Suheir Hammad: Poems of war and peace, women and power

                       

Poet Suheir Hammad performs two spine-tingling spoken-word pieces: "What I Will" and "break (clustered)" -- meditations on war and peace, on women and power. Wait for the astonishing line: "Do not fear what has blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded."

The Transformational Life: Shifts for Today's World

                    

Social entrepreneur and co-founder of Chrysallis discusses how we must learn how to live a transformational life if we want to thrive in the complex world we all now inhabit.

Shifts for today's world:

1. Finding simplicity on the other side of complexity
2. To grow in discernment: shift from insulted to informed
3. To grow in mindfulness: shift from scared to sacred 
4. To grow in humility: shift from stand out to kneel down
5. To grow in sustainability: from egonomics to economics
6. To grow in empathy: from "look at" to "look as"

Authority and Leadership in Chaotic Times

                          

Dr. Margaret Wheatley writes, teaches, and speaks about how we might organize and accomplish our work in chaotic times. She invites us to attend to the quality of our relationships to weather the increasing turbulence. She knows that whatever the problem, community is the answer.

Quotes from Margaret Wheatley: 

“This is not a financial crisis. It is a global crisis created by a world organized on economic values. All systems and all peoples are affected”

“Never in the history of the world have we faced so much complexity combined with so much incompetence in understanding its properties” (Nassim Taleb)

"We are creating systems that are unmanageable, thinking that bigger is better."

“It is time for us to realize that chaos does play a role in life.” 

“Chaos is always used in a cycle of life. While people are distressed and grieving over lost dreams and opportunities and suffered terribly, I do believe it is our role as leaders to realize this is the moment for all living systems when new birth is available.” 

“Whatever is the problem community is the answer. The critical thing that leads to what is born out of chaos, are the values we choose to organize around, such as community, being there for each other, healthy relationships.”

“It is unavoidable to feel insecure when you are trying to give birth to new ways of being, and working, and doing life in the midst of an old culture that is dying.” Are you willing to be one of those who want to step forward willing to be insecure, exploring what it means “we are all in this together”?

“Fearlessness is actually a condition of acknowledging our fear but not let it in to stop us.” “If you are feeling insecure, if you are feeling fearful, that is really normal,  The question is what do you do with your fear and uncertainty.”

The Butterfly Circus

                     

At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus discovers a man without limbs being exploited at a carnival sideshow, but after an intriguing encounter with the showman he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.