David LaMotte celebreates release of “Worldchanging 101” with Oct. 12 event

From a press release:

David LaMotte celebreates release of “Worldchanging 101” with Oct. 12 event

David LaMotte is best known as a musician, but the imminent publishing of his third book, Worldchanging 101: Challenging the Myth of Powerlessness, is likely to change that. He will be celebrating its release with friends and fans at the White Horse Black Mountain on Sunday, October 12 at 7:30 PM.

LaMotte, who was voted one of Western North Carolina’s favorite singer/songwriters in Mountain Xpress’s recent ‘Best Of WNC’ issue, has been a fixture on the local music scene since the early nineties. During those same years, he was also performing over 2500 concerts nationally and internationally, developing a devoted fan base on five continents. He has released eleven albums, won several international songwriting awards, and earned accolades from the Boston Globe, Washington Times, Soundcheck Magazine (Germany), and BBC Radio Belfast, which praised his “charm, stories, humour, insightful songs, sweet voice and dazzling guitar ability.”

In 2008, however, LaMotte laid down his guitar in order to put his other passion, peace work, in the middle of his life. He accepted a Rotary World Peace Fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in International Studies, Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, which he completed in 2010. As part of that degree, he lived and worked in rural southern India for a few months, where he began writing this book, which is rooted in workshops he has been offering since the late nineties. Since then, he has become more active in peace work.

Many musicians play on the side, but pay their bills with some other work. LaMotte turns the usual pattern on its head. His profession is performing and speaking, but he is also the founder and president of PEG Partners, Inc., which supports schools and libraries in Guatemala, and the Clerk (Chair) of the AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee, as well as a Consultant for Peace and Justice issues for the North Carolina Council of Churches. As a speaker and workshop leader, he travels to work with groups dealing with racial tensions and other justice and conflict issues, as well as colleges, churches and other groups wrestling with how to have a positive impact in the world. Earlier this year he traveled to Zambia to co-lead a conflict resolution training for 180 people, and later visited Harrison, Arkansas to work with racial reconciliation activists as they seek to challenge the agenda of the nearby Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He was recently interviewed on an Al Jazeera news special on the rise of hate groups in the United States.

LaMotte says that Worldchanging 101 challenges commonly believed narratives about how large-scale change happens. These stories, he argues, often keep us immobile in the face of problems we perceive clearly, convincing us that we are not capable of having an impact, when just the opposite is true. Best-selling author Paul Loeb says that LaMotte’s new book is “a thoughtful reflection on living a life of commitment,” and well-known speaker and author Brian McLaren says “If Worldchanging 101 had been available to me when I was 15, or 25, or 35, I would have discovered the joy of engagement much sooner.”

Worldchanging 101 is LaMotte’s third book, though his first full-length publication for adults. His first two books, S.S. Bathtub and White Flour, are illustrated children’s books. White Flour introduces children to creative nonviolence through the true story of a 2007 Knoxville, Tennessee Ku Klux Klan rally that was met by the Coup Clutz Clowns, who challenged hatred with humor. Like White Flour, LaMotte’s new book was funded through crowd-sourcing on Kickstarter.com, achieving 131% of its funding goal through the support of 358 backers.

LaMotte is trying to practice what he preaches in the making of this book. It is being printed on 100% post-consumer recycled interior pages, and uses one font licensed from homelessfonts.org, an organization in Spain that uses the artful handwriting of homeless people to create typeset fonts for commercial use, supporting programs to serve those populations.

At the October 12 White Horse event, LaMotte will speak as well as sing, and there will be ample time for questions and book signing, as well as door prizes and book discounts. The event will also be live-streamed on the internet (visit davidlamotte.com for details). Showtime is 7:30 and admission is $10, of which a portion will go to support Homeward Bound’s Welcome Home Project. Attendees are also invited to bring household items for people who are newly housed through Homeward Bound, which has housed over 1000 people in Western North Carolina, 89% of whom have not experienced homelessness again. A list of needed items can be found here: homewardboundwnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MOVE-IN-CHECKLIST.pdf