“Phoenix in the Holy Land” is a play birthed in the crucible of the current nakba in Palestine the incident that spurred the PeaceBirds project. In November of 2023, we launched the socially-engaged project as artists in residence at Goddard College. Then developed into a one-act play, with the support of the Playwrights Circle of the LAVA Center in Greenfield. Several more poets are featured in the play, as well as the story of one town’s struggle to pass a ceasefire resolution.

JuPong Lin makes socially-engaged art, poetry, and ceremony to honor our Beloved Earth and all her critters. Ghosts of Taiwan, her born-place, haunt her with ancestral cries to end colonialism and repair our relationships with our homelands. JuPong lives in Nipmuc/Nonotuck/Pocumtuc Land, known by its colonial name of Amherst, Massachusetts, and writes poetry with the Writing the Land project. She works for food and land justice with the Hampshire County Food Policy Council and the Land Justice Affinity Group. JuPong was a faculty member of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts programat Goddard College for close to 20 years. “Phoenix in the Holy Land” is JuPong’s first play.

This project is part of the Pay It Forward program, made possible by generous funding from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts -  ValleyCreates, Greenfield Savings Bank, Peak Performance Roofing, Delap Real Estate, Finck and Perras, Tandem Bagel Co and individual donors.