater monitoring around any coal ash ponds that do not have off-site contamination. Groundwater causes the pollutants to continuously move. Even if there is no contamination at this point in time, the toxins will likely spread in the near future. 

A more detailed story including the voices of additional Belews Creek residents is also found online. 

Live on Voice of the People

Last week, I joined Ira Tilley live on the air with Voice of the People. I was a little nervous, but Ira promised that the thirty-minute show would fly by. And he was right! I’ve already heard from a friend about how much she enjoyed our conversation. And that Ira is right. Conserving our natural resources is not a political issue. 

Carolina Armijo, The Lilies Project. Ira Tilley, host. Sponsored by Two Rivers Plaza, Eden. www.TheLiliesProject.org, Facebook.com/Ira Tilley, Voice of the People.

I do regret not correcting Ira when he said that I am a resident of Stokes County. I am a Stokes County native, but I live in Greensboro. I try to be very transparent about that fact. I should have corrected him immediately because I never got back around to it before it slipped my mind. 

I had a few um's near the beginning of the show, but not nearly as many as in my June Walnut Cove Town Council presentation. So that is a definite plus. 

This station sits at the end of a road atop a small ridge in Mayodan. It has been on the air for fifty years! They have recently received the okay for two FM channels. I'm really tempted to say I want my own show! I am definitely trying to figure out a podcast format. We would love to use a podcast to share great Stokes County stories. But I also meet so many amazing people, including Ira,  as part of my work that I always want to record our conversation. I have the most amazing job ever. 

After lunch, Ira treated me to lunch at the Airport Drive-In along with his father. I loved how his dad's shirt matches the 1960 map of industry in North Carolina. Walnut Cove and Danbury are on the map!  I also met several friends who came over to tell me some of their insight into local history.

One man knows my father, of course, and promised to give him a call about the Shoe Buckle Plantation, which was purchased by the Hairston Family from the Daltons long ago. He then went on to tell me that both black and white members of the Hairston family go to the reunion together, which is explored in Princess Hairston's film. I told him that I have a black friend and a white friend, both Daltons, who great one another as cousins. He replied, “We are all the same.” Let it be. 

Double Headline News!

Yesterday was an exciting day to wake up to not one, but two front page stories in my now local and childhood local newspapers, respectively!

A couple of weeks ago, Greensboro News & Record's Taft Wireback joined Dr. Shivakumar, Wade and I for an interview in Shivakumar's office.

As we shared the history of our collaboration, it began to feel like one of our actual meetings. Beginning in early 2016, I have met with Shivakumar and Wade to share ideas and updates about our work every six to eight weeks. We generally meet for roughly an hour and fifteen minutes to talk. The last fifteen minutes always feel like the most productive. By the end of our interview, I shared my next steps and the first molds that I plan to create and discussed how they will build on one another. 

I found this time frame to be true for all collaboration through my coal ash work. You have to be willing to talk to others on the phone for quite a while. Something always seems to arise in the end. 

I was particularly moved by our meeting, because it was Taft's original article about Shivakumar's EcoCore in August 2014 that moved me to contact him in February 2016. I remember reading the article on my phone as part of my daily headline updates. We were well into our organizing at that point. I kept thinking over the next eighteen months that surely something was happening with their research. Finally I sent an email to find out after being prompted by a meditation in my Call Class at Holy Trinity's Servant Leadership program, as described in Lisa Sorg's post. 

And the rest is front page news! Above the fold, my dad exclaimed!

We spent the day in Winston getting haircuts and running errands. The article's placement was perfect timing! We ran into old friends so excited to see the news and share it with others. This picture was taken at the local Mt. Tabor Barber Shop! 

Resources:

"A North Carolina artist wants to create lilies in a field of coal ash", by Taft Wireback, Greensboro News & Record, December 26th, 2017.

Also Reprinted in: 
Winston-Salem Journal 
The Roanoke Times
Omaha World-Herald

N.C. A&T RESEARCHERS FIND USE FOR COAL ASH, by Taft Wireback, Greensboro News & Record, JUNE 14, 2014

Talking with Keri Brown at WFDD

Thank you to Keri Brown for taking time to meet with me on Tuesday morning. It is always great to meet with Keri and to share her passion about environmental causes. She has won two Edward R. Murrow Award related to her stories on coal ash - one for the Dan River Spill and a second profiling Belews Creek. 

Turning Coal Ash Into Public Art

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Caroline Armijo looks at composite building material made out of coal ash. She is partnering with North Carolina A&T State University and other organizations to create public art with coal ash in Stokes County. Keri Brown/WFDD

A local artist is using her talents to create a new public art display in Stokes County.

Caroline Armijo recently won a $350 thousand grant from ArtPlace America’s National Creative Placemaking Fund to install her designs in Walnut Cove, near Duke Energy’s Belews Creek coal ash pond. Armijo has partnered with scientists at North Carolina A&T State University to recycle the waste and now she’s making art out of it. It’s called The Lilies Project.

“The sculpture itself will be the centerpiece,” says Armijo. “It could be a gateway with the lilies above or it may be a freestanding sculpture, so the actual design has not been determined, but I’m hoping it can be a warm and inviting place where people can share stories and come with their kids.”

Armijo says the project also includes collecting oral histories of residents who have been affected by coal ash. The information will be used to create a walking tour and original performance.

The artwork will have to be installed by the end of June 2020, according to the grant. Several community workshops will be held in the coming months to discuss where in Walnut Cove the artwork will be located.

Armijo says the project will also be a tribute to the arts heritage in Stokes County.

“The name of the project was inspired from the movie Lilies of the Field,” says Armijo. Jester Hairston, born in Belews Creek, wrote the music "Amen" for that film, which is the first movie for which an African-American won an Academy Award. "Hairston is a world-known composer and actor, and I wanted to somehow honor him.”

There are around 20 million tons of coal ash at the Belews Creek Steam Station. Armijo says she isn’t sure how much of the ash will be used in her art project, but she hopes it will draw more attention to other recycling possibilities and cleaning up the site.

*Follow WFDD’s Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Listen here

Pocket Parks' Potential

I was excited to walk into this FOX8 interview last week talking about the potential for pocket parks in Downtown Greensboro, highlighting the Historic Hamburger Square. After our interview, I shared that I actually know a lot about art in parks! Many people believe that I am involved with this project. I am not currently, but would love to be. Perhaps a great site for some art made out of coal ash!

On The State of Things

Host Frank Stasio also talks with Greensboro-based artist Caroline Armijo. She is developing a public art project called “Lilies of the Field” in Walnut Cove, North Carolina that will repurpose coal ash to create large lily flower petals. She is a finalist for the ArtsPlace America’s National Creative Placemaking Fund.

Listen to Caroline's interview at 6:25. 

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The Lilies Project is a Finalist

Triad, North Carolina-based Environmental Public Art Project Lilies of the Field is a finalist for ArtPlace America’s 2017 National Creative Placemaking Fund

Extremely competitive national grant program will consider 70 projects

(June 9, 2017) Today, ArtPlace America announced that Lilies of the Field, a community-based public art and environmental remediation project designed by Greensboro, North Carolina-based artist, activist, and Stokes County native Caroline Armijo in collaboration with Appalachian Voices, North Carolina A&T State University’s Center for Composite Materials, the Stokes County Arts Council, and other organizations, is one of 70 finalists for the 2017 National Creative Placemaking Fund (NCPF). ArtPlace selected these 70 proposals from 987 applications, making Armijo’s project one of just 7% of the projects across the country to make this cut.

ArtPlace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund is a highly competitive national program, receiving 987 applications this year. Investing money in communities across the country in which artists, arts organizations, and arts and culture activity help drive community development change across 10 sectors of community planning and development: agriculture and food; economic development; education and youth; environment and energy; health; housing; immigration; public safety; transportation; or workforce development. 

Armijo’s proposed project addresses the issue of coal ash remediation. The public art installation will use reclaimed coal ash and solar energy cells to create large lily flower blossoms.The piece is a tribute to Stokes County native Jester Hairston, who composed and sang “Amen” in the 1963 film “Lilies of the Field,” for which Sidney Poitier received an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first time an African-American had received the award. This project will also serve as a national model for how properly remediated coal ash can be put to positive uses. 

“As part of my advocacy work, my partner organizations and I are seeking out-of-the-box solutions that help protect our residents by storing coal ash in its safest form – solid. The encapsulation process, which uses a polymer, prevents the fine particulate matter of heavy metals from getting into our water, air and bodies. This grant allows me as an artist to create something that celebrates and elevates the excellence found within our community, one that has also carried the heavy burden of environmental injustices over the last four decades. We are so excited about the opportunity and intend to create a replicable model that can address similar needs in the 1400 impacted communities across America,” Armijo said.

Walnut Cove is a rural North Carolina community and also home to Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Steam Station. Neighboring residents have faced numerous health concerns over the years. Current North Carolina law allows for Duke Energy to leave 12 million tons of coal ash “capped in place” in the community, which provides local residents virtually no protection from ongoing groundwater contamination and future risk of failure. Water discharge from the 12 million ton pit adversely impacts municipal drinking water downstream on the Dan River – Madison, Eden, the site of the 2014 coal ash spill, and beyond to Kerr Lake. Belews Creek already includes an 8 million-ton “capped” impoundment that has created an expansive arsenic bloom in the area.

However, properly treated coal ash is a valuable building asset, as it increases the longevity of infrastructure projects while reducing the cost. Currently the concrete industry faces a national shortage of available coal ash and is importing the byproduct of burning coal from China, Turkey, Poland and other countries. North Carolina alone has 180 million tons of ash buried in communities near rivers and groundwater sources. 

“These seventy finalists are extraordinary examples of the ways that artists, arts organizations, and communities are thinking about working together,” said ArtPlace Director of National Grantmaking F. Javier Torres. “We look forward to learning more about all of them, as we visit with them this summer.”

“Each of these projects has proposed something extraordinary and important,” added ArtPlace Executive Director Jamie Bennett. “We would love to be able to invest in all of them, and know that choices ahead of us will be extraordinarily difficult.”

The complete list of the 2017 finalists for ArtPlace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund may be found here.

About Caroline Armijo
Caroline Rutledge Armijo is a mixed-media artist and environmental advocate living in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her work focuses on spirituality and personal history, and incorporates her concern for the environmental issues threatening her home community. Caroline is also the ninth generation of her family to live in Stokes County, NC.

As an advocate, she works with Residents for Coal Ash Clean Up, which supports the Belews Creek Community, and ACT against Coal Ash, a statewide alliance of the communities neighboring fourteen Duke Energy sites, plus Lee and Chatham Counties, which are receiving the ash in landfills as part of Duke’s clean-up settlement. She has also worked with several other environmental non-profits, including Appalachian Voices, Clean Water for NC, NC WARN, Moms Clean Air Force, Clean Air Moms Action, Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, and the NAACP.

Armijo’s collaborative work with NC A&T University’s Center for Composite Materials was recently featured as part of the first episode in the 2017 Climate Listening Project five part documentary series “The Story We Want,” sponsored by Moms Clean Air Force. 

Armijo’s artwork has been exhibited at The Riverside Church in New York City, CODEX Book Arts Fair in San Francisco, the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Hybrid Book Conference and Fair at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, among other venues. A piece in one of these exhibitions, “Tobacco Rug,” received Honorable Mention in NPR’s Studio:360’s Material Mashup in February 2011.

About ArtPlace America
ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) is a ten-year collaboration among 16 partner foundations, along with 8 federal agencies and 6 financial institutions, that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities. 

ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development. This brings artists, arts organizations, and artistic activity into the suite of placemaking strategies pioneered by Jane Jacobs and her colleagues, who believed that community development must be locally informed, human-centric, and holistic.

Media contact:
Caroline Armijo
919-358-5057
caroline.armijo@gmail.com

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