WORLDWIDE HIPPIES

100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE

2011 MAY 3
tags: ,WWH – Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion don’t just dream about making things happen — they inspire to change the world. These poets and activists have planned a community action event that stretches across the globe. The Editors of Big Bridge Magazine want to take it off the page and take it to the streets. 

The event invites poets, writers, and artists of all kinds to get together to create and perform, educate, and demonstrate, simultaneously, with other communities around the world.

“This will change how we see our local community and the global community,” said Rothenberg. “We have all become incredibly alienated in recent years. We hardly know our neighbors down the street let alone our creative allies who live and share our concerns in other countries. We need to feel this kind of global solidarity. I think it will be empowering.”

Rothenberg said the event was planned to promote political and social change, siting the troubles that plague us here and around the world, wars, ecocide, the lack of affordable medical care, racism, and the list goes on.

“It appears that transformation towards a more sustainable world is a major concern and could be a global guiding principle for this event,” Rothenberg said. “Peace also seems to be a common cause. War is not sustainable. There is an increasing sense that we need to move forward and stop moving backwards.”

He said he is not trying to be dogmatic, but instead hoping that together we can develop our ideas for the change/transformation.

100 Thousand Poets for Change is scheduled for September 24, 2011, and will include readings, demonstrations, and concerts happening simultaneously throughout the world in the name of poetry and change. It will be televised.

100 Thousand Poets for Change will organize “participants” by local region, city, or state, and find individuals in each area who would like to organize their local event.

If you are an organizer for your community this means that first you will consider a location for the event and begin to contact people in your area who want to participate in the event. Participation means contacting the media, posting the event on the web, in calendars, newspapers, etc., reading poems, performing in general, supplying cupcakes and beer (it’s up to you), demonstrating, putting up an information table, inviting guest speakers, musicians, etc., organizing an art exhibit, and documenting the event (this is important, too), and cleaning up, of course.

Organizers and participants will create their own local events as an expression of who they are locally. Do they want a candlelight vigil or a circus, a march or a dance, do they want absolute silence, a group meditation on a main street? It’s up to the local organization. However, groups should be sure to hold some part of the event, if not all of it, outdoors, in public view. The point is to be seen and heard, not just stay behind closed walls. It is also important that the event be documented. Photos, videos, poems, journals, paintings! Documentation is crucial. The rest of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change want to hear what you have to say about change and enjoy your creativity, too. An event doesn’t have to involve tons of people. It can be just you (the organizer) and your pet, on a street corner, with a sign. Just let Michael or Terri know what you are planning. Every effort counts!

Each local organization determines what it wants to focus on, something broad like peace, sustainability, justice, equality, or more specific causes like health care, freedom of speech, or local environmental or social concerns that need attention in your particular area right now. Organizations will then come up with a mission statement/manifesto that describes who they are and what they think and care about. When the whole event has taken place all the mission statements can be collected from around the world.

 

http://www.worldwidehippies.com/2011/05/03/100-thousand-poets-for-change/

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