Today is publication day! It’s finally here- the 3rd edition of “Words and Violence” dedicated to Michael Jackson and Lady Diana Spencer. And we are excited! Since the last edition of “Words and Violence” was published, Voices Education Project became “Voices Compassionate Education,” part of the Compassionate Action Network– a sister project to the Charter for Compassion.
Words and Violence has done a great job of demonstrating bullying and the use of words and language conscripted for harm. We have amassed more than 600 pages of resources in the project that educate. We know words harm. We know they can hurt, even kill. We know what is wrong. We know how to do it wrong.
So, how then, do we do it right? How do we conscript words and language to heal? There are many kinds of language and they can all be used to create that new narrative on the planet.
This brand new 3rd edition features Performance Arts as a catalyst for change, for compassion, for human evolution in “story” conveyed through the force of words, seen through the eyes of art, evoked through the language of movement, witnessed through the magic of film, and heard through the storytelling of “song.” It’s part of the movement toward a new narrative on the planet– one that is compassionate, responsible and deliberately created. WE write the script. WE perform the dance and dramas. WE sing the world into being. WE are the narrators and the narrative.
WE tell the story of the world. The world is a performance! Our performance! It’s the collective performance of humanity, a work-in-progress. The soundtrack of your life is the soundtrack of the planet. What lyrics do you want to sing? What dance do you want to dream? What live play do you want to perform? What motion picture do you want to create the world to be? What song do you want to join to sing the world into being? What new language do you want to create? What new story of the world do you want to tell? Begin it now.
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Presenting…. the 3rd Edition of “Words and Violence” and its brand new Performing Arts Addition
THE PERFORMING ARTS AS EDUCATOR AND HEALER
Released front page!
Go to www.voiceseducation.org and scroll down to find the 3rd edition.
Be sure to check out the Introduction and the Performance Arts section.
And watch for links at Inner Michael on Facebook!
Happy Birthday!
4 Comments
Rev. Barbara
It is here….the change is happening, your new edition of Words and Violent, becoming partnered with the Compassionate Network, this is exactly what Michael meant when he said we have four years to get it right. And you have certainly gotten it right!
I have known all along that you have been a major catalyst for change in a global way and I admire, respect and want to thank you for your continued service to humanity and in your tireless quest for the greater good. Living by the golden rule and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you has been a lifelong mantra for me…..
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Blessings
Victoria
Oh my, but no pressure, right? Thanks for the kind words. I’ll try to remember them when I get angry and too fierce.
Yes, we are waking. And awakening. Is that hope I smell in the air? I’ve been sniffing for it a long time now.
I love that we have, in the last 2 editions of “Words and Violence” examined bullying. We have defined what’s wrong and why.
Now we get to go through the looking glass to the mirror.
We begin to examine how to heal and do it right. And we began with the performing arts.
Art changes the world. It can make us one mind, stir us, motivate… inspire… Photography changes the world. Music changes the world. Spoken word… theater… film… dance… changes the world.
And yes, one skinny little moon walker did it all.
The stakes are high. This is much bigger than Michael Jackson. And Michael Jackson knew; he knew the stakes. He glimpsed the plan. He held the vision.
They are now bullying the planet. Michael Jackson is, for many, a/the catalyst. And we are the world.
My instincts tell me that me that WORDS AND VIOLENCE is one of the most important publications of our era and I eagerly look forward to spending some quality time with it. The implications for its application on levels ranging from the personal to the global––particularly within today’s obfuscating climate of guerrilla decontextualization–– to help individuals and communities recognize, claim, and champion the potential for creative beauty and spiritual integrity in their lives is tremendous. For those who might find that statement slightly extreme, I don’t mind pointing out that it comes from a man who went on public record five years before it happened as saying that Toni Morrison would become the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature :-).
I can very easily see this title being used extensively in my hometown of Savannah, Georgia. Like too many other cities, it is a place where words in various communities are in turn used as instruments of verbal torture or coercion, and at other times used more wisely as springboards allowing entry into industries such as rap/hip hop; or, offer glimpses into literary possibilities. Too often, what happens in-between such occurrences and possibilities are explosions of physical violence that leave bodies lifeless in the street and permanently maim the families left behind.
I am particularly excited by “The Performing Arts as Educator and Healer” component of this new edition of WORDS AND VIOLENCE because one of my recurring dreams is to see a College of Performing Arts, similar to New York’s famed Professional Performance Arts School, established in my hometown. I imagine what such a school might do to slow the proliferation of groups such as “Mothers of Sons Killed in Savannah” or to help decrease the city’s staggering level of poverty (something this author barely survived as a child). Inspiring dreams are beautiful but empowering visions turned into positive do-able actions are oh so much better! As you pointed out Rev. Kaufmann: “Art changes the world.” And: “The stakes are high.” They may, in fact, have never been higher.
Much Love and Gratitude,
Aberjhani
Thank you so much for your kind words and this glowing endorsement of the work. May I extend an invitation to you to submit something to be entered into the 3rd edition; it would be my honor to include you. Perhaps a video of you reading a poem? An article? Artwork? Something about guerrilla-decontextualization? It’s an important conversation.
You may be interested to know that Terri Schwartz of UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV agrees about the element of responsibility for those in the performance arts. While she doesn’t specifically call out “guerilla-decontextualization,” I think we can read that precise meaning between the lines of her: “Story, Social Responsibility and the Case for a New Model for Entertainment and Performance.”
According to Head-Roc, Hip Hop artist and unofficial “mayor of DC,” some of the current problems in that city sound similar to the experiences of your childhood. It’s a profound sadness that we have not come further or at least not slid backwards in the evolution of human rights. Indie Hip Hop has taken on many contemporary social justice issues but Hip Hop as a genre is maligned as the more visible artists who pursue guerilla-decontextualization in service to misogyny, homophobia and violence get more attention because the wealthy producers effectively promote it well for consumption aimed back into the streets. While that is not meant to be a sweeping endorsement of all Indie Hip Hop, nor a condemnation of all Hip Hop or well known artists of the genre, there is enough offensive content and offenders to turn off a broader audience that might be sympathetic to what youth face in their daily lives on the streets of the inner cities that makes them so angry. The anger is understandable, even justified; however, anger is energy and it can be conscripted just as equally for healing as for destruction.
Hip Hop and Rap as Art, and as an Agent of Change for Social Justice and Political Reform (Scroll down for the complete section on Hip Hop)
Yes, we need to shift this paradigm of guerilla-languaging, mindless consumption of agents of violence and harm, and egocentric entitlement before it consumes us and our planet.
For example, when we throw something away- where is “away?” There is no “away.” When we throw people away- where is that away? And what are the consequences? And it’s not hyperbole to say about the stakes: “they may, in fact, have never been higher.” The entire island hangs in the balance. This island. The earth is an island and humanity’s conveyance through the cosmos. And this is a one way ride. Unlike those who ride public conveyances– the subway, the El, the metro or rapid transit, there is no “next stop.”
I love your idea of building performing arts centers; it’s a beautiful dream that takes money and time to accomplish. Meanwhile, “Words and Violence” reaches 140 countries through Voices Compassionate Education. Yes, all the world is a stage and… so are the streets.
Now I’ll share my dream: