Governor General and Urban Arts Forum

Hey everyone - check out this info about the Gov Gen's Urban Arts Forum.
Last summer there was an excellent music/arts festival here in Toronto (called The Manifesto) featuring some great artists, it had a strong youth/social message and it collaborated with the Urban Arts Forum.

Please check out:
http://www.gg.ca/gg/youth/index_e.asp
http://www.themanifesto.ca/

Urban Arts Forums

The Urban Arts Forums were launched to illustrate how young artists from all backgrounds are using urban arts (hip hop, graffiti, spoken word, break dancing, etc.) to combat social exclusion and crime, and to bring about change in their communities. Forums have taken place from one end of Canada to the other, as well as in Brazil and South Africa. Featuring artists, decision makers, members of the Order of Canada and civic leaders, the forums have resulted in new community initiatives, which, on more than one occasion, have encouraged entire communities to work together.

Jai Gurudev,
Abhimanyu

Showcasing Who We Are

From Antoine:

Somehow, this event has to create a link to who we are and what we stand for. Otherwise, what's the point? Let's be creative and do things that other event organizers could never do like a guided meditation, a 10 minute knowledge session with the YES!+ Teachers, 2 or 3 bhajans, the enthusiasm clapping game... 
One of the failures of the Sarah McLaughlan concert in Toronto is that it created very little awareness about AoL. We showcased others but we were too shy to showcase ourselves. Let's make sure this time that everyone get's hyped about YES!+ by the end of the show... If you do it right, You can easily get an extra 100 registrations on the spot for our YES!+ Course that will start the following Tuesday.

Some Ideas about how we will do this? Post lots of comments!!

Create a Buzz!!

More from Antoine:

Since your event is more than just a concert it is also a social message, you could for example organize an eMerge 2009 Contest where people can submit 60 second videos on different environmental and social themes that are relevant to youth. This will create media attention and you can premier the Top 10 best videos at the concert. Contact film schools and get "emerging" film directors to participate! The Contest could become your pretext for contacting and involving all the different environmental groups, social groups, and get them to participate in your event. This will get the word out about the event and all these different groups and associations who will premier their videos will bring members. Have the newspapers and radio stations announce the rules of the contest and write a story on it. All this will help fill up the room!

Comments, people?

mp3 PSA for the radio

Hey Guys!

I have posted a file on the google group for you guys to check out, it's a PSA (public service announcement ie/ free ad) that the Halifax team made together, to send to radio stations when you're organizing YES!+ courses in your city. Some of them won't play anything prerecorded but some of them will. If you would like us to tweak it to fit your dates, place, phone number, etc, give us a call.

Jai Gurudev!!

love Jo

Long term vision for our movement

This is the first paragraph of the introduction to Guruji's book by Greg Larsen. "In our general education we are taught many things. We learn to read and write, we learn something of science, mathematics, geography, and history. Some delve into music and art. Unfortunately, the most fundamental of knowledge has not been taught-- how to manage one's own mind and emotions to develope and enjoy the fullest of what human life can offer. No other knowledge is more valuable in determining the quality of one's life."

EXACTLY! breathing techniques, pranayama, meditation, ego busting techniques, all of this should and must be taught at all levels of education, elementary through university. Mind and emotion management and awareness is the most fundamental of knowledge and its not taught!! it should be mandatory.

Here is a quote from our Guru from the same book. "Right education is that which creates in each person a sense of belongingness with the whole world. A person learns to embrace all religions of the world as his own and can choose to practice one without decrying the other. Members of a family can practice more than one religion. This should be the strategy for the 21st century".

There is our long term mission for the Yes+ movement in Canada: Lets strive to get Mind management techniques and courses such as Yes+ happening at every level of education, so that eventually we may finally have the right educationin which we are all aware of the fact that we are One, that we belong to eachother and the world; that we are eachother and the world, therefore transcending limited indentifications with names, creeds, philosophies, politics and religion. We can learn to be all or none of these limited identifications because we have been deeply ingrained through our education system that we are all One.

Love, bless, Jai Gurudev

Al

Help ideas flow

Hey homies,

I was recently reading our beloved Guru-man's book "Wisdom for the New Millennium" and the first few chapters are chalk full of comments, ideas and knowledge which, of course, correlate exactly to what we want to do for our mission regarding the Canadian Yes+ movement. If your short on inspiration and ideas, go to this book. GuruoOoOm, GuruOooOm, Guruoooommmmm. Jai Gurudev. Jaya, jaya, jaya.

Al

Theme / Names / Teams

Hi guys! It is amazing to see all the developments on the blog and listen to the conference calls.
There are a few things that we here at Winnipeg, are still not clear about. I thought it would be best to put them forward now.

Is the Theme of the concert finalised?
Also we are still deciding about the names, right? We came across few names - One Youth for change, Youth conference for Peace, One Youth: Wave for Change, etc.

We were thinking of looking at this event/concert more as an annual concert for youth all across Canada to come together. As this will be the first of many to come, it should start with a bang. But we believe that it will be good to keep our focus on one thing. It can be peace, gun violence, drugs, sexual exploitation or anything that is affecting youth and society in general. We can pick one issue every year and bring about awareness and the necessary change to eradicate it. In this way, we will get a chance to address all the issues and as our energy will be at one issue on one time, we will be able to bring more tangible results. As for example - this year's concert can be Youth conference 2009: Awareness against gun-violence; Youth Conference 2010: War against drugs, etc. What do you guys think?

Also we wanted to draw the attention towards the possible teams that we are going to make. We are still not sure what the decision was about making the teams on the national level or making it on the level of cities. Whatever be the event, we can start making some of the major teams right now. Like we know for sure, we need a finance team, a fund raising team, a marketing team, administrative team, etc. While the framework of the event is being made, we can start putting people on teams so that we are set to start when we are ready.

How does that sound?

Jai Guru Dev!
Kritika

Getting in touch with Barack Obama

Hey guys just a small update, i have been working on how to get hold of Obama for the concert. It is not impossible, so far i have got the Phone no of the white house and the email address of the president, and i was just wondering what to say in the emails .. soon guys i can start bugging them to get in touch with us . But for that we have to come up with the name of the concert ASAP .
as soon as that is done i guess sending out regular mails or calling them regularly, our voice will not go unheard for a long time.

keep up the good work team !!

possible concert name

Name: "Freedom's song" Statement: "A movement of empowerment, leadership, heightened awareness, physical and mental rejuvination and realization of the oneness of all. See the reality of oneness and see the reality of freedom." ------or something like this.

This is what I got so far, adjust as much as you please or discard completely, choice is yours.


Al from Halifax

The Other Blog

Hey Guys!

I can't seem to figure out how to post on the Concert Blog to put up a little forum for ideas about the name, theme, etc. and other info we will need for our official cover letter. Can some one who is already listed as a contributor start a thread in that direction? Or else fill me in on how to start being a contributor myself?

Thanks!

You guys are awesome.

love Jo

The theme and the spirit

Dear ones,

Once again we had a wonderful conference call. With each passing calls it seems we are getting more focussed and organized...GREAT. Today there was one thing that made me go wow... our team termed as " A mini United Nations" by Aditya... That was so so cool and inspiring. ( I am sure you all will agree).

After listening to so many names for the event which will mark a day that will initiate the beginning of the era of "Renaissance of Youth Power" (as per my thinking). Not that Youths are not born..everyday they are born but this wind will create the change in the wave dimension and power cutting away from the monotony and boredom we see around. A wave that will empower for generations to come to have a society which cares, shares and loves- isn;t it? So how about to put the banner of the event termed as "One Youth for change " or " One youth: wave for change".

Love you all,
Mausumi

Poll for Speaker

Web Polls

Please no skype!

Hello Everyone!

All the blogs look really great, exciting ideas! I just wanted to say, it would be really great if everyone could not use skype for the conference calls, just in case anyone missed all the chaos.
:)
JGD!

Mission Statement for Concert

Hey guys!

So as the six of us met this week to discuss the upcoming conference call, we thought it was important to clarify and verbalize exactly what it is that we are doing. What is the purpose of this youth concert?

Here is what we came up with for a mission statement:

"In this time of economic crisis and social unrest, we aim to bring together the youth of Quebec and Canada to join in a celebration that will inspire and empower them to take action that will effect positive change in the local and global communities."

It's important to clarify our goal for two reasons. First of all, this will help us to crystallize our purpose. Secondly, when we approach third parties, whether to book the venue, or for sponsorship, it is necessary for us to have a clear statement of purpose.

Any feedback is most welcome!

Team Montreal.

Pictures of Chalet du Mont-Royal

Hi Team!

Here is a link provided by Simon with pictures of the Chalet du Mont-Royal hosting different outdoor and indoor events.

http://www.butlersclub.com/galeries.php

For those of you who've never visited the Chalet, let us share with you just how breathtaking this location is. It's situated on the summit of Mont-Royal, in the heart of the city, with awesome views of the cityscape. The idea to have the concert there actually originated this past December, while a group of us took a walk up the mountain late one night with Swamiji. At one point all of us stood on the terrace of the Chalet, under the night sky, and as we spoke of this and that, Swamiji casually mentioned: "You guys should have a Youth Festival here."

We did not see the vision then, but now that all of us are part of a team responsible for planning this event and laying the foundation for a community of united youth in Canada, our goal is that much clearer.

And how appropriate it is to have a Youth Summit on the summit of a beautiful mountain (well, it's a hill by some standards!). Let's do this, guys - this is just the beginning!