A Giraffe's been sighted in CA |
Fran Peavey once toured the world via its park benches-in every city she visited, Peavey would simply find a public bench and sit herself down wearing a sign that said, “American willing to listen.” And listen she did, to hundreds of people who had a lot on their minds about this country and its effect on their lives. They all went away with new ideas about US citizens, thanks to this one far-from-ugly American. US diplomats take note. Peavey thinks all creative people should consider social activism as a career. A writer and performer herself, she’s made social entrepreneuring her primary life work, work that’s taken her not only to faraway park benches, but also to the former Yugoslavia, and to the banks of the Ganges. |
In 1993, concerned that rape victims in the former Yugoslavia did not know of the great outpouring of concern for them in this country, Peavey decided to collect small gifts and messages and take them to women on all sides of the conflict—Getting them into the women’s hands was not easy. In Vienna with the gifts, Peavey found that no one would rent a truck to go into a war zone; she and the colleagues who had come with her had the idea of driving to Zagreb, renting a truck there, driving back to Vienna to get the packages, and returning to Zagreb. It worked. With each gift and in every conversation, they asked for something: an idea of what people in America could do to stop the war. Peavey published their answers in her newsletter. Fran Peavey's writings include the books, Heart Politics and By Life’s Grace, Musings on the Essence of Social Change. |
|
||||||
