Massive Global Movement Gives Voice to Local Issues
through Music, Art, Photography, Poetry, Mime and More
Over 550 Events Planned in 100 Countries
September 28, 2013 marks the third annual global event for 100 Thousand Poets for Change, a grassroots organization that brings communities together to call for environmental, social, and political change within the framework of peace and sustainability. An event that began primarily with poet organizers, 100 Thousand Poets for Change has grown into an interdisciplinary coalition with year round events which includes musicians, dancers, mimes, painters and photographers from around the world. (More international information after the photographs.)
Buffalo, NY – In the Western New York event, Orin Langelle has twenty-eight photographs as part of a series of projections. The twenty-eight photos are displayed below.
The installation will be inside the Perot Malt House, as part of 100,000 Poets and Artists for Change happening Saturday September 28th at Silo City (Ohio St at Childs St. in Buffalo, NY).
The first six photographs were taken in Asheville, NC at major protests against the genetically engineered tree industry this spring, and the rest – over time in many places:
Continued from above:
Local issues are still key to this massive global event as communities around the world raise their voices on issues such as homelessness, global warming, education, racism and censorship, through concerts, readings, lectures, workshops, performances and other actions.
But these locally focused events have taken on a more continuous and expansive form through the new disciplines represented this year. More and more organizers and participants of the one day, annual event are making plans to continue their actions after September 28. Many have formed groups in their cities that will continue to work year-round towards the goals their community seeks.
“Peace and sustainability are major concerns worldwide, and the guiding principles for this global event,” said Michael Rothenberg, Co-Founder of 100 Thousand Poets for Change. “We are in a world where it isn’t just one issue that needs to be addressed. A common ground is built through this global compilation of local stories, which is how we create a true narrative for discourse to inform the future.”
More than 200 hundred bands will be performing around the world, from Los Angeles, New Orleans and Detroit to Serbia, Nigeria and Italy. The musicians involved in this movement are once again using their songs and performances to try to communicate their concerns to the world. As Ross Altman, singer-songwriter, activist and educator, reminds us: “from Plato, who banned [musicians] from the Republic, to Putin, who had Russian punk band members of Pussy Riot arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for a song prayer, musicians throughout history have been regarded as a danger and threat to change the social order.”
In addition to the hundreds of musicians expressing themselves through song, numerous Mimes for Change events in Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Kosovo, Panama and Uruguay will take place in addition to the day long poetry festivals in Los Angeles, Guatemala City, Mumbaim India, La Plata, Argentina and Genoa, Italy; thousands of musicians, poets and artists are participating around the world, totaling nearly 550 events globally, including:
• 15 different events in the San Francisco Bay Area, the birthplace of 100 Thousand Poets for Change, including poetry readings by Beat Legend Gary Snyder, former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass and other major poets at the famed Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival
• In Cairo, Egypt, poets, musicians and mime artists, in response to violence in the world and the major changes taking place in the Arab World, will perform in public spaces and theaters and explore new ways to communicate their concerns, and their roles as artists, in influencing the future of their country
• In Mumbai, India, there will be a four-day event at the Kitab Khana bookstore in South Mumbai, curated by Menka Shivdasani. The inaugural event, in partnership with Laadli, an organisation campaigning for the girl child, will have a guest performance by a well-known Indian pop star Suneeta Rao. Other events include poetry readings focusing on women’s lives, a Poems for Peace session by city poets, and a programme by educationist Rati Wadia, who is working with school children on the themes of peace and sustainability. This event will also include a Wonders of Nature exhibition and musical performances by Neela Bhagwat Amarendra Dhaneshwar and Mukta Raste.
• In Washington, DC, there will be an immigrant justice event, Immigrants Contribute: America, We Sing Back! Featuring Award-Winning Poet Eduardo C. Corral and local immigrant poets. Together they will discuss the challenges and celebrate the stories of the immigrant experience in DC. A resource fair will be held during the event so attendees can learn more about services available to immigrants.
• This will be the third year of 100TPC poetry readings for peace in the strife-torn cities of Kabul and Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
• New York City: The Unbearables (“a drinking group with a writing problem”) and The Feminist Poets in Low-Cut Blouses (“we live with the contradictions of feminism”) sound off at the Lower-East-Side literary landmark A Gathering of the Tribes with rants, humor, avant-garde poetry, and more than a little outrageousness the groups will perform work on this year’s theme of surveillance: “The Unbearables and The Feminist Poets in Low-Cut Blouses Are Watching You! (Being Watched!)”.
•In Serbia, will hold a concert of 5 bands in Belgrade, URMUS’s (Association of Rock musicians Serbia) and Hollywood, California another 5 band concert will be held for 100 Thousand Musicians for Change
• In Mexico there are over 25 events, 100 Mil Poetas Por El Cambio, celebrating peace and drawing issues towards concern about violence in the streets. Events involve slam poetry readings, workshops, movie screenings, street performances and flash mobs.
• A gathering of over 500 poets and writers are expected at a national gathering of the World Bangla Literature Council in Siranji, Bangladesh.
