Please see the Solstice Project Newsletter below:
Dear Friend,
We send you warm greetings this spring Equinox!
Chaco people sought harmony and synchronicity of the sun and moon, the solstices and equinoxes, as the Pueblo people do today. In the Canyon, our findings show the Chacoans celebrated the day of Equinox on an intimate and monumental scale: some in the presence of a spiral petroglyph as it is bisected by a shadow dagger at sunrise, while, not far from there, great numbers witnessed the massive south wall of Pueblo Bonito in near perfect alignment to the Equinox sun's rise and set.
Thanks to the contributions from many of you supporters, we met our $25,000 matching gift challenge last year, and we are now putting the finishing touches on Written on the Landscape. It is coming together beautifully, and truly exceeds all our expectations.
Written on the Landscape will be broadcast this summer solstice, June 20, 2024, on New Mexico's PBS station KNME. We will be generously hosted for premiere showings in Santa Fe, Durango, and Albuquerque. I hope you will join us for these special events.
Following our June 8th premiere showing of Written on the Landscape at Santa Fe's Center for Contemporary Arts, you are also invited to join us at the CCA's Gallery for a series of events through June 12th. These events will highlight new material that extends the Chaco story and introduces the potential for our exciting educational outreach.
Puebloan people who participated in our film and who have been longtime advisers to the Solstice Project will speak about their understanding and insights about Chaco. Archaeologists and archaeoastronomers who contributed their research and insights to the film will present dramatic new imagery on the expansive Gallery walls.
Our next plan is to develop educational material to maximize the impact of the message of Written on the Landscape. It's important to reach young people with what Chaco teaches us about the pressing need to become more attuned to the natural world and harness destructive forces impacting our relationship with it. We will be working with the guidance of Pueblo educators to incorporate the film's findings into Native American curricula as well as those of other schools throughout the country, using the latest technologies for dynamic and interactive instruction.
To this end, I'm asking for your support to help the Solstice Project raise $30,000, which will enable us to put the finishing touches on Written in the Landscape and to create the educational materials and events that will help maximize its impact.
Thank you so much for your interest in our work. We've come so far with the help of our donors, and I am very excited about what we can continue to accomplish together.
Best Wishes,
Anna Sofaer
Executive Director
Solstice Project Inc
222 E. Marcy St., Ste. 19
Santa Fe, NM 87501
www.solsticeproject.org
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Ella Nielsen
Membership & Engagement Director
American Solar Energy Society
Boulder CO
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