Drop Beats Not Bombs

Paula Andrea Galeano Bermúdez is a 28 year-old conscientious objector from Colombia. She is an activist with the Red Juvenil (Medellin Youth Network), an organization that was started in 1990 by young people who had lost loved ones to the armed conflict. The heart of the Network's mission is to encourage young people's belief in the value of all human life, to work together to overcome fear, and to become empowered to live and espouse these values. The group trains youth in nonviolence and cooperative play, supports young men who refuse to serve with the police, military or illegal armed groups, and promotes respect for human rights and young people's ideas in Colombian society.

Peace Soldier provides a microphone for young American combat veterans to share their perspectives on the realities of war and the meaning of peace. The objective of the project is help ensure these young voices are heard loudly and considered frankly as we form our individual opinions and collective actions today and in the years to come. Peace Soldier brings together a wide range of creative works developed from the words and images of combat veterans, and distributes them using online media and public spaces. A series of peace soldier photography/essay portraits were unveiled publicly in September at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco and Art Storm Gallery in Houston.

Me (at left) facilitating the transformation of the war machine at Goshen College in Goshen, IN. At Goshen we had over 100 people gathered for both Paula's keynote lecture and Invicible's show, and we facilitated two Not Your Soldier workshops & one Art and Action workshop, all well attended. Go Goshen!

It’s the eleventh day of the tour and we’ve introduced a new word to both the Spanish and English languages – it is a cross between “tranquila” which means “relaxed” and is a pop cultural reference to Transylvania: the place in Romania where vampires originated and the planet where the dancing extra-terrestrial transvestites in Rocky Horror Picture Show come from.  

We kicked off the Carbondale stop last Sunday with an Art and Action training attended by ~20 students and community members.

The Art and Action workshops are facilitated by Invincible and Isaac Martin. Along with a mix of pop ed, it includes Invincible's docu-music video "Locust." Directed by Joe Namy, Locust features Invincible and fellow Detroit-based hip hop artist Finale rhyming about the impacts of unsustainable development on the Motor City. The video includes interviews with community activists discussing displacement and prederatory planning vs. sustainable development in Detroit. Check it out below or at http://emergencemusic.net.