Phoenix in the Holy Land

“Phoenix in the Holy Land” is a play birthed in the crucible of the current assault on Palestine—what some call the second Nakba—that spurred the PeaceBirds project. We—collaborator, Mona Shiber and I—launched a socially-engaged project and art installation as artists in residence at Goddard College, February - March 2024. For the opening of the exhibition, we hosted a poetry reading and recitation of excerpts of the case of Genocide in the Gaza Strip that South Africa brought against Israel in January 2024. In the following months, I joined a group of organizers in the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts to advocate for a Ceasefire Resolution.

The Playwrights Circle of the LAVA Center in Greenfield supported me to develop this impromptu performance into a one-act play. The play combines the verbatim transcripts of the South Africa case with the words of Palestinian and Jewish poets and the story of a small town’s fight to end the assault on Palestinian life. Several more poets are featured in the play, as well as the story of one town’s struggle to pass a ceasefire resolution. The play is slated for a public reading at The LAVA Center as part of the On the Boards Festival in June.

The most recent version of the play will be posted here: Phoenix in the Holy Land folder

MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program: Imagining Peace and the End of “Times of War”

The MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program at Goddard College hosted the Peace Birds project January 30-February 1, 2024. We explored with students, "How are we responsible in times of war? What is our response?"

As the assault on the children of Palestine rages on, these potent questions surrounding art in war time provoke us to imagine justice and peace into being. Mona Shiber and JuPong Lin told our stories of family members who survived the violent occupation of our homelands, Palestine and Taiwan. On February 1, JuPong read poems by Lisa Suhair Majaj, "Watch in Full - a Poem" by Kim Jensen, and "Pantoum for Palestine". Three students then read excerpts from the Gaza genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel in front of the International Court of Justice.

The poetic words juxtaposed against the legalistic language detailing the atrocities being committed in Gaza evoked intense emotions for me. I'm grateful to those who participated in the reading for helping us hold space for the immense grief and rage at the endless suffering and senseless destruction we are all witnessing.

Peace Birds Go to Goddard College

The MFA in Interdiscplinary Arts program at Goddard College is very pleased and honored to invite Mona Shiber as our guest artist for the winter residency, January 26-Feb. 2. Mona will offer daily workshops Monday, January 29 - Thursday February 1. Goddard Alumni are welcome to attend any of the workshops during residency. Two events are open to the public: Tuesday, January 30 at 7:00 will be a public presentation of the Peace Birds Project and a dramatic reading of poetry and other texts; Thursday February 1, 3:00-6:00pm is the reception for the installation in the Hidden Gallery, Community Center at Goddard College. For Zoom links, contact jupong.lin@goddard.edu.

Bread & Birds at Sulis Studio

Easthampton, MA

Photo by JuPong Lin

Mona will offer several sessions throughout the week, including demonstrations of folding paper peace birds to contribute to an installation of The Peace Birds Project, concluding with a reception. The Peace Birds Project grew out of a shared desire of two artist friends to transform the pain of witnessing global actrocities. Our people come from lineages of occupation and struggle for sovereignty, from Palestine and from Taiwan. Both of our parents survived the post-World War II massacres in their respective nations. The project focuses on coming together in response to the immense loss of life, grief and devastation continuing over these past many months in Palestine/Israel, to make meaning out of hopelessness & to instill messages of peace within ourselves & our many communities.

Mona & JuPong started this project in November when the death toll in Gaza was 11,000. Since then the number continues to increase. We share our aim of communally folding 30,000+ birds for every life flown too soon. However, the ultimate “goal” of the project is to end war, to end genocide; to create spaces of authentic conversation, ceremony and love. South Africa’s historic case applying the Conventions of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to Israel’s occupation of Palestine asks every individual to reckon with the public witnessing of the massacre of people and land in Gaza.

Cranes & doves have represented peace in many traditions. As with the origami tradition, we fold these paper birds as a focusing, quieting, mindful movement of hands, eyes & heart. We inscribe an intention or prayer for global well wishing into our birds.

We use paper printed with patterns from the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh, maps of pre-1948 Palestine and Jerusalem; and biblical texts referring to the dove as a symbol of peace. As everyone finds comfort with the folding, we invite stories of grief, survival, resilience, resistance, and peace-making. We invite each other to write our intentions of peace and healing onto the paper.

We are starting a movement; hundreds of people sharing in the folding of hundreds of thousands of birds. Will you join us in starting this movement in your own circles?

The installation will be on exhibit throughout the week and will remain in the Hidden Gallery for several other residencies.

TUESDAY • JANUARY 30, 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Media Room, Community Center & Zoom

"The Peace Birds Project" with Guest Artist, Mona Shiber and collaborator, JuPong Lin

"Peace begins with me, an artist's journey," Mona Shiber’s artist talk will be woven into the presentation of the Peace Birds Project.

Mona’s statement: What can be said about us all, beyond identities of race, religion, nationality & ethnicity? To pursue this query, Mona began exploring that which animates spirit. Her work explores cross-cultural symbols, along with the development of human consciousness. The art is expressed in clay, paper, story, collaborations & installations.

THURSDAY • FEBRUARY 1 • 2:30pm – 4:30pm

Reception and Public Performance in the Hidden Gallery & Zoom.

Note for on-line participants: The Peace Birds Project webpage (www.juponglin.net/peacebirds) where an overview of the project lives, as well as a link to a Dropbox folder of patterns with which you can print your own paper. You can also email us to request a kit in the mail. We will take requests for kits until January 20.

Bread & Birds at Sulis Studio, December 28, 2023

On Thursday, December 28th from 7-9 pm Sulis hosted an artist talk and workshop called “Folding Birds for Peace” led by Mona Shiber and JuPong Lin. Our project gathers communities together around peace in response to the immense loss of life and devastation that has been happening in Palestine. We share our stories of how the project was birthed and how our collaboration is weaving together our family lineages, Taiwanese and Palestinian, facilitating our travel through time through generations of violent occupation and the struggle for liberation for all.

Most delightful was a lovely collaboration with Noah Goldberg whose ceremonial bread offered another way to embody our walk towards peace. The gluten-free bread was delicious and felt like another way to send and receive blessings for our loved ones.

Below is the project description for others who would like to invite us to host a folding circle.

Materials: The paper that will be used for this project is specific and has an origin story that will be shared during the artist talk. Sulis will provide 100 sheets of paper to divide amongst participants. The birds made from these sheets will be donated to the project. If you want to take some home, Mona and Jupong are selling kits of paper at $10 for 50 pieces. They also are offering to send a free download if you want to print the paper yourself. You can buy kits at Sulis during the workshop or email us ahead of time to download and print your own.

Workshop description from the artists: Similar to origami, we will fold paper doves and cranes which can be a focusing, quieting, mindful movement of hands, eyes & heart. These birds have represented peace in many traditions. We will imbue the intention of global well-wishing into our birds. The peace bird project grew out of a shared desire of two artist friends to transform the pain of witnessing global atrocities. In Mona’s words, “the project came from the desire to shift the stuckness, sadness, despair and loss through the need to make meaning out of hopelessness and to make a reminder message to instill peace within myself and my many communities.” We are starting a movement; hundreds of people sharing in the folding of hundreds of thousands of birds. Will you join us in starting this movement in your own circles? 

$18-25. Send money to: Zelle: 865 455 4278 or Venmo: @JuPong-Lin

About the Facilitators: JuPong Lin draws on Taiwanese ancestral traditions to make socially engaged art that honors our beloved Earth. She is a poet of the Writing the Land project and works for food and land justice with the Hampshire County Food Policy Council and the Land Justice Affinity Group based in Western Massachusetts. JuPong is a faculty member of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College and is an Environmental Studies PhD candidate at Antioch University New England.

Mona Shiber, of Clear Vision Studio, is a visual artist who's shown both locally, nationally & internationally, and has worked with groups on an array of community art projects. come join the workshop to learn more about her and her influences and her heritage.

Noah Goldberg (they/them) is a white, queer, trans, anti-zionist Ashkenazi Jew. They are a somatic practitioner and ritual baker. For more information about their work visit: www.noahagoldberg.com

25Miles for Palestine, West Springfield, December 16, 2023

While they were marching, I was finishing up the large peacebirds. I went looking for the group in West Springfield and couldn’t find them on the streets, but did find folks waiting at the Commons and made some wonderful connections.

A Peace Bird for Every Life Flown Too Soon: evolving project

The Paper Peace Birds Project

This project grew out of a shared desire of two artist friends, Mona Shiber and JuPong Lin, to transform the agony of witnessing atrocities happening around the world. Our people come from lineages of occupation and struggle for sovereignty, from Palestine and from Taiwan. One of us wrote of “a desire to shift the stuckness, sadness, despair & loss through the need to make, to make meaning out of hopelessness & to make a reminder message to instill peace within myself & my many communities. I am deeply & personally affected by what is happening in the middle east, the land once known as the holyland.” 

JuPong’s installations have incorporated paper cranes made from Buddha money or joss paper (ceremonial paper to honor our ancestors in Taiwan) for many years. The paperfolding turned into a poem in 2016 called “1000 Gifts of Decolonial Love” that embedded instructions for folding the crane. It became a videopoem and then community-engaged performances and installations, and continues to evolve in the form of this transnational peace birds project.

We are starting a movement: hundreds & hundreds of people sharing in the folding of thousands & thousands of doves & cranes.  Will you join us in starting this movement in your own circles? 

Ways to help:

  • form circles to fold for peace, cranes & doves, together with others. 

  • fold many birds to be added to the evolving installations. 

  • string together folded birds (more info soon at this page)

  • More opportunities to fold together will be posted on the News page.

WE’RE AIMING FOR 16,000+ PAPER PEACE BIRDS (FIGURES CHANGING AS THE DEATH TOLL IN GAZA INCREASES). PHASE ONE WAS THE INSTALLATION FOR OPEN STUDIOS AT THE COTTAGE STREET STUDIOS IN EASTHAMPTON DECEMBER 2, 3, AND 9.

PLEASE USE THE CONTACT FORM ABOVE TO OFFER HELP WITH STRINGING THE FOLDED BIRDS AND THE INSTALLATION, STAY UPDATED OR TO REQUEST THE ADDRESS WHERE CRANES CAN BE MAILED.

Phase two will continue into 2024; we encourage local communities to host paper folding circles and create regional installations. Hundreds of thousands of people folding hundreds of thousands of peace birds everywhere all over the world!

Dove folded from map of Jerusalem

#3-20B Clear Vision Studio

A Peace Bird for Every Life Flown Too Soon: Workshops & Open Studios

The Paper Peace Birds Project

The Paper Peace Birds Project grew out of a shared desire of two artist friends to transform the agony of witnessing atrocities happening around the world. Our people come from lineages of occupation and struggle for sovereignty, from Palestine and from Taiwan. One of us wrote of “a desire to shift the stuckness, sadness, despair & loss through the need to make, to make meaning out of hopelessness & to make a reminder message to instill peace within myself & my many communities. I am deeply & personally affected by what is happening in the middle east, the land once known as the holyland.” 

Monday, November 27, 7:00-8:30pm EST at Cherry Hill Cohousing, Amherst, MA. RSVP to jupong2trees@gmail.com by 4:30 Monday.

Dove folded from map of Jerusalem

#3-20B Clear Vision Studio