Healing With Heat: Project FIRE Teaches Glassblowing to Young People Impacted by Gun Violence | FIRSTHAND: Peacekeepers

Working with 2,000-degree molten glass requires focus.

The high temperatures and dangerous material forces the young artists at Project FIRE to pay attention to the details as they shape it into vases, pendants, goblets, and all sorts of glassware.

They learn a new skill, create beautiful objects, and forge self-esteem along the way.

The art of glassblowing also offers a source of community for participants at Project FIRE, who also share something else in common. Each has been affected by trauma or violence, and they find healing in programs at Firebird Community Arts.

Pearl Dick is co-founder and artistic director of Project FIRE, which began in 2015. She said it’s a collaborative effort: Project FIRE partners closely with community partner Healing Hurt People Chicago.

“Healing Hurt People Chicago do hospital-based trauma intervention,” Dick said. “So when somebody’s injured and ends up in a hospital, they have trauma intervention specialists meet with them and offer follow-up care, and one of the options they have is us.”

Nae-Nae McGee has been part of the program since she was a teenager. After five years, she’s now part of Firebrand, a production team that makes wholesale and custom orders for glass.

“I was in trauma,” McGee said. “I had got shot. I was in a hospital that partnered with Healing Hurt People, and they introduced me to Project FIRE.”

Another participant is 16-year-old Cyencere. When he was shot at age 14, he didn’t know anything about glassblowing.

“I was clueless to it,” Cyencere said. “I really didn’t know what it was, but once I started getting into it, I started liking it.”

Cyencere lives on the South Side, and Firebird Community Arts hires rideshares to pick up group members and bring them to the warehouse-turned-art studio under the “L” tracks at 2651 W. Lake St. in East Garfield Park.

Dick founded the program with Bradley Stolbach, now director of REACT, a recovery and empowerment program at the University of Chicago.

“It came from him working with people after they’ve been injured and they’re in a pediatric hospital,” Dick said. “They tell them that if this [glassblowing] is something that they are interested in, they could come check it out.”

Artists sell their wares and keep 70 percent of the profit. About the money, Cyencere said with a laugh, “It feels great, you know? I ain’t gonna lie.”

Each three-hour glassblowing session is followed by an hour of discussion where people can talk about the effects of trauma on the body and start to understand how it affects them and triggers emotional responses.

Project FIRE works mostly with young adults, and they hold workshops with groups such as Embarc Chicago, an education model that provides experiential learning. They have glassblowing classes available to anyone who is interested.

Firebird Community Arts also offers hands-on learning for another fire-based art form –ceramics. It’s another opportunity for people to concentrate, learn a new skill and rebuild themselves.

The secret to their success is commitment to community.

“It’s creative and inclusive,” Dick said. “It’s a place where people can come and feel safe. It provides a space where folks who don’t have options for a safe space can come and be a part of a community.”

It’s a site where someone like McGee can relax and feel comfortable in her surroundings.

“I come here to get my mind off things that’s worrying …  frustrating me, to ease myself and not put too much pressure on myself,” McGee said. “I just come here and be at peace.”

“One of the first things that’s disrupted when someone experiences violent injury or trauma is their sense of safety,” Dick said. “And it would seem incongruous that you’re going to come in and work with this 2,000-degree molten material and sharp metal tools. There’s a big focus on keeping each other safe, so you build trust. And they can do this really challenging thing and excel at it. It’s very rewarding.”

The material also plays a role in the mental impact of the art.

“There’s something about working with glass – and ceramicists would say this too – the process, the motion of it, the actual physical making is soothing in itself, outside of what we talk about and what we discover about ourselves,” Dick said. “Just the process of making is very appealing.”

Cyencere has found solace in the program.

“It’s definitely a safe space for anybody that has problems,” he said. “It’s a safe community. I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life.”

This summer, Firebird Community Arts will break ground on a new building nearby that will quadruple their space. The opening is planned for 2026.