Once again, my friend Jill came through with another good find. She sent this along a while back and as much as I loved the video I just hadn’t gotten around to posting it. Yesterday though, I was listening to an NPR podcast when a story about this very project popped up and I couldn’t help but be inspired once again.
Producer Mark Johnson heard a musician named Rodger Rigley playing ‘Stand by me’ on the streets of Santa Monica CA one afternoon. He was so inspired by the mans voice and the the song that he asked if he could come back with a camera and some recording equipment to capture him playing. Johnson took this first recording and morphed it into a collection of street musicians from all over the world playing the same song together. All connected though a single song. It’s a beautiful thing.
2009 promises to be a historical and exciting year filled with lots of hope, change and community service. To encourage ever greater levels of service throughout the country, MySpace and Katalyst Media, a production company co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, teamed up with celebrities to record their personal pledges of service. The moving pledges illustrate how they will help make the nationwide change, inspired by President-elect Barack Obama, a reality. Directed by Demi Moore, the videos will be presented to President-elect Barack Obama during the inauguration festivities.
In addition to all the celebrity pledges there are many sent in by everyday people like you and me. The site gives you directions to post your pledge and links resources to help fulfill that pledge.
The beautiful thing about this is the simplicity of each little sentence… Each pledge doesn’t have to be some grand gesture, just a simple single thing that, when added up with all the other simple little things, could change the world. One pledge at a time.
My good friend Jill just brought this amazing Book and Website to my attention. The premise is simple. Get the book, follow the suggestions (or heck make your own!) and Every Monday do something good:
Their vision for Every Monday Matters is to create a collective action of ordinary people – a national movement – making a difference that benefits our society. By the virtue of volume, the difference will be significant for our children, our communities, and our country. As a country, we will set an example for our children to follow; we will leave a legacy for the next generation; and, we will generate a social awareness and social consciousness of giving back. People matter.
Starbucks is helping to back to the community by tempting you to trade volunteer hours for caffine. Given how addicted we are to the round green logo this might actually work! More info right here.
Mr. Obama told them: “I can’t tell you how many people have come up to Michelle and myself and said, ‘You know, I was kind of skeptical, but then my daughter, she wouldn’t budge, she just told me I needed to vote for Obama.’ Or, ‘Suddenly I saw my son, he was out volunteering and knocking on doors and traveling and getting involved like never before.’ And so new generations inspired previous generations, and that’s how change happens in America.”
He said this applied not just to campaigns but to service, like teaching or joining the Peace Corps.
“And as this is broadcast all around the world,” he added, “we know that young people everywhere are in the process of imagining something different than what has come before. Where there is war, they imagine peace. Where there is hunger, they imagine people being able to feed themselves. Where there is disease, they imagine a public health system that works for everybody. Where there is bigotry, they imagine togetherness. The future will be in your hands if you are able to sustain the kind of energy and focus that you showed on this campaign. I promise you that America will get stronger and more united, more prosperous, more secure — you are going to make it happen, and Michelle and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
K’Naan is a Somali-Canadian Rapper and Poet. He left Somalia at the age of 14 to come to the US and then on to Canada. During his youth he witnessed terrible things: murder, rape, continuous violence. His story, at least to someone like me- US resident, middle class, white – is like something out of a movie. Can I really relate to what he’s been through? At first glance probably not. But if you dig a little deeper his story is also universal: Out of hardship, out of darkness, there can be beauty. There can be love, and there can be light. It’s just your choice to find it right?
African rapper K’Naan once blew up half his school with a hand grenade. Now he’s using music to push for peace. Jane Cornwell met him
Somali rapper K’Naan fired his first gun at the age of eight. At 11, he found a hand grenade, detonated it by mistake and blew up half his school. At 12, he was running through the streets of Mogadishu after seeing his three best friends shot dead.
As the civil war escalated – it rages in Somalia to this day – he saw riots, rapes, mob rule. He watched his neighbourhood turn from a coastal idyll to “The River of Blood”, named by the UN as “the worst place on earth”. His mother walked through gunfire to the US Embassy to get her family a visa. K’Naan Warsame was 14 when they left in January, 1991. Theirs was the last ever commercial flight out.
I thought for quite a while about whether to include this video and his story on this blog. After all, this is a blog about positive uplifting things. But I also know that often, the people looking for something uplifting are also the ones peeking out from sort of darkness in their lives. I guess the point is: Sometimes the darkness makes the light even more potent, even brighter than it would be alone…
“I want to show that change doesn’t have to be loud and famous, that struggle can become power,” K’Naan says. “And whether it’s the hip-hop crowd or high school kids, everyone seems to get it.”
In the years since his leaving Somalia K’Naan has spoken before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1999 he performed a spoken word piece criticizing the UN for their failed aid missions to Somalia.
more info about K’Naan can be found here and here and here.
Here’s another set of uplifting reminders to brighten up your day. I just love these posters by UK based artist Sarah Gardner. They are 16 x 20, bright and cheerful and you can find them right here on Etsy.
Enough doom and gloom, already! WorryFest 2008 has just about run its course, and although times are challenging there is plenty of room for optimism in the greatest country on earth. So, take a bold stand and display this beautiful Annie James antiqued canvas reproduction in your home, in your office – perhaps even worn on your person, sandwich board style (might want to send one to Washington while you’re at it). “For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else” – Winston Churchill. 11″ x 14″
Shop for this little reminder right here at ‘The Afternoon’..
Erin from ‘Design For Mankind” and Booooooom.com have gotten together for a project called ‘Free Encouragement’. Hundreds of people submitted words of free encouragement… some of which you see above. Now comes the fun part! read on for directions..
Part Two is where all of you, my dear artistic readers, come in. You know all of these messages of encouragement floating about [you should--- there are over 400!]? Pick one [yes, you!]. It doesn’t have to be your own message. Pick anyone’s message. And draw it. Paint it. Collage it. Art it. Do it. Whatever you do, however you do, just do. And you have thirty days to “do.” And then?
Then you send it to me at erin[AT]designformankind[DOT]com with the subject line “Free Encouragement.” Your entry [4x6 dimensions, please!] will be sifted through and loved and canoodled and may possibly be chosen to be part of a VERY special and inspiring postcard pack for you to send MORE encouragement into the world. See how it works? It’s one big food chain of niceness!
Be very excited. And get to work. Don’t worry if you choose the same message as others— there are plenty to go around, and duplicates are just fine! The more, the merrier. Comment below to declare your participation, tell your friends, and go forth— be inspired!
Remember: deadline is FEBRUARY 1ST. Don’t be late.
I came across this via VeryShortList and had to share. The beginning is so melancholy, so perfectly mysterious, and it quickly transform into.. well.. something so worth waiting for .. so worth waiting for that I’m not giving any endings away..
I received this way back in 2000. It is a small journal, with a slightly metallic cover, and an amazingly simple sentiment. I’ve long since filled the pages but keep it close at hand…still.. all these years later. The thought that a new future is close at hand, and is able to be CREATED is just too enticing to let go of..
Here’s another set of uplifting reminders to brighten up your day. I just love these posters by UK based artist Sarah Gardner. They are 16 x 20, bright and cheerful and you can find them 
