[Written by John Benson]
Sat 10/24 @ 11AM
The symbolism of the butterfly’s journey represents a new beginning, but what’s often forgotten in the discussion is the caterpillar’s difficult existence leading up to its cocoon state.
Just as people hardened by life seek to cocoon themselves away from each other, simply because sometimes, well, it’s just easier, the caterpillar is forced to grow and develop or risk death.
As for the butterfly, the fragility of life is such that who knows what the next day will bring. The best we can do is simply just keep moving forward with hope as a driving force. The above scenarios are currently playing out in Cleveland’s West Side as the community attempts to make sense of a horrific situation that has shaken the city and nation to its core.
This is, of course, relating to the Tamir Rice shooting. One person doing her part to create an environment of healing is Cleveland City Council intern and Case Western Reserve University graduate student Shelly Gracon, who is behind the Tamir Rice Memorial Butterfly Garden at the Cudell Rec Center where he was killed.
First of all, tell us about the Tamir Rice Memorial Butterfly Garden.
The barebones is basically, I was working with Councilman Matt Zone. When this happened, my community social worker hat went on right away. What can we do to help this community sort of move through this trauma? We decided that the best thing we could do was this concept of a free summer camp for the kids that knew Tamir. It ended up being funded fully. We were able to get workshop facilitators to come in and work with the kids on a multitude of levels including yoga, meditation and art therapy. We had conversations about building community in a nonviolent way. And so also then part of that when the camp ended in July, we began the garden. So what you see now with a butterfly garden was a little over a month-long effort. We had hired a garden manager that’s part of the butterfly project. But the kids and the community really came together to build that. It’s a pretty large space shaped like a butterfly. And then everything that’s planted in there will attract butterflies to that space, which is just the overall sort of theme of transformation.
Your efforts don’t end with the garden. There’s also been a series of meetings regarding not only the shooting but the community in general. The next summit takes place 10/24 at the garden. Tell us what’s happening on that front?
The next meeting is a follow-up to two previous meetings. There was one that originated through the city in response to some of the shootings that were happening specific to the children in the city at Cudell and other recreation centers. That was done a little over a month ago and several community members came together there and decided they wanted to do another meeting the following week. I’m the program manager of Butterfly Project, which is sort of a broader piece of the garden as well as this meeting. So I was bringing communities together to start talking about ways to move towards peace not only specific to that neighborhood but as a city as well.
What’s the goal behind the monthly meetings?
It’s really community building. That community, specifically Cudell, has been very broken over what’s happened. We’re trying to bring people together, one, to just sort of build relationships with one another, and what that does in turn is build relationship in the community, and coming up with solutions to some of the issues that are happening. It’s very complex, it’s a multitude of things we can do but when people come together and start talking and sort of sharing their own stories and having conversation, a lot can come out of that.
Can you elaborate on your comment that Cudell is “very broken?”
There’s just like a disconnect happening. I think Cudell in and of itself has changed through the years. We’ve gotten a lot more diversified, there’s people moving in and out. And because of what’s happened there, it’s really disconnected the communities from their recreation spaces. There are a lot of people living there in fear, and also just upset about what’s happened. Nothing really been resolved with it either.
So what’s specifically planned for the 10/24 meeting?
We’re going to have the meeting at 11am at the garden but what happens is not a typical meeting. This is what we did at the last one. We sort of break up into small groups. I’ll be having fellow Case students facilitate group discussions. I don’t know what that looks like just yet. We’re still kind of figuring out the details, but following that will be a community meal provided by the Cudell Cooking Club, which is new at the rec center. That’s involving youth and people from the community to come together and cook. They’re providing chili and corn bread and salad.
Finally, from the outside it seems as though the community is still understandably raw regarding the Rice incident? Are you seeing any inroads from the Butterfly Garden and meetings?
I think with this project it has brought healing to the situation. The kids have a lot of feelings. They have a lot of feelings about not only their friend but about the police and about different things. I think the project has brought positivity and healing to not only that community and the kids but to that space. If you go there and see the gazebo with all of these stuffed animals and just the way it’s been for so long — we’re almost coming up on a year — it just has this heaviness. So what this has done is sort of brought a different energy there, and I think it’s been really helpful to the family. They’re trying to do the best they can given the circumstances. There are a lot of feeling about it, but I think the community is at least trying to make an effort to move forward and rebuild that area.
Cleveland, OH 44102