Breaking Walls, an international youth empowerment movement, uses creative writing and theatrical performance as peace-building tools in crafting an equitable, unified, trusting global community. Breaking Walls 2018 Santiago, our largest and most diverse Boot Camp, brings together 43 young people from nine international cities from July 5 through 19, 2018.
As our logo – Breaking Walls . . . artists & ambassadors . . . today & tomorrow illustrates we guide each young person to discover their voice a creative artist and a positive representative of the culture and community – while offering them a platform from which to share their voice.
OUR ARTISTS & AMBASSADORS:
CONNECT
Our artists & ambassadors, ages 14 to 25, from Amman, Barcelona, Bethlehem, Brooklyn, Cape Town, Detroit, Warsaw and Santiago represent a diversity of cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. Additionally, sexual orientation, educational levels, and indigenous cultures/ immigrant//refugee status add gravitas to what scholars call a “voice poverty” – voices rarely, if ever articulated.
CREATE
Our Boot Camp structure illustrates our vision through specific programs. These include: Pen to Page to Stage – using the arts to build self-awareness and empathy; Ensemble Building / Peacemaking Training – developing leadership skills and a sense of community; Community Service – creating a sense of gratitude among our youth; Creative Activist Lab – crafting “seed” ideas to be “sown”, which will positively impact their home communities; and Health & Wellness – conducting a conversation on the health issues facing youth in their communities, building the awareness that a healthy child is a whole child. Each “graduate” returns to their home community after our intensive writing, performing, and peace-building experience having explored their imagination and embraced their creativity.
Our process is holistic and nurturing, allowing each participant to feel genuinely at ease, without fear of judgment. They emerge armed with compassion, accountability, and commitment, hungry to nurture a world in which we can all trust one another.
CHANGE
Breaking Walls artists & ambassadors deeply wish to continue their mission to stand up and speak out as a sustainable global family. To build on past successes 2018 Breaking Walls will explore the themes “I have the right to be myself” and “the thirst for truth – words matter.”Detroit artist, Celynah, addresses the impact of these explorations “Breaking Walls gives us a platform to share our stories in a way to help other people. We all share one thing in common, we want to be heard. We want to influence the world to focus on a different direction. Breaking Walls teaches us to break our inner and outer boundaries.”
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Breaking Walls seeks your support to change lives by raising the funds to cover our 14-day accommodations in Santiago at the Hostel Cienfuegos. It is essential that each Breaking Walls participant can bond in a safe, comfortable temporary home. Many Breaking Walls participants live in environments where personal safety is a daily struggle – thus Breaking Walls serves not only as a model of an inclusive, accepting global community; it provides two-weeks of safety and freedom of movement that is relished and empowering.
MEET BREAKING WALLS ARTISTS ANDJI, CELYNAH & KHNAYA
CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR CONTRBUTION: