The Seed of Life Memorial: Documenting Grief and Healing After Tragedy

How do you find hope when you and your community are engulfed in sorrow and sadness? Artists grapple with emotions every day as part of their creative exploration, from infectious joy to the spectrum of grief. Our goal as the producers of The Art Show is to capture that process and hopefully illuminate insightful observations for our viewers. But how do you produce a television segment about a public memorial seeking to heal the wounds of nine people murdered in the most heinous way?

In the early morning hours of August 4, 2019 people from all walks of life filled Fifth Street of the Oregon District in Dayton, OH. The shops, bars and restaurants were teeming with the communal pursuit of good cheer and respite from the challenges of everyday life. But that peace and tranquility were shattered in just thirty seconds when a gunman opened fire, killing nine and wounding nearly 37 individuals.

After the tragedy, a team of hometown artists were chosen to navigate that journey through the heart of darkness with their art. Together, they fashioned a pathway for their community to heal and aspire towards peace and acceptance – and hopefully for forgiveness for those nine lives that were taken that day through The Seed of Life Memorial. My fellow producers and I knew that we wanted to document their journey as a segment on The Art Show, not only because of our proximity to the Oregon District but also as a way to reconcile our own grief and sadness while helping our community on their healing journey as well.

Richard Nordstrom, senior videographer for the station, began the documentation in January of 2024 by filming the memorial in the beginning conceptual stages of development. He recorded many hours of meetings with the artistic team of James, Terry, Sierra and Jes, who spent time crafting the components of the memorial with a supervisory group of community members and representatives from the victim’s families.

We conducted six interviews in total for this particular segment for The Art Show, and the artists began to recount how they handled and managed their complicated and fraught emotional states, describing the toll it took both personally and professionally. They shared the symbolism they incorporated into the finished memorial, from the choice of materials used in its construction to the inclusion of images of Ginko leaves and double-headed Sankofa birds. They dreamed that the monument would not only respect the enormous personal loss of the victims’ families and survivors, but would also serve as a gathering place of hope and healing for the community.

Richard and the artists were a consistent presence throughout the project until our last two interviews recorded on October 21. As a production crew, we usually can have a healthy remove or distance from our work, allowing us to be present through emotionally wrought time for those who we interview. But, because of the devastating and demoralizing impact this mass shooting had on our community, we could not help but be affected and a remoteness was nearly impossible to maintain.

When we sat down in the studio to interview the artists, a survivor and a community leader, we could immediately feel the weight and energy that was surrounding every interviewee. It was a shadowy presence of sorrow and sadness that was palpable to everyone in the crew. But as people settled into their chairs and the crew adjusted the audio and light levels, a familial chatter filled the space. We checked on how their daily lives were going, what they were currently working on and what new opportunities and challenges they were encountering on the journey of their creative lives.

As the conductor of the interview process, it is my job to establish a proper line of sight with our audience, so I sit right by the lens of the camera, directly across from the interviewee. In this position, I can gauge their energy firsthand, both emotionally and spiritually. Even before the first question is queried, I can see directly into their eyes as they glisten with barely held-back tears. I knew these were not going to be typical interview sessions. When we clapped the slate for recording, I could see the visible release of the breath of each of the interviewees. It was as if they were releasing floodgates that were holding back emotional waves of anguish and weighted responsibility in equal measure.

One of our interviewees was Dion Green, survivor and son of Derrick Fudge, one of the nine lives tragically lost on August 4. As Dion sat down and began to share his firsthand account of what would be the final moments he would share with his father on this earth, I was at a loss. I believe that we all possess a level of empathy to at least begin to understand the grief that others go through, but as I tried to process his unfathomable grief and sorrow, I struggled to find the words to articulate what is unimaginable. If eyes are the windows to our souls, Dion’s eyes were portraits of infinite darkness of grief that cannot be extinguished or denied.

It became clear throughout his interview that Dion was rising to meet a calling that he could have never foreseen or asked for. Heavy is the head that wears the crown of this particular responsibility, and that weight manifested itself in tears. As we wrapped the recording, I looked toward Richard. He was positioned behind the two cameras set up for recording interviews, a place of familiarity of ten years of working together. He is a solid and steady presence, but, at that moment, seeing him with tears streaming down his face brought home our mortal fragility. I recognized our collective responsibility to each other to honor the lives we encounter every day.

I was moved again when Dion and Richard hugged each other – two men who could never have known that they would be connected by both tragedy and healing, as well as the power of art. In witnessing this connection between them, their embrace was a hopeful sign that when we lead with empathy and compassion, we can bridge what seems like an endless void of grief and sorrow. I have always believed that art, indeed, holds the power to move hearts and minds and it opens up the possibility to embrace a better vision of our collective humanity. Through tear-filled eyes, I bore witness to the gloriousness of that power.

You can watch this episode of The Art Show, exploring The Seed of Life Memorial, on Saturday, November 16, at 6pm on CET, Sunday, November 17, at 8pm on CET Arts and Sunday, November 17, at 5:30pm on Think^TV16. Learn more: https://thinktv.org/TheArtShow/.

Rodney Veal
CET and Think^TV Producer and Community Arts Liaison