Amatullah Merving is an activist from Boston; she has been working with the Boston Youth Organizing Project and was invited by Kiara Nagel to join in conversations related to young adult or youth education in North America, and to meet other young people actively engaging with the world. Below she shares her experience of meeting us and our work.

As I walked out of the airline's gates, with my bags in hand, ready to discover this “new” world, I thought I was more prepared than a man ready to bungee jump (although I doubt my adventure was nearly as drastic). I had been told I would meet amazing people my age who would push me to think a little deeper. I have to admit, this was an understatement. I could not remember the last time I been asked to search within my self to answer a very familiar and unfamiliar question at the same time. The question was simply “who are you?”, which might not have been the hardest question to answer. Actually it was. I had some idea of an answer, but not much. This led to an even deeper question, “Why don’t I know who I am?"

As the activity ended with my partner and we were brought back to the group of amazing individuals, I still thought. Who am I? This question was meant to linger with me as I began what seemed to be a new journey. Not only did l leave this very unique city called Portland,Oregon with so many new friends (whom I must say brightened up such a dark time for me as I struggled to figure out where I belonged) but also with so many new perspectives on life.

I had been introduced to a world of amazing young people. As promised. Young people who understood the world in a way that was both different and similar at the same time to my own. We all strived for one thing, a better world to live in, and with very creative ways on how to make that happened. I pursued this as a youth organizer on the East Coast, as did some of these young travelers, bio efficient farm builders, and college students who each found their place in the cities they lived in.

I must say, I could write many things about my experience in Portland, but as a young person living in this digital and fast paced society, the best way is sometimes the fastest. So in the shortest terms: "While in Portland, I walked into a place where I had known no one; when departing, I felt I was leaving a new family."

Love and Peace
Amatullah

One of the exercises from the 2011 Happening was an applied nature observation exercise--participants walked into the surrounding industrial district and observed their surroundings and captured what they saw with the use of verb-movement poetry.

Below are some contributions; authors unknown.

Poem #1

Ever-changing, dying

Beginning and unfolding.

Steaming, listening, loosening

Stretching, watching, decaying

Inhaling, exhaling, defecating, decaying.

Ever-changing, dying

Beginning and unfolding,

Silently watching whispering

Deafening, crying pleading, longing.

And growing.

Ever-changing, dying

Beginning and unfolding.

Poem #2

Broken, scattered, discarded.

Crossing. Busy and calm

Growth appearing. Blowing

and howling. Crash. Working.

Walking, driving, sitting, 

Cutting, talking, budging,

transformation. Biking.

Farewell. Love. Withering

Changes. Discover plant grow,

nurture, support, live, thrive. Move.

Occupythefuture.org : Co-creating the FUTURE NOW

The impulse for occupythefuture.org came from a group of engaged individuals and global citizens witnessing the movement growing around Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together and recognizing its potential as a catalyst for real and lasting societal change. We have spent time at Occupy Wall Street, witnessed first hand the activity, non-violent community, and momentum that are growing there and have felt inspired to reflect and contribute to the growth of this movement and larger societal transformation by actively working with the following question: What is the FUTURE you want to OCCUPY? We feel this question to be of extreme importance in our time and one that we hope all people will ask of themselves, their communities and society as a whole. It points towards an essential task that we see for Humanity to collectively re-envision what picture of the FUTURE we want to live into.

In speaking with fellow protesters at Occupy Wall Street, we were constantly asked the question “WHAT’S YOUR IDEOLOGY?” We don’t have one. We do have pictures we work out of, and that we try to keep as fluid as possible. We do so because we believe that, most importantly, the solutions we need can only be out of a living conversation between everyone, where we can create new solutions to our problems and new meaning to our lives. It is a living process. An evolution of social forms that has been stuck too long. We think the whole system must become far more radically participatory. Forever. We think this is the main demand of the Occupy Movement: to no longer hand over our decisions to business leaders and politicians and the meaning of our lives to entertainers and advertisers. We will create a new culture, and out of it, create a new politics and a new economy. This means each one of us standing up and taking our lives back, banding together as a truly civil society, a new global force that cannot be put back to sleep. We mean to stay and to shape the new dialogue that will determine our future.

Canadian raw-milk farmer Michael Schmidt is on a hunger strike for the right to produce and sell raw milk—and for everyone’s right to food freedom. He is a highly educated dairy farmer, and is also a classical musician and conductor of symphonies and choral groups. His hunger strike has gone on for a full month—and Michael is growing weak. But vows to continue to death, if necessary. 

On Sept. 29, he began a hunger strike, which he describes as the continuation of his efforts over the past 17 years to engage the authorities in a "constructive dialogue about the issue of non-pasteurized milk in Ontario and Canada."

To learn more about Michael's incredible commitment, please visit http://thebovine.wordpress.com or