On Behalf of me (Rainn), Devon, Joshua and Jamie,
thank you for taking the time to think about the
question we are posing to you.
Here’s the deal. Many months ago, I gathered some
Baha’i friends to help me film a short interview I did
with a Sikh friend of mine about her beliefs. I was
looking for a way to use my celebrity to bring
attention to the Baha’i Faith, but in a way that
wouldn’t make me any kind of celebrity spokesperson.
I thought a website, called “Metaphysical Milkshake”
would be a good idea. As this website idea
progressed, it became defined as an online destination
for a conversation about Spirituality and Creativity –
a place to address ‘life’s big questions”. It would
be a content based site, with my little spirituality
interviews with folks of many religions as well as
other video essays, art contests, boards, essays and
other things to draw young people into a discussion
about God and the Soul and make it hip and cool – and
not in a Christian Rock Band kind of way.
My thinking was that before young people could
directly get interested in the Faith, they would need
to start really thinking about spiritual things first.
After that discussion began and that seed was
planted, THEN you could have them transition to
finding out more about what sparked the site, the
teachings of Baha’u’llah.
This led the four of us to a discussion about how
there was not really any existing internet site for
Baha’i Youth that had a cool, cutting edge feel to it.
There was no place to direct Metaphysical Milkshakers
to. We then discussed creating a second site that
would be a platform for Baha’i Youth to bring their
friends to find out more about the Faith as well as a
tool for youth to get service projects going and
invigorate participation in the core activities.
Then we wondered, is there a way to combine both of
these sites into one… Or is that too much?
Why all this history? Well, we’re a bit stumped and
we need some feedback. Right now, this all feels like
too much, and too unfocused. Basically we have four
really committed talented guys who want to build a
kickass website for Baha’i Youth. We want to put our
resources into creating something that could be an
incredibly valuable tool to both the Baha’i and
non-Baha’i youth. A site that would be of the
greatest possible service.
What should that site be? We prayed and consulted for
many hours about this. We read through the last
letter from the Universal House of Justice. We’re
stuck and need some feedback.
What it boils down to is this. The internet is a
tremendous tool for our community that is not really
being utilized. What is ultimately the best service,
the best use of our time and resources? We have my
name and celebrity to help the site as well as many
other Baha’i artists like Benny Cassette and KC Porter
and the Dawnbreaker Collective.
There are 3 main categories for the kind of approach
we could take.
1) Something similar to “Metaphysical Milkshake”. A
site that is for young people to undertake a different
kind of discussion about religion and spirituality
that includes creativity and the arts.. Whet people’s
appetite for the Faith. Baha’i inspired, but not just
for Baha’is. Videos, humor, talk-shows, contests,
etc… Get a spiritually moribund generation thinking
about God.
2) A site for all youth, Baha’i and or non-Baha’i that
seeks to inspire youth to both a dialogue about
spirituality as well as to action and service. A site
that could be used as a tool to generate some kind of
‘Youth Movement’. Could direct all youth to
participation in the core activities. Baha’i
inspired, but for all. Get Baha’i youth to invite
their friends to this site.
3) A site that is specifically for Baha’i Youth. To
inspire them to socially network and focus on the core
activities. To perpetuate the spiritual fire one
feels after a youth conference. To keep that going on
the web. A focus on service and on ways to host
devotionals perhaps. Blogs, forums, chats, networks.
Information. Ways to liven up Ruhi classes and
Feasts. Basically a service and an inspiration to the
needs of Baha’i Youth.
Now there are many other ways to go with a site.
Trying to take on all 3 of these might be too much.
It might not fit all on one website and might not
therefore do any of it well.
WHICH WAY DO WE TAKE THIS?
Here are some things from our brainstorming sessions.
1) What we’d ideally like to have from a web presence.
In our wildest dreams. IF we could do it all-
• Give Baha’i Youth an identity
• A kickass introduction to the Baha’i Faith (video
collage)
• Spark a spiritual conversation / engage in a new
dialogue about God
• Spark a spiritual revolution, a youth movement
• Bring the focus to the core activities.
• Make the core activities cool
• Give Baha’i Youth a community, an identity to be
proud of
• Use Baha’i arts celebrities to inspire
• Focus on creativity and arts as relates to
spirituality
• Become an epicenter of Baha’i arts and spirituality
• Facilitate action and service
• Make spirituality cool
2) Here are some things (tools and content) that could
be on a website
• Rainn’s mini talk-show
• A FEAST is BORING section (to foster a dialogue about ways to make it better - arts, etc.)
• A RUHI is BORING section (same dialogue)
to strengthen)
• Integrate site into existing social networks like
Facebook
• A place to submit, post artwork of all kinds
• Art contests
• A cool Baha’i introductory video
• A contemporary history of Faith
• Blogs/message boards/forums
• Forums that are based on quotes from the writings
• A devotional program tool
• Library of favorite quotes – integrate with ocean
• Imbed quotes and songs
• Regional boards/localization – to facilitate meet
ups/action
• Setting goals for the membership (50 firesides in a
month!, etc…)
• Consultation based forums
• Spiritual flash mobs
• Online prayer circles
• Online ruhi
• T-shirt designs and contests
There is our quandary. Please give us your ideas.
Thanks for your time.
Rainn, Jamie, Joshua and Lil’ Devon.
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Rainn, Jamie, Joshua and Lil’ Devon.
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11 comments:
RAINN HERE AGAIN:
Something else that has come to our attention - to add to the mix - is that many other Baha'i artists are looking to start an online presence - Kelly Snook, JB Eckl and Eric Dozier, Dawnbreaker Collective, etc...
Perhaps this site is something that could also serve as a platform for Baha'i artists - to move and inspire and to serve the core activities...
ANOTHER RAINN THOUGHT
the way i'm thinking about this now is to start small
a shared site for Baha'i artists:
Dawnbreaker Collective
Benny Cassette
Ferraby
JB ekl
ME / metaphysical milkshake
etc...
a place for Baha'i youth to meet up and support Baha'i arts creativity and put it to use in the core activities. Start there, maybe... see where it goes.
Hi guys,
Wow. It's thrilling to see such a capable and motivated team behind this.
Here are a few suggestions.
I would focus. Start with whatever it is that this team – and only this team – can do. Match that to your objective, which seems to be to use the arts to inspire youth to create a Baha’i identity – where the Faith isn’t part of their life, but is their life. I think option #1 is closest to this.
I would integrate Baha’is and non-Baha’is. I think we have a continuum of spiritual receptivity among both groups – not two big buckets who need two different things. By and large they need the same thing, which is to acquire spiritual thirst and then be channeled to an outlet to quench it, such as service, the core activities, and the like. This seems to me aligned with the move toward having a more outward-looking orientation. Again option #1 rings true here.
I would make sure “the answer” remains as dynamic as the path leading to it. No doubt you already plan to invest a lot of effort into creating the content that inspires young people to investigate and deepen in the Faith. However I think just as much effort (or, actually, more) needs to go into the content people delve into when they begin their search. Put simply, once you create the thirst, what will you give them to drink? You already hit on this when you pointed out there isn’t a site out there right now for youth to have a good discussion about the Faith. Major renovation is happening on the Bahai.org sites right now, but they will always be broad and lack interactivity. How do we craft the right sort of content, that cuts to the heart of why the Faith matters and how it transforms? This requires a LOT more thought.
I would avoid the “platform” for Baha’i artists model. Baha’i artists will of course contribute content, but this doesn’t seem like the right place for them to carve out their primary web presence. MySpace and other services are better for this, and the artists can link to them. Most importantly it will ensure that the purpose and strategy of the site doesn’t get diluted or distracted. On a related note, making sure the Baha’i “celebrities” are the means of the site and not the ends of the site will be critical to meeting the ultimate aims. The latter is easier and can be more fun, but the former is your raison d’être.
I would keep sustainability in mind from the beginning. Building something is easy. Maintaining a project like this – and not just rebooting the server but really keeping content fresh and continually improving the experience – is significantly more difficult. This links to the other points about focus. The more focused, the easier maintaining a healthy pace of growth becomes.
I’d be happy to share the learnings I’ve had from the old-school BahaiYouth.com at some point. For now, gotta run!
With love,
Adam
Hey all. Just had a chat with Kelly. I've cut and paste it here for your perusal. Gives a sense of what she's up to. Very cool stuff ::
KELLY : our idea is for a music blog with 7 bloggers (and 7 backup bloggers) - 1 for each day... then a pool of 30 musicians that commit to making new music for the bloggers to post and review
...then another set of monthly guest writers
and an accompanying podcast
with 7 new songs each week
each musician is responsible for producing/recording one new song a month
by "musician" i mean producer and/or musician
the bloggers ar eeach repsonsible for one blog post a week and getting one new song out of their pool of musicians for the podcast.
...we're pretty excited about it
we even already have something in place we can austomatically launch
cuz it's already in existence
we can then through consultation between all of us do some rebranding if we like
the site we can start with is already a blog with a podcast
it's called nextlevelradio.org
i met with will morrison last night and pitched this to him and he was very exicted
this means it would take almost no upstart funds
and only a little development
we can pattern it after this blog: www.nonalignmentpact.com
they've got one writer per day
we put together a list of the people that we brainstormed could be bloggers and musicians to ask for commitments.
we can put together a very clear list of accountabilities and responsibilities
spread across all of us, it would be a really exciting and awesome site where no one person has to do too much and we already have a library of material to start with... so it can be instantly implemented.
i've talked to a few of the people we identified as potential bloggers...
on nonalignmentpact.com the only requirement is that their posts have something to do with music
we could make it so that the only requirement be about music or visual media and the Faith.
podcast would be all audio, but they often post imbedded video on nonalignmentpact.com because video and music are so intertwined.
Previously we had an idea about something sort of similar but was more complicated and would have required a lot of money up front to develop because it involved uploading and downloading content and creating profiles and stuff. i think it's probably a better idea just to start with this and then graduate to that.
This is exciting. Here are some tentative initial reactions:
1. Focus on one thing where they can bring energy, distinctiveness, and
their creative talent. The "Metaphysical Milkshake" concept is powerful. Stay with that vision, start small and let it evolve. A youth arts
oriented site with a focus on the spiritual dimension of "life's big
questions" would no doubt be deeply appealing to youth. Having Rainn do
interviews is a cool attractor to the site. All sorts of issues could be
explored that could open doors to deeper dialogues that could be more
Baha'i-inspired--for example, how does one deal with tests, develop
meaningful relationships, transcend the self and serve others, promote
real social change that is non-adversarial, non-ideological and unifying,
how does one define one's true identity in a multicultural, globalizing
context, how one find one's real purpose beyond the superficial
materialistic social programming that overwhelms us?
Rainn could be a bit bold in his interviews and be a bit bold about why
religion is deeply relevant to today's youth--not just personal
spirituality or individual spiritual development. We are social beings
and therefore individual spiritual purpose is tied to the well-being of
the whole. It is simplistic to say ‘Well, if people were good, if people
were spiritual and always in their personal sphere, then things would be
good’. Spirituality is treated almost like a commodity in the
marketplace--sort of like different brands of potato chips--different
chips for different tastes. Baha'u'llah is saying something different: we
need to come together and for this to happen you can't just be in your
spiritual space oblivious of others and you can't ignore social injustice
and how society functions. We find true spiritual purpose by transforming
our inner selves and the social reality around us.
Rainn could gradually invite some Baha'i authors/speakers on the site at
specific times where live chat (moderated) could be held and topics like
race unity, life after death, suffering and all sorts of things could be
discussed. This might draw a lot of folks. I love the livechat feature
with prominent thinkers at washingtonpost.com. If people would want to
know more specific things about the Faith then a dedicated portion of the
site might evolve that could be devoted to answering questions.
2. They might want to check out "soultalk.ning.com" to see one of the
more creative Baha'i-oriented social spaces that is drawing a steady
stream of seekers.
3. Their idea for a destination space for Baha'i youth seems to be very
much what the Agency is focusing on. My hunch again is that it would be
better to start small and see what evolves. Maybe we could collaborate
with them on something. But why don't they just start with something they
know such as "Artistic expression and Baha'i identity" and go from there
to other topics.
OK I'm sorry it took me so pitifully long to respond with my thoughts here.
There are several "ingredients" that I think could be successful parts of what you are creating. As to the proportions of those ingredients and how to combine them, perhaps that's the next discussion?
Focus -- I agree with the comments about just doing what you can do, and not trying to fold in a lot of other people/efforts until the "core" of what you're doing takes shape.
Regularly produced content -- I think one key element will be regular content (from the community but especially from Rainn). If people can look forward to an interview/skit/blog post from/with Rainn every week or so, that would be good.
Participation -- having places where people can upload videos/music/post responses is going to be a great way to gauge interest as well as get ideas for new postings/concepts/topics.
Focus on concepts/Holy Text vs. information -- this may be obvious, but I think engaging the challenging concepts like independent investigation of truth, oneness of religion, as well as the station of Bahá'u'lláh, and being a bit audacious about sharing the source of these things will be good. There is a recent letter about "direct teaching" which may help to give context.
Arts! -- this also may be obvious, but I think encouraging the use of different arts (drama/music/painting/photography/poetry/writing/etc.) would create a new kind of space on the Internet that doesn't really exist yet...hmm I'm getting excited just thinking about it!
Again, sorry for such a late contribution but hope it helps and I hope to be part of future discussions.
for what it's worth, I just got back from the TED conference and was incredibly inspired. especially impactful for me was he fact that whereas there has been an evangelical atheism feel to talks at the level of TED's (intellectual, research-based) this year there was a lot of mystical/divine talk.
it made me think about this project and the principal of focusing on something, and getting it out there asap and then iterating on it.
also sorry for being late to the game here.
hungrily,
pedraum
i haven't read everything on this page in a lot of detail---honestly, i've just skimmed.
but i'd like to offer my thoughts/ideas/suggestions, anyway:
1. i liked this Baha'i Blog a lot. it was contemporary, it was interesting, it was cultural, and informative, and spiritual. i wish it could be kept up, or i wish something like it could happen again.
2. i like george's Baha'i Views blog---it has inspiring stories and lovely pictures and very diverse content. i'm not always 100% on board with the way some things are presented, but i always find it worthwhile to read.
3. an blog that i think is essential to read as a person concerned with social justice is Baha'i Thought. phillipe's take on social justice, specifically race, in the light of the Baha'i writings NEVER FAILS to stir me, provoke me to think about a unique perspective, and make me recommit to the pursuit of equality and justice.
4. los angelista frequently writes with humour. she has a strong, spiritual voice that colours everything she writes about, whether a concert she's been to or the future of her children. her approach to life, as a Baha'i, is inspiring. i've started reading her every day, too.
5. amy sahbaand i have started two collaborative and spiritual creative projects: nineteen days (for the Fast) and every morn and eve(for daily prayers and reflections). we have had very positive and encouraging feedback, from all sorts of people, not necessarily Baha'i.
6. i love the measured, poetic, reflective nature of sholeh's personal blog. it is always spiritual, sometimes very serious, but altogether a delightful website to visit.
7. i love how the Baha'i World News Service has incorporated video into some of its stories. more of this, please! there are short films on the internet with Baha'i content---i can't find them at the moment, but they are really wonderful, and much easier to absorb than more pages of text LIKE YOU'RE PROBABLY AWARE OF RIGHT NOW.
and one other thought i have---as eager as i am to see more excellent Baha'i youthie content in cyberspace, i do think it's worthwhile to continue being vigilant about wisdom, respect, dignity and integrity. this has probably been said already and we are all endeavouring for this anyway, but so SO easily things on the internets that are associated with the Baha'i Faith can become tainted with discord or degradation. do you know what i mean?
and i know we all have different standards for this stuff, but it does bear repeating in the sense of how frequently we should call the lofty standards of wisdom and beauty to mind when we produce internet content for public consumption.
I'M JUST SAYING.
i don't mean to say that i am not enthusiastic to see what the fruits of this project will be--because i AM! i love seeing new Baha'i creative content. it's so exciting. there's so much potential. I LITERALLY CAN'T WAIT WHY ISN'T IT HERE ALREADY.
oh, i have one more point. please, no spelling or grammar mistakes? that would keep my blood pressure down nicely.
CHEERS,
love from leila
please ignore any and all spelling and grammar mistakes in my previous comment as aberrations that came about as a consequence of sitting in front of a computer for the seventeenth hour in a row.
that is all!
love! from leila
Might I add to this list www.bahaiperspectives.com. It is still quite new but the pool of contributors is growing, and we have big plans moving forward.
Very excited by the ideas here - I think we are all looking forward to the day when a Baha'i-inspired site will have a broad universal appeal.
A platform for Baha'i artists sounds great- just remember to invite all kinds of art forms like photography, graphic design, creative writing, short films and more...
I know youth involved in all of that and more, but I don't think outside of music that there's much of a scene yet for those other kinds of arts in our community. If there is, I haven't heard of it yet.
One idea is perhaps to start with arts, and then let it grow organically from there.
Good luck guys! Can't wait!
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