Circus of Love

Titter: http://twitter.com/Circus_Of_Love
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Circus-of-Love/339901588480?ref=ts

VISION:

The Circus of Love will create a Culture of Peace. Through the universal appeal of music, the accessible paradigm of popular media, and by force of design, The Circus of Love will facilitate resolving blocks to peace within and among individuals and organizations so that they may, in turn, use their experience and talents to heal their communities. So that, united, we can heal the world.

We are at a serious time in the history of our planet and need a simple means to join together. The Circus of Love will provide this means. We will turn the media tide from the negativity to peace. We will make peace sexy, and then, we will make it sell.

MISSION:

To inspire, empower, and sustain a community of individuals and organizations actively engaged in creating a Culture of Peace through authentic experiential events and other innovative uses of media, technology, and the arts.

HISTORY:

The idea for Circus of Love was born out of tragedy when our close friend Thomas was accidentally shot and killed in 2000 by his best friend. Thomas and his friend were both central figures in our community and the tragedy and ensuing trial split our group of friends apart.

Thomas was a natural born promoter, and often threw large parties and events to gather old friends and make new ones. One of Thomas’ favorite bands was— Deeelite, the 1990’s house sensation that had split up over a disagreement between front-woman Lady Miss Keir and her once-boyfriend Supastar DJ Dimitri. With Thomas gone, we thought that getting Deee-Lite, a group that had been all about Peace, Love and Oneness, to reunite for a benefit event, might inspire our friends to follow suite, bury their respective hatchets, and come together. Yet, when
we approached the artists’ respective managers about our plan, we received a resounding “No” from all of them. (2 years later, both Lady Miss Kier and DJ Dimitri would tell us that they would have loved to have been involved.)

The idea, however, wasn’t lost, in fact it became more universal, and we started asking ourselves about the need for peace in America. If people in our own community and the pop-icons they look up to cannot come together peacefully, then how can we as a society create peace anywhere else in the world? We began to think on a much larger scale. Why stop at an event that would only benefit our estranged group of friends? Why not create a wholesale paradigm-shifting, media phenomenon that would bring, not only our friends together, but also, our city, our state, our nation, our world? In the end, what had seemed to be a set-back proved to be fuel for the fire behind what has become The Circus of Love Foundation.

THE NEEDS WE ARE FULFILLING:

Inspiring
Creating awareness among attendees about the blocks
to direct and structural peace that are present today in
the U.S. Making peace ideas, education and solutions
less academic, more sexy, marketable and accessible
to the American public. Providing them with tangible
examples of peace-in-action, including the examples of
Pop-Culture Icons and international peace visionaries.

Empowering
Providing members of the American public with simple,
practical tools for creating peace within themselves
and their communities. Calling the American public
to action and connecting them with opportunities to
create peace in their communities.

Connecting
Connecting People to People: providing a actual and
virtual peace-focused social networking opportunities
where people can connect with one another and share
their experiences with peace processes in person at the
events, as well as, online, via text and video

Connecting People to Causes and Information: providing
a “peace hub” where will have quick access to the full
landscape of peace organizations, peace volunteering
opportunities, peace news, peace education, peace events,
and other peace resources..

Connecting Organizations to Organizations: connecting
peace-based nonprofit organizations to each other so
that they may share strategic resources, fostering an
atmosphere of cooperation rather than competition. Also
connecting nonprofit organizations to the business world
in an effort promote mutually beneficial collaboration..

Connecting Organizations to Extra Funding: as proceeds
from the Circus of Love Festival allow, we will provide
grants to nonprofit organizations working to dissolve
blocks to direct and structural peace within their
communities.