Driving by Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh on a Sunday afternoon, you'd think there was a huge traffic jam and a lot of angry people honking in frustration. But then you'd hear shouts of "peace" or "keep it up," and you'd notice the dozens of people lining the sidewalks with posters, drums and - what's that - umbrellas?
Correction: Peace Parasols.
It's not raining outside, yet these "Honk for Peace" activists are armed with hand-painted protection from the "storm of violence" that the current war in Iraq is precipitating around the world. Roger Ehrlichman, a local activist and longtime resident of Raleigh, has taken the art form as far as Washington, D.C., New York City and the Chapel Quadrangle for the peace encampment last month.
For Ehrlichman and the hundreds of people who have painted parasols with his inspiration (and his supplies), the umbrellas offer a unique, creative and non-threatening outlet to protest war. The idea first struck Ehrlichman at a meeting of North Carolinians Against War.
"We were talking about dramatizing the soberness of war with mock coffins," he said. "While that was appropriate, a big part of what we were fighting was a politics of fear versus a politics of hope. What could we do that people could carry and make together? So, I suddenly had this idea that umbrellas are something that people can carry and why not take those somber black umbrellas and paint peace signs on the top?"
Ehrlichmann's classic parasol displays a giant peace sign painted on the top side and a bright sunflower on the underbelly. The sunflower, Ehrlichmann says, is symbolic of hope and faith because sunflowers follow the path of the sun even under the most threatening skies of war, terror and fear. "While an ordinary umbrella might protect us against sun or rain, by adding a little creativity and unifying under one umbrella for peace and justice - that's our best hope to protect ourselves from violence," he said.
But there's also a joy to sunflowers. "What better than an invasion of flowers!" Ehrlichmann rejoiced.
Protest art is becoming a full-time job for Ehrlichmann - one that he must balance with his other full-time job of parenting four young children. Perhaps that's what gives him the knack to get kids thinking creatively about war and peace. Ehrlichmann has found that young and old alike find painting for peace to be "liberating."
Ehrlichmann sets up his outdoor workshop of umbrellas, paint cans and brushes at parks, churches, schools and protests. Passersby, intrigued by the unique art form, are invited to paint their own at no charge (though donations are welcome to cover the cost of supplies). When finished, some proudly carry theirs home, while others leave them with Ehrlichmann, who is currently organizing an exhibition of peace parasols for a local art museum. The display will be a mobile of umbrellas dangling from the ceiling with fishing wire.
The creativity does not stop with peace parasols, however. Ehrlichmann, with the help of local children and college students, is constructing a monument tentatively titled "Twin Towers of Democracy" or "Twin Towers of American Civil Rights." These 15-foot-high edifices are made of stacked refrigerator boxes, which Ehrlichmann remembers being an endless source of creativity for kids of his generation whose parents would come home with new refrigerators. The towers are decorated with children's crayon rubbings of the brass plaque in the King Memorial Gardens in Raleigh that commemorates the Civil Rights movement. These colorful pages will become the windows of twin towers, their words illuminated by a light placed inside the structure. Ehrlichmann said principal of one of his children's schools has agreed to display the towers at the school when they are completed.
For Ehrlichmann, creative expression is an important way to get people involved in a movement for peace and democracy, whether they are painting their own parasols or simply appreciating them with a drive-by honking.
"People are really joyful about it; it's a kind of release," he said. "It shows that despite the sophisticated P.R. we've had, there is still widespread opposition to war. Perhaps this is the first action people are taking against the war. Maybe it will lead to future actions."
-Vicki Kaplan
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