“…we continue to encourage and support participation in the 100TPC global event, with the hopes that we can encourage poets, musicians and artists to stay vocal and engaged in these difficult times. It is so easy to feel hopeless and lose heart when it seems the world is coming apart around us. 100TPC hopes to counter despair and disillusionment, encourage and support celebration through the arts of peace, justice and sustainability. This is the good fight for us and we will continue to provide a global platform and venue.” 100TPC Cofounder Michael Rothenberg in a recent email to me.
There’s a lot going on around Global 100,000 Poets and Others for Change (100TPC.org) and this is the point each year when I like to share special updates along with a sampling of the posters for the event.
- Yesterday Michael Rothenberg announced that there were 500 events registered for Global 100TPC (September 28) and Read a Poem To A Child Week (September 23-28). Yes! We’re jazzed about that news.
- At The BeZine Michael Dickel and I are collaborating on the September 15 issue, themed social justice in honor of 100TPC. 100TPC concerns itself with Peace (our March issue theme), SustainABILITY (our June issue theme), and Social Justice (our September issue theme).
- Over the past year and especially the past month or so, we’ve had some changes to The BeZine activities and publishing policy. Modified guidelines will be available soon … would have been sooner if I hadn’t been in-and-out of the hospital so much. Our Mission remains the same and you can see from it why we are so partial to 100TPC. Please always read our Mission Statement, an issue of the Zine, and the guidelines before submitting work to bardogroup@gmail.com
- Meanwhile, my feature How 100,000 Poets Are Fostering Peace, Justice and Sustainability was shared today by Kella Hanna-Wayne on her social justice site: YoppVoice!
- Meanwhile …
The BeZine blog is hosting a month long series in solidarity with the climate action events that are taking place around the world, These events include Greta Thunberg’s and also the U.N. Climate Change Summit 2019.
(Please note the first post on the Zine blog is always a copy of the front page of the most recent published issue of the Zine. If you scroll down, you’ll access the rest of the blog posts.)
- And …
On September 28, we’ll host our annual 24 hour Virtual The BeZine 100TPC. Everyone is invited to come read, listen, and contribute. If you want to contribute work the post that day will provide instruction for doing so. It’s easy. We encourage the sharing of art, photography, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and music videos. Michael Dickel will moderate and I’ll be present for back-up.
Here’s a sample of the banners from events around the world. Enjoy!
BECOME INVOLVED
Register your event for 100TPC and Read a Poem to a Child Week at 100tpc.org
100,000 Poets for Change Facebook CommunicationHub
The BeZine 100TPC Facebook Discussion Group
READ A POEM TO A CHILD WEEK
September 23rd – September 28th 2019
Download the Poetry Compilation for Readers.pdf
Download the curriculum Simple ways to make poetry engaging 2.0 and the poetry workbook.
Freely accessible Sound Cloud playlist of 100TPC Read a Poem to a Child Initiative
– Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor
The BeZine
ABOUT
The Bardo Group Beguines are pleased to present THE BEZINE, an eZine published each quarter. The people who visit here to read, “Like,” and comment are as integral to this community as are the contributors. Visitors lend their energy, support, imagination and insights to this evolving effort. Comments are open and kindly expressed perspectives and suggestions are welcome.
The team is comprised of Naomi Baltuck, cloakedmonk (Terri Stewart), James R. Cowles, Jamie Dedes, Michael Dickel, Priscilla Galasso, Christy Darby Hendrick, Joseph Hesch, Lana Phillips, PoetJanstie (John Anstie), Ruth Jewel, dragonkatet (Corina Ravenscraft), Charles W. Martin, Michael Watson,
The goal of this collaborative is to foster proximity and understanding through our shared love of the arts and humanities and all things spirited and to make – however modest – a contribution toward personal healing and deference for the diverse ways people try to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of a world in which illness, violence, despair, loneliness and death are as prevalent as hope, friendship, reason and birth.
We share work here that is representative of universal human values however differently they might be expressed in our varied religions and cultures. We feel that our art and our Internet-facilitated social connection offer a means to see one another in our simple humanity, as brothers and sisters, and not as “other.”
We acknowledge that there are enormous theological differences and historical resentments that carve wedges among and within the traditions and ethnic or national groups, but we believe that ultimately self-preservation, common sense, and human solidarity will empower connections and collaboration and overcome division and disorder.
We ply our art, meditations, and prayer toward that tipping point when compromise – an admittedly imperfect peace – will overcome war and respect for life will topple resentment. That may not happen in our time, but it has to start somewhere and sometime and this is our modest contribution toward an end for which diverse people the world over are working and praying.
Follow to enjoy every issue of The BeZine. The BeZine is a volunteer effort, a gift of love.
