How Shall We Become?

16 Jul How Shall We Become?

Performing the World 2014 (PTW’14) is in full gear. The theme for this 8th PTW—“How Shall We Become?”—resonated! Nearly 200 proposals came to us from all parts of the world, from all kinds of people, from all kinds of communities. Most exciting was the way that nearly all the proposals focused on the how of becoming, whether the subject be the country of Botswana, the lives of people diagnosed with mental illness in Taiwan, the treatment of the environment in Peru, the relationship between the poor and the well off in the US, or the manner in which men are socialized in Serbia.

Acceptances are in. Visa letters have been sent to those who need them. Scholarships covering registration have been given out. Housing applications are being processed. Registrations keep pouring in online. But not from everywhere. Unfortunately.

Many, many presenters and would-be participants, especially those from countries in Africa, Latin America and the Asian sub-continent, are struggling to raise the funds necessary to pay for their airline tickets to New York. The PTW International Organizing Committee stepped in to help. They’ve set up a crowdfunding campaign.

As organizer of PTW since its beginning in 2001 and chair of this year’s PTW, I am thrilled to see this generous performance in action. The campaign launched yesterday and  I immediately donated. I hope you are likewise moved and inspired by the Committee’s message.

Join the campaign to connect creative activists!?

A growing number of political and social activists, community and youth organizers, educators and therapists are turning to performance as a way of engaging social problems, activating communities, and experimenting with new social and political possibilities. The performance turn is allowing social change activists in all cultures to organize not around a set of ideas, an ideology, but to create, through performance, something new with what exists.

In the midst of poverty, violence, illiteracy, and environmental disasters thousands of creative activists are working in all parts of the globe – in NGOs, universities and community centers in Japan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, South Africa and Australia – to bring performance and development to the people in their communities.

Since 2001, the international Performing The World conference has provided a unique opportunity for these practitioners, scholars and activists to share and showcase their work in order to create something new together. This year, 450 creative activists from all over the world will come together in New York for the 8th Performing The World conference to celebrate and develop the power of performance as a means of individual, community and world transformation.

However, many of these creative activists – from crime-ridden Juarez, Mexico to the countryside of Uganda – are struggling to raise the funds necessary to pay for their airplane tickets to New York. That is why we – a diverse group of 41 activists from 17 different countries – have decided to launch this fundraising campaign.

We want PTW to be diverse, radically inclusive and open to all – and to do that we need your help!

Any donation to this campaign will go towards paying airplane tickets for the people who are struggling to get to Performing The World. Raising $10,000 through this campaign will allow 8 creative activists to travel from Africa, Asia, South America, and other areas to this important conference. Raising $15,000 will allow 12 people to come. Raising $20,000 will allow 16 people to come. And a lot of people are hoping that we will be able to support them.

How you can help:

1. Give your support at www.igg.me/at/ptw14 where you can also learn more about the campaign and the impact of your donation.

 

2. Donate Frequent Flyer Miles! Use your miles to purchase a ticket for one or more creative activists. Contact mauricio (at) asteponline.org.

 

3. Spread the word via email, facebook, twitter, etc.: Forward this email to your friends, family, and colleagues. Share the campaign link, Like ourfacebook page. Follow and retweet @ptwconf. Spread the word using the hashtags #ptw14 and #indiegogo.

 

4. Join us for PTW14: Go to www.performingtheworld.org to learn more and register for the conference.

 

Thank you. Your support makes a real difference.

Sincerely,

Esben Wilstrup, creative activist and campaign manager, on behalf of the International Organizing Committee of Performing The World 2014

 

Join the movement. Change the world. Give your support.