An artful welcome

Colors will fly in the air to welcome the Dalai Lama to Birmingham this month.

Thousands of handmade prayer flags will be draped around Regions Field and civil rights sites for the Tibetan spiritual leader’s arrival on Oct. 24. 

Mountain Brook High School graduate Carrie Bloomston, who heard the Dalai Lama speak in Atlanta in 1997, describes the experience as incredible. 

“The love that radiates from him is huge, so I thought I had to go see him and take my kids to see him in my hometown,” she said. 

Around the time she heard of his visit, Bloomston had just created a prayer flag project with fabric from a line she designed, which spurred the idea for her and her mom, Rhonda Greenberg, to create and gather flags for the Dalai Lama’s visit to Birmingham. 

“His Holiness was drawn to parallels between his work and Martin Luther King Jr.’s work [in Birmingham],” Bloomston said. “For me, that’s what felt so deeply personal. It’s historical civil rights and current human rights issues.”

Traditionally, Tibetan prayer flags have been hung on mountain peaks and sacred sites. Recently they have become a popular vehicle for creative expression.

Within a few weeks of developing the idea, Bloomston received a green light on the flag project from the Birmingham mayor’s office. About four months remained to complete it, but the project quickly picked up speed.

  “It’s really developed a life of its own,” she said. “It’s really not about us, it’s about every single person who has contributed. It has its own momentum at this point.”

Leading up to this fall, Bloomston led flag workshops in Phoenix and Birmingham and encouraged others to host them all over the country. 

“Just like his message is to spread loving kindness in the world, that’s what this project is about,” she said. “We have Christians, Jews, Muslims, any kind of religion represented, as well as pieces of art that have nothing to do with religious practices.”

Bloomston, who now lives in Phoenix, eagerly anticipates not just seeing the Dalai Lama speak later this month but also returning to the community that first celebrated her as an artist. For her, the event will honor how far she believes we have come, and call awareness to issues that still need to be moved.

“It feels really amazing because I love Birmingham and feel at home when I come,” she said. “To come home bearing gifts for the city feels good.”

Events open to the public for the Dalai Lama’s visit include the Beyond Belief Interfaith Moderated Discussion on Oct. 26 at 9 a.m. at the Alabama Theatre and An Afternoon With His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Featuring the Alabama Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. at Regions Field. For more, visit birminghamhumanrights.com.

To learn more about the flag project, visit happyflagproject.com.