La Belle Nouvelle
Toronto, Ontario
The very good news is that "Nuit Blanche" the all white night contemporary art event that storms the city every year has accepted our application for mantra chanting in the early fall. The Scotiabank sponsors this popular event when the world's longest street (Yonge St.) closes off traffic for an all-night pedestrian happy art loving venture. This year chanting will be an exhibit.
This evening Keshava Sharma, one of our younger community co-ordinators, and I, scouted out the downtown to explore possible indoor or outdoor venues. We were walking with a different purpose. We were excited by he acceptance and by the special "in" as contemporary artists.
Art today is no longer an object or a painting you view hanging on a wall with unique directional lighting. It's something experiential and chanting with some additional features such as hooking up the kirtaniya, the chanting leader, to a screen to register his/her heartbeat during the process is an incredible art experience.
Paris began this world acclaimed event. New York also took up "Nuit Blanche" as an annual festival. Toronto and other cities have also caught on for a few years now.
Kesava and I were walking on cloud 9 imagining the coming eve of Sept. 29 when the sun makes a descent and art lights up. I reflected on my first days as a monk in '73 when chanting by a small group of us on the street was a daily happening. At that time I never would have dreamed that the city would back our mantra meditation with a space and a grant to fund the effort almost four decades later.
The plan is to have a 12 hour chanting session. When you consider that the theme for 2012 is "If it weren't for the buildings..." then you can throw yourself back in time when "Toronto," which means "the meeting place," was a place of indigenous people celebrating life with drums and shakers. How appropriate!
11 Km
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