A big Hello as we find our way back onto the blog in 2012! After a successful and exciting end to 2011 with our co-directors trip to the USA, I Am Somebody! began 2012 with preparations for a powerful year of big first steps. Keep an eye on our blog this year. We'll be regularly posting information about our events and programmes and we'll be sharing creative contributions from and stories about people within our communtiy. 

We kick off this year with our first Soiree performance by Tina Schouw: 

 

A plethora of beautiful handmade gifts: thank you!

The I Am Somebody! team is off to the USA this week to  attend the Marion Institute's Connecting for Change Conference and then to launch Talking About It - a programme developed by Nicole le Roux which creates spaces for white people to explore what it means to be white and privileged. 

A few weeks ago, we approached a number of Cape Town artists, crafters, writers, filmmakers and musicians to ask them to donate their work for us to use as thank you gifts in the USA. These gifts are for people who are offering us accommodation, helping us to organise fundraisers, lending us a van, hosting events etc. We had an amazing response from the people we approached, who all immediately agreed to donate their work. They are:

Poets and writers who donated copies of their books:

Jamala Safari 

Malika Ndlovu 

Lucille Greeff

Shelley Barry

Colleen Higgs of Modjadji Books, who donated 5 Modjaji poetry titles

Filmmakers who donated their DVDs:

Khalid Shamis and Tuba Films

Dylan Valley and Plexus Films

Musicians who donated their album:

Blaq Pearl

Crafters who donated their goods:

Gina Niederhumer

Debbie Carelse

Gillian Walton

Carly Tanur and Mamelani Projects

Mwila Mambwe

Visual artists who donated prints:

Fiona Almeleh

Photographers who donated prints:

Kent Lingeveldt

Georgia Andrews

Thank you to everyone for your generous support! :)

Weaving Inspired Exchange

On Tuesday October 4, we put our tag line Weaving Inspired Exchange into action, as we held our first Partner Development Workshop. The workshop was part of our Partner Exchange Network programme, which brings together NGOs across sectors to exchange skills, resources and services with the aim of multiplying the available resources in the sector.

Representatives from 15 NGOs working in Cape Town attended the workshop, to learn more about how they could exchange with one another. It was an exciting day, as the participants came to realise the power of exchange and the potential it has to change the way NGOs work.

We started the workshop by asking everyone to close their eyes and draw an item out of a black bag on the floor and put it on. Peals of laughter filled the room as people donned Mickey Mouse ears, fairy wings, crazy hats and colourful zany wigs. Each person was wearing something silly or funny that naturally brought out the little child in all of us. We asked the circle to reflect on and share their thoughts on the wisdom of a two-year-old. People spoke about their energy and enthusiasm for life, the openness with which two-year-olds approach life and also their attitude that anything is possible. As we reflected on this, we asked everyone to approach the idea of exchange and partnerships with the spirit of a two-year-old. It was wonderful to see how the joy and laughter of a two-year-old opened everyone up and changed the atmosphere in the room.

The idea of exchange is based on giving and receiving. We introduced the idea of exchange by asking each person to reflect on what they bring to the world: to their families, friends and to their work. Each person traced their hands on a piece of paper, and inside them wrote all the things they bring. Then, outside their hands, they wrote the things that their organisations could offer to other partners in the network. Each potential exchange starts with the individual, it starts with them asking the question, What can I bring? By drawing the handmaps, participants started with themselves and then moved out to their organisation.
We shared the handmaps in the circle, starting with each person saying "I bring...." and completing the sentence. A beautiful silence filled the room, as each person willing shared their gifts: listening, openness, compassion, hope.

Next, people shared the skills, resources and services that their organisation could offer to other organisations in the network. As we moved around the circle, Nicole noticed that the potential of the network had not fully clicked in yet. She asked us to go around the circle one more time, and have people name one or two things their organisation needs. The first person said, "We need funding." With a few simple questions from Nicole, the representative named sports equipment and outings for their youth programme as a need. It became clear to everyone that while we all need money to run our programmes, there are different ways to find the equipment, skills and resources such as venues and outings that we need for our programmes. And as we continued going around the circle, faces lit up as people made connections between the needs being named and the skills and resources they had which could fulfill those needs.

The room was abuzz with ideas, excitement and chatter as we paired people off for "Speed Exchange Dating". Each pair had five minutes to talk about their organisation's work, explore potential exchanges and swap contact details. It was almost heart-breaking to tear people apart after five minutes. It was evident that people were making strong connections and finding concrete ways of supporting each other's programmes. Exchange can be as simple as offering a box of paper lying in your storeroom that you no longer have use for, to an organisation that needs it. It could also be as big as offering staff training to another organisation, in creative facilitation methods, for an outing for your youth programme.
After 40 minutes of Speed Exchange Dating, we called everyone back to the circle to explain how the structure and functioning of the Partner Exchange Network. The speed dating provided a taster and people were encouraged to continue their conversations over lunch, and to set up meetings to further explore their ideas. Already we have received an email from one organisation who is sharing best practice models for youth development, with another organisation as a result of the workshop.

In the closing circle, people said they felt 'inspired', 'enthusiastic' and 'hopeful' about the possibilities going forward. Thank you to our NGO partners who attended the workshop: AfriOceans Conservation Alliance, Artscape Resource Centre, Cape Leopard Trust, Catholic Welfare and Development, Driftsands CapeNature, Tulbagh CapeNature, De Hoop Cape Nature, Earthchild Project, Educo Africa, Extra-Mural Education Project, James House, Mamelani Projects, Medical Knowledge Institute, Novalis Ubuntu Institute, SANParks: Table Mountain National Park. For more information about our Partner Exchange Network visit our website or email yesiamsomebody@gmail.com



Photos: Kent Lingeveldt

Thank You's
We'd like to thank the following people whose generosity made the workshop possible:

• Empire Cafe in Muizenberg for donating the soup for lunch
• Knead Bakery Wembley Square for donating the bread for lunch
• Driftsands CapeNature Reserve for the venue
• Photographer Kent Lingeveldt for documenting the workshop
• Filmmaker Nadine Cloete for recording the workshop and doing a short documentary about it

Soiree Series partners with 100Thousand Poets for Change

"Every voice has a tune. Every heart has a beat. And the world is large enough to hold all of us side by side drumming in unison and in cacophony. But what happens in the silence? What happens in the moments when the music of daily living dies down? When we lay down our instruments of questioning, building, fighting, creating, arguing, learning, debating and developing? Do we like what rings out from us in the silence…or do we run away from it?" says Toni Stuart in an article published in the Cape Times today. The article talks about our Soirees and about I Am Somebody!

As part of the 100 Poets for Change global event taking place on Saturday September 24, I Am Somebody! hosts its next soiree entitled The Change Within, featuring poet Toni Stuart.This will be our last soiree in South Africa this year, before heading to the USA in October.

I Am Somebody! on The Taxi with Soli Philander

On Tuesday September 20th, from 1pm -2pm, radio host Soli Philander will talk to I Am Somebody! co-directors Nicole le Roux and Toni Stuart about the work our organisation does, on The Taxi online radio station. To listen, tune in to the The Taxi, by visiting http://thetaxi.co.za/, and click "Listen Live".
You can also follow The Taxi on Facebook

A really big secret

Read Nicole's third blog post as part of our new program, Talking About It, where she begins to tell her story about being white:

“One day, a short blond haired blue eyed rebellious sometimes right sometimes wrong Afrikaans girl discovered a really big secret at the bottom of a dark dark pile of shit." 

Talking About It

Talking About It is a space by and for white people, in partnership with people of all backgrounds, to tell their stories with the aim of owning and transforming oppression from within. It creates spaces to explore the many stories, including the privileges and challenges, of being white in the 21^st century.

Through this program Nicole le Roux is telling her story and making a space to own all of the parts of herself, including her role in oppression. She is sharing it with people who want to hear it, and creating spaces where more people can begin to transform their silences by “Talking About It”.

Having lived in both countries, Nicole has experienced silence in similar and different ways in America and in South Africa. Talking About It will be officially launched in the USA this November but the conversations will happen online and in workshop spaces in both countries. 

In her second post put up today, Nicole asks:
Do we think that, if people knew the hard things about us they would no longer remember the good? Or is it that when we look at the hard things in ourselves, we forget to look at the good?

Visit the blog to read more.