WARWICK, R.I. — Three decades ago, in the winter of 1997, Noreen Inglesi, then beginning her career as a public school music teacher in North Providence, wrote “Duo for Flute and Harp.” It was a musical tribute to the composer’s deep appreciation for the natural world.

The piece, scored for flute and harp, was inspired by a walk through the woods in Charlestown, just after a small snowstorm. Inglesi said the lyrical melody is meant to depict a robin gliding from one snow-speckled branch to the next.

She composed “Dance of the Firefly” in June 1996 — a string trio of violin, viola, and cello inspired by the sight of fireflies dancing among the bushes on a “beautiful warm summer evening in Charlestown.”

Other pieces have been inspired by the hills of Matunuck, Block Island, and Goosewing Beach.

Inglesi, a composer, vocalist, poet, and environmentalist, retired from teaching in 2017, but she hasn’t stopped working — although after having recently spoken with her about her other career, she never referred to what she did and does as work.

Her passion for music, art, teaching, and the world of nature converged three years into her classroom career. While teaching in North Providence during the day and evenings at the Community College of Rhode Island, Inglesi found time in 2000 to build the foundation of what would become Notable Works Publication and Distribution Co. Inc., Notable Works for short.

Inglesi didn’t build it alone. She received significant help from good friend Bina Gehres, who remains the organization’s director, and her mother, Mary, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 98.

Notable Works was officially recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2007. The mission of the Rhode Island-based organization is to produce and support art, music, and literature that raises awareness for environmental and social justice issues.

“All through history, arts have played an important role in bringing about, helping to bring about, social awareness,” Inglesi said, “which hopefully leads to positive social change.”

What would eventually become Notable Works began with Inglesi and her crew, such as cellist Maria Bilyeu, who “has been with us right from the start,” creating a musical tribute to Rhode Island visual artists and photographers. “Beyond 2000: The Future of Our Planet” also featured a tip of the hat to Mother Nature.

About a year after Notable Works became official — at least in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service — the small ensemble and their friends produced a CD titled “Working in Harmony for Home and Hearth.” The project was completed in partnership with South County Habitat for Humanity to raise awareness about the issue of substandard housing and homelessness. The 29-song album features local composers, poets, musicians, and singers.

Some of Notable Works’ other projects include “Love Warms the Homeless Heart Tote Bag Project” and “Voices of the Earth: People Helping People.” The tote bag project is a partnership with the Cranston Senior Enrichment Center’s Smile Doll Program and involves the distribution of tote bags filled with handmade dolls, scarves, and hats, hygiene products, and poetry books with resource pages to benefit local families in crisis.

“Voices of the Earth” highlights the efforts of local nonprofits that are having a “positive impact on our communities.”

In June, Notable Works will publish the fourth edition of its “Voices of the Earth: The Future of Our Planet.” The publication features poems and artwork written and crafted by local artists. These works honor Mother Nature.

For example, in the book’s second edition published in 2020 is a poem titled “Nature’s Solace” written by Patricia McAlpine:

Walk in a wetland
Winter into spring
Water fills the pond
laden with duckweed so green
from surface to depths below.

Wind blows, trees speak
rub against each other, broken
lean on one another.

Five deer pass by
in the weathered meadow
They sense my presence
We commune together
linked in nature’s solace.

Notable Works is scheduled to hold its “Voices of the Earth: The Future of Our Planet IV Building Innovative Bridges for Tomorrow” book release celebration Saturday, June 27, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the William Hall Library auditorium, 1825 Broad St. in Cranston. For more information about this free event, click here.

While teaching music to K-5 students and music history, foundations, and education to college students from 1997 to 2005, Inglesi routinely made connections between music and the environment.

Unsurprisingly, Notable Works shares the same philosophy. The creative nonprofit has worked with The Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Environmental Education Association, the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, Southside Community Land Trust, The Greene School, and the Stormwater Innovation Center, among others, to make connections through concerts, poetry readings, and workshops.

“I think the arts are a powerful way of actually seeing, putting to words, putting to music, putting a picture on it on how to deal with the issue of climate change,” Inglesi said. “Some of the poetry in the book and some of the artworks hopefully inspire some people to take an active role in developing green infrastructure, building rain gardens, participating in a fish count, volunteering for a watershed council.”

“These Woods” by Aubrey Atwater was published in 2019 in the first edition of “Voices of the Earth:”

These woods are fine
These trees, these plants
Chipmunks, crows
Sun, sky, rain, moon
They’re fine
The woodland is full of fallen acorns
And I am tripping on a floor of marbles
These woods don’t need anything
No clearing, cutting, cleaning, raking
Nothing
They’re fine

ecoRI News recently met Inglesi, Gehres, and board member Carolann Soder at Warwick Central Library on Sandy Lane. In Room 113, where Notable Works has held rehearsals, the gracious ladies, all retired Warwick residents, spoke about their volunteer work and the importance of using song, literature, music, and art to advocate for environmental protections and social justice.

“We raise awareness,” said Gehres, a New Orleans native who has lived in Rhode Island for five decades. She spent much of her time here teaching the deaf. “That’s our whole deal, raising awareness in the community.”

Soder, who has been on the 10-member board for seven years, has become the sounding board for Gehres and Inglesi’s ideas to raise awareness and make connections.

“They both are very creative, coming up with ideas that tie into the community,” she said. “Both of them are instrumental in coming up with creative ideas and then helping the board implement them.”

Soder and Inglesi, both Providence natives, attended CCRI at the same time, were in the music program together, and became “really good friends.” Life, as it does, interrupted their friendship for a few decades before they reconnected and Inglesi asked Soder if she wanted to become a board member.

“It’s really been eye-opening,” Soder said. “I think what happens, you know, sometimes we have tunnel vision and we don’t realize the extent of what’s going on in the eco-world. Some of the programs that we’ve done have been really educational and flipped thinking — ‘Oh, this isn’t a big deal, but it is a big deal.’ We need to pay attention. What’s happening affects all of us.”

“GAIA” by Tom Hardie was published in 2023 in the third edition of “Voices of the Earth:”

Beneath the freeway and the malls
Ancient bones recall
the hunts, the dances,
meetings with the spirits.
The river beneath the desert
dreams of an ocean.
Beyond the suburbs
the hills purr like cats.

The all-volunteer nonprofit survives on individual donors and business supporters who “are wonderful,” a few foundations, grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and fundraisers.

“We’re either broke or have just enough money to get a project done,” said Gehres with a chuckle.

Their collective passion and talents and their many artistic friends make up for budget shortfalls. Their work is having a notable impact.

Note: Notable Works publishes a monthly newsletter. To sign up, click here. To view the March newsletter, click here.