As a child I played with National Geographic magazines. I cut the photos carefully from their binding and positioned them on my bedroom floor. I stood in the center of each photo and communed with the imagined essence of another world. For as long as I can remember, the power and mystery of place captivated my spirit and shook my bones with a voracious sense of wonder.

In 2005, when I was 22-years-old, I landed in Rio de Janeiro with a large university grant. I carried addresses and phone numbers for various nonprofits where I’d been contracted to teach hip-hop and English to Brazilian youth. In my mind, I had plans to study dance all around the country. As a taxi drove me at a furious pace through Rio’s tangled maze of steep hillside cobblestone, one clear thought rang out.

“I’m too sensitive for a city like this.“

I was right, but I’d soon learn I didn’t care. I cared about discovering how my sensitivity interacted with this new world. I wanted to see where the path of contradiction would lead me.

It first led me to a brown-eyed man who stalled my heart when his smile carved two dimples beside the corner of his mouth. The enchantment I felt on the nights I walked arm and arm beside him wasn’t simply the magic of being young and falling in love in a foreign country. It was the sensation of being in the presence of a gatekeeper. The one who stands on the threshold of where you’ve been and where you are going. The one who beckons you in such an alluring way you have no choice but to cross over, regardless of whether or not they follow behind you.

At 22-years-old, travel shattered my compass and my direction became suddenly, terrifyingly fluid. That transformative year, finding love and discovering my calling happened in tandem.

On one typically sweltering Rio afternoon, my Brazilian boyfriend invited me to meet him at a beach side park where his dance company rehearsed every day. The company consisted of a dedicated crew of teenagers with a shocking well of talent and a profound enthusiasm for hip-hop dance.

For the first month I sat mesmerized and watched them rehearse. They trained and created movement, yelled out to keep going when they were exhausted, and celebrated each other’s growth. For the second month I stood in the back row of their concrete stage, dancing alongside them. The third month my Brazilian boyfriend broke my heart. I debated ever returning to that park where I had spent the last 60 days humming with a familiar sense of wonder shaking in my bones.

“I’m too sensitive to handle this,” I thought.

Yet I found myself back at their concrete stage, terrified and uncertain. The community of dancers I’d been spending everyday with didn’t care where I’d been or who I’d dated. They only cared that when we danced we sought entry into the same unspeakable passion. Echoing every day around the park was the soundtrack of their excitement and it created a new compass within me. My brown-eyed ex ignored me, but one day it finally stopped mattering.

On the other side of the threshold the view was different. The narrative had changed. It was no longer about falling in love with a man. It was about falling in love with the story of a group of people. I began coming to practice with a camcorder in my hand. The first time I pressed record my breath stalled and my heartbeat quickened. The earth pressed into my feet. I felt certain I was exactly where I needed to be.

Since that initial discovery I’ve been growing into the craft of filmmaking, following this community of dancers around Brazil and other parts of the world as their story widens. I’ve made a hundred amateur mistakes and another hundred skillful, intuitive choices. I’ve kept myself in the center of my sensitivity even when the pressure mounted because that sensitivity is ultimately what makes me an alert storyteller. I have cherished every moment with the community I’ve filmed. I’ve fallen in love over and over and over again.

My editor and I recently put the finishing touches on Believe The Beat, the feature length documentary that began eight years ago, when a sweet boy asked me my name after a dance class on a clear night in a loud city. There is sometimes a voice inside me that yearns to omit this piece of the story.

“I went to Brazil to make a film,” I hear myself think. “I researched and I planned my strategy. I was intentional and grounded and focused from the start.”

Then the rest of me rushes in. I am reminded of the little girl who stood on photos of foreign lands with the unknown looming. Who closed her eyes and said yes to a million possible truths.

This is what the world asks us to do. Follow the winding, complicated path toward voracious wonder. Say yes to the moments that enchant and challenge and surprise us. Walk across the threshold when the gate swings open and keep moving forward as it shuts.

Jocelyn Edelstein is a Portland filmmaker, writer, choreographer, and founder of the Urban Body Project, a multimedia collective that explores the relationship between dance, culture, and community. Her writing has been previously published in Best Women’s Travel Writing 2011, Volume 8, and will be upcoming in Volume 9. When she is not making films or writing stories she is performing and teaching dance at Polaris Contemporary Dance Center. 

A series where we highlight people using their passions to make a difference in their communities.

Olivia Pedrick’s kitchen table is splattered with paint of every hue.

Every weekend, the 12-year-old sits down at her table in Ashland, New York and paints pictures of animals for family, friends, and random strangers.

“I really do like turtles and dogs. Turtles are a lot of fun to paint because you can add so many different kind of greens,” she says. “I like painting dogs because of the shading.”

Olivia with some recent paintings. Her favorite one of all time is one of her and her dog Miller, which was a Christmas gift for her parents. (Photo via Anabel Lago-Pedrick.)

Customers pay her $10 per painting, or more if they’d like, and the money goes to an animal charity of her choice. Right now, Olivia’s waiting list is three months long.

Olivia, who’s been painting since she was four years old, thought of the idea after seeing a woman from a local wildlife rehab center speak as part of the Kindness and Caring club at school. She loves art as much as she loves animals, especially dogs, and brainstormed with her mom Anabel ways she could help out.

She started by selling paintings at a local town event. In one afternoon she sold them all, and her mom set up a Facebook page shortly after.

Anabel takes care of the logistics – managing everything from her web presence to choice of charities – to give Olivia freedom to paint.

Still, finding the time can be a challenge for Olivia, who is also involved in Girl Scouts, karate, skiing and more in addition to having heaps of homework to do. School vacations and summers are when she gets the most amount of painting done.

“It’s a lot of work. But it’s totally worth it,” Olivia says.

Since she started two years ago, Olivia has made 70 paintings and donated over $6,000 to charities. She’s also inspired a girl in the Netherlands to undertake a similar project, and a few friends from school have said they’ve wanted to do it, too.

As to how long Olivia will continue to paint to help animals, she doesn’t even need to think twice about the answer.

“My whole life,” she says. “Definitely.”

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Want to use your creative skills for good or know a youth in your life who does? Feel free to contact Anabel Lago-Pedrick, Olivia’s mom, for tips and advice on how to get a project like Olivia’s Art for Animals going.

Do you know someone who is taking a small step toward making their community better? Email celeste@idealist.org.

An ongoing experiment: can our community’s collective brainpower help an idea become reality?

Meet Everita

Everita Dave is a woman who has experienced vastly different worlds: East and West, Soviet and Post-Soviet Latvia. Although not explicit to outsiders - Amnesty International rates Latvia as above average in human rights – Everita believes freedom of artistic expression in the region still suffers from a lack of inspiration, and often, a bureaucratic heavy hand. (The recent jailing of a feminist punk-rock collective in Russia is one example that has garnered international attention.)

Everita now lives in Maryland, but splits her time between there and Latvia. Although her professional background is business and project management, she’s always been drawn to the arts as an avenue for independent thinking, and a catalyst for change.

“Art, especially conceptual art, is a reflection of society, history, and culture that can tell us more than news,” she says.

The intention

Everita would like to create an organization that promotes freedom of artistic expression in the post-Soviet region.

The vision is two-fold: first, a citizen journalism platform where people submit stories of censorship for partner organizations to take action on. Second, an online art gallery to expose, empower, and support post-Soviet artists, with the hope of selling their work.

“I believe that freedom of expression can be stimulated by art that inspires and provokes people. Inspiration would lead to action and only action could prevent the re-birth of regime,” Everita says.

Obstacles

Everita has created a website, Cross the Red, and is in the process of refining her idea. Here are some challenges she has identified:

A beachcomber’s DIY garden art in Nida, Latvia. (Photo from Flickr’s Creative Commons via **Maurice**.)

1. While the project is international in scope, she needs local buy-in to communicate the idea in the post-Soviet region.
2. She’s solo now, but would love other people to help her so she can approach this in the smartest, most efficient way.
3. Like most projects out there, finding funding is proving difficult.

How you can help

• Is creating an organization the right way to go? Or should this remain a project?
• Do you know of any organizations dedicated to freedom of expression that might want to partner?
• What are the legal considerations Everita needs to keep in mind if she decides to form an organization? What resources would you point her to?
• How can she find pro-bono legal counsel?
• Do you know of foundations that might want to partner to give artists grants, fellowships, etc.?
• Do you know of potential avenues of funding?
• Are you interested in collaborating in some way?

Leave a comment below or send her a message through Idealist and if the project progresses, we’ll keep you posted!

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Do you have an idea that’s just starting to brew? If you’d like us to consider posting it as part of this series, email celeste [at] idealist [dot] org.

Each day, people like you have ideas on how to make the world a better place, but don’t know how to put their ideas into action. To help you take the first step, we’re profiling budding social entrepreneurs who are tackling issues that are important to them, one step at a time.

The idea

I’m horrible at improv comedy. If someone were to tell me that I should sign up for a class by myself, with a bunch of random strangers, and perform to a crowd of 700 plus people at the end, I’d tell them they were crazy.

Which is why I probably need to do it. Saya Hillman from Chicago-based Mac ‘n Cheese Productions agrees. After she convinced friends who didn’t know each other to dance a hip-hop routine on stage with her so she could check it off her life to-do list, she saw the immediate bonding that came with shared vulnerability. Fear Experiment, where you perform an art form that terrifies you, was thus born.

Dancers from the first Fear Experiment show at Park West Theater in April 2010. (Photo via Rich Chapman: richchapmanphoto.com/rwc)

There’s no one succinct way to describe Mac ‘n Cheese Productions. Besides Fear Experiment, other offerings include: minglers, an ideas salon, meetups, dinner parties, events for women entrepreneurs, a newsletter of referrals for local businesses, and most recently, retreats. Her long-term dream, though? A summer camp for adults.

“It can be awkward to go to stuff. I try to remove all the “ick” factors in traditional ways of meeting people and getting out there so to speak,” she says.

Saya is also big on giving back. Fear Experiment participants volunteer as pen pals and teachers to an underserved population, and the students are treated to dinner and the show. Folks from her network, called Cheese-Its, also regularly sponsor a Rwandan boy’s education, and she started a Chicago chapter of BC Cares, the volunteering arm of Boston College alum.

Whether it’s providing opportunities for community service or confronting your own perceived limitations, Saya is all about getting others to “Live a life of yes!”

“I’m trying to help people not be paralyzed by fear and low self-esteem. It’s really hard for people to see the positives in themselves often,” she says. “I hope I’m able to bring that out in themselves. And not only recognize it, but to own it and do something good with it as well.”

Obstacles

Eight years ago Saya got laid off from her job as a video producer. She had no plans of being an entrepreneur; the only thing she knew was she didn’t want “boss” in her vocabulary anymore.

Motivated by having to pay rent and the possibility of being forced to move back home, Saya’s first step was to figure out how long $300 in savings and unemployment checks would last. Turns out not long; Saya had to just jump and figure it out along the way.

Here are some of the challenges she faced:

Obstacle: Plan or no plan?
Solution: Saya started out wanting to create her own video company for special events. She didn’t know the first thing about running a business, and people advised to have a plan. But while she loves lists, having a plan wasn’t her thing. So she researched other companies. Shadowed videographers. Contacted a local business development center. Used collaborative tech tools like Creative Cow.

A year into being self-employed Saya was continuing  with her tradition of throwing dinner parties for friends who didn’t know each other when strangers began wanting in. It was then Saya realized she could make it into a business. Mac ‘n Cheese soon morphed from a media company to a people connector company. “I didn’t imagine any of it, but that’s what I love about it. There’s always something new and exciting,” she says.

Obstacle: Financial insecurity
Solution: From buying video equipment to coordinating events, Saya continually opted for the most economical ways to get things done. She was careful not to get herself into situations that would cause a huge debt to hang over her head.

She would also occasionally do pro-bono video jobs, and anytime she has given something away for free or low-cost, it has always come back to her in a positive way. “More often than not people say ‘yes’ to my outlandish requests and go above and beyond what I was expecting,” she says.

Obstacle: Working solo
Solution: Saya knew not having co-workers to bounce ideas off of was going to be hard for her, so she immediately started reaching out to her networks. She kept with this trend, and a few years later, began going to events in the city by herself as part of an experiment called the “The Solo Life.”

The amount of people she knew in Chicago increased exponentially, and now connecting and collaborating with people from all walks of life is her bread and butter. “When you go into situations where you’re meeting people, I learned the power of listening, and the power of not going into something just thinking about what you need out of the situation,” she says.

Advice

Saya is thrilled that she was fired all those years ago. From meeting her fiancé to inspiring a woman to start a dog walking business, the amount of friendships, partnerships, and startups she has encouraged through her events are numerous and far-ranging.

“I love infecting people with ED, entrepreneurial disease,” Saya says. “It’s the best thing in the world.”

Saya introducing Fear Experiment. (Photo via Rich Chapman.)

Here’s how she thinks you can move forward on your idea:

Starting out

• When you can’t find something that you want, create it. Or attempt to create it at least.
• Make lists. What would you love to get paid for no matter how crazy it sounds, what your ideal job looks like, super-connectors you know, skills you have.
• Ask. Once you have your lists, email the super-connectors. “People won’t know how to help you if they don’t know you need help.”
• Steal ideas. “When you’re designing your own life of yes, there are a lot of smart people who’ve already created a lot of amazing things.”
• Figure out what your priorities are. Know what you can and cannot sacrifice, because you’re not going to do or have everything you want in the beginning.
• Don’t worry so much about money. “If you can find other things that you do have, such as a skill, people are really willing to trade and barter these days.”

For the ladies

• Refer, refer, refer. “Word of mouth is something women are really good at. This will come back to benefit you ten-fold, as it’s usually win-win-win.”
• Don’t be afraid to self-promote. It’s totally fine to boast.
• View others as collaborators, not competitors. There’s always an opportunity to work with someone new.

Staying motivated

• Meet people without expectations. “If you go to a networking event with the idea that you want to get three new clients, it will be a total disaster.”
• Don’t wait for the perfect time. Stop coming up with excuses; it’s never going to feel like the right time.
• Take the leap. What’s the worst that can happen?

“You have to figure out what’s good advice and what’s bad advice. What’s good for someone else might not be good for you,” Saya finally says. “Trust your gut.”

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Want to live your own life of yes? Feel free to chat with Saya about entrepreneurism and self-employment through @sayahillman on Twitter. She is also available for speaking engagements.

An experiment: can our community’s collective brainpower help an idea become reality?

The intention

Once a week, actress Erica Gerard visits the homes of hospice patients in West Los Angeles. She sits with the patients and does whatever makes them feel comfortable: talk, listen to music, read a book, enjoy the silence, and more. As someone who only buys vintage furniture because of the stories each piece holds, Erica especially enjoys seeing the patients surrounded by all of their belongings.

Erica would love to record and perform their life stories. “People at the end of their lives are some of the most rich, complete and interesting treasures we have access to,” she says. “None of us have been there yet, but we’re going there, so tell us what it’s like.”

Though her deceased grandmother won't be in the audience, Erica knows she'd be proud: “I can hear her voice saying, 'You’re doing a mitzvah,' which is a good deed." (Photo: Alan Cleaver, Flickr/Creative Commons)

The obstacles

Erica hasn’t started. Here are the barriers she has identified:

1. Interviewing people in hospice care can be logistically challenging. Her first patient passed away, and her second was unconscious much of the time.
2. She doesn’t have an end vision of the show yet, and the options about artistic choice, direction, etc. can feel overwhelming.
3. She prefers collaborative projects to working alone, and so far doesn’t have anybody to bounce ideas off of and propel her forward.
4. There’s a whole world of medical confidentiality laws and issues she has yet to explore.

How you can help

Erica would to love see this project grow and succeed. Can you offer her any advice?

• Is this an idea that’s already been done somewhere in the world?
• What are some interviewing strategies to help draw out specific stories?
• What have you always wanted to ask somebody who is near the end of life?
• How should she approach this project so as to share stories without exploiting patients?
• How can she find allies and resources?
• What are some ways to stay focused when life’s distractions get in the way?

Leave a comment below or send her a message through Idealist and if the project progresses, we’ll keep you posted!
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Do you have an idea that’s just starting to brew? If you’d like us to consider posting it as part of this series, email celeste [at] idealist [dot] org.

Will you be on a plane, train, or automobile this holiday weekend? We have a treat for you: a new Idealist Podcast! Let us know what you think, and browse our archives for more.

One of Teatro Ciego’s main goals is to not only provide employment for the visually impaired, but to strengthen their artistic skills for the job market.

I hold onto my friend Ceci’s shoulders as we walk into the pitch black theatre single file. I can’t see a thing – not even my hands. I start to panic. But someone gently guides me to my seat, and I know I’m okay. The sound of typewriters soon fills the room.

I’m at Teatro Ciego, or Blind Theatre, waiting anxiously for the play La Isla Desierta to begin. This theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina is the only one in the world to host performances in the dark. I don’t know what to expect.

I’m here because I’m curious to see how the cast made up of both blind and seeing actors can pull this off, and because I want to get out of my comfort zone. And I do. For the next two hours, my imagination runs wild as sounds and smells from the jungle to the sea envelop me.

Ceci and I leave the theatre in awe, convinced Teatro Ciego is an idea worth spreading. Find out why in our podcast here:

Idealist Podcast: Teatro Ciego (English)

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Co-producer Ceci Gil Mariño and I would especially like to thank Martín Celis, Terry Dennis, Craig Dennis and Jason Kirtland for lending us their voices; Janet Bollero, Rachel McRoberts, Deborah Brody, Emily Burnett, and Lindsay Rihala for their invaluable translation assistance; Pía Sicardi for her original music; Julia Smith and Hannah Kane for their editing prowess; Douglas Coulter for his mad production skills; and most importantly, the cast of Teatro Ciego for letting us shine a light on their world.

Artists who happen to be age 60+ make money and feel good at a gallery just for them.

The idea
Frank Springer is a retired vice cop who lives alone. Every day he goes down to his basement kiln and creates plates made from colored fused glass. It provides a sense of purpose and helps him get up in the morning. He’s 99 years old.

His work is exhibited in the Geezer Gallery in Portland, OR, a space exclusively dedicated to senior-created professional art. You won’t find any macaroni designs here – everything from bronze sculptures to jewelry to acrylic paintings and pastels is on display and for sale. The artwork also appears in retirement communities and businesses around town, and owner Amy Henderson has also started bringing art programs to homebound and low-income seniors.

“Big Bang Theory” by Harriet Levi. “I am always growing and changing as an artist and as a person. Stagnation kills the soul,” she says.

Why “geezers”? Henderson frames it this way: it’s all about showing seniors like Frank that the aging process is full of creative possibilities and not to be feared. The gallery also helps combat ageist stereotypes.

“I love when younger people come in and go ‘Oh my gosh, I was expecting ducks and doilies,’” she says. “They’re starting to challenge in their own minds the paradigm we put forth about aging and the reality of it.”

Intentions to action

Henderson specifically recalls three experiences that helped her move from an abstract image in her mind to concrete paintings on the walls:

1. A survivor of domestic abuse, Henderson started to see the striking parallels between the messages sent to the older population—that they’re worthless, a burden, and have no purpose—and domestic abuse victims after visiting a 96-year-old family friend in a nursing home.
2. Every year Nike works with a handful of terminally ill children at a Portland hospital to design tennis shoes, which are then sold regionally. Henderson was struck by the tremendous positive impact the project had on the kids emotionally, physically, and mentally. If creativity and entrepreneurship could be so powerful at one end of the life course, why not the other?
3. At a low-income housing project she visited one day, Henderson was incredulous at all the amazing artwork decorating the walls. Turns out it was all found in homes after elderly residents had passed away: yet another instance that showed that older adults aren’t just sipping on prune juice all day long.

After the idea was seeded, Henderson went to a local college and devoted her studies to developing a savvy business plan. A few years later, armed with a Master’s degree in gerontology, she collaborated with local nonprofits such as Loaves and Fishes and Elders in Action to bring the gallery to life.

“Night Club Argument” by Martin Anderson. ““I have done art my whole life and becoming a senior doesn’t change that,” he says.

Replicability factor
The gallery isn’t without its challenges. Funding is a huge one, as is educating the public about just how beneficial art therapy is for seniors. Getting the word out about the space can be difficult as well.

Despite the challenges, the gallery has been a success in Portland so far. Henderson would love nothing more than to see geezer art wowing people everywhere. If you think you might want to try something like this where you live, here’s her advice to get started:

• Float the idea to your community first. Who’s going to be supportive? What’s going to be a challenge?
• Have a business plan. Foundations especially want to see this if they’re going to dole out cash.
• Create a board. It’ll give your nonprofit street cred, not to mention potential avenues of funding.

Henderson is also willing to be a consultant. “We’ve done the legwork, we know the pitfalls,” she says. “We could really assist someone with this model. It would be easy to replicate somewhere else.”

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If you’re in the Portland area, the Geezer Gallery is currently looking for social media and administrative volunteers. They’re also seeking board members. Not in Oregon? Check out the 400+ volunteer opportunities listed on Idealist related to seniors and art.

Image: http://candychang.com/i-wish-this-was/

It’s been more than five years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. While the city is still grappling with rebuilding efforts, its residents have proven nothing less than resilient. From floating homes to affordable health care for local musicians, NOLA has seen a recent resurgence of innovation and community.

With so much potential, the city has become a breeding ground for new ideas. “I Wish This Was” is an art initiative that collects citizen’s thoughts for re-imagining the space around them. The project is the brainchild of Candy Chang — co-founder of the design studio Civic Center — and was born because her neighborhood still lacks a full-service grocery store.

The concept is simple: free stickers are distributed throughout the city in cafes, bookstores, hair salons and more. You pick one up, and pen your wish, dream or hope. Afterward you stick it on an abandoned building or any other public space that could use some wishful thinking. Wishes so far range from the practical (butcher, bike rack) to the abstract (owned by somebody who cared, heaven) to the cheeky (big old cupcake, Brad Pitt’s house).

Pros

• Awareness. The stickers publicly merge your innermost desires with the city’s pressing needs.
• Inspirational. The hope is that the creative, collective consciousness will spark actual transformation.
• Easy. It’s super simple to do. And democratic distribution so that anyone, regardless of class, race, age, etc., can participate.
• Ecologically friendly. The stickers are made of vinyl, not paper, so they don’t damage storefronts.
• Accessible. If you’re not currently based in NOLA but want to follow along, Chang is working on a digitized version of the ideas.

Cons

• Free, but not for long. Vinyl stickers are more expensive. Unfortunately, the free supply has run out, so you’ll have to throw down some dollars to make a wish.
• Art or trash? Some may view the stickers as added blight.
• Good intentions…but will stickers lead to action?

Plenty of cities, towns and villages have abandoned spaces and could implement a project like this one. Could this benefit your community?

From Flickr user Chris Willis (Creative Commons)

Every day, hundreds of new listings are added to our site, and it’s always amazing to see the variety of organizations, opportunities, and events that Idealist users can connect with. Let’s see what you (and we!) might be missing! I’ve decided to pick a few random listings each week and spotlight them here.

Today’s area of focus: Art, Architecture, Music

Organization: Baryshnikov Arts Center
Location: New York, New York, United States
In their own words: “BAC serves as a creative laboratory, meeting place, and performance space for a vibrant community of artists from around the world.”

Job: Hip Hop Instructor
Organization: United Teen Equality Center
In their own words: “UTEC reaches out to these young people through intensive street outreach, builds upon their unique strengths within a youth development framework, and creates opportunities to best support them in becoming agents of social change and organizers in the community.“

Volunteer Opportunity: Thai Village Handicraft Art Project
Organization: Mundo Exchange Organization
In their own words: “We team with local communities to provide global volunteers and financial aide to impoverished and rural community projects. We believe that cross-cultural participation and an equal exchange of ideas can help bring global understanding to those involved.”

Internship: Photographer – Ghana, West Africa
Organization: Women in Progress
In their own words: “Women in Progress works to achieve economic independence of women and alleviate poverty at a grassroots level in Ghana through the sustainable growth of small women-owned businesses.”

Event: Logan Heights Neighborhood Clean-Up!
Organization: BAME Renaissance Inc. (San Diego, CA)
Date: September 25, 2010
In their own words: “ BAME is a catalyst to promote and provide an opportunity for all sectors of the community to work collaboratively toward the goal of strengthening individuals, families, and neighborhoods through social and economic development.”

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Search hundreds of other listings filed under Art, Architecture, and Music, or post an opportunity of your own.

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]