Theatre for Social Change
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(see original message at end of mail)
Dear Tah Protus and All,
Hello and fantastic to read about all of your life-saving activities
and see you here! And to know that you will be speaking at the con-
ference, which should indeed help to spread the word about the use of
the arts to address HIV/AIDS. You are right to point out that the
arts can be used in places where other communication methods are
sorely lacking, though even this has limits due to lack of transpor-
tation, for instance, which is true in terms of our own efforts in
Kenya. The good news is that the GFATM has funded an organization in
Kenya called Sanaa Productions, which is using the arts in just this
way, and myself and others are searching for and running across
grants and grant makers who are interested if not eager to listen to
the message we are trying to send!
Part of the good news, besides the above, is that I see the arts be-
ing used more and more everywhere in this invaluable way, and have
been forming an international arts coalition -- called ActALIVE (Arts
for Creative Transformation: Activism, Lifeline, Inspiration, Vision,
Education) -- composed of the groups and individuals I am running
across, about 170 now from 20+ countries! And so many more I am read-
ing about and hearing of every day, like yourself! All of our members
are clamouring for funds and technical support, and this will be a
challenge, but with such great numbers and commitment, we cannot help
but have an effect, and hopefully make a difference.
We would be delighted to welcome you as a member (it's free and noth-
ing to do unless so inclined), and there is an e-forum to which I am
posting this note now (you can subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to
<actalive-subscribe@yahoogroups.com> ). Also, there is a terrific or-
ganization called Art4Development -- to which I will also post this
note -- which has 600+ members in 70 countries, and their e-forum is
a great resource for arts-related postings. You can subscribe to that
by visiting the website at http://www.art4development.net or sub-
scribing to the forum by sending a blank email to:
<art4development-subscribe@yahoogroups.com> .
I and we in ActALIVE would love to hear more about the work you do,
and what you will be saying to the conference participants in Septem-
ber, and I am also copying this to some folks who are working on
various HIV/AIDS-education and prevention projects using the arts (in
the US and elsewhere), as I'm sure they would be interested to con-
nect with you. I hope that this is the first of many discussions be-
tween ourselves and in these e-forums about how we can realize our
dreams and goals (there are plans afoot in some of Kenya-affiliated
forums to develop a grant writing team and proposal), and I thank you
for bringing this up, and your own work to us! With all best wishes
and yours in dramatic dreamings,
Janet Feldman, Director/Founder
KAIPPG/International and ActALIVE
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net
http://www.kaippg.org