The public is invited to join CU-Boulder students from the INVS 4932: Community Leadership in Action classfor a free presentation by the Beehive Design Collective on Wednesday, January 19 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Old Main Theatre. Collective members will be sharing their newest graphic, a giant collaborative mural mapping out the big picture of fuel entitled, “The True Cost of Coal: Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Our Future.”

The mural, which is teeming with intricate images of plants and animals from the most bio-diverse temperate forest on the planet, allows members from the Beehive Design Collective to share stories of how coal mining and Mountaintop Removal affect communities and ecosystems throughout Appalachia and beyond. The graphic also looks to the future, raising questions about resistance, regeneration, and remediation while celebrating stories of struggle from mountain communities. To learn more about this graphics campaign as it unfolds at beehivecollective.blogspot.com.

 The class presentation is part of the INVST Community Leadership Program (CLP) that prepares young people to be social justice workers and environmental stewards. Throughout the CLP, students critically reflect on concepts of leadership, democracy, nonviolence and sustainable development. They practice facilitating meetings, consensus decision-making, conflict resolution, fundraising, grant proposal writing, grassroots organizing, lobbying and public speaking. For more information about INVST Community Studies programs visit http://www.colorado.edu/communitystudies/index.html