Lyle’s remembered through children’s art

The name Charleena Lyles evokes a lot of strong emotions in Seattle. But as Lyle’s community found out, those emotions ran deeper, and younger, than expected.

“A lot of our case managers and Solid Ground staff were asking what we, as residents, wanted to do to remember the one-year anniversary of Charleena Lyles’ tragic murder,” said Lhorna Murray, a resident of the Solid Ground apartments where Lyles was killed by Seattle police officers.

“Initially, everyone was like ‘We don’t want to do anything,'” she said. “Because nobody wanted anything to do with that trauma. It’s turned into something that we don’t really talk about around here because it evokes so many negative emotions and there were so many residents who were negatively affected.”

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The 30-year-old pregnant mother of four was shot seven times by two Seattle Police officers last year, after she called 911 to report a burglary. The incident has sparked outrage, criticism, and a lawsuit over how Seattle police officers handle use-of-force and mental illness.

Solid Ground is a non-profit that provides subsidized housing and services for those who’ve experienced homelessness and other setbacks. Lyles lived in one of its properties.

The community ultimately did end up hosting an event to remember Lyles, “The Charleena Lyles One Year Remembrance: Reflection and Healing” celebration at Magnuson Park.

The resident-led event took place just steps away from the apartment building where Lyles was shot and killed in front of her children. Murray said that residents opted to hold the remembrance after many rallies and other events were organized around them. They wanted to be proactive, instead of reactive to the tragedy. Children were a primary focus of the event.

“A big part of our population is children” said Dee Hillis with Solid Ground. “We have about 450 people, of which 250 are kids ranging from newborns all the way to age 18. For them, what we are really trying to do is break the cycle of homelessness for the next generation.”

Murray, who is also a mom and artist, wanted to shift the focus to the kids. She reached out to Art with Heart, a local non-profit that uses art therapy to help kids who’ve experienced trauma.

“As adults we weren’t paying attention to the fact that not talking about it as adults meant that the kids followed suit and didn’t talk about it either,” she said. “When I found out more about Art with Heart, and their trauma-informed art therapy, I thought ‘that’s perfect.'”

The event evolved into art therapy sessions and a children’s art show titled “LIT.” It brought together an array of organizations supporting the healing endeavor, from Solid Ground to the Sand Point Art and Cultural Exchange.

“We could talk about it, and in a way that we are not focusing on the final chapter of this woman’s life,” Murray said. “She was a mother in our community. She was a neighbor. And a lot of the kids had a great deal of respect and really liked Charleena.”

Those Art with Heart sessions were tough. They tapped into a lot of deep-seeded pain, fear, and anger. The children were even encouraged to make angry art to get those feelings out.

“They have some really profound and deep feelings about this incident,” Murray said. “That really came out during the trauma-informed art sessions, and I wasn’t prepared for that. I thought that they were peripheral … and it didn’t affect them the way it affected adults because they didn’t understand as much. That wasn’t the case. This was something they needed to talk about and they needed the tools to be able to express themselves in a positive way; a lot of it was pent up.”

“I’m glad we finally did address it…” she said. “If I could give any other community advice on what to do if there is a violent tragedy in their community, it’s to find out what the kids are feeling and don’t assume the adults are the only ones who are impacted. Because our kids were really impacted.”