Greenfield, MA – July 27, 2026: The PeaceBirds Project exhibit at The LAVA Center will hold its closing event on Thursday, August 6, 5:00-8:00 pm. Mona Shiber and JuPong Lin will begin with food and folding of paper crane & dove at 5:00, followed by a reading of Phoenix in the HolyLand, a play by JuPong Lin at 5:30pm and ending ceremonially with a communal de-stalling of the current exhibit.
This community engaged art action was launched in November 2023 by two artist friends, Mona Shiber and JuPong Lin, who desired to transform the agony of witnessing atrocities committed in West Asia, East Asia, and around the world. The project links the struggles of their ancestral lineage—Palestinian and Taiwanese—against settler colonialism and the destruction of life in our homelands.
The date, August 6, was chosen to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the U.S. an atomic bomb detonation over Hiroshima, which paved the way Japan’s surrender of Taiwan to Chiang Kai-shek. The project began as a community-oriented art response to continued devastating events in Palestine since October 7, 2023. It continues to grow in solidarity with demilitarization, Apartheid-Free Communities, Indigenous struggles for self-determination along with other peace movements.
Phoenix in the HolyLand, a new play by JuPong Lin, braids inspiration from the transcripts of the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel to the International Court of Justice, her local activism for a ceasefire in Gaza and the ever evolving PeaceBirds project. The story follows the struggles of three artists involved in activist work against the assault on Palestinian life. It weaves their stories, poetry, and excerpts from the ICJ case. All three characters, descendants of massacres, support each other’s collective healing from intergenerational trauma. This play holds space for grief while expressing a strong call to action.
