On March 18 in the Ball Hall auditorium at ETSU, The Beehive Design Collective presented “The True Cost of Coal: Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Our Future,” which turned out to be two hours packed with visuals, information and discussion.
Emma B., Zeph B. and Tyler B., as they prefer to be known, first explained the background of the collective, which is based in Maine. Virtually everything about their lives is collaborative: they live together, work together, make decisions together and travel together for research whenever they begin another project.
They ask for donations, but do not require payment for posters, patches and other materials they create. In fact, they are anti-copyright and encourage people to pick up CD’s with image files and re-create and distribute as much as desired, provided that the designs are not used for sales.
“We’re trying to trick people concerned with social justice and people concerned with environmentalism to talk to each other,” Emma said of their purpose.
As their flyer indicates, their murals and presentations are not created in order to reach only experts, analysts and academics. You can see this in the work itself. They don’t use humans and there is very little text used because they want to avoid ugly stereotypes as well as allow people of all backgrounds to be able to identity with the designs.
Posters are created based on research that the group collects through books and professors, but mainly through hands on visits to regions of focus, such as Colombia, Central America and the Southeastern United States.
While conducting research visits, they speak to inhabitants about issues of injustice while also learning about local wild and plant life. In addition to discovering the true strife of locals, the collective also tries to find out how locals have fought back and their hopes for the future. All sides are considered, even those of people not very knowledgeable or experienced in the particular issues at hand.
Previous concerns have been unfair trade policies and the struggles of Central and South Americans, but lately they’ve been focusing on the consequences of coal, climate change and ways that the government is continuing to harm citizens.
When an audience member, who has experience in coal mining communities for 62 years, pointed out what could be considered biased or uninformed, Emma welcomed his input and expressed no defensiveness. Instead it was another audience member who spoke aggressively against the comments of the coal miner. Emma graciously accepted the criticisms and vocal hostility, reiterating the collective’s goal to promote awareness and discussion.
“These are the things we need to talk about,” she said, obviously meaning it. Sadly, there was far too much information, along with the group activity, to be presented in the span of two hours. I left feeling a little drained, but also desiring more discussion. Perhaps the first was to be expected and the latter to be the point.
Outside of Ball Hall, two of their huge portable murals were set up for viewing, displaying the incredibly complex illustrations, symbolism and stories that are all part of the collectives chosen language and purpose. Tyler said in the beginning of the presentation, “We view ourselves as storytellers more than anything else.”
I was expecting to dislike the presentation because I dislike extraordinarily biased, holier-than-thou hippies, which the flyer kind of screamed at me, but instead I respect a great deal what the collective is trying to do and how well they tackle very complex subjects. They also refrain from dictating answers, only possible solutions based on research.
It’s easy to stand on a soapbox when you ignore certain aspects of a problem, or the voices of people who deserve to be heard.
The word “collective” kind of makes a shiver run up my spine, but they’ve got a point: it’s far more productive and reasonable to hear and consider all sides.
You don’t have to agree on everything; the Beehive Design Collective is not asking you to. They only ask you to speak, listen and act.

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