Answering the Call of the Drums

Alice Lovelace

A GroupSpeak assembled from the actual words of those in attendance at the Animating Democracy National Exchange on Art & Civic Dialogue, October 9-12, 2003, in Flint, Michigan

Answering the call of the drums
We came
In single file, in duo
To feast on words and rhythms
With food in mouth and words in hand
We began our dance

Talk of past influences
Haymarket, Chicago, Labor History
Hull House to Alliance for Cultural Democracy
Led us to this time this place
Gathering to Animate Democracy
Facilitate dialogue

The papers say we can expect
Sunshine and a full moon on Friday
Welcome to Flint
A city bearing the brunt of change and art
Surviving

Through story, from story, to story
We were, we are, we will be
Fragments and weavers
The culture of questions

And it started with my ancestors and the men who tried to control them
And it started with flowers and bread set out for the poor
A rose painted under the sink

And it started with being sent to camps in Wyoming and California
Trying to make sense of the situation
Found objects, shells, home made dyes
To make flowers and jewelry
Beauty in the face of an unjust internment

Heads, hands and hearts together
Making art
Poetry and production
80 miles of lilacs
Conflict and freedom
The spirit of Chiapas
Urban agriculture all over Prince George's County
Restore the picture — a 2 1/2-mile vision of Detroit

Our job is to reconnect people to the cures of their ancestors
There are things we know yet we violate our own truths for expediency
Everything is time, death and land
With each story, we get an inch closer
We arrive at this point
There are many more collective things that we know that we don't act on

It is not about the idea of art making
But life making
An incredible gift to be among so many people
Moments of uncertainty — yet you still work through it in some way
Knowledge from reality, despair and hope
Capture the sense of experience and genius
A lotus bringing light and beauty

Love and care for the people of the world
Seek solutions to the growing disparity
Identify with the sufferers
Embrace and practice free will
Life itself is a process of unending choices
What are we talking about that will be different?

Expand the intellect
Increase the courage
Think anew
What we do has to arrive organically
Think genuine

There are some big decisions to be made
Capture and own the mind
You have to do it — surrender your wealth to strengthen your hope
Get real with each other

There is a feeling of home
If you are in a place where you feel not wanted,
Come home

Develop the youth
Pioneer primary voices
Engage the community
Let them drive the work
Look to see what is already going on

Make the critical shift
Attend to the knowledge cause that is your power
Share, infuse, observe, engage

There are different kinds of powers
Speak what you believe in
You can't just imagine your future — you have to live it
Be rigorous
Prioritize

Make it work
Break through
Collaborate
Mentor
Help increase the peace

Answer the call to action
Slowly but surely, influence the process in collation with youth
It�s about finding ways to connect energy — get people in the room

Speak the truth to power
What does it mean to have a democracy?
What are the actions that animate democracy?
We will not build tomorrow on a five-point action plan

Say what you believe your action should be
Speak with many voices
Run through a football field with a bowl filled with fish dodging tacklers

Address the lack of internal peace
Be a part of life in a different way
The answer begins with "I"
Let that bubble and work for a while
Then get to "We"

Shout out your appreciation
Get the important issues on the floor
Be bold
Be concerned about the moment we are in
Make it happen
Integrate it in your work
Go beyond it
Let collaboration drive it

How will you spend your time on earth in the most ethical way every day?

Grow the people to do the work
Both elements together — activist and artist

I've been worrying about the sustainability of it
Hanging on by faith
Walk your talk for the common good
It is important for us to win victories to be encouraged to move forward

As we move towards organizing, the greatest challenge
To clarify what we want to do
Focus on the right questions — not the right answers
Process the information

If you change then the world will change

Art is a full-length mirror
Agitate
Move it forward
Find ways to sing and dance in every setting, for everybody

Move beyond protest to resistance
Change someone's perspective about an individual or a group of individuals
Acknowledge the positive things people have created for themselves
Use art to make a circle complete
Go to those places that need healing

Your freedom is being held hostage to our material well-being
Fighting over boundaries that shouldn't even exist
Return the world to its ecological basis
Take less and give more

How do we animate democracy?
Schools are a crucial place to start
Turn the democracy of everyday circumstances into a democratic society
Let's put the neighbor back in the hood

Develop a code of ethics
Come back down to earth
Chose your path to know where to go in the future
Have faith in the power of art and artist
Listen to the young people

Engage in a conversation with those who believe in conquest and conflict
'Cause everyone of us can be better than we are

This is our moment
What are we leaving behind?

Find ways to open your institution, your life, to open the circle
Find the courage to know it's okay
Question authority

There are cells that reach across wounds to connect and heal
Model the process of growth and learning

If you change then the world will change

If you change then the world will change

Educate

Agitate and

Organize

Organize

Organize

Alice Lovelace is a "myth maker/word wizard." She is director of Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning and co-editor of "Art Changes" at  In Motion Magazine.

Original CAN/API publication: November 2003