'Liberation in a Multicultural Society'

Adapted from Pulpit Speech

Sunday June 12, 2022

Unitarian Universalist Church West, Brookfield, WI

'Milwaukee Gaia Buddha'

Recently, I was thinking about the fact that we live in a multicultural society. In honor of this Juneteenth, I'm thinking about the principle of freedom, specifically the efforts by many to gain it throughout our nations history. And - having made gains - the challenges that comes with it in a society where we interact daily with people who have different histories, cultures and traditions from the group or groups we belong to.

In my journey I've had the chance to interact a lot with different cultural groups abroad, locally and around the U.S. For many, including myself, it's the experience of traveling and getting to know different cultures that makes it fun. There's things I value, and other things not so much - for example, the foods that might not agree with my stomach. But, being an artist and traveling is great. What's better than enjoying the richness of different languages, customs, foods, histories, and people?

Don't get me wrong – it hasn't always been easy. There have been times when I felt self-doubt trying to learn a new language and communicate. Being an outsider, fear of rejection is something I think we all can relate to at times. Even more, fear that our different perspectives and cultural backgrounds will always be a barrier to preventing us from being able to relate. We want to give our own groups more respect and acceptance than we're willing to give other groups. It's normal for people to prefer their own group.

But there were times - plenty - when I didn't struggle with self-doubt and overcame that barrier to find that it didn't matter if my Spanish was broken or that I'm black in non-black spaces. What mattered was we had things in common – food, friendship, fun.

'Everything can Find Liberation through Love'

I think a good example of how different art forms or cultural traditions outside of our own can be attractive is music, art or food. We're all drawn to it. Music is a great example of bringing diverse cultures together literally in one expression. It's universal, but it can go a long way in expressing diversity in unique ways. It's that universal language, the rhythm, the sound, tapping on a common human experience, something we all share in common.

Another example could be feeling drawn to a particular cultural expression or tradition, without really understanding why. One thing for me is talking circles. Many indigenous groups use them all over the world and they help me feel a sense of calm and at ease participating in any social situation. Maybe our soul has experience over many lifetimes that it can find familiarity with traditions it has experienced in the past, making it a part of who we are in a spiritual way. What's your take on this idea?

If there are certain themes that draw us together because we can all can relate, I think it's because as human beings on the inside we're all the same. We all feel the need to belong, feel valued; to contribute something meaningful to help make things better and participate as part of something bigger than ourselves.

'Sherman Park Rising'

I found this to be true the more I worked with different groups through community murals. What surprised me was people's willingness to come together despite difficult situations and differences, and work together for something we all had in common – the art. It drew people to it.

In 2017 when I was working on the 'Sherman Park Rising' mural project I remember feeling fear, then surprise because I realized, after so many people came out to help, I'd underestimated the community's willingness to acknowledge painful issues in a constructive way. There were black and white, young and old, everybody working together on that project. Even the police chief at the time got involved. I had never experienced that sense of unity here in Milwaukee as I felt there, among complete strangers. It was a complete revelation that took me a long time, several years, to process. I'm still processing it and I see something new in the mural every time I look at it.

'Rockford Taking Flight'

This transformation happened again working with the community of Rockford, Il. in 2019. People of different backgrounds shared challenges they experience, that are common to many communities – like prejudice and inequities. They were offered the chance to think about the different choices they could make to help make those better. One of the things I learned from that experience is people want to be honest and open up and are willing to work together despite our differences. It tells me need freedom to dream, to create and to imagine, and more spaces for people to come together with mutual respect and share so we can see that we really have more in common than we are different.

'The Rebirthing of the Earth Mother'

But let's not stop there. Who we are, from my perspective, is more of a spiritual thing, than our physical forms. I see that kind of awareness growing in the movements for racial justice. We also can see that idea expressed in the LGBTQ community. We, collectively as a society, I believe, are wanting greater respect and acceptance of people as human beings rather than just looking at the physical form.

Cultural soul to me is more of a physical thing, in how we express ourselves as a people. The greater Human soul is more of a spiritual thing, its something we all have in common. That's her skirt in this picture. Many cultures are together in harmony, retaining their unique identity but we're richer when we're all together. Not one is dominating the others. They're sharing power equally.

'The Restoration of Compassionate Law'

A principle I try to live by is we're all parts connected to a greater whole. Equity to me is everyone having something of equal value to contribute to the larger whole to make it better. Equity is not picking and choosing the parts we like and then disrespecting the parts we don't like.

The heart naturally connects many different things that seem separate or unrelated. The brain separates and divides. So if I'm multicultural in my background, meaning like a lot of people, I have ancestry that's dominant from one cultural group, and lesser percentages of DNA from many others, my brain can look at the numbers and see the different parts as not relating to the larger whole or being less important. This is not a bad thing, its just something we can be aware of. Fortunately there are pathways to help us connect these different parts through creative thinking.

When I ask people to look at a blank wall, they immediately start to think about what they want to see there. They're getting outside of their concrete linear brains and into their minds or imagination. The mind, according to some studies of scientific research, and not yet agreed on by all scientists, exists as a field of energy outside of the brain and can interact with the environment. It allows us to sense or have awareness of how all the different parts that make up our physical form, are connected to a greater whole that is our being. There is a sense that the lesser parts are equal in value. We can do the same for our community.

Community art offers people freedom to express our raw potential as human beings to make something better, through our collective effort and choices.

'Pursuing the Vision'

Free to share, free to interact, free to collaborate, free to create the future we want, to pursue what makes us happy. Freedom to express our raw potential! Why is that so important? Because that's where our ability to create something from nothing comes from. Our potential is the raw life moving through us as human beings. You can see that potential demonstrated in the art we've created together, through sharing freely!

As a society I don't think we appreciate or fully understand yet the heart and mind this way. That's starting to change with sciences like psychology and mental health opening up new paths for our everyday lives as more and more people start to take advantage of self-discovery, whether its through their own efforts, or therapy or counseling services.

If these ideas seem a little esoteric, or difficult to get in touch with at first, I suggest we each need to approach it in our own way. That's what I'm trying to do in my work. That's why I believe liberation and living in a multicultural society is so important for us to embrace. We all need to be free to pursue what makes us happy and find our purpose in life. To me justice is about caring for life and expressing our caring freely. Community art helps us do that. Everything can find liberation through love.

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