Peace Flag hung on International Day of Peace!

Yesterday, nearly one month to the day of receiving it, the PEACE flag has been installed on our house. This seemed like a fitting way to honor The International day of Peace, September 21st.

With the help of dear husband Ben, I hung it high up on the garage. Today, as I came back from my final swim (I think) of the season,, I as greeted by a brilliant ray of sun hitting the flag, illuminating the word PEACE.

Also yesterday, I had an hour long interview with a colleague from Everett, Washington. Gabriele has a talk show that airs once a month on a community radio station, KSER . I will send out news when I know that the interview will be broadcast.

Until then, please consider coming to weave if you are near by. As always, your messages of peace and hope are welcome.

Namaste, Sarah

Voices in the Square

September 11th 2009.

Many thanks to the ten folks who joined me yesterday to read about 200 messages of hope, peace and goodwill. I am very grateful for your support to sustain this project and keep peace alive.

Each time I show up to read in Market Square in Portsmouth, I uncover new truths about myself and the world in which I live. Yesterday, the simple truth that revealed herself was the importance of reflection. After each message that was read, we paused and savored the words as well as the intent of the writer.

Some of the messages were as simple a three year old child saying"I want everyone to have cake". While others held loftier visions of all national leaders speaking truth.

With each message reading and reflection, I felt a deep sense of honor being offered to that voice.

Blessings and gratitude to those friends who read, laughed and paused yesterday to honor these wise and heartfelt messages.

My studio door is open to weavers, and messages are always welcome. Keep peace alive through your daily actions.

Namaste, Sarah

Sarah Farmer Peace Award

On Saturday August 22nd, I was presented with the Sarah Farmer Peace Award at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, Maine. "The Woven Voices: Messages from the Heart" project was especially honored, and the audience was diverse, including two Swamis from the Vedanta Society of Boston.

Randy Armstrong performed an original sitar piece, and Lee Hosack sang her original composition, "Raise the Flag, Sarah", remembering peacemaker and Green Acre founder Sarah Jane Farmer. There were two looms set up for folks to weave more prayer flags and the hall was decorated with over 30 handwoven prayer flags. We also gathered over 50 more messages of peace and hope.

I am deeply honored and lifted up by this recognition. Many thanks and blessings to all who attended and participated in this event and award. Images here capture the event.

Please join me on September 11th, Market Square, Portsmouth, NH at noon. I will be reading messages that have be collected since June. I welcome listeners as well as readers. I hope to see you there, rain or shine!

In peace and gratitude,
Sarah

Let's celebrate again!

Just a brief news flash here:

There is an article about the Woven Voices project in a local paper.

And the BIG news is that I will be awarded the 2009 Sarah Farmer Peace Award on August, 22, 2009. The Sarah Farmer Peace Award is presented annually by the Baha’i
Community of the Greater Seacoast Region to recognize the
contributions of area individuals and groups who take effective local action to promote world peace and understanding among nations and members of the human family.

The award is named after Sarah Jane Farmer, a turn-of-the century peace heroine who was born in Dover, N.H., in 1847. She founded the Green Acre Conferences in Eliot where the first peace flag in the world was hoisted in 1894, and where a peace flag has been flown every year since then.

The Aug. 22nd event marks the fifth Sarah Farmer Peace Award. This year the celebration will be held on Saturday, August 22nd, 7:30pm, at Reimer Hall at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, with the public warmly invited. There will be a display of some of my work in the hall, and slides of my work as part of the program.

More information, including a flyer and press release, will be out soon. If you are local, or in the area, please come celebrate!!

Thanks to all for your support.
Peace, Sarah

Once again

Once again , the simple power of this project has lifted my heart. On June 11th, 2009 I showed up at Market Sq. Portsmouth to read over 250 messages. Like most of the past month it was a grey drizzly day. My dear son Robin came to shoot a short video.

By 12:45, the rain really settled in. So we packed up the flags and other stuff. I had almost completed reading all the messages that I collected to date. Then, to my surprise in that day's mail delivery....about 40 new messages from a young woman in Everett, Washington. Thanks Gabriele!!

And then an invitation to send flags along with a group called Slum Doctor. Slum Doctor Programme is a grassroots organization of concerned individuals that began in 2000 as a small voice, a cry for help and hope, for the 22 million Africans who live mostly in silence with AIDS. Early next week, I will get a set of flags out for delivery to Omobogo Girls' Academy in Kenya.

Photos of installed prayer flags arrive now and then too. Here are two images~ a rug hookers group from Corea, in Down East ME and three lovely German women holding the prayer flags in front of the cathedral in Paderborn, Germany (the home town of my artist friend Brigitte). Thanks to all !!

Simple gestures made bold by the energy and effort of many.
Namaste ~
Sarah

Ripple Effect

Joy for June! Just when I think that the "waters" of the Woven Voices project are calming down, a new wave washes to shore.

This past week I received images from Africa. Ian was a student at Bowdoin College in Maine when he sent me dozens of messages of hope and peace from his fellow students. Now he is a Peace Corps volunteer in Banjul, The Gambia, West Africa. The photos here taken were taken on Muslim New Years in front of his school, Suduwol Upper Basic School. I sent these flags to him in the fall/2008 with the hope of receiving a photo someday. I learned from Ian's mother that it takes him 7 hours in a bus with many river/ferry crossings to get to Banjul where he has slow Internet access!

Here's what Ian says: "Thanks for the flags. They are standing up well to the African sun and wind, and the rains will be coming soon. The students are the 7th and 8th graders in my school who are in the Library Club."

Heartfelt thanks to Ian for going the extra miles to get these images to me! I am VERY grateful.

I also have images of the prayer flags in Germany which I will post soon. The ripple effect of the Woven Voices project is still in motion!

Speaking of continuity, I will be back in Market Square, Portsmouth, NH on Thursday June 11th, at noon. I have about 100 messages to read which should take about 45 minutes. I hope you will join me to read and honor these words of peace and hope gathered from as far as Nepal and as close as home.

As always, continue to send me messages and please consider coming to my studio to weave prayer flags (York is a lovely destination in the summer!).

Namaste, Sarah

Spring is busting out!~

Happy Spring to all~

I am knee deep in projects here in the studio. I have weavers coming about every week to help weave prayer flags, I have two commissions as well as a project for a local historical house. I am an artist in residence at Milford Elementary School in NH.

The Macomber Looms blog has taken off, and I am fielding emails from all over the US to help weavers with their Macomber equipment. Then there are the gardens. The peas, spinach and lettuce are planted. The rhubarb has been harvested once and the flower beds are almost all mulched. Phew!

All of this is to say, Spring is a busy time here in Maine! I have decided to postpone the May message reading that I had planned for May 11th in Market Square. Hopefully June will offer a better window of opportunity.

The top photo here is of an Italian book group enjoying their prayer flags. The lower photos are from an artist in residence project I did with a school in MA. The students are weaving a giant globe, that has now been installed in the school. This project feels very aligned with Woven Voices project. It was a community wide art project that was driven by a vision of unity, integrity and cooperation.

Please keep in touch. Messages and weavers always welcome!
Sarah