The recently released American Dreamers book features an essay by our very own Shannon Galpin. What is American Dreamers? An initiative of Sharp Stuff, American Dreamers “is for those who believe in brighter futures. Gathering the optimists, mavericks, and mad inventors who believe we can create a better world, American Dreamers is a guidebook for optimism and an art book for inspiration.”
Each year I’m flummoxed by the kickoff to our holiday season. Let’s bring family and friends together to give thanks for what we have on Thursday, and then trample our fellow man at 5am at a local Walmart to purchase cheap electronics on Friday? How does that celebrate the holiday season?
“good will towards men”
“peace on earth”
Are these just words we write on our holiday cards out of tradition and the brainwashing of decades of Christmas carols? We spend an insane amount of time and money on decorations and presents and general fa-la-la-la’ing – but these days its only surface deep.
We should be living the holiday spirit every day – wishing our global neighbors and our literal neighbors ‘peace on earth’. We should be treating those around us with smiles, and good cheer, and homemade sugar cookies ALL YEAR ROUND. Not just when we bust out the artificial holiday wreath and tack it to our front door.
This Saturday, the short documentary film, MoveShake, premiered Shannon Galpin: A MoveShake Story on the big screen of Adventure Film Festival in Boulder. A story of determination of a life dedicated to raising the voices of women and girls in conflict zones like Afghanistan, and as her role as a mother of a seven-year-old daughter.
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Next spring, after four years working in Afghanistan, Mountain2Mountain will launch it first domestic program, ‘Strength in Numbers’, in the United States, targeting young women at-risk, female military veterans, and violence survivors. Utilizing the bike as a vehicle for social justice, beyond traditional bike donations, instead considering mountain biking as a seed for cultural exchange and self-determination abroad and at home.
‘Strength in Numbers’ is an evolution from our ongoing work with women and girls in Afghanistan and our founder, Shannon Galpin’s, own personal experience as a victim of violence, and her continued push on gender and cultural barriers by becoming the first woman to mountain bike there, a country where women are not allowed to ride bikes. The first program will launch in spring 2013.
This visit to Kabul has been short and sweet, if not full of its usual challenges.
Following the spate of recent attacks that have marked an significant increase in violence over the past months since I was last here (Intercontinental Hotel, US Embassy, Rabbani’s assassination) I arrived on the 2nd day of national mourning to quiet and often barricaded streets. Add in some cross border rocket attacks by Pakistan into Afghanistan and the shift in talk to ISI and Haqqani’s as the real threat behind terrorism, and you can say tensions are more than a little stretch. Consequently, two public street marches within a few days in the central Shar e nau district, with chants of “death to Pakistan” “death to the Taliban” show that the Afghans are not going to continue to take attacks quietly.
This October, the Panjshir Tour rolls into several cities – grassroots, community bike rides that supportMountain2Mountain’s work with women and children in conflict zones. This is the second year of the Tour, based off my experiences mountain biking in Panjshir province of Afghanistan. Yup, Afghanistan.
Countries like Afghanistan don’t culturally allow women on bikes right now, and while our project focus is targeted towards women and girls, its not about getting them on bikes, Rather, its about using the bike as a vehicle for social justice and change for women’s rights. It’s a subtle difference, but a powerful one. Mountain2Mountain’swork is advocacy, education, training, and cultural outreach. We aren’t trying to rashly push on cultural boundaries unnecessarily over there, but we can use the bike back here as a tool to affect change in increments that are sustainable.
Thus the Panjshir Tour was born when I rode across the Panjshir Valley last October, and riders in eight communities rode with me in solidarity for women’s rights, using their sweat equity to help raise awareness and funds for our projects. Rides like the one in Saratoga Springs, New York which was spearheaded by 11-year-old Reese Arthur around her neighborhood with her fellow students, or the one in Washington DC that started at ended at previously designated women’s prisons during the suffrage movement. The deaf university, Gallaudet University in Washington DC hosted a campus ride knowing it would benefit our work with the Afghan National Association for the deaf as we work to build a school, and cruiser bikes hit the beach path in LA in an impromptu ride.
Countries like Afghanistan don’t culturally allow women on bikes right now, yet my experience riding across the Panjshir Valley, as a foreign woman, on a bike was met with friendly curiosity and often incredulity, but never animosity. The interactions created by their curiosity led to endless conversations and questions about my purpose there and my work in the area, and often concluded with requests to visit their village, or offers to join their family for dinner. The gracious tradition of Muslim hospitality to travelers firmly in place even in a country enduring nearly forty years of conflict.
It was my goal to challenge perceptions and invite conversation on both sides of the equation. Challenging the stereotypes of women and Americans in Afghanistan, while challenging parallel stereotypes of Afghans as a people and as a nation in the United States. Bridging cultures and communities on two wheels.
Women that I know that lived and worked in Afghanistan in the 60′s as part of the Peace Corps rode their bikes daily to and from work – a far cry from the security lockdowns and convoys required today. Women like Dervla Murphy pedaled solo across the entire region prior to the Soviet’s invasion. We all know the power of the pedal. Connecting communities, reducing our carbon footprint, improving our health, exploring new cultures, and in third world countries the list grows to social issues like increasing access to education and healthcare, and decreasing violence against women. Pedal power indeed.
It is this pedal power that sparked the Panjshir Tour in cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis, Saratoga Springs, Santa Rosa, Portland, and Washington DC.
Actor and bike advocate Matthew Modine expressed his support of the Panjshir Tour as honorary co-chair of this year’s event stating, “The women and girls of Afghanistan deserve our attention and support. This is not a women’s issue or an Afghanistan issue. Its a human rights issue. I want to encourage everyone with a bike to use it as a vehicle for social change by coming out and riding with us and showing your support for gender equity and opportunity for women and girls all over the world”
By coming together with our bikes, we can fight for justice, we can battle for change, and we can do it one pedal stroke at a time.
Come join us this October, or start your own grassroots ride in your community. Get pedaling and get involved!
(originally published in Huffington Post - September 9, 2011)
Talisman. def: an object held to act as a charm, avert evil and bring good fortune
My talisman is a silver ring that I’ve had for several years. It’s now scratched and has a small dent but I wear it every day because of the words inscribed upon the silver.
Words have power. We use them to express feeling and invoke emotion. Words can rally the masses, rage against injustice and soothe a broken heart. Time and time again, we return to familiar passages, quotes and phrases to remind us of how others described what we have felt.
I am a lover of the power of words. I surround myself with quotes from Churchill, poetry from Hafiz and the words of great orators, philosophers and writers to inspire and push me forward.
Several years ago my family gave me the silver ring that has become my talisman – a piece from San Francisco designer, Jeanine Payer. The inscription by Longfellow reads, “the lowest ebb is at the turn of the tide.”
They gave it to me to remind me to be strong, follow my heart and believe that the tide would one day turn. I had recently cashed in all of my meager personal funds to launch a nonprofit called Mountain2Mountain, an organization dedicated to empowering the women and children of Afghanistan. I had a two-year-old daughter and I was taking a huge personal risk. Nevertheless, I decided to set the best possible example for my daughter by investing in the belief that I could build a sustainable organization that could benefit women and girls for generations to come. I’ve never looked back.
There is an unusual strength that comes from wearing the words that inspire us. The power of words in a tangible form, present on our bodies, is like a whisper in your ear, “be strong, be brave, don’t give up”.
Jewelry is not the first thing anyone would normally reach for when selecting an appropriate wardrobe to take to a warzone. But it has been for me. I’ve worn that ring on every trip to Afghanistan. Jeanine didn’t know it at the time, but she was with me through multiple trips, under burqas in Kandahar, sleeping in village homes, and inside women’s prisons. She rode a buzkashi horse, fished in the Panjshir river, and was there when I became the first woman to mountainbike in Afghanistan. She has survived suicide bombs and gun attacks. Her ring and those words have protected and inspired me through it all.
The ring has been a constant reminder that the turn of the tide is always coming, wave after wave, day after day. Today the ring is criss-crossed with scatches and has a small dent, but even that reminds me of everything I have accomplished, with Mountain2Mountain, and as a mother.
It’s always with me, not like a lucky pair of socks, but as a powerful amulet bestowing courage and hope even in the darkest of times. Its words inspire my next steps, linking my future actions to the words I wear.
A few years ago, on my birthday, my parents gave me a pair of Jeanine’s earrings. “I dwell in possibility,” they say. While I don’t wear them as often, I smile every time I slide them on. Every time I wear them, I dwell in possibility. They remind me that everything and anything is possible if I am willing to forge ahead.
A few months ago I reached out to Jeannie to share the story of my ring and thank her for all it’s meant to me. I asked if she understood the power of her designs and the inscriptions. She sent me a link from People magazine that talked about the power of words and talismans. She is keenly aware that aware that words can spark change and inspire courage.
In honor of the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, Jeannie has agreed to collaborate with me on three pieces of jewelry to benefit Mountain2Mountain’s work to create gender equity and girls’ education in Afghanistan. She has designed five beautiful pieces that are powerful representations of the courage of women all around the world. Her designs are inscribed with these words:
“Courage, strength, and hope possess my soul…I will stand firmly and without fear.” – Goethe
“When its dark, you can see the stars” – Persian proverb
…and, in honor of the power of my own talisman, she has reintroduced the Longellow quote from the ring she designed several years ago. The one I wear:
“The lowest ebb is at the turn of the tide”
It is my sincere hope that our collaboration, the power of these words, and the proceeds that go to help us empower more women and girls in Afghanistan will help lead to a turning of the tide in women’s rights all around the world.
Take a look. Wear the words. Stand firm, and dwell in the possible.
One of the most important things we can do as a non-profit organization is to make a connection. Not just between donors and projects, but between communities and individuals. Working in Afghanistan makes that connection very difficult to achieve.
Time and time again, people travel to the far-flung corners of the world, and come back changed forever. Touched by the people they met, the smells, the food, the landscape, they become connected in a visceral way. The people that have lived and worked in Afghanistan have that visceral connection, but it is not a place we can take donor trips to or host student exchanges.
Couple the lack of security with the media coverage of the war on terror, and the stereotypes built around a nation that has endured nearly forty years of conflict, and it becomes even more difficult to connect to the real Afghanistan. Mountain2Mountain was founded on the idea that we can create a ripple effect of change and compassion by connecting communities and cultures.
Out of that founding principle, Streets of Afghanistan was born. A multimedia exhibition that unites Afghan and Western photographers and videographers to bring a little piece of Afghanistan into our world for one night. Visitors walk amongst 10×8 foot high images and video projections that recreate the market streets in Kabul. The rolling green hills captured by photographer Beth Wald, look more akin to Norway than Afghanistan until you notice the yak train in the corner. It creates a different sense of place than the deserts and dusty landscapes usually associated with the region. The beauty, and the dichotomy of that beauty, set against the destruction and history takes your breath away.
The signature image of the exhibition, is a woman covered in a burqa sitting with her child in her lap, begging in the middle of the road. The image captures both the pain and beauty of Afghanistan; juxtaposing the dream-like quality of the country and its residents, against the ravaging effects of three decades of conflict and war. Photographer Tony Di Zinno captured the image from an oncoming car — lensing the feeling of impending contact. In reality, the driver stopped when he came to the woman and handed her some food from the kebab stand he had just visited for lunch.
Interspersed amongst the landscapes and streets, seven-foot-high portraits of women greet visitors. Images of teachers, students, police officers, ministers of parliament, mothers, and victims of self-immolations show the diversity of the women of Afghanistan — their beauty and strength in a country known for its oppression. Walking, ghost-like, through the crowd the images, and the video projections of market scenes and rural life, are real women dressed in the different colored burqas of Afghanistan.
Art has the power to change. Streets of Afghanistan aims to do just that; open hearts and minds in an effort to combat apathy with compassion. “Dare to believe in our common humanity” is not just our tagline — its a call to action. Come join us!
Streets of Afghanistan opens in Denver with a one day event at the Denver Art Museum on April 28, 2011, followed by an event at the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art as it begins its journey as a traveling cultural exhibition.
photo by Di Zinno
Something new is in the streets of Kabul.
Increased security? Check
Lakes of mud and sewage? Check
Street art? Check?
Street art, stencil art specifically, has popped up on several walls across Kabul over the past year.
Under the cover of night they take to the streets of Kabul, armed with stencils, spray paint and cameras. The youth of Afghanistan are finding their voice.
Tanks, soldiers, dollar signs, poppies, refugees, students in school, helicopters, Talibs, and question marks are assembled into equations – giving Afghans and Westerners alike a reason to stop in curious wonder and think. The ‘unknown’ taggers created the question, “Chand Ast?”. In stencil art. Translated from Dari to English it means “How Much?” — an effort to challenge all of us about the Cost of War.
The anonymous artists are part of Combat Communications, a group of artists and musicians in Kabul that started Afghanistan’s stencil art movement to increase awareness and inspire conversation about the cost of war. As in much street art around the world, there is a strong undercurrent of activism.
Mountain2Mountain has teamed with Combat Communications and Cultures of Resistance to work with Afghanistan’s next generation of artists. We will begin in two weeks with a workshop with London street artist, Chu, and Kabul University art students called “This is Afghanistan”.
Street art is any art created in a public spaces and it goes far beyond the stereotype of graffiti and wall tagging by vandals and gangs. Its purpose is to question the current environment and inspire dialogue about socially relevant topics. Street art has proved that it a powerful platform by challenging existing paradigms and fueling resistance movements all over the world. Banksy’s iconic images on the walls of the West Bank attracted international attention and brought street art into the spotlight. And this year’s iconic $100,000 TED prize, given to one “charitably minded person who works to change the world” went to 27 year-old street artist JR, a guerilla artist from Paris who installs his massive work across the world’s poorest slums and refugee camps.
“JR’s mind-blowing creations have inspired people to see art where they wouldn’t expect it and create it when they didn’t know they could,” stated TED prize director, Amy Novogratz.
Street art has become a recognized and integral part of the art world as the work of international street artists like Banksy, Ash, and Shepard Fairey have become must-have pieces in many private art collections.
What does this have to do with Afghanistan? It comes down to the root of street art. Freedom. Expression. A voice. A point of view. Youth culture has always been rooted in these ideals. But the youth in Afghanistan have grown up under the darkness of the Taliban, without art, music, sports, and a robust cultural ife or the freedom to develop one of their own. Their voice has yet to fully emerge.
If we want to see real, sustainable change in countries like Afghanistan, we have to look to the next generation. They need to find their inspiration, their culture, and their voice. The need to develop a community and see themselves in the future of their own country. They need to get involved and rediscover their passion for their country and their vision for its future.
Art is one part of the solution. Join us.
As the US enters its ten-year of active engagement in Afghanistan, a polarizing debate intensifies regarding our continued involvement. Rather than enter the weary fray of should we/shouldn’t we, I offer up a different window into the future of a country plagued by nearly 40 years of conflict and destruction. The youth.
Young adults living in Afghanistan today, grew up under the oppressive regime of the Taliban. Their brutally oppressed formative years that banned music, sport, art, and education have collided with the past ten spent crawling out from under the dark blanket that covered the entire country. A decade later, they are living their lives every day under great strain, never knowing if their country will one day be at peace again, but determined to find their own voice in amongst the rubble that surrounds them. The capital city of Kabul is home to a select few that have chosen to shake off the apathy and find their voice, and in doing so, are sowing the seeds of tomorrow’s generation.
1. Kabul Dreams. The first Afghan rock band, played in public last fall for the first time, and since then, have become a force in the Kabul youth scene. They are the first to publically part ways with the steadfast tradition of cultural music, and are creating quite a fanclub in the process. Not unlike the changes rock music made in our country when it emerged, it’s controversial and powerful. The next Elvis? Probably not. But seeing them perform is incredible, if not just for their music, but for the audience’s reaction when they cut loose.
2. Kabul Girls Soccer Club. In the same stadium that was famous for beheading women and using their heads as footballs, its an inspiring sight to see girls playing football. Ghazni stadium is home to a growing group of girls that play and compete in tournaments outside of Afghanistan, assuming visas are granted and uniforms can be rounded up. Highlighted in the book, Kabul Girls Soccer Club by Awista Ayub, eight original girls started playing in 2004. Today, close to 200 hundred play in the Afghanistan Football Federation – challenging perceptions of women and sport.
4. Sabrina Sagheb. Afghanistan’s youngest female parliamentary candidate ran an outspoken campaign in last month’s election. Female candidates are always at risk, but 25-year-old Sabrina didn’t let the risk quiet her voice. ”If elected I will face up to the old men with guns that destroyed our country. Now it is our turn to fight with them.” Votes are still being counted and she’s a longshot, but her willingness to stand up, speak up, and be heard will inspire more women to take up the fight for years to come.
4. Afghan Star. Afghanistan’s Tolo TV had its first big hit in the reality television series, Afghan Star based off our own, American Idol. A documentary by the same name came out in 2008 and won acclaim at Sundance Film Festival. It showcased the men and women that auditioned from around the country to compete, often at great risk. The country as a whole responded with fervor, and voting for idol stars crossed ethnic lines that government elections have so far failed to do.
6. Skateistan. A NGO launched in 2007 by three Austrailians that teaches boys and girls, young and old to skateboard. Kabul has very little in terms of smooth roads or sidewalks, so they raised the funds for a skatepark which opened at Ghazni stadium. Kids spent a few hours in a safe environment, off the streets, learning to nail an ollie, or take on the halfpipe. Can’t be long before they’re picking up the slang and riding the rails. Any future for an Afghan X-Games?
This is a real country, with real people, with a real youth movement. Just because there is daily violence, and an ongoing war, doesn’t mean that real life doesn’t continue, that normalcy shouldn’t be encouraged, and that we can’t focus projects that embolden, strengthen, and inspire the future generation to stay in Afghanistan and give voice to its future.
In fact, considering the generations of conflict, it’s all the more reason to galvanize the youth out of their apathy and support those youth movements that are burgeoning. It can do more for stability than we can possibly know.
