Breaking Barriers: Arts for Peace!

"In China the dance troop engagements concluded," Thomas Warfield recalled, "so I decided to travel and see China on my own. I boarded a train and set out. Though I spoke Cantonese, I could not speak Mandarin so signs meant nothing. After a long ride the train stopped though nothing was in sight but a small girl digging in the sand. As I stepped down, she literally shook, shivered and backed away. Suddenly she stopped making circles in the sand with her stick. Her eyes fixed frightened on me... she stood statue-like. No doubt I was the first black person she had ever seen and she did not know what to do. She had not realized there were people on this planet very different from herself."

Circles in Sand "Slowly - maybe over thirty minutes - I made my way to the stick, kneeled, and slowly began to make circles in the sand," Warfield continued. "Before long the little Chinese girl found another stick, settled on a nearby spot and drew sand circles once more. We were quiet, but somehow I felt we connected deeply as our hands moved the sticks in rhythm. She drew, then I drew - her line, then mine. Before I knew it, another train stopped and I determined that I must leave. So I put down my stick, looked at the little girl and waved as I boarded the train."

Eventually Warfield realized this encounter was the most meaningful connection he experienced in life to that point. "It surpassed language, race, age, gender, class -all the cultural issues that separate. Yet, I connected powerfully."

Who is Thomas Warfield? His mother's a minister and his father a conductor. He's the nephew of internationally renowned singers William Warfield and Leontyne Price. He made a name in dance...

Warfield's career spans 14 years with the Opera Theatre of Rochester, and performances with the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera afforded him the experience of working with many of the world's leading artists, including directors Franco Zefferelli and Spike Lee, composers John Adams and Marvin Hamlisch, scientist Carl Sagan, singers Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills.

As a professional dancer, singer, pianist, actor, composer, choreographer, music & theatre director, teacher, producer and poet, Mr. Warfield has traveled to dozens of cities throughout the U.S. as well as Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athens, Taiwan, Bangkok, Seoul, Stockholm, mainland China and Macau - where he was associate director and guest artist for a Chinese dance company, and decorated as an honorary citizen of Macau. For 2 years, Thomas was dance captain and performer with the Viva Musical Circus in Japan - a goodwill collaboration between American, Japanese and Russian (Moscow Circus) artists.

PeaceArt helps define peace "Art's about creativity captured through love and understanding," says Warfield. "The arts connect to people as I connected to that young Chinese girl - Arts soar above barriers that keep us apart - language, race, age, gender and class." Warfield founded and now directs PeaceArt International, a non profit organization. Artists of all genres participate to build peace and community through "individual and collective creativity in the arts."

Poetry Circles for Peace Thomas Warfield uses his talent to create a circle for peace. He decided to begin with a poetry project - He invited people to contribute two lines of poetry for A Global Poem In Praise of Peace. Soon his mailbox was flooded with mail from around the world, from all kinds of people. Mother Teresa told Warfield she could not write a poem, but she jotted down her thoughts. Warfield says her ideas are absolutely powerful. He had poems from President Jimmy Carter, soldiers in Nicaragua and Leonard Bernstein amongst others. He is currently compiling these poems to publish as a book.

Legacy circles As I listened to Warfield today, I asked, "What am I doing to create peace and understanding with people different from me?" What would I include in two lines of poetry? Here's a rough start...

Build brand new brain dendrites... oh move your feet to butterfly, brush color, write, act, make melody of...
Love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, hospitality...

What's your life legacy for generations coming? What two lines would you create? Create your two line poem and I'll add it here....

Thanks, Galba Bright of Tune Up your EQ for taking the challenge to write the two line poem, "As for me, from my heart, 'A vision without passion is merely an idea. Developing people and transforming organisations is my powerful purpose.'"

Galba, thanks... you make a great difference for people in Jamaica and beyond!

Al of 7P Productions shares a quote that moves his life forward...

"Only love creates something out of nothing." Al we're glad you shared this quote since it shows that love is the core of creativity.

Goals as a Blogger

Jim Walton tagged me to share goals I've set to gain success as a blogger. Since I was with family over Easter his challenge simmered on the backburner of my mind. Simmering helped enhance flavors in the pot. Here's the acrostic that resulted...

B uild Community - I hope to find about 50 new blogs with creative and challenging content. To build community I will link to these newbies to show that I value not only their content, but also the presentation. Ellen Weber, Liz Strauss, Mike Wagner, Chris Cree Anna Farmery and Mike Sansone did that for me so my goal is to do that for others, too. The image at the left depicts community as foundational to success in blogging.

L ink to folks, who take time to comment, in a biweekly post. These links show appreciation for others who add to ideas and research!

O pen to ideas and additional research. I want to learn new skills and approaches to increase my acumen as a writer, community builder, researcher and techie.

G row as a techie. I admit this is not my strength, but the good news is that by practice I can grow more dendrite brain cells as I stretch to learn "How to..." For instance, I want to improve by including Videos and Podcasts.

G ain in ranking. My Google ranking is currently "4." And that shows an increase from the beginning of 2007. Thanks to Mack Collier who started the Z-list meme and others who value what I share and provided links to my blog. To raise my rating also means that I must continue to provide good quality content. A great benchmark to work toward is a "6" by next January. Think I can do it?

E nergize readers and myself through thoughtful content and questions. To do that requires staying current with discoveries about the brain and new ideas presented in the arts. I want readers to leave with practical takeaways that make a difference at work.

R evitalize blogroll. I will begin a subscription to create a more meaningful Blogroll so I can recognize more community members. The current one limits my capability to organize by categories and really expand recognition of others. So I'll update. Quite frankly, Jim, you caught me standing still in this area.

Reflection helped me sort through priorites and examine gaps closely. Now I have clear targets to shoot for!

If it's just about me, Jim, this blog would not amount to too much. It is more about good content, and continually learning how to present it in a way that invites readers to share their wisdom, too. And, most of all, to value their wisdom! I'm humbled that you consider me successful. I write to inspire others to tap the rich resources of their brains! And to help them get more of their multiple intelligences up and running in new frameworks.

In addition to me, Jim tagged Old Dude, and Theo Johnston. I will tag SalondeMaria, Marc Rapp at Uniquely the Epitome, Keystrokes Lisa Gates at Scaffolding for Writers and Steli Efti at SuperCool School.

Building from Questions and Curiosity

Since I determined to visit new blogs and listen more, I'm already richer. And, a great way to connect more to other bloggers is to ask two-footed questions. Here's how it works...



Start with something in the blog that intrigues or rouses your curiosity. Ask that blogger a question that requires him to speak from personal experience in relation to the topic. Ellen Weber explains more about two-footed questions.

For instance, when I checked out Sweska's blog, I found that she lives in Singapore, is 20 something, and attends college. Sweska took time to scan family photos and arrange them for her family to "squeeze in" and share. She said family members pointed out photos and recalled events. I pictured this in my mind's eye as Sweska shared the details from Old Gold Pics.

I wondered what advice an older, 60-year-old Sweska might give to young, 20-something Swezka. So I asked. And Sweska replied that she reflected much. Here's two wonderful gems from her list of five:

1. Keep working and loving what you do...there's no such thing as retirement!
2. Continue learning new things and new skills...maybe a type of dancing!

Wow. I like the focus!

Chris Cree of Success Creeations is currently taking a break by traveling North by car with his wife,Gorgeous. Chris hopes for more one-on-one time with her during the extensive trip since he would be away from distrations for a log duration. When I asked Chris how this was working out, he responded, "I'm coping ok through the withdrawal." Love the next line, "At least the twitching has moderated somewhat!" Hope you're still laughing Chris!

And there's great wisdom to glean from Elizabeth Perry's journey in art at Woolgathering. Liz says to "give ourselves permission to sit still, look around and fool around." I want to draw. Since Liz began two years ago with no prior experience, I know I can. In the do-ing, it happens. I'm buying a sketch pad today to start. According to Liz, art shapes itself.

At Servant of Chaos, Sharon Sarmiento, commented that "community is the heartbeat of the blogosphere." And Gavin Heaton, at Servant of Chaos, really shows that. When I inquired if he had tips to build great community Gavin provided a link to Mike Sansone's Converstations, http://www.converstations.com/2007/01/building_reader.html. Just goes to show that bloggers go out of their way to help each other.

OK, my working memory is overflowing... That's the portion of your mind which processes new information and it only holds a limited amount before it spills over. Somehow, my cup is overflowing with great nuggets from the blogging community. Thanks, Swezka, Liz, Chris, Mike and Gavin!

One Positive Change

After reading Liz Strauss's ideas about making positive change that has meaning and sticks, I decided to take one positve step forward and track my progress. Because the art of blogging is not just in sharing wisdom, but building community and listening to others' ideas, I want to make a move forward in that direction. And I've developed an action plan I think will stick.

Back in June, I started Brain Based Biz to learn how to be a blogger as well as to share MITA with others. One never arrives, but keeps learning. And now, to move ahead, I look forward to gathering more wisdom from amazing folks I've discovered through the "meme," Z-list, which has continued to grow.

So, in taking Liz's idea to make a positive change that sticks, I plan to visit these new sites and others to see what I can learn. And, because this is not a New Year's Resolution, but a daily target, in the words of Ellen Weber, I'm adding many of these sites to my Blog Roll and plan to visit a few each morning to see what's up. And at the end of the day, I'll go back to see what responses I find.

To keep track of this and develop a sense of progress, I'll jot down, in a blank plan book, the sites I visit each morning. As end-of-the-day follow-up, I'll write down one or two words to describe results. I anticipate that I'll uncover lots of surprises and wisdom, too.

As Chris Cree said today, he needs to develop good relationships, and so do I. Keeping on target to visit sites, comment and follow-up is my method to launch. And in the do-ing, I sense I'll develop more art as a blogger. Thoughts?

Liz Strauss Celebrates Bloggers' Diverse Talents

A visit to Liz Strauss's blog takes your breath away at times. Surprises there make it hard to predict what Liz will introduce next. I delight in new discoveries with each visit.

One of the best parts -- Liz loves to celebrate so she creates spaces to honor bloggers' diverse gifts. These center stages include S.O.B.'s, Successful and Outstanding Blogs, B.A.D.'s, Blogger A Day and The Mike is On. Liz thinks these can help us all get smarter and I so agree.

Recently Liz named Brain Based Biz as a S.O.B. I am humbled and say thanks for this recognition.

You're a great innovator and community builder, Liz. What would the blogosphere be without you? I anticipate more adventures, both serious and fun as I stop by Successful and Outstanding Blogs to see what's up next.