An Artist Speaks About School Shootings with artist, poet, and college administrator Christy Ferrato

James Navé here welcoming poet Christy Ferrato to the Twice 5 Miles Radio. Christie and I have known each other for many years. She has been a guest on Twice 5 Miles radio two additional times. I invited her back for another visit because she has completed a compelling art project that allows deep emotional access to the terrible issues around school shootings. Christy has reconstructed an old wooden card catalog from Rutgers University into a 30-drawer container that houses spent bullets wool nests. Each spent bullet, with a name engraved on its side, represents a victim of school shootings over three years. In addition, Christy's card catalog contains wool nests with all of the spin shells that have fallen on the floors of schools around America. Her wool nest offering contains an opportunity for all of us to reflect on how we managed to include continuous school shootings in what we now call American culture. In addition, Christy offers you an opportunity to ask your own questions about why such horror happens in the innocent halls of elementary schools where students laugh, learn, and play. Christy also works as an administrator at a community college. Not only does she make art, but she has also devoted her life to the idea that when you allow students to learn, laugh, and play, you will have a healthy society. I hope you find I hope you find Christie's thoughts and reflections as insightful as I found them. Sometimes, I feel helpless around all the societal issues we have in our culture. I simply don't know what to do. That said, perhaps the only thing we can do is show up and make some kind of meaning by creating something like Christy does. However you go about this, I hope you find some comfort in the way Christy frames the world.