We’ve solidified our plans for the summer and the initial phase of the Wake Up Stay Up project. It looks like Ofer, Corwin, Kal-El, and I will all be in Montreal for the months of July and August. We’ll be engaged in four key activities:
- Researching the long-term impact of the original Wake Up Tour
- Working together as a band to develop a cohesive sound and a few good songs
- Developing a business plan and funding proposal that builds on the lessons learned from Wake Up I
- Developing our own spiritual practice and experimenting with approaches to “Stay Up” activities that facilitate dialogue and practice in larger groups.
The decision to go for this strategy was based on the fact that we need to build gradually, drawing on insights from the past work. We have a sense that Wake Up I was quite successful (check out these articles from 1998 and 1999) but we need a more detailed understanding of its impact. We’re hoping that since I (Jason) was not involved in the first project, I’ll be able to bring a more objective outsider’s perspective. It will be a good test of my qualitative research skills as I interview people from local Jewish youth organizations and other people in Montreal who were touched by the Wake Up Tour.
Last week I wrote a paper for my leadership class that turned into a manifesto about the Wake Up Stay Up project. It’s also a meditation on responsibility and spiritual leadership, so if you’re just interested in the WUSU part, you can skip to the second half.
On Friday I presented the first version of the WUSU mindmap to my colleagues from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They were excited and had new ideas for us but also had plenty of questions and concerns. I’ve uploaded a new version of the mindmap that includes a “questions” section that comes from that conversation; there are also other additions scattered throughout.
I’ve also had the opportunity to meet two people who I think would be phenomenal advisors for Stay Up in the past week. The currents are flowing in our favor. The first was Lynn Clark, who is a Media Studies professor at CU in Boulder. She has expertise in ALL FOUR of the areas that I need help understanding: the music industry; the religious landscape of American youth; ethnographic research on media-saturated youth; and the dynamics of online communities of youth. She is very excited about the WUSU project and wants to stay in touch.
The second person was Bill Isaacs, who runs Dialogos, a firm based here in Boston. They are experts in facilitating dialogue. My professor Bob Kegan told me that Bill once ran a dialogue session with urban gang members and completely ended murder in a Massachusetts town after a couple months of work. He did a very cool exercise in our class on Monday that could be part of the Stay Up repertoire.
I’ve just built an interactive mind map of the Wake Up Stay Up project.