-
info@windhouseresources.com
-
Date/Time
Date(s) – 22/03/2018 in GHANA
All Day
-
Location
Chief’s palace
Sankofa: Reclaiming relevant indigenous cultural and ancestral values to make a case for nature-based solutions
The chieftaincy, elders and people of Funko community-located in the Western Region of Ghana- honored World Water Day by creating awareness about the need for circumspection when adopting vices or policies which consequently cause public health problems and are detrimental to the environment. Illegal/unsustainable mining – popularly referred to as “Galamsey”in the country- and fringe activities which indirectly empower the practice are examples of such vices.
The Funko community is close to the Ankobra river and, symbolic of the strong inter-connectivity still existent between most societies and their natural environment. This river is an important source of drinking water for many communities in the Western Region of Ghana- and beyond- but continues to be polluted through illegal mining activities. It flows at least 120 km south to the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic) and is located very close to the western part of Axim, a commercial center of the river basin.
In celebrating this important day, we sought to highlight the important role some historic cultural practices (spoken word, dancing and drumming) and community dialogues can play in influencing the re-adaptation of relevant conservation values which were more commonly applied by the ancestors. Overall, the concept of Sankofa is espoused. Sankofa is a Ghanaian-originated cultural principle which literally means to take back what was lost in order to protect the future. This -arguably- manifests the tenets of sustainability. There are many of such doctrines in many communities across the world.
The principle teaches communities the importance of going back to their roots- and reclaiming worthy values- in order to move forward. For example, the indigenous and unadulterated local anthropological cognition reveres some key natural receptors – such as rivers, wetlands and forests- as deities. By tapping into the novelty of such values, the current mega trend of sustainability would be well anchored and in a way which significantly addresses most of the conservation, food security and sub regional stability challenges existent now. A cultural dance and community dialogue were among the activities undertaken to commemorate the day.
On World Water Day, the funding partner and collaborator for the performances –who is also the founder of Windhouse Resources Systems (WRS)- would reach out to stakeholders to solicit input on case studies concepts intended to be develop in order to make a stronger case for nature-based solutions. WRS is a boutique sustainability consultancy located in Ghana – West Africa.
Contact information
Email Address:
info@windhouseresources.com
Date/Time
Date(s) – 22/03/2018
All Day
Location
Chief’s palace
How would you like to help the Charter for Compassion raise awareness of our work, generate significant funding and uplift the world – and laugh a lot while doing it?
You can do ALL of these things by taking and spreading:
Rolling on the Floor Laughing Challenge to Spark Laughter that Uplifts the World!
The Charter for Compassion is beyond thrilled to announce that we are one of the benefiting organizations in the Rolling on the Floor Laughing Challenge to raise awareness and funding for the positive work of over 50 non-profits GLOBALLY!
Our focus is on the FUN in FUNdraising and the power everyday people have to fuel some of the most important work being done in the world.
The #ROFLChallenge dares each of us to create a funny video, share and donate. Every video, every share, and every donation supports over 50 nonprofits and helps to solve complex problems that no individual business, organization or leader can solve alone.
Take the ROFL Challenge – Spark Laughter that Uplifts the World
- Step 1: Take the challenge! Tell a joke, play a (safe) prank, put on a skit — or just plain ANYTHING to get another person laughing.
- Step 2: Film it and post it with the hashtag “#ROFLChallenge”.
- Step 3: Challenge your friends and activate your networks! Challenge them by name in your video and use social media to invite others to make a video or donate (or both!)
Acts of laughter and generosity are potent remedies to divisive times we live in, acting as sparks that ignite the good will and good intentions that we all have within us.
Laughter is a universal connection we all share, able to bring joy to our hearts and form bridges across differences we have with one another.
With #ROFLChallenge – you get to spread laughter while also contributing, supporting and uplifting the world through donating to organizations that dedicate themselves to making the world a much better place.
Please help Spark Laughter that Uplifts the World:
TAKE and SHARE #ROFLChallenge – Text ROFL to 50155 or go to www.rolfchallenge.org
ACTIVATE YOUR NETWORKS:
Challenge your well known, most generous or funny friends to take the ROFL Challenge and/or Donate.
Share our Facebook Video on your Facebook Newsfeed so that others can see it, comment on it, like it and share it. (We want our video to go viral.)
Thanks so very much for joining us in Laughing, Giving and Uplifting the World Together!
P.S. Check out our ROFL Challenge Video Here. Please help us make it more visible by Liking it, posting a Comment, or Sharing it on your own Facebook Newsfeed.
Camp Kindness Day — July 23, 2019
On July 23, the camp community will participate in Camp Kindness Day – an event highlighting the practice of intentional kindness that happens every day at American camps. This is an opportunity to raise awareness of the the great work that camps are doing to teach kindness in engaging, simple, repeatable, and high impact ways that live on in the daily lives of campers and staff members when they return home.
Focusing on our youth and young adults, Camp Kindness Day will help showcase the commitment of the camp community to fostering the core values of kindness, compassion, generosity and care, and integrating those values more fully into every aspect of our society. These values are already part of the fabric of the camp experience. We share the mission for our youth to be nurtured, taught, supported, and inspired to grow into our new generation of kind, compassionate, socially-minded, community-oriented citizens.
Camp Kindness Day will allow camps to incorporate into their July 23 programming fun theme-based activities and cooperative games, cool projects, and memorable moments which will celebrate the value and impact of kindness.
How your camp can participate:
- Schedule Camp Kindness Day into your programming on July 23.
- Help spread the word in a unified social media campaign by tagging #CampKindnessDay into your social media and other communications.
- Share your plans so that ACA can support you through localized public relations efforts.
To support your camp’s involvement in Camp Kindness Day, ACA has produced an electronic #CampKindnessDay Backpack, complete with programming ideas and activities, FAQs, social media tips, and other information on how your camp can celebrate Camp Kindness Day.
Be part of the nation-wide evolution! Plan now to add #CampKindnessDay to your camp’s programming on July 23.
My Queer Valentine Reception
Hosted by Torpedo Factory Art Center and Target Gallery
|
Friday, February 14, 2020 at 7 PM – 10 PM
Next Week18–32°F Sunny
|
|
105 N. Union St, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
|
Art in Person and in Progress. Located in Old Town Alexandria, the Torpedo Factory Art Center is home to 165 working artists, seven galleries, The Art League, and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. Free admission.
My Queer Valentine Shows the Richness of LGBTQ Life
The warmth of recognition is strong inside the exhibition.
“Acrylic” by Aurele Gould, 2017
I took my girlfriend to see My Queer Valentine on a Monday morning; it was a date, I told her. We took the Metro down to King Street and walked to the Alexandria waterfront. Once we got there, we strolled into The Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery, hands interlocked.
For My Queer Valentine, the contemporary gallery’s spring show, the small space is filled with large-scale photographic prints, paintings on both large and small canvases, and sculpture. Visually, the pieces cover a broad range of styles, including a digitally influenced take on Abstract Expressionism, geometric interpretations of fire, Basquiat-esque mark-making and writing over photographs, sculpture with few references to recognizable forms, canvases made three-dimensional by the attachment of glittery found objects, and small silkscreen prints. Thematically, they may at first seem to not cohere, but that’s only because My Queer Valentine’s juried works cover a diverse and rich swath of queer life.
As for taking my girlfriend, I had another motive that I didn’t say aloud, though she may have picked up on it. I wanted to enter that exhibition as a visibly gay person, and I wanted to see how that affected my experience of the art. It was the right choice. My Queer Valentine does more than curate work that examines what it means to be LGBTQ in the 21st century: It creates a queer space warm with the joy of recognition.
Some works speak directly to that joy, like artist Cat Gunn’s abstract canvases. Their dramatic patterns represent the harmony of being in a relationship where their partner sees them as their authentic, nonbinary self, they write in the wall text. There are glittering squares and wobbling lines moving back and forth across the plane, but things seem to be coming together the longer you look—parts that once made no sense have an internal logic that reveals itself with sustained attention and open mindedness. Recognition can be dangerous, and the closet offers safety, but it also means hiding behind a mask. The relief of dropping the charade and being seen is transcendent.
My Queer Valentine isn’t camp, not as a whole, but it’s full of artworks made by people who understand the humor and the wondrous pompousness of queer glamor. (That glamor and its high drama are knowingly self-important because there are still so many people who wish we didn’t have it.) The first pieces the viewer encounters play with the feminine trappings of artificial jewelry, glitter, plastic, and resin, all in bright, loud colors; one piece dripping with sequins invites viewers to “lick me until ice cream.” That kind of playful sexuality thrives in many of the works, even the more subdued ones. A beige canvas on the opposing wall asks the onlooker to “come (cum on my) back.” The half-joking, half-serious attitude toward sex is one of My Queer Valentine’s greatest strengths, highlighting the laughter and joy inherent in queer life and queer sex.
Linda Hesh’s “Kissing Booth” is another joyful artwork. It’s not a stunning feat of technique and construction; it’s just a wood and steel booth, like one you might see at a county fair in the ’50s. It advertises itself as, unsurprisingly, “KISSING BOOTH.” It’s not anchored to a wall. Instead, it stands out from a corner and beckons viewers to come in, where they might notice that its gingham pattern is made up of pictures of kissing same-sex couples. I’ll admit my biases here: I’ve always had a love for participatory art. But the booth’s standing invitation to come inside, to take a picture kissing underneath it, and to share that picture with the world is a brave act, even in 2020 in Alexandria—brave for the artist and the piece inviting those kisses, brave for the people who choose to do so. Even though queer desire is hypervisible in contemporary life, it’s not always recognized as a loving, human affect. By asking people to kiss, Hesh affirms the romance of the gesture and the genuine safety of the space around it.
The most striking pieces were by D.C.-based photographer Matt Storm, a transgender man. His work is challenging, cheeky, and hard to look away from. The two images on display come from his Act of Looking series, where he returns to the same studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the famous gay vacation spot, to photograph his body “to create an expanded lexicon of ways to see a body, inclusive of ways to see my body,” he writes in his artist’s statement. In the first image, we see him standing naked, in a pose that looks relaxed but requires him to hold himself in place with his own strength. His muscles are tense but not flexed. His face isn’t overly expressive, but there’s a spark of playfulness in his eyes and a hint of a smile on his mouth. And his arm drapes behind his back, coming to rest between his legs, where he holds his fingers playfully—an obvious commentary on how, as he says, “my body is incongruous with how we are taught to see bodies.” In another, he clasps his hands in front of his crotch, fingers crossed. We can’t see his face, but we can feel the humor. The piece is titled “Crossing my Fingers, Getting Away with Something.”
But a different series of works stopped me in my tracks. Aurele Gould’s photographs pulled my gaze from the moment I entered the gallery. When I saw her triptych of an athlete putting pre-wrap around another girl’s thigh, I felt a lump in my throat. “A moment of transference is constructed, a care and an intimacy among women,” she writes in the wall text. Immediately I thought of Barbara Kruger’s 1981 piece “Untitled (You Construct Intricate Rituals),” which famously says “You construct intricate rituals that allow you to touch the skin of other men” over an image of men roughhousing. But I thought of it less because of its artistic impact and more because, for years, queer kids on Tumblr have been using it as a memetic reference point for jokes about the forbidden, magnetic pull of another person’s skin. In the three images of the piece, we see hands grab the inner thigh, let go to wrap the tape around, and return to place both hands on the partner’s leg.
Likewise, I’d been primed to see Gould’s piece “Acrylic” before I walked in—it represents My Queer Valentine online—but I stopped myself from making a beeline to it. When I did make my way over and allowed myself to look, I noticed for the first time the two models’ sharp, long, matching acrylic nails gently cradling each other’s faces. That striking image is made more striking by those glittery nails. Gould knows this: “I like how thought processes can fold unto each other, like thinking about when stereotypes can be used and who they can be used by,” she wrote in the wall text. I felt a pang of recognition. I smiled. The two lovers in the photograph stared at me, nails shining, and I took my girlfriend’s manicured hand and stared back.
105 N. Union St., Alexandria. (703) 746-4587. torpedofactory.org.
Global Love Day
The Vision
We honor each May 1st as a symbolic day of unconditional love and call upon all people and all nations to gather together in the wisdom of peace and love.
Global Love Day is the universal recognition of our innate oneness through love. It is our vision to unite one and all in a celebration of love and compassion. Join people around the world in celebrating and expanding LOVE.
We are one humanity on this planet.
All life is interconnected and interdependent.
All share in the Universal bond of love.
Love begins with self acceptance and forgiveness.
With respect and compassion we embrace diversity.
Together we make a difference through love.
When we come from this limitless love we naturally and easily embrace ourselves and our fellow humanity. Opening our heart, we allow unconditional love to be our guide and compassion to be our gift to life.
We invite you to celebrate with us by consciously focusing on love and what it means to you throughout this day. We hope that by practicing love in all areas of your life, you will find it easy to love unconditionally all year long. Our main themes explain it best…”Love Begins With Me” and ‘Celebrating Our Humanity.”
Be a part of it. Spread the word. Share your love.
Think: Global Love Day;
Feel: Love Begins With Me;
Remember: May 1st
We Celebrate our Humanity
As we continue to connect with people and organizations around the world, we are amazed at how much is being done in efforts to positively assist humanity. There are so many wonderful people and associations that are actively working on behalf of a community, nation and even in global proportions.
As we often remind ourselves, what is presented by mainstream information sources is frequently a narrow and negative perspective of what is happening upon this planet right now. To the contrary, we see and know that good and right is occurring everywhere. Look for love and you will see it all around you.
This simple reminder changes the very nature of our experience. We are what we place our attention upon. When we allow love to be our focus of life, we expand this in our everyday activities. It is as simple as changing each perspective and allowing the negative and limiting views to be released and replaced by a higher, more loving understanding.
We appreciate and are grateful for the courage each of you express. In a world that has historically revered the negative and fear-based aspects, it takes strength to be and share love. It is time for love to become our common vision.
Please join us. Be a part of this global day by choosing love, compassion, peace, and unity. Share this information with your friends, relatives and coworkers. Love locally and spread it globally.
Participate
Our first Global Love Day was presented on May 1, 2004. A variety of celebrations and events were held by individuals and groups around the world that initial year and the day was recognized with over a dozen proclamations from prominent Governors, Mayors and Councils. Since then we have continuously expanded each year to include many more communities and nations and now have over 580 proclamations honoring the day with thousands participating individually and at events. We are into our second decade of sharing love and celebrating our humanity – will you join us?
We have a special section dedicated to Global Love Day here on our site filled with ideas of how you can get involved and host your own local event on May 1st. Follow the dropdown tab above and find some suggestions of how you can participate and also find examples of what other creative events have been held before. You can find our Global Love Day social site pages too.
Our annual Art, Essay and Poetry Invitational is held in conjunction with Global Love Day each year and encourages anyone young at heart to submit their art, essay or poetry based on the tenents and vision and theme of the day. See our Guidelines for more information on this special related program.
The Global Love Day Flyers have been translated in over 37 languages so far and all are available to download and print right from your desktop.
The Initial Vision
(An open letter from Founder Harold Becker in 2004)
The Love Foundation is delighted to announce the first annual GLOBAL LOVE DAY on May 1, 2004 with this year’s theme of Love Begins With Me. Join people from around the world as we acknowledge, celebrate and share the love we have within. This is a special day of recalling that love is the link that binds us all. It is also the awesome power that heals and transforms everything it contacts.
Each of us is a potent force of love when we allow this energy to express itself. There is nothing we have to ultimately do, rather we need only allow ourselves to feel and be love. It is that simple. Global Love Day is merely our way of saying let’s remember love is ours to be and to share every moment of our lives.
We understand this day is a symbol of what we can do every day of the year. Our intent is to join together in a conscious recognition that love is always present. For so many, love is often hidden under layers of hurt, trauma, drama, pain and suffering. Emotional memories, unspoken doubt, fear, resentment and a multitude of old beliefs often keep us from realizing these thoughts and feelings have no real power over us. We give them power by living in the past and being afraid of the future. We ignore the love that is present every moment while embracing limitation. It is time to change that. It is time to release ourselves from our own self created bondage.
You and I have the opportunity to make a difference. Together we can embrace our unlimited self, the part of us that knows love and expresses it naturally and simply. It is when we accept ourselves just for who we are that we transform the moment into peace, security, joy and love. This process begins with releasing our limiting beliefs, past mistakes, lack of self worth, pride and ego through the conscious act of forgiveness. It is up to us as individuals to undertake this journey. We begin the transformation when we turn within and accept our self. We change the world when we change our perspective.
As we come to know who we are and why we act and react the way we do, we start to see ourselves in the faces of humanity. The reflection of hurt is our hurt, their pain is our pain, another’s anger is our anger. It is also seen in the face of nature. Her destruction is our destruction. These seemingly random expressions are our past thoughts seeking manifestation. It is our constant reminder that love is the answer. We build a new reality in this current moment when we let go. When we choose love over fear, kindness over hate, integration over separation, and peace over war, we bring a new reflection to humanity… our loving selves.
So, please accept our invitation to love. Join us hand-in-hand as we share our love on this planet once again.
Love, light, and peace,
Harold W. Becker
Founder/President
Founder’s Address 2019
Welcome Dear Friends to Global Love Day 2019,
We join our hearts this day in celebration of life itself. Coming together around the globe, we unify our highest intention and collective potential, igniting the creative spark that lights our shared journey forward on this precious planet we call home. Realizing our magnificence as loving beings, each of us holds the key to our brightest futures. Compassion, kindness, joy and peace are our natural expressions when we recognize that love begins with me.
As one humanity on this planet, we have a common heritage and universal destiny. With each unfolding moment, we are comprehending the grandness of our personal and combined opportunities to evoke our heart-felt wisdom. It is a simple knowing that all life is interconnected and interdependent and our gift to the world is appreciating one another with grace and dignity.
We all share in the Universal bond of love and, from this essential understanding, we build fresh, new realities that infuse the very best of who we are. In this way, we consciously manifest for the greatest benefit of all. We begin with self-acceptance and forgiveness as the cornerstone to a foundation built solidly on love. This ensures we inspire, nurture, cultivate and express our dreams of a better world for our children and the earth herself.
There are infinite possibilities before us to explore as we walk in harmony with everyone and everything around us. It is with respect and compassion that we embrace diversity. We learn and grow through our countless interactions and expand far beyond the sum of our parts when we allow ourselves to evolve beyond our present perspectives. The majesty of life reveals itself within and about us when we open our hearts. Together we truly do make a difference through love.
With happiness, delight and love, I welcome you to our sixteenth Global Love Day celebration.
Love, light and peace,
Harold W. Becker
Founder and President
The Love Foundation
The 8th Annual Children’s Global Wave Of Love
June 21 at 1:11 pm in your heart and time zone.
We collectively come together to cultivate and
send forth our mission
“Children Across the Planet in Love, Care, and Respect.”
Since everyday is children’s day, we create a year-long, free, activity platform for children, families, communities, schools, organizations and YOU to empower
heart space and help transform the world!
Our Mission Statement: Our mission is to provide complete and total support to all children with an entire month of activities that enhance all aspects of a child’s life.
