Inspired by John Lennon’s handwritten draft of Give Peace a Chance, preserved in the Library of Congress, this site-specific installation transforms a communal social room into a space of quiet reflection and collective memory.

Lennon’s original page—raw, repetitive, searching—becomes the conceptual backbone of the work. His stream-of-consciousness lists (“Bagism,” “Shagism,” “Dragism…”) are reproduced at architectural scale, wrapping the room in language that oscillates between hope and fatigue. The handwritten typography preserves the vulnerability of the original draft, capturing a moment when peace existed not as a declaration, but as a question still being formed.

Across the space, backlit photographic murals of a rosebud—shot by the late Keith Mendenhall—introduce a counterpoint: beauty suspended on the edge of darkness. The rose appears luminous yet fragile, echoing the emotional tension embedded in Lennon’s words. Together, text and image create a dialogue between longing and despair, tenderness and protest.

Installed within a shared gathering space, the work invites residents into an intimate encounter with history while reframing activism as something lived quietly, daily, and collectively. The piece explores peace not as a resolved ideal, but as an ongoing emotional state—one shaped by repetition, uncertainty, and the persistent human desire to believe in change.