Be the Cause

Category: Southern California

Minority Dreams write up on Art for Peace Event

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Local Event Promotes Art for Peace, Educates Communities

Mar.15, 2009 in Education, Lifestyle

altThe intensity of truth emanating from spoken word combined with artistic expressions and real stories illuminated a warehouse sitting in a corner of Inglewood into a sight of inspiration last week.

Held at Chuco’s Justice Center with a universal goal of raising awareness about the crisis in Gaza, speakers from various humanitarian organizations arrived at “Compassion and Expression: Art for Peace” on March 7 to educate and encourage positive action.

“We all have the power to make effective change. Peace begins with me,” said Laura Ava Tesimale, a speaker from the One Global Family Project, a pilot project under Manav Sadhna.

The group provides aid to struggling local organizations around the world that provide services to  needy and marginalized communities.

Tesimale traveled extensively to African and South Asian countries with her daughter, who witnessed and questioned the attacks on the World Trade Center at the age of 11. The trips have allowed both mom and daughter, now 18, to understand and appreciate different cultures.

alt“There’s so much negativity about Pakistan, I wanted her to see for her own self how great these people are,” the elder Tesimale said. “I wanted to not only touch the hearts of the children there but start it with my own daughter’s heart.”

Islamic Relief, an international relief organization, was also present hoping to raise awareness of crises around the world.

“My goal tonight was to share more information about the humanitarian crisis [in Gaza] and how great the need is, what kind of suffering the people are still going through and to not forget them even though the issue might no be in the news right now,” said Communications Manager Mostafa Mahboob.

He emphasized that people in the midst of deeply controversial issues are still humans in desperate need and the rest of society should help.alt

Speeches were followed by art activities, spoken word and music played by DJ nPrevail.

Activist Vivien Sansour recited poems of war and personal struggles as attendants made cards to send to Israel or Gaza. Several voiced their thoughts through video messages, that would be sent overseas, to show solidarity with those in war prone nations.

Tasneem Noor, 25, of Culver City created a small card with the words, Love with Faith.

“For me, faith is where my hope comes from,” she said. “If whoever receives [this card] smiles [and] if it strengthens their faith even a tiny bit, it’ll be worth it.”

Local artists Mark Gonzales, Omar Offendum and Skim stirred emotions with songs of humanity –  questioning war, consumerism and personal identity. Their words danced to the beats of hip hop and R&B.

altGonzales attends several community-building events but also aims to create understanding by approaching hostile communities.

“It would be hypocritical of me as a grandchild of immigrants to not support other people, [from] those in Gaza [to] the women in Watts, [LA],” he said before his anticipated performance.

This evening of self expression and education was hosted by Be the Cause, a not-for-profit service organization based on the dedicated work of volunteers.

“[We encourage] being the change you wish to see in the world,” said Organizer Kristeen Singh, 30. “We were able to create an event raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and let people know what organizations are doing and how we can help.”

The event’s art activities, from writing poems to painting, all had a common goal of creating a message that lived on long after that evening. A message the organizers hoped would lead to understanding and dialogue.

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altCredit: Urmi Rahman, a freelance journalist residing in California. She received her B.A. in political science with minors in English and journalism from Cal State Fullerton. Urmi, 25, is also the editor and co-founder of Minority Dreams Magazine.

Compassion and Expression – Art for Peace

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SOUTHLAND COMMUNITIES GATHERED FOR AN EVENING OF COMPASSION AND EXPRESSION

Event Aided Gaza Humanitarian Crisis By Using  Art For Peace

On March 7, the cavernous Chuco’s Justice Center in Inglewood was transformed into a haven for community artistic expression to raise awareness of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Be The Cause [bethecause.org], an entirely volunteer run not-for-profit, hosted “Compassion and Expression: Art for Peace” – a free event for the public to express compassion through art for those suffering in the war-torn region. Volunteers donated all art materials and canvasses, including T-shirts and tote bags, video equipment and snacks for participants, as well as their time to decorate the vast warehouse.

With 10-ft paper mache doves hanging from the ceiling and previously barren walls covered with inspirational quotes, poetry not politics was the chosen discourse of the evening as attendees were encouraged to spray paint T-shirts, paint, color, create cards, write letters, make buttons and videotape messages of hope and harmony.  Throughout the evening, local LA artists ranging from rappers to poets, kept participants inspired by their own form of socially conscious artistic expression.

Donated art and video messages will be personally hand-delivered by KinderUSA, a not-for-profit relief organization, to the children in Gaza with the hope of exhibiting and sharing local heartfelt compassion for them.

Kristeen Singh , one of the many organizers of the event, emphasized that fundraising was not the main objective, rather, “We wanted to create an event to raise community consciousness of the humanitarian crisis by inviting speakers to educate, engaging attendees with art activities and inspiring greater understanding through musical performances.”

The event commenced with a panel of representatives from relief organizations–International Committee of the Red Cross, Islamic Relief, Catholic Relief Services, KinderUSA and One Global Family Project–who educated attendees of the nuances of the Gaza humanitarian crisis and provided context to relief efforts.

James DeHarpporte, western regional director of Catholic Relief Services, underscored the desperate need for sustainable solutions “to a region that is becoming increasingly dependent on outside aid.”

Miho Yoshimura, international services specialist for the American Red Cross, added, “It is vitally important to educate the community locally about the ‘law of war’ which when adhered to can prevent the loss of civilian lives. The many deaths that have occurred makes this a humanitarian crisis, requiring response by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which act as guardians of humanitarian law.”

Featured artists at the event included Mark Gonzales [myspace.com/HWProject], Def Jam poet and founder of the Human Writes Project that uses art as a catalyst for social transformation and Syrian-American hip hop artist Omar Offendum (Chakaki) [myspace.com/offendum], who performed together to address social injustice and the abuse of power; Korean-American singer/songwriter/poet SKIM [myspace.com/skimmusic], who sang about the many displaced peoples the world over; Indian-American singer/songwriter Manisha Shahane [myspace.com/manishamusic] who performed with Israeli percussionist Nissim Malul [NissimMalul.com] to build bridges within various cultural traditions; Vivien Sansour [imaginaction.org], poet/activist and co-founder of The Olive Tree Circus project that brings art to Palestinian farmers tending their olive groves presented stories of victims of the violence through her poetry; and world music influenced trio Elephants with Guns [myspace.com/elephantswithguns] performed soul-searching pieces, while DJ nPrevail [nPrevail.blogspot.com] kept the beat going strong throughout the evening.

In addition to creating art, attendees had the opportunity to donate to the various relief organizations present or purchase T-shirts bearing the image of a dove with the words “Salam” and “Shalom” (“Peace” in Arabic and Hebrew) designed by Maria Yefimova from the Red Cross Club at UCLA, proceeds of which will be evenly distributed to the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Magen David Adom of Israel.

The organization’s committee members, including Be The Cause founder Sukh Chugh, Tanzila Ahmed, Adnan Hussain, Kristeen Singh, Carolina Quezada and Laura Ava-Tesimale, led the volunteer efforts to make the event an inspirational expression of compassion for Gaza.

For additional information about Be The Cause or to find out how you can participate in the next volunteer run event, please visit: www.bethecause.org

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