Andrew Slack
IMAGINE Day:
On 9 September 1971, John Lennon released his “IMAGINE” album. As a song, “Imagine” opens up the neural pathways for us to think BIG when it comes to our civic imagination. Making September 9 (or October 8: the date of the UK release), “Imagine Day” could be a celebration of the song and it’s ideals. Could feature choirs and singers singing the song, creating remixes of the song, an event at the Imagine Park in NYC. And highlighting projects that are working towards the global citizenship that John Lennon was asking us to imagine. And a time when people through art, speeches, writing, songs, etc could declare “A State of the Civic Imagination.”
Esther Day
Bestselling book and blockbuster film The Fault In Our Stars was written by John Green and inspired by the late Esther Earl. Before Esther died at the age of 16, John told her that he wanted to turn her birthday into a holiday, called “Esther Day.”
When he asked her what she wanted people to do on Esther Day, she chose to have it revolve around telling friends and family we love them.
And so Esther Day is our culture’s only baggage-free holiday about love. With leadership from John Green, This Star Won’t Go Out (the family foundation in Esther’s name), and the Harry Potter Alliance, Esther Day is an internationally practiced holiday of people all over the world finding creative ways to tell each other, “I love you.” Grounded in the notion that our lives are finite, we celebrate and express love, and explore the implications for what our world would look like if love was at the heart of our highest priorities.
As of now, Esther Day is supported by Sesame Street, MTV, and even Tumblr and Google have expressed interest. We have real momentum and a long way to go to make Esther Day a household holiday that takes the concept of “I love you” and the imagination of what love means for our world, to a deeper level.
Find out more at http://estherday.org
Back to the Future Day
October 21 could be Back to the Future Day. This is the date that Marty and Doc travel into the future. We could do this in partnership with the National Writing Project and NANOWRIMO and others to have a contest over the summer, where people write from the future discussing how we survived climate change, structural inequality, etc by doing X, Y, and Z. By writing from the future, talking about how things nearly became dystopian but then turned around to becoming utopian, it changes our neural pathways: creating solutions that we would otherwise not think of or solutions to problems that we have not even yet identified. It also could be a day to celebrate Back to the Future kitsch as well as symbols and icons of all time travel stories from Doctor Who to 12 Monkeys and more.
Magical Acts of Kindness Week
While we may not be able to pull objects out of thin air, we do have the ability to create something that is in many ways, more spectacular: kindness. In the past, the HPA’s Magical Acts of Kindness (#MAK) week encourages people to look for ways they can introduce magic into the lives of others through simple, random, anonymous acts of kindness. Opportunities for #MAK projects are limitless and range in scope and size. Members use twitter and the blogs and forums to develop and spread MAK ideas. Projects from the past include:
Baking cookies and leaving them out for friends, neighbors, or co-workers Giving monetary or supply donations to various charities Leaving encouraging messages on bathroom mirrors, bulletin boards, etc. Collecting toys for a children’s hospital
It could create a way to share expressions of kindness, anonymous giving, and challenge each other to think creatively about acts of loving kindness.
Green Eggs and Ham Week
During Green Eggs and Ham Week, we celebrate the book Green and Eggs and Ham - we read it to each other, and we challenge ourselves to try something new: a new idea, a new project, doing something that we’d normally be afraid of, etc. And we chronicle it all on the Internet.
Indigenous People’s Day
The recent success of turning Columbus Day into Indigenous People’s Day has massive implications (and Seattle is not the only place where this has happened). The last stage of genocide is denial that the genocide took place. Columbus Day is part of the last stage of the most successful cultural genocide in world history. Turning it on it’s head, making Indigenous People’s Day spread is a way to change that and to discuss how Indigenous people across the US and world could be better honored (with Indigenous having the chance to speak) and how we can learn how to change our relationship to renewable energy - shifting the Western paradigm around working against nature to working with it.
Dumbledore Day
June 30, the anniversary of Albus Dumbledore’s death becomes a time to celebrate Dumbledore’s life. As Harry says, Dumbledore will only be gone so long as there are none who are loyal to him. Dumbledore Day is all about asking, “What Would Dumbledore Do” and applying that question not only to our personal lives but to our world. Converting Dumbledore’s ideas against torture (use of dementors), the suspension of habeas corpus, inequality against Muggleborns (to being for equality of all people), etc there is so much that can be drawn up on a day dedicated to the greatest Wizard ever to live.
Hogwarts Day
September 1, is internationally a day when Harry Potter fans celebrate the first day of Hogwarts. And yet, nothing has really ever been done outside of clever Facebook posts. What about the notion of people drawing up ideas for making education more magical on this day as well as inviting all of their friends over for a pot luck feast (and perhaps watching a Harry Potter film). This could really be a day, however, to advocate for education policies that celebrate the magic of our creativity by fostering the civic imagination.
Giving Tuesday
The 92 Y are the ones behind Giving Tuesday. At the moment, they are not sure what to do with this holiday and are openly asking for suggestions on how to make it even bigger: http://www.givingtuesday.org/