NEWS

Art and writing helping vets move forward

Lorraine Ash
@LorraineVAsh

MORRISTOWN – Combat Paper NJ and Warrior Writers, two companion mobile programs, invite all veterans to the art workshops they're offering at the Morristown Parking Authority building through Oct. 31.

Veterans write on the topic of military sports. Jan Barry, Vietnam veteran, poet and Ramapo College journalism lecturer, leads a Combat Paper NJ workshop for veterans.

Nine warrior writers sat around a table in the basement of the Maple Avenue facility last Sunday. Some had served in Vietnam, others in Somalia, Iraq, and other places. In silence, they tapped their memories and wrote in journals, following writing prompts given by Jan Barry, Vietnam veteran, poet, and Ramapo College journalism lecturer.

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On the table were copies of the latest, and fourth, "Warrior Writers" anthology, its cover a military green with white birds standing or flying around black barbed wire.

On the walls in the cavernous space hung artwork the vets had created on paper they'd made from their own military uniforms, compliments of Combat Paper NJ papermaking workshops.

Jan Barry is leading a Combat Paper NJ workshop for veterans this afternoon. Combat Paper NJ is an itinerant workshop for veterans, situated in Morristown through Oct. 31, that helps veterans tell their stories and heal their psyches in two ways: they write and they also make paper from their service uniforms and create art using the paper.

"You don't usually see veterans of all branches and eras get together and not put each other down," Barry said. "In this kind of a setting, people actually listen to each other. Here people are given space to tell some story and then the conversation quite often goes into how the story would work as an illustration."

Both programs, which have traveled nationwide since they began in 2007, are part of a larger and growing veteran artist movement, according to Eli Wright, 33, of Rockaway, who served as a U.S. Army medic in Iraq and works for Combat Paper NJ.

Eli Wright of Rockaway, Kevin Basl of Brockaway, Pa., and Robert Siclen of Washtinton listen to another writer. Jan Barry is leading a Combat Paper NJ workshop for veterans this afternoon. Combat Paper NJ is an itinerant workshop for veterans, situated in Morristown through Oct. 31, that helps veterans tell their stories and heal their psyches in two ways: they write and they also make paper from their service uniforms and create art using the paper. Morristown, NJ. Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014. Special to the NJ Press Media/Karen Mancinelli/Daily Record MOR 1005 combat paper

The idea, he said, is to stimulate expression among veterans and share what they have to say as part of the "larger cultural conversation."

When the writers around the table finished capturing their thoughts, everyone around the table looked up and the sharing began. Though the writing prompt was about sports in the military, some vets said they found themselves writing about entirely different topics.

Sarah Mess of Branchberg talks to fellow veterans. Jan Barry is leading a Combat Paper NJ workshop for veterans this afternoon. Combat Paper NJ is an itinerant workshop for veterans, situated in Morristown through Oct. 31, that helps veterans tell their stories and heal their psyches in two ways: they write and they also make paper from their service uniforms and create art using the paper.

Her voice cracking, Sarah Mess of Branchburg, a U.S. Army Somalia veteran, read to the group about how she was treated by her male counterparts in that conflict. (See accompanying video.)

"I'm able to express and tap into things here that maybe I didn't even know were still stirring, like I did today," Mess said. "I'm able to bring those things to the surface and share them in safe spaces with people who've experienced similar things.

"The draw is that it's veterans working with veterans. The draw is that we don't call it therapy," she added. "When you start calling things therapy, it creates an aversion to wanting to participate because of the stigma. This works because it's just community."

Vietnam veteran Walt Nygard drains water from a mold and deckle to make sheets of paper from uniforms. A writing workshop takes place in the background. Nygard leads Combat Paper NJ, a mobile workshop for veterans in Morristown through Oct. 31, that helps veterans tell their stories and heal their psyches.

The Combat Paper Project was begun in Burlington, Vermont, by Drew Matott, paper and book artist, and Drew Cameron, a soldier turned artist. At first veterans were hosted at the Green Door Studio in Burlington, but then the two traveled, offering week-long workshops, exhibitions, artist talks, and paper art demonstrations nationwide. In New Jersey, Cameron was invited to offer a workshop at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey in Branchburg.

Enthusiasm for the program was so high that one veteran traveled 1,000 miles from Indiana to New Jersey, on his motorcycle, to participate, said Linda Helm Krapf, executive director of the Printmaking Center of New Jersey. Once under way, the veterans were so involved that they slept in the studio at night.

Jan Barry listens to a writer reading his work. Jan Barry is leading a Combat Paper NJ workshop for veterans this afternoon. Combat Paper NJ is an itinerant workshop for veterans, situated in Morristown through Oct. 31, that helps veterans tell their stories and heal their psyches in two ways: they write and they also make paper from their service uniforms and create art using the paper.

At the end, the public was invited to speak with the veterans and see and buy their art. It all went so well, Krapf said, that the phones at the center were lighting up with more interested people.

"So we set out to create the first ongoing Combat Paper program and we still are the only permanent, ongoing program of its kind in the country," Krapf said.

Since 2011, more than 1,200 people have taken Combat Paper NJ workshops, according to David Keefe, program director.

One of them is Frank Wagner, 72, of Bogota, who loves both writing, papermaking, and other artistic endeavors.

"Half a century ago, my bohunkus was in the Central Highlands of Vietnam," he said. "When I took my last fatigue shirt and cut it up and made combat paper, it felt really good. My last piece of clothing. This is great therapy."

This year, thanks to a $125,000 grant from Wounded Warrior Project, Combat Paper NJ continued offering monthly programs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Fort Belvoir, Virginia, working with enlisted military personnel with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and amputated limbs, as well as veterans.

Also this year, Combat Paper NJ and Warrior Writers are doing three two-month stints in New Jersey, thanks to a $135,000 grant from Impact 100 Garden State, a philanthropic organization. In the spring, Combat Paper NJ set up shop in Somerville. After Morristown, it will move to Paterson in November and December.

Going mobile extends the program's reach in the state. In each of the three hubs, Combat Paper NJ does what it can to permeate the region and create synergy with other local organizations.

"In Morristown, Combat Paper NJ also has a big exhibition at the Atrium Art Gallery in the Morris County Administration & Records Building," Krapf said. "Plus, we'll be at Picatinny Arsenal, the College of St. Elizabeth, and Drew University."

Warrior Writers found a synergy of its own in Morristown, having been invited to read their poetry at the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark Oct. 25 as part of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation is based in the Morristown Parking Authority Building.

The creations of the veterans—and sometimes active-duty servicepeople and family members—are vital and varied, according to Wright.

"We're not all here because we are broken by the military and trying to heal," he said. "We have a lot of veterans involved in these projects who are not combat veterans. A lot served during peacetime, but they're still artists and they still have plenty of things to say. It's not all about war trauma."

Warrior Writers is a part of CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia, according to Lovella Calica, its director. Though it started in Pennsylvania, it has now reached 6,000 people in workshops offered in New York, Boston, Chicago, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

"We and Combat Paper have similar, if not the same, constituencies—veterans, primarily post-9/11 veterans, though we're open to anybody," Calica said. "It's really great for veterans to sit in a writing workshop and then get up and do things with their hands to make visual art. Sometimes people will write a poem and then put it on combat paper."

Words do make their way onto lots of Combat Paper NJ art, such as one on the walls of the Morristown Parking Authority basement — "That which didn't kill me, haunts me."

It's been a whirlwind year for the two programs, Krapf said, as more and more veterans grasp the opportunity to tell their stories.

"This is very much a departure," she said, "from the typical way that veterans were taught to deal with their military experiences—a code of silence."

Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@njpressmedia.com

Learn more box

• Warrior Writers, www.WarriorWriters.org

• Combat Paper NJ, www.combatpapernj.org

• ANOTHER KIND OF COURAGE FEATURING WARRIOR WRITERS/ COMBAT PAPER LITERARY TROOP

WHEN: 8: 15 p.m. Oct. 25

WHERE: Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at NJ Performing Arts Center, Newark

INFORMATION: www.dodgepoetry.org