Transformative Visions: Word
March 10, 2007 at Linen Life Park Avenue
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Transformative Visions is an annual arts event lifting up an affirmation of peace, justice,
and possibility for our world. Scheduled to coincide with the observance of A Season for Nonviolence and the anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, it is intended
to both challenge and inspire, offering a spiritually-rooted response
to the troubling and urgent issues of the present day. On this page you'll find a sampling of the poetry and conscious hip hop served up at our inaugural event.
More will be added - including video and additional audio samples. We hope you will check back regularly. Performer photos link to their websites where available. All creative content is copyrighted to the individual word artist.
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| Mahsea Evans |
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| Shawna Namaste |
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I Come In Peace (excerpts)
© Piet Bereal
I come in peace because in pieces I come
Reflected in different hair grades and skin shades
Like a bed of flowers, we just be us
Being honest and still coming in peace
Respecting pieces of one another…
whether or not we agree.
True peace means to breath, to think,
to speak beyond circumstances […]
I come in peace since
I am the very peace that I seek…
living in the here and now […]
I’m no saint, just a dedicated warrior of Peace…
bent on keeping
History’s worst future, from repeating…
although, in a vicious cycle I find myself
in a struggle of my own making,
the old groove just isn’t shakin.
During a time of escalation of war-aholics
…addicted to fear and control, so tyrannical
it has been, which is why I come in Peace […]
I Bless the necessity of having no choice,
but to lay out my spiritual arsenal,
breathing ripples through polluted rivers and
smoke-filled valleys, my intention is to magnetize
like poles, to energize a real connection
undaunted by the illusions of a hard-headed few.
I must believe my very presence creates oxygen
and my highest good filters mud into water so pure.
On the backs of Wind Horses,
my prayers out-gallop gunfire,
headed off at the pass…
explode bullets until like snow they fall,
making a paper trail, that
echoes an ancient chant, a dream,
a vision that deciphers Morse code,
that instigates
peace on yours and yours and my behalf. […]
While living this history, in cleansing
words let’s begin speaking…
to accelerate a healing, by lovin’ on one another…
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| Piet Bereal |
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~*~
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| Kusum Crimmel |
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| Opal Palmer Adisa |
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| Speaking the Truth (excerpt)
(c) Opal Palmer Adisa
i write to give sound
to the small voices
silenced
i write to tell of the sage flavored songs
of the birds at my window singing me awake
of the verboten secrets of the ocean waves
and her life-long affair with mr. wind
i write to keep from suffocating
to lament about children being killed
in schools
on the streets without ever knowing love
writing is my weapon
i aim it well
~ From Leaf-of-Life (2000)
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| Zakiya Harris |
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| Ambessa Negus |
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Click on photos to visit the website for FiyaWata and hear the smooth groove conscious hip hop of Ambessa Negus and Zakiya Harris.
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Together, I trust, we as a species can & must achieve peace. For this, I
Release my humble plea, prayer & word into the ether
And Eternal Womb where harmonious relationships are groomed,
Now & forever for the highest good of all.
Spirit, we call upon you that you would purify our intentions.
Fortunate are them who rise in consciousness, in unity of
One love, one life, one heart beating the global-village drum
Revering mothers, fathers, daughters & sons of skin, scales, feathers & fur
Manifested into material by Divinity from the ethereal source of
All creation. Equality, equanimity & elation is our inheritance.
Together we can rise above current circumstance to enhance the
Infinite Being of all things. Freedom rings in our hearts
Vibrating like the strings of a violin which are part of a cosmic symphony,
E(r)asing the violence in all of humanity as our collective goal. So
Vital to the achievement of, is above all else, unconditional love.
I care less about your affiliations or orientation & more about your best in
Service to the rest of the Whole. We are waves of one ocean set
In motion by Original Thought, First Cause & the Laws of Love. Doves
Of Peace released like caterpillars from cocoons transformed
Now into butterflies that flutter by, by Divine design & intention that we
actualize our power of Transformative Vision
by dwayne o. parish © 1/15/07
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All work copyright to the individual word artist. Photos link to performer websites where available.Please click to visit Transformative Visions 07 ART and MUSIC.
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Photos of Piet Bereal, Opal Adisa, Moral Integrity & audience courtesy of Fran Roccaforte.
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