Dear Friends,

We applied for the Armory for an inaugural event, and we applied to do a movement choir in the Inaugural Parade, but it seems the inside Washington crowd is not quite ready to mainstream celebratory activists!

The Obama Inaugural folks snapped up the Armory, of course--it was not going our way once they realized they had to raise every penny and were not going with high-end corporate donations for fancy ballrooms. And so we have had to come up with alternative plans.

HOWEVER, there is STILL an event to say thank you to all those who have found their voices over the past eight years, who have spoken up and out in support of true democracy and justice, and who wish to invoke the spirit of Martin Luther King and Gandhi in the new administration.

Not TOO tall an order, right?

DANCE-OBAMA: The Pulse of Peace is now the name for a NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL event: one we plan to broadcast online, if not in real time, soon after.

We are working with several organizations: the Democracy Cell Project is the fiscal sponsor [a 501(c)3] and is partnering with the Peace Mural Organization, the American Dance Therapy Association, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, and (possibly) the National Dance Education Organization. The event is a participatory celebration of movement and music; one that we are hoping will take place all across the country (one is forming in NYC, for example).

In Washington DC, the event will take place on Monday January 19, 2009, from 4-6 pm (and possibly, weather permitting, into the streets and beyond) at the Peace Mural Gallery in Georgetown: 3336 M St. NW. Food and drinks will be served. There will be a DJ playing energizing inspiring celebratory music, African drummers, and a movement choir: a participatory devised and improvised series of SIMPLE movements that result in empowerment and what Barbara Ehrenreich calls "collective joy".

TICKETS are donations-based: $15.00 advanced donations can be made at the Democracy Cell Project website (click on the Donations button on the top right of the sidebar) or you can go directly to: http://tinyurl.com/9ufnvk

Specify that you are donating to the Inaugural event.

We want this event to be inexpensive, open to all ages, no particular dress code (although you will want to be comfortable!) and ENERGIZING. We'd also like it to be large enough to get the attention of the mainstream media (who will be searching for VISUAL stories about people who are NOT sheep, but who are positive and pushing hard.

And what happens at 6:00 pm, you may well ask? Well, there are lots of evening events (Netroots Nation has a ball in Clarendon that evening, I believe), Busboys and Poets (local lefty restaurants) will be open 24 hours for food, open mikes, and readings, many organizations are doing trainings that day, etc. But I myself would like to move through the streets of Georgetown, reminding people that the streets belong to the people and in a democracy, honest caring voices do matter, and do make a difference.

And, of course, that we are the ones we've been waiting for.

Please join us and spread the word.