These Two Turn Deadly Weapons into Shovels for Planting Trees

In a time of deep pain and trauma caused by gun violence, Brontë Velez and Kyle Lemle are offering a way for American communities to heal. These two started Lead to Life: A People’s Alchemy for Regeneration, an Atlanta- and Oakland-based non-profit doing something very simple: they melt old guns and cast them into shovels. Shovels that are then used to plant trees. Brontë and Kyle have created a process of healing for both the community and the Earth. “Our intention through Lead to Life is to transform that which ends life into that which sustains life — to facilitate an alchemical healing process that can physically transform both our weapons and our imaginations.”  

  Recently, Citizen E awarded Brontë Velez a grant to continue her work with Lead to Life. In April, Brontë led a group across Atlanta, planting fifty trees in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination. One tree now lives where Brontë’s friend lost their life to gun violence. “We’re liberating the guns’ histories of violence and giving the metal a new purpose,” Lemle told Huffington Post. Liberation comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes it’s with a shovel in hand. Now, we watch the trees grow. Visit their site to keep an eye on upcoming events or to donate. Donations go towards tool production, planting, and community partners.  

Thank you for sending this to us @rawtoolsinc – this trowel was made from a gun. We will be using it on Thursday in our soil collection from the site of Mack Brown’s lynching on December 23, 1936 in Georgia. The soil from the ceremony will be sent to @eji_org for their National Lynching Memorial and Community Remembrance Project work and will also be carried into our tree-plantings on April 8th around Atlanta. But first, we will rest with this soil on Thursday with @thenapministry. Healing soil and our bodies and ancestors and future beings in dreamtime.

A post shared by Lead To Life (@lead2life) on Mar 27, 2018 at 3:13pm PDT

Feature photo credit: Spiritual Ecology Fellowship