Eli's Guide to the Galaxy: Social Awareness Project

Social Awareness Project

Eli Stiewing 810

Table of Contents

1. Overview

2. Gretchen Wallace and Conscious Social Change

3. “Benches”

4. Writing “Benches”

5. Hairspray and Racism

4. Bibliography

Overview

I found doing the Social Awareness Project a challenging, inspiring and moving experience. I was challenged to think more deeply about the world I live in and to look more closely at issues that I may have only glanced at in passing before, such as the issues of homelessness and the plight of veterans that I explored in the writing of “Benches.” I was inspired by the power of theatre film and music to make a statement about social issues and have an impact on the way people think about these issues, such as racism, in “Hairspray.”

I was inspired and moved by Gretchen Wallace’s approach to social change and the amazing story of Seraphina Hacimana, whose simple ideas touch the lives of over 9,000 people every day. I hope you find as much to think about in this project as I did in creating it.

Gretchen Wallace and Conscious Social Change

My aunt, Gretchen Wallace, is one of the founders of the “Conscious Social Change” movement, and I interviewed her for the Social Awareness Project because I feel she is changing the world every day. She believes that to create positive change, you must invest in your own self-awareness. It is a process, “led by responsible and ethical change agents, who engage in their own practice toward deeper self knowledge and personal transformation, while striving to advance positive change for the common good.” Gretchen implements this approach to change as the founder and president of Global Grassroots, an international non-profit with “a mission to catalyze women and girls as leaders of conscious social change in their communities.” My aunt Gretchen is changing the way that people go about creating change in the world, and that starts with ourselves.

Gretchen has developed the Five Principles of Conscious Social Change. Principle One, “Cultivate Presence,” means, “being fully present in every moment.” This means we take the time to truly listen to ourselves, which will helps us to truly listen to others. Principle Two, “Become Whole:” to take the time to understand ourselves, and why we do what we do, so that we can understand others, and why they do what they do. Gretchen explains that, “The unexamined self has been at the root of many activist movements that have turned violent as well as leadership attained through oppression.” Principle Three, “Ensure Balance,” is the commitment to self-care as we go out into the world and care for others. Principle Four, “Stay Attuned,” is to use presence to stay responsive to the needs in a situation as opposed to being driven by our what we think should happen. And Principle Five, “Leading From Within,” means leading collaboratively with presence, creativity and clarity.

Global Grassroots, an example of leadership and an organization based on these five principles, operates in Rwanda and Uganda, seeking the most vulnerable women and girls they can find who have ideas for social change. These are girls and women who want to solve priority social issues in their communities affecting other women and girls, such as domestic violence, illiteracy, sexual exploitation, water access, etc. Many of these women and girls are widows from genocide, subsistence farmers, teen mothers, girls who lead their orphan-headed households and women with only an elementary school education. The organization runs a program called The Academy for Conscious Change, where women and girls are trained to start their own organizations, based on their own ideas.

In this program, the students do the work of healing from trauma using mind-body approaches. They are taught mindfulness based leadership skills, “so that they can develop the self awareness and confidence to become compassionate leaders, and all the skills needed to start their own non-profit organization from scratch.” The entire program takes fourteen to twenty-four months. The women begin with a forty-hour training program. Global Grassroots teachers then coach the women as they develop their social venture plans. Gretchen shares, “When it meets our criteria, we fund 100% of their start up costs with a grant, and then provide ongoing support as needed over the first 12 months of operations. We know have over 500 change agents who have graduated from our programs who are serving 40,000 women and girls each year.”

I asked Gretchen what was the greatest challenge she faced in her work. She described the pressure to secure funding for her projects and trainings. She shared that because the work she does is complex and takes time to implement, donors have less interest in her programs than in something basic and concrete like mosquito nets to prevent malaria. But when I asked Gretchen what kept her going in the face of these challenges, she shared three stories, each demonstrating the power and impact of the work she is doing. I was most inspired by the story of Seraphine Hacimana, a forty-year-old mother of 8 children with a 1^st grade education.

Seraphine, after doing the Global Grassroots training, started a team of 19 women who called themselves “The Hardworkers.” With an initial $2600 grant and ongoing support, Hard Workers designed their own non-profit clean water solution. Clean water is hard to come by in Galanga, a remote region of Rwanda. Women must walk many miles to get water, often at a dirty creek. Women who are disabled from the war, elderly, blind, pregnant or HIV positive are too weak to walk for miles. Some send their girls to fetch water, which prevents them from going to school. Some can afford to pay a man to get water for them on a bicycle, others who can’t afford to pay, exchange sex for water delivery. With their grant money, a water tank was installed next to a church within walking distance of this remote community. The tank collects and purifies run off water from the roof of the church during the rainy season. During the dry season, they pay for water to be delivered by truck from the city of Kigali. Gretchen writes, “Hard Workers supplies 100 households, totaling 800-1000 people, with fresh clean water daily. The revenue generated from those who can afford to pay, ensures the most vulnerable, including the blind, pregnant, disabled and elderly always have water for free. The organization is focused not only on ending sexual exploitation for water, but ensuring the elimination of water borne disease and protecting girls’ ability to attend school.”

Seraphine and The Hardworkers’ story is a powerful example of how Gretchen’s work is changing the world. The team went on to use profits to pay orphan’s school fees and to provide annual health insurance for vulnerable women and their families. They have paid their loan forward by establishing a small revolving loan fund for vulnerable women. They have now established three more water tank sites, and provide clean water for over 9,000 people. Seraphine is a respected leader recognized by the Rwandan government. Based on Gretchen’s many experiences with social change in the field, she has created a curriculum that is now accredited for undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Virginia. I have so much respect for Gretchen and the work she does. She created a way for these women to listen to their needs and the needs of their community, and create a workable response. If we all learn to listen to and understand ourselves as we listen to and understand others, the world will be a better place.

Benches

F, A, Dm, Bb,

Out of high school nothing to do, filled out a form for something new

Tryin in boot camp to get a clue, now I’m one of the proud and few

Shipped out to Afghanistan 2010, out in the desert with a 1,000 men

Sittin in the desert now as then, see it happenin again and again

Chorus:

Benches, it’s like lyin in the trenches

I am so alone

And there is no home…

Danger came from everywhere, me and my buds took our share

So many corpses with empty stares turning into my endless nightmares

My best friend died in front of me, his eyes looking into eternity

My leg disappeared in a sudden blast, my whole life shattering just like glass

Chorus:

Benches, it’s like lyin in the trenches

I am so alone

And there is no home…

Back in the US, try to learn to walk, What’s the point, I can’t even talk.

All I see are ghosts from a crazy war, can’t work, can’t sleep, can’t think no more

Lost my home all my family and my friends, can only see through this crazy lens

I sit on this bench and wait to die, a broken prisoner of Semper Fi

Chorus:

Benches, it’s like lyin in the trenches

I am so alone

And there is no home… to go back to

Writing “Benches”

I started by wanting to write a song about homelessness, and came up with the hook, “benches and trenches.” When I went a little deeper into the topic of homelessness, I discovered that 33% of the homeless male population is veterans, and 26% of the overall homeless population is veterans. There are now more homeless veterans from the Vietnam War than soldiers who were killed in that war.

I decided to use the Afghanistan war, or “Operation Enduring Freedom” because it was a recent war that has happened in my lifetime, and its veterans are young. As I read about this war, I saw that it led to many senseless deaths and injuries. I imagined that my character, the one who sings this song, could be an unfocused, aimless teenager, who joins the Marines, because he didn’t know what else to do with his life. In the horror of the guerilla warfare in Afghanistan, he becomes a traumatized and wounded soldier, comes back from this war, and is no longer able to walk or make sense of his life, or connect with people. And so, he becomes homeless, without the mental or financial resources to take care of himself.

Hairspray and Racism

Last spring I was in Roland Park Middle School’s production of Hairspray, written by John Waters, and first produced in 1988 as a film. It was later staged as a musical on Broadway in 2002, and then made into a film again in 2008, the form in which I first saw it. The film is set in 1962 in Baltimore, MD, and addresses the issue of race, as a group of white and black Baltimore teens attempt to racially integrate a live televised teen dance show.

I played the lead male character, Link, who is one of the “Nicest Kids in Town.” Link is afraid to take a stand to integrate The Corny Collins show because he is afraid it will jeopardize his career as a performer. Corny sings, “Nice white kids who like to lead the way, and once a month we have our negro day!” Even though Corny would like to integrate the show, his wealthy backers want to keep it segregated, and he must toe the line or loose his show. It is Tracy Turnblad, an unassuming, enthusiastic and open-minded girl, who ends up leading the charge.

Tracy meets some of the black kids in detention, and discovers a whole new world of movement and rhythms. Link, and several others, is finally convinced to go up to “North Avenue” to visit Motormouth Maybelle’s record shop, where they dance to the new sound of rhythm and blues. Together, Maybelle and Tracy lead the charge to change perceptions around race on television. Maybelle sings about equality, “There’s a dream in the future. There’s a struggle we have yet to win. Use that pride in our hearts to lift us to tomorrow, cuz just to sit still would be a sin.” In the end, all the kids, both black and white, boogie together on the Corny Collins Show.

It was amazing to participate in this production in a school that is primarily African American. I could see in the cast itself some of the same characteristics that show up in the play- fantastic dancers, amazing singers, and great actors. I also saw that my school is still somewhat segregated; the white kids tend to hang out with other white kids, and the black kids tend to hang out with other black kids most of the time. Most of the white kids in Baltimore City from families with money go to private schools that are predominately white, and there are still places in Baltimore that no white kids would go. Only since 2011 have high school graduation rates for African American boys been greater than the drop out rates.

“Hairspray” is still relevant to our times, even though it seems as if there is more integration on the surface in America than there was in 1962. But just last week, Ferguson, Missouri exploded in a firestorm of anger when a judge failed to prosecute a white cop who shot an unarmed black teenager. I feel sad that our society has not come further than this. I feel that the issue of racism in America needs to be overcome. Maybelle’s words still ring true, “There’s a dream in the future. There’s a struggle we have yet to win.”