During the “Art with a Heart” session, two teens, one Black+Muslim from Baltimore and one White+Jewish from the Galilee, ended up side by side at a worktable, unsure what to say to each other at first.

As they painted their birdhouses, something loosened. They started talking about their neighborhoods, their schools, their goals and dreams, and what they wished people understood about their communities. By the time the birdhouses were finished, they had exchanged numbers and discovered they both had lost someone they loved to violence and they both loved the same music that helped them cope.

Shared society begins at connection and seeing ourselves in each other.