The Soul Box Project Blog
Gun Violence Affects Us All. Art Can Heal.
Last year, late in the day on October 15, I was standing in awe near one end of a 200-foot-long canopy spanning the width of the National Mall. The Soul Box Project volunteer team had just completed installing our exhibit of 200,000 poignant origami Soul Boxes representing the number of U.S. deaths and injuries from gunfire in less than three years. I was thrilled the display reflected the concept drawing I had sketched and [...]
Portland Church Will Help Bring Soul Boxes and Gunfire Awareness to Washington, DC
by Connie Larkman | published on Aug 19, 2021 on United Church of Christ Website The idea was shared by someone at church. Fold a small Soul Box to remember a soul touched by gunfire. The people of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Portland, Ore., have embraced the concept. “This is exactly the kind of activism I could really get a hold of,” said Nanci Tangeman, First Congregational’s Soul Box coordinator. Members of First [...]
“This Loss We Carry”
by Ellen Gadberry and Tim Merritt (taken from blog post on North Decatur Presbyterian Church Website - July 21, 2021) An origami box: two square sheets of paper transformed into a tribute to a person – a father, mother, child, daughter, son, human – a loved one lost to death by gunshot. That is a Soul Box. It’s also the arts activism project that I have worked on with many friends at NDPC for [...]
Those Who Came Before
By Leslie Lee — “It could be therapy, I hoped, for a community that was increasingly paralyzed by grief and rage and powerlessness. It could be a tool for the media, to reveal the humanity behind the statistics. And a weapon to deploy against the government; to shame them with stark visual evidence of their utter failure to respond to the suffering and death that spread and increased with every passing day.” Cleve Jones, [...]
Authority Magazine Features Soul Box Project Founder
By Leslie Lee—Authority Magazine recently featured me in a rather lengthy article. They have a standard set of questions to ask and it was a bit challenging to answer some of them, like: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was [...]
A Thank You to the Soul Box Community
By Leslie Lee —One of my biggest challenges as the founder and executive director of The Soul Box Project is how to sufficiently thank everyone involved. I have said “thank you” so many times I fear for its sincerity, even though my heart is in every word. An endeavor like The Soul Box Project did not grow from a hastily published website in 2017 to a thriving national act of ARTivism in 2020 without our passionate [...]
Soul Box Tips from Across the Country
By Nanci Tangeman —You always learn something new at a Soul Box-making session – even the virtual ones! In September Soul Box-makers from Alaska, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and California met via Zoom to share their top Soul Box tips: Recycle! Use old magazine pages for the bottoms – nobody will see them. Don’t throw away flimsy paper! Fold two sheets together and leave them together. The "men's tie" stage of folding Paint plain paper with watercolors before [...]
Keeping the Momentum
By Nanci Tangeman – There are so many reasons to look away from the gunfire epidemic right now. A global pandemic. Critical movement against systemic racism. The election season. Each could be a reason to focus our energy elsewhere, yet each is a reason why our work to end gunfire deaths and injuries remains vital. That's why we've kept working. Diligently. Social distancing moved many of our operations into backyards, basements, living rooms and [...]
Powerful Together
By Ellen Stearns —Lives Irrevocably Torn Apart by Gunfire. Every Soul Box holds space for a person killed or injured by gunfire. It doesn’t matter how or why a person was shot. What matters is a life was irrevocably torn apart by gunfire and each person represented in our exhibits is unique. We treat each and every story with care, compassion and respect, regardless of race, cultural background, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious or [...]
We Stand in Solidarity
[from Newsletter of June 6, 2020] A Visual Representation By Leslie Lee The Soul Box Project is designed to be a wake-up call – a visual representation of our nation’s never-ending gunfire epidemic where: --Black Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to die in a gun homicide. --Guns take the lives of 14 times more black children and teens than those who are white. --Unarmed black civilians are nearly five times [...]
Thoughts on Prayers
By Pastor Lesley Abrams — In October of 2017, I was scheduled to officiate at our nephew’s wedding. It was going to be a particularly joyous occasion, as the entire family had not been together for quite some time. Before we arrived for the big event, I received a call from the bride-to-be. The bridal party line-up had changed because her cousin, Chrissy, would no longer be able to serve as the maid of honor. [...]
Why We Will Keep Folding
By Leslie Lee — As I sit in a sunny window “sheltering in” it's hard for me to imagine the trials people all over the world are enduring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. I want to better understand and help in some way. I sometimes think there’s nothing I can do. But that’s not true. Isn't The Soul Box Project uniquely positioned to offer an opportunity for healing and empowerment even when we’re [...]
There’s a Message in Our Logo
By Nanci Tangeman — Look closely at The Soul Box Project logo. Have you noticed the blood-red bullet hole inside the first “o”? Or the second “o” shaped like a box, with a heart inside? Did you realize that the handwritten style of the typeface reflects the grassroots community that makes up The Soul Box Project? Each element of the logo is a subtle reminder about the mission of our Project. Just days after the [...]
A Love Lost, A Way Found
By Lynda King — As the anniversary of the fatal shooting of my love nears, I again reflect on all that was lost. We had a 5 year plan, by then both of us would be retired and we would begin the new chapter of our lives. We were about 2 1/2 years into the plan. He was working in the oil fields in South Dakota, putting all his earnings away for retirement, while I [...]
A Mission and a Vision
By Leslie Lee — Getting a mission statement down on paper is an important rite of passage for many organizations. The Soul Box Project is no different. Just about a year after formulating the Soul Box idea, it's exciting to put into words what we set out to do and how we're doing it. Mission The Soul Box Project raises awareness of the U.S. gunfire epidemic by counting and honoring victims, offering healing participation to [...]