It’s a beautiful day at Alice’s Garden and Camille’s bowls are singing.
I had heard of singing bowls and of Alice’s Garden, but had never had an experience with either, so when I heard about an event showcasing Camille Mays playing her singing bowls at the garden, I wanted to go.
Singing bowls have roots in Tibetan culture and are made from different materials in varying sizes. When played, each bowl produces a rich tone that’s said to promote relaxation for the mind and body—much like the psychological benefits of listening to music. Today, singing bowls are resurfacing in wellness and self-care practices and music, massage and yoga therapists are using singing bowls during treatment.
But this isn’t about singing bowls.
This is about the healing work of the woman who sings along.
…
When her mother passed away at the age of 15, Camille went to live with her grandparents. Her grandfather was a gardener, and Camille grew up tending a plot in a community garden with him. Her skill and love of gardening grew from there.
As an adult, Camille got involved in politics by helping people register to vote and educating people on candidates running for office. As she went door-to-door doing her work, she began to take note of small memorials composed of candles, stuffed animals and flowers that had been placed to honor people who died from gun violence. As far as her eye could see, those memorial flowers were the only beautiful things she saw amid the litter, unkempt yards and patchy grass in her neighborhood.
Camille knew she could create something beautiful in those spaces, and so she began the next chapter of her work. She wanted to create something to make her community look more hopeful for the children and families who live there—something to remind them that they deserve to have beautiful neighborhoods, too.
In 2015, Camille founded the Peace Garden Project MKE, which works with families who have lost loved ones to violence to replace makeshift memorials with permanent ones using perennial flowers, mulch, stones and other landscaping. For each memorial, Camille gets permission from the family to plant a garden in honor of their loved one and, to date, each family that she’s asked has supported her idea. While she’s planning the design or working on a garden, Camille often has help from family, friends, community members and master gardeners in the neighborhood.
For Camille and the families who have lost their loved one, these memorials are more than just flowers: these gardens give the families a way to heal, bring the community together, and offer beautiful spaces where residents often describe feeling forgotten by the city. Additionally, peace gardens honor the family’s loss by creating a space that is protected from removal by respecting the city’s sanitation laws. And for Camille, it is a small way to offer the family a gift of healing.
In other words, Camille is redeeming the ground where it’s been broken.
Over time, her work grew and expanded. Her gardens have inspired homeowners and renters to take care of their own landscapes, and some have even started vegetable gardens in their yards. As neighborhood children see these gardens, they’ve become interested in gardening and come over and offer to help. Camille partnered with Pastor Christie Melby-Gibbons at the pay-what-you-can Tricklebee Café to host classes and workshops on growing flowers and food to show that eating healthy can help reduce food costs. Camille also became a board member of Crime Stoppers, a tip line where people can report crime in Milwaukee anonymously and receive cash rewards in the process.
Camille’s heart went out to each grieving family she worked with. Although she worked closely with families and in neighborhoods that had been traumatized by gun violence, she’d tell them, “I don’t understand, and I’m sorry. I hope I don’t ever understand.” She’d tell people she never wanted a tragedy like that to come to her door.
But in November of 2019, it came.
Camille’s son, 21-year old Darnell Woodard II, was sitting in a car near 44th and Center when someone began firing shots, killing him. It was the type of senseless crime Camille had spent years trying to end.
In the immediate aftermath of her son’s murder, Camille was surrounded by family, friends and media coverage, and she held a vigil in the space where Darnell was killed. After two weeks, she noticed that most of the support, food and people checking on her seemed to disappear and she slowly began to think through and process what healing looks like for her.
That’s when Camille received a timely invite to Alice’s Garden. Alice’s Garden occupies an especially meaningful space in the city, as it’s situated on land that is part of the birthplace of the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin. Several elders from her community, including Venice Williams, the executive director of the garden, invited Camille along with other mothers who had lost loved ones to violence. While Camille and the other mothers were at the garden, the elders encircled them, engaged in healing rituals and prayed for them. It was a sacred moment for Camille and the experience has shaped her healing journey.
Camille began her own healing journey by finding someone to talk to, but soon found that few people can truly understand her experience, which led her to relationships with others who have experienced loss as a result of violence. She has found strength in those relationships and they’ve helped her to heal. She also finds strength in mindfulness practices, like yoga, meditation, crystals, coloring and painting.
Although her world is forever changed, Camille’s work hasn’t stopped. "I didn't wait until [violence] came to my door. I tried to stop it from coming to my door, from touching my family, but it didn't. It didn't stop it, but I want to still fight against it,” says Camille. She vows to fight for justice, not just because of her Darnell’s death, but because she wants to keep violence out of her community.
This healing work has been hard work, and Camille is processing her own trauma and loss so that she can keep serving the Milwaukee area by offering her own healing services. Camille is certified in sound healing and recently announced a partnership with the nonprofit Mental Health America to offer singing bowl therapy, art sessions and other wellness services inside the United Methodist Children's Services building from 10a-3p on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She’s also serving on the Community Collaborative Commission, which gives input on community policing and police-community relations. Camille also has a wedding to plan with her fiancé, Greg, who partners with her in her work.
Camille finds peace with her ever-expanding collection of plants and still offers peace gardens—but, for her own healing journey—she no longer attends vigils because of how emotionally triggering they are for her. While she tends to her plants in her home, they serve as a reminder to nurture herself. "It just reminds me of growth. It’s always something new. It’s always a new leaf,” she says. On days when she loses her strength, the plants are always there, each new leaf reminding her that life is still happening and she continues the work of being a healing healer in our city.
Click here for more information on Camille’s wellness services and Peace Garden MKE.
