The True Cost of Coal Graphics Campaign
How can storytelling help people understand their role in a complex system and give them tools to take collective action?
From 2007-2012 I was a core member of the Beehive Design Collective, a wildly motivated, all-volunteer, activist arts collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. The Beehive works as word-to-image translators of complex global stories shaped through conversations with affected communities.
I worked as a researcher, illustrator and storyteller with the True Cost of Coal graphics campaign, an intricate portable mural and workshop series developed in collaboration with Appalachian grassroots organizations fighting mountaintop removal coal mining. The graphic reflects a complex struggle for land, livelihood, and self-determination playing out in the intersections between resource extraction, colonialism and climate change.
Since its creation, the murals and accompanying storytelling and workshops have traveled to over three hundred schools and community spaces around the US and internationally, sparking dialogue and action on resource extraction and climate change. More than 25,000 copies of the image have also been distributed in poster form. I co-organized two tours, including a West Coast tour by bicycle. (More info and free downloads here.)
