Dance Lest We All Fall Down
by Margaret Willson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Margaret WillsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-06
ISBN: 1583852220
Number of pages: 324
Publisher: Bahia Street
Book Reviews of Dance Lest We All Fall Down
Book Review: Essential reading for global citizens
Summary: 5 Stars
This inspiring, fascinating and great-to-read first person account tells of the founding and development of Bahia Street (www.bahiastreet.org), a grassroots organization dedicated to creating a top quality educational center for girls in an African-Brazilian shantytown in Northeastern Brazil. Co-Founder/Author Margaret Willson exemplifies what Global Citizen Journey aspires to: a deep sense of our interconnectedness with respect, trust and deference to communities to know the best way to meet their challenges. She offers wise insights about the pitfalls of 'do-gooder' impulses and the complexities of racism, class and power, and an extraordinary example of community based change. What's more, Willson writes with the sensitivity and language of a poet.
In one section she addresses the role of power/patronage in international aid which I found especially enlightening and compelling for my fellow global citizens who yearn to help make this a world that works for all:
"I began to think about the giving away of power. Generosity in terms of the donation of material things is comparatively easy. We keep the power because we never give away things we really think we need, and because through giving we increase our social power. We do nothing to destabilize the status quo." "...people start nonprofits for all kinds of reasons, and, generally, the primary reason is not that they want to change the world. Perhaps that is what they think they want to do when they start, but individual development aid projects have a great deal to do with personal insecurity and the desire for power...We have a concrete idea of what a "good" life for others is and what they need to have this "good" life. So, we force ideas upon them...We want to write the curriculum, design the housing project, the water project, the solar project-whatever it is that we think would be best for others...In the end, however, we keep the control of society in our hands. This is also why most projects help people just enough to give them tools to survive, but not to raise them to a level to make them equal with the ruling class. This would be dangerous because we would no longer have control...Central to actual change is the real giving away of power and influence. This is very difficult on a personal level because we want to be recognized for our work, for the things we have done that have actually helped, and for the time we have spent on whatever project we feel strongly about.... But, I began to realize, giving away power is a learning experience of the deepest kind. Through giving away outward power, I realized I had begun to gain internal power...."
Summary of Dance Lest We All Fall Down
?Dance Lest We All Fall Down? is a gripping first-person account of one woman?s experiences living in a Brazilian shantytown. She, a white American anthropologist, joins forces with an African-Brazilian shantytown activist to change the violence and despair they see around them. Their pledge to the residents to create a top-quality educational center for girls becomes a turbulent journey that takes us from the shantytowns of Northeastern Brazil to urban Seattle to high-society London. With the author, we experience a world of drug dealers, street urchins, and capoeiristas, English socialites, power-hungry ?do-gooders,? and wise teachers. This is a true story of insight and inspiration, courage, passion, and intrigue.Memoirs Books
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