Everyone is talking about December 21, 2012, but beneath the hype and conjecture about fate there are some very deep and interesting cultural phenomena emerging. Between economic meltdowns, religious wars, institutionalized corruption in the highest places of government, accelerated technological advances, rapid deforestation along with the pollution of water and air, it is clear that something is coming to a head on our little planet. Even if there was no Mayan Calendar, I’m sure we’d all be talking about these changes. It just so happens that this enigmatic historical date in time has become the focal point of the discussion. It is my hope that the discussion will continue long after December 21, as we are needing to make some dramatic shifts regardless of “ancient prophecies” if we’d like to continue inhabiting a healthy planet.

“Don’t play with rubber-bands or you’ll shoot your eye out!”, we’ve all heard statements like this. Sometimes we tell stories to emulate what “could happen if…” and through engaging the idea of a possible future, we may make choices in the now that change or create different sets of future possibilities. We all used our imagination as children the way a little boy is a fireman with the garden-hose, or a little girl pretends to be a mom with her doll, it is human nature. Just like an architect with a 3D model on a computer, or a scientist that turns a theory into an experiment to test a hypothesis, this type of visualizing or play is vital to problem solving.

The western mind is a written-centric mind. To make things “literal” from the late 14th century meant, “taking words in their natural meaning” (originally in reference to Scripture and opposed to mystical or allegorical) or (“of or pertaining to letters or to writing”), from Latin littera, litera (“a letter”). The notion of a “literal” statement is a cultural lens. It is entwined in all religious doctrines and is still being played out today in religious wars between monotheistic faiths who have different core books and followers who take every word written literally. This “written justification” was also used to label natives with non-written languages as “savages” to be enslaved or forced from their ancestral lands.

Conversely, indigenous peoples tend to come more from an oral tradition rich with allegory, symbol, and metaphor. To say that, “the river speaks to the land with the tears of our ancestors” is a statement full of truth for many Native Americans though it might sound ridiculous if one were to take it literally. The notion of taking the end of The Mayan Calendar literally as “The End of The World” is a cultural misunderstanding though it may be helpful in making us consider the path we are currently on. It may be an inaccurate “literal” western projection of apocalypse or armageddon, but the truth of our current situation on Planet Earth can not be ignored.

Some prefer fatalism, it’s a great coping mechanism for anyone who thinks the problems of the world are insurmountable. “If the worlds gonna end and it has already been prophesied then I don’t have to do anything about it.” Some prefer to blame man’s problems on God who will enact a just punishment at the end of time, and some use science to show us that there is absolutely no proof that the world will end. Yet deep inside we all know that each of these approaches is skirting the truth of our own role and responsibility in shaping the future. We can light a candle, burn some sage, pray with all of our holy books and fund science until we are blue in the face but none of it will matter if we we don’t address the choices we are making now and how they will effect our future.

The world we live in now is filled with technological gadgets that are beyond the musings of a great science-fiction novel from a half century ago.Martin Cooper, has stated that watching Captain Kirk using his communicator on the television show Star Trek inspired him to develop the handheld mobile phone. We humans have dreamed worlds into being yet we are still quick to draw limits on what is possible.

The light shines bright and the shadow has grown dark around us as we reflect on our manufactured triumphs and tragedies. December 21, 2012 has become more than a date, more than a prophecy, it has become an emergent cultural milestone for considering our global future. Will we take full responsibility or stick our heads in the sand? If we don’t like the hole we are in, maybe it is time to stop digging…

These next 2 weeks will be filled with discussion about 2012, The Mayan Calendar and prophecy. One meme has gently been planted in my mind and I can’t help wonder what it might sprout into. I’ve seen it on Twitter, and Facebook #unify the initiative at unify.org has taken the notion of prophetic fiction to new heights. Though it may be a lofty notion, an unreachable goal, who am I or you to place limits on what is possible? Am I foreshadowing my next article? Of course!

Not without a critical eye, but with a hopeful heart, I have been dreaming that something unexpected and beautiful beyond words would take the world by surprise on December 21, 2012. No longer satisfied to wait for government leaders to drag their feet on global issues that effect us all, no longer can we allow national or economic interests to outweigh our global conscience. We need to find that place within us all that knows we are interconnected and interdependent regardless of our faith, our nation, our beliefs. The time to act is now. We are the ones we have been waiting for and we are not waiting anymore. Is this fact or prophetic fiction?

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Every culture and religion has prophecies that concern future catastrophe and/or Earth renewal and rebirth. Maybe these are meant to be fate that is written in the stars, or mere warnings about possible futures. The Mayan date of 2012 has brought the discussion to the forefront of many peoples thoughts. Wether it is nuclear fallout from Fukushima, global warming, solar flares, pole-shifts, economic melt-down or political unrest, the “doom and gloom” predictions seem to take spotlight over the more positive notions of renewal. No matter what you believe, it is clear that we are in a time of uncertainty and unprecedented change. The White Buffalo Prophecy, handed down for 19 generations within the Lakota Tradition, has continued to unfold in magical ways that paint a positive future for humanity.

In 1994 Alison “Tootie” Montana, a prominent Black Indian Chief from New Orleans, had a vision of bringing together many tribes to celebrate their shared history. David Carson, Choctaw author of “Medicine Cards” and Kam Nightchase, a Lakota Pipe-Carrier also shared a similar vision. Reverend David “Goat” Carson of New Orleans led the organizational effort to make this vision a reality at Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park. The gathering was called “Sacred Medicine Circle at High Noon” on Aug. 20, 1994.

Black Indians are descendants of slaves who inter-married with local indian tribes, as noted by the scholar William Loren Katz. Indians would raid plantations, free the slaves and escape into the swamps where they shared and mixed their cultures. This union was clearly seen as a threat to the colonists, who did their best to stomp out the resistance and make sure the history of it was also erased.

Congo Square, located in the Treme Neighborhood in New Orleans, was a place where slaves and free people of color gathered to drum, dance and trade on Sundays. The dance, with origins in Africa and throughout the Caribbean, is called the Calinda and is said to invoke the ancestors. Local American Indians had a prophecy that their ancestors would one day return with songs and dances to heal the nations of the world and the slaves were seen as the fulfillment of this prophecy. The coming together of African poly-rhythms with the Native America pow-wow drum birthed the blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop.

So it was fitting for a sacred medicine circle to be held on Congo Square to bring this history out in the open, bringing people together across tribal lines to celebrate unity and healing. However, the event was considered controversial for bringing up a history that is not much talked about in the deep south. During the ceremony, in acknowledgement of the controversy, Rev. David “Goat” Carson asked for a sign from the Buffalo Nation that this coming together in Unity was good medicine for the people. The event was attended by many tribes, including Lakota, Choctaw, Cherokee and others.

Meanwhile in Arizona, another event had been organized for the same week called The World Unity Festival to honor The Hopi Rainbow Prophecy. This prophecy talks about a time when people will come together from all religions, all cultures and colors, to restore the sacred hoop of life on Earth and bring healing. Neither event organizers were aware of the others event. The World Unity Festival culminated with Drumming Around The World, which included people drumming simultaneously in 38 countries and 42 U.S. States for unity and healing. The drumming was led by the late Baba Olatunji and was attended by members of Hopi, Dineh (Navajo), Havasupai, Apache local tribes and people from all over the world.

During that same week in Janesville, Wis., a White Buffalo was born named “Miracle” thus fulfilling a Lakota prophecy that is 19 generations old. In response to these events the City of New Orleans proclaimed Aug. 27 as White Buffalo Day to be celebrated from this day forward. Eighteen years later, and after many deep and meaningful cultural exchanges between tribes across the country sharing their own stories and prophecies for the future, White Buffalo Day is still being celebrated in New Orleans and all over the world. You can learn more at WhiteBuffaloChildren.org or read the actual city proclamations here.

Please enjoy the video of Chief Arvol Lookinghorse, 19th Generation Keeper of The Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and Bundle, speak about the prophecies. As he states, “We all love our kids, we all have a gift of compassion and a gift of responsibility.” Political institutions and religious organizations that are supposed to bring unity are currently the cause of so much fighting across borders and religious lines, perhaps White Buffalo is a calling to come together regardless of our backgrounds and create a better world for future generations. As Chief Lookinghorse states, “No one person is better than the other.” It is truly a time to find spiritual unity or we may just inherit a doomsday future instead of a positive one.

Get social with the Story on Huffington Post Here

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Arizona is a state with a strong and diverse Latino community and an Indian population with a history that goes back over a thousand years. Along the East Coast of the United States, the newcomers from Europe arrived from the east in the early 1600s. In The Southwest, Marcos deNiza along with Estevanico (an escaped African slave), arrived in the current United States in 1539, a half century before British Colonies started in the northeast. Most of the cultural history of the Southwest comes from the Spanish and Indian influence yet, the British version of history is still primarily taught in the schools. In Prescott, Arizona, amidst much political controversy, public art has made national news while sparking an important dialogue about education, Native History, and racism.

Read The Full Article on Huffington Post Here 

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Imagine being in classroom and having your teacher assign you a comic book for the week. Don’t you think that comic book would get read a whole lot quicker than a traditional text book? Learning is one of the most empowering things a person can do with their life and can be quite fun, yet the mediums used in classrooms are dated and have caused students to think that learning is drudgery and boring.

Comics teach in a format that todays younger people can easily absorb. Youth that have grown up in our media-saturated world are visual learners who crave a certain level of stimulation; otherwise they feel bored. Unfortunately, many students are being labeled as ADD when actually they are just having a hard time sitting in a chair all day being bored and underwhelmed. This is obviously not the fault of the student or the teacher; it is time to address the medium.

A few years back I read an inspiring book by Valerie Kirschenbaum called Goodbye Gutenberg: How a Bronx Teacher Defied 500 Years of Traditions and Launched an Astonishing Renaissance. Valerie’s students had the worst reading scores in her district, so she began making the text more visually pleasing for her students. Changing the colors and font of text, enlarging important words, using forward and reverse italics and incorporating design flow into the reading assignments. Her students reading scores rose to the top of the district in no time!

In South Africa, The Nelson Mandela Centre For Memory introduced a series of comic books to tell the story of Nelson Mandela to youth who were born after he was released from prison. The first comic was released in October 2005, and each subsequent comic has been distributed at intervals of several months. The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory wishes to make the comics interactive by using them as a teaching tool in schools and by means of feedback sessions with rural communities in particular. As a result, they’ve developed an interactive comics exhibition to support the outreach of the Madiba Legacy comic series and it has been quite successful.

Now, PBSKids has introduced WordGirl, SuperWhy, and Cyberchase as educational comics for kids that are partnered with engaging television shows. Scholastic has jumped on board with authors like Sari Wilson, who wrote State of Emergency, True Tales of Survival in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina which is also an educational comic. There is even a book by Katie Monin called Teaching Graphic Novels, Strategies for the Secondary ELA which promises to “Harness the power of graphic novels to promote literacy and engage all secondary students.” Comic creator Josh Elder founded the educational nonprofit organization Reading With Pictures to promote the use of comics in the classroom.The use of transmedia storytelling will continue to evolve in the classroom as technology and the market catches up and I will be doing an article about that in the near future.

Giggle Bubble Dreams is a recently completed book that teaches children about the interconnectedness of nature while empowering youth with notions of community social responsibility using fantasy and comics. Giggle Bubble Dreams is a collaboration between myself and Bret Blevins (Emmy Awarded Artist whose video blog was featured in my previous post) with contributions from multiple artists including music from Grammy-Winning musician, Cyril Neville and illustrator, Ryan Huna Smith. Smith is a Native American Artist who contributed to “Tribal Force” a collection of Native Superheroes including Frybread Man. The notion of superheroes teaching social responsibility and defending nature and tribal ways instead of beating each other up is a notion whose time has come! Please enjoy the interview with Ryan Smith below, see his beautiful art and learn a little something about native culture in America.

Education is multidimensional, and there is an interconnectedness that visual art and creative design can convey beyond words that keep students engaged and having fun while learning. Free Comic Book Day is May 5th and participating comic book shops around the world give away comic books absolutely FREE to anyone who comes into their stores. So go to your local comic store and ask what kinds of educational comics they have available!

Read Article on Huffington Post Here 

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You may have noticed that blog posts have become less frequent on the site lately. This is due to the fact that Jacob Devaney is now a contributing blogger to Huffington Post. Since HP receives much more traffic than this website, we have focused our outreach on these blogposts which you can also keep up on through our Facebook Fanpage. The second reason is that we have been SOOO busy with many new collaborations and projects. In the coming weeks we will be posting articles about these projects here on the site.

We are a small non-profit company with a large vision to create socially enriching programs and media through creative collaborations. Please tell your friends, contact us about getting involved, or make a donation to help support our growth and success into the future!

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“Water sustains all life. Her songs begin in the tiniest of raindrops, transform to flowing rivers, travel to majestic oceans and thundering clouds and back to earth again. When water is threatened, all living things are threatened.”-Indigenous Declaration on Water, July 8, 2001

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill — it’s two years later, and the horrible effects continue. We hear all the time about external dangers, like terrorism, that threaten our safety and way of life. But the poisoning of the water and the destruction of the ecosystems that sustain that way of life seems unstoppable.

Read entire article on Huffington Post Here

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Advertising is used everywhere, on billboards and posters cluttering our visual landscape with messages to buy this or that. What if public space was used to convey an idea instead of a brand? What if advertising was used to inspire thought instead of encourage mindless consumption? For many years I thought everyone agreed that education was a good thing, but then I considered just how profitable it can be for some businesses if everyone remains ignorant. The internet is changing this sad truth and with the advent of social networks, people can share endless information about everything from politics to environmental or social issues. But what about public space, how can that be reclaimed transformed?

Recently I watched “Exit Through The Gift Shop“, which I highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it. It’s about street art, reclaiming public space with creative and thought-provoking expression and it features Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most infamous underground artists. From cave drawings to urban graffiti, images and words shape the way we perceive the world yet the paradigm of competition and consumption continues to rule the visual landscape of the modern world.

Some argue that is human nature, but it isn’t exactly true. Humanity evolved from cooperation as much as it did from competition. Tribes, bands, communities have been the support network that has raised generations of people in cooperation. Even wars between tribes or nations showed much cooperation in each individual side as they fought the enemy. Where do we see messages of cooperation, of compassion, of inspiration in public spaces?

The life of a street artist might be a little too daring for the average person, but there are ways that people find their own ways to express outside of the dominant capitalist paradigm. One of them is Jeff Daverman of Root Concepts, who has made a successful business (within the capitalist system) giving people a voice in public space with ideas that inspire. I had the opportunity to visit Jeff in his studio and see his philosophy in action. You’ve probably seen his stickers on Prius’s, hippie vans, in health food stores, street light posts, bikes, kids lunch-boxes sand yoga studios.

Jeff has the inspired notion to use stickers as a way to encourage dialogue, to make people think and to dream. Like many artists, and primarily street artists, Jeff understands that there is a battle of ideas occurring in public spaces. Another thing his stickers do is remind us of the words and lives of social justice heroes, encouraging us to reach our highest potential. Whenever I see his stickers around I am reminded that I am not the only one who dreams of something better. I am reminded that there is still a huge community of people who believe in cooperation, in working together and dreaming bigger for the sake of our future and our planet. When you watch this video, I’m sure you will recognize the work of an artist who has left his fingerprints all over the country.

I know there are many many other artists out there doing this kind of inspired works, tell me a few of your favorite…

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Artists influence our culture, but what influences the artists? Inspired art has always shaped the culture around us, though it’s a relatively new concept that art would be used for individual profit rather than community enrichment. What are the differences between art that is created for the pleasure of personal expression or with the intention of conveying inspiration versus art created for the sole purpose of selling a product or lifestyle? Both forms of art still influence and shape the culture around us, but in different ways.
For example, when large companies are deciding which music to play on the radio, they do surveys. They ask people to vote on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the favorite and 1 being the least favorite. Since people have varying opinions, the music that receives the most 5′s also is the same music that receives the most 1′s. It goes to reason that if some people really love it, others will really hate it, whereas the music that receives consistent 3′s elicits the least positive or negative feeling and is therefore the music that gets picked for airplay. Commercial media seeks the largest target to make the most sales.
As individuals become more empowered to be creators of art in the form of media, instead of purely consumers of media, it will continue to shape the language of the medium. Twenty years ago, you wouldn’t be likely to see a film that was purely created for the passion of a cause because the production costs would have demanded a financial return.
The messages that define who we are as people, and our responsibilities as an emerging global community may not be profitable in dollars (in fact they may be the death of business as usual), but their value in terms of social equity is priceless. This is the dawn of an era where inspiration and meaning have become their own form of currency. Financial influence continues to be exposed for its flaws of hollow self interest at the expense of many things valued by a healthy community.
Though there is an endless discussion to be had when we talk about sexualization and body-image, demeaning messages in rap music, violence in video games and how it shapes our culture, but the bottom line is the bottom line when the intention is to sell a product. Our media and art have been shaped by the invisible hand of finance that lacks the integrity and accountability that art and artists should uphold for the sake of the greater community. Though short-term financial gain is always tempting, art almost always outlives the artist. What is the creative legacy of our generation, and how will the future define us through the art we leave behind?
Master artist, Bret Blevins has some very balanced and insightful perspectives on the pros and cons of these different influences within commercial media and our culture. As a commercial artist for over 20 years, illustrating & making storyboards for Disney, Warner Brothers, Marvel, DC, Darkhorse and others, you have probably seen his work on many occasions.
The same way that we make conscious choices about our food and where it comes from, we must also make our media diet reflect our desire to live a healthy and inspired life. The birth of independent media, and the democratization of the media through the digital revolution is a hopeful sign for the return of art for the purpose of enriching the community, personal expression, and shaping the future of our culture in a healthy and creative way.

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Arizona is a state with a strong and diverse Indian population with a history that goes back over a thousand years. Along the East Coast of The United States, the newcomers from Europe arrived from the east in the early 1600′s. In Arizona, Marcos deNiza  along with Estevanico (an escaped African slave), arrived in the current United States in 1539, a half century before British Colonies started in the northeast. Most of the cultural history of The Southwest comes from the Spanish and Indian influence, yet, the British version of history is still primarily taught in the schools. Book knowledge and oral tradition are 2 different ways to understand history and often they clash, but in Prescott, Arizona public art has bridged the divide.

In 2001, Elizabeth Newman, wanted to give voice to the Indian stories that have been forgotten through a mural. With a group of Mile High Middle School Students, she went door to door asking for old stories, researched at the local Sharlot Hall Museum and asked elders from the local Yavapai Tribe. This created a minor stir as there had been a bit of a divide between the tribe and the local city government, but it was the beginning of a beautiful healing.

Elizabeth enlisted the help of her friend and professional artist, R. E. Wall to help with the project. The students research grew into learning not only the cultural history of the land, but also the natural history. The students were asked to sit by the creek alone each day and make journal entries about the thoughts and feelings that came to them when they silenced their minds under the trees. Eventually, pride and respect for the land grew and the students began picking up the trash along the creek, and noticing subtle things like the birds and animals that inhabited the area. All of these influences were then arranged into a beautiful piece of art by Elizabeth and R. E. Wall for the students to begin painting.

After a greatly successful project and a beautiful new piece of public art in this sleepy town, R.E. Wall took his inspiration for murals and formed The Prescott Downtown Mural Project. You may have heard about it a few years back when it sparked an national controversy and received lots of mainstream press during the SB 1070 battle. If not, you will have to stay tuned to learn more in this ongoing series about the power of public art and the power of educators, youth and a whole community to come together to give voice to history and bring healing.

12 years later, and still with much controversy about education in Arizona, and what history is allowed to be taught in Arizona schools, this mural sits quietly along the creek with a story to tell.

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How has the education system taken the fun out of learning, and how can we put fun back into it? Students have become media savvy, growing up with cell phones, texting, internet and social media, so it’s no wonder that picking up a dry text-book is tortuous to them. Education needs to keep up with the times, make learning incorporate the latest media-technology, free learning from the traditional classroom and make it relevant to modern life. Learning is fun, and any kind of education that forgets this fact is doomed in our modern world.

The fastest-growing book format in recent years has been the graphic novel, as kids have become such visual learners. This format, including comic books is yet to fully embrace how powerful it would be to integrate learning. It is amazing to think that Sesame Street was one of the first television programs to capitalize on the idea that television could be educational for children. The notion of integrating e-books with comic/graphic novels will be just as revolutionary over time.

Since information is changing so quickly and e-books can be updated easily and delivered without shipping or using paper, this format is poised to be able to keep up with our rapidly changing times. To take it one step further, comic books can be easily translated into video that can be embedded into e-books along with music. Imagine a rap song that taught multiplication tables embedded in a comic book along with a video coordinated of flash-cards? Or how about a form at the end of each comic book chapter where the student could fill out and have it e-mailed to the teacher?

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at a wonderful artist who is taking steps to educate youth about native culture through comics. Ryan Huna Smith, recently agreed to a collaboration with Culture Collective & Living Folklore to bring Fry-Bread Man to a whole new audience. Watch the video below, learn about the history of delicious fry bread and see how we are integrating art, education and technology!

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