The Banquäla has come and gone. It’s weird, when you’ve been thinking about something for so long, planning, tweaking, preparing and obsessing over it…then suddenly it’s gone. I’ve found myself feeling slightly empty, a little dazed and a lot overwhelmed with the lack of a monumental task looming over me. I’m sure I’ll settle in and find myself buried in a mountain of projects before I know know it, but for now I’m sort of enjoying the subtle shock of this moment that I’m in.

In the midst of all of that there’s still a single word that continues to resonate with me. It seems to permeate my days, my work, my conversations. Even “non-Bedouins” conversations…it’s always there in some way, shape or form.

That word, as you may have guessed, is MEDIA.

I’m going to begin unloading my thoughts on media over the next few weeks on this blog. I’m going to talk about why I think media is, is becoming and will continue to be an amazingly powerful tool. I’ll talk about why I think media can change the world and how I think that can happen. I’ll talk about how media has impacted specific organizations and people and give you examples to prove it. I’ll talk about the responsibility that those who are making media (that’s you, even if you don’t think it is…I promise) have and how to respect and respond to that responsibility. But most importantly I’ll talk about how YOU can get involved.

I am not media. Bedouins is not media. In fact, we’re a very teeny tiny small sliver of what’s happening with media. But here’s the cool thing. So are YOU. No matter who you are or what you do, you are a producer of media.

We’ll pick up there soon…I do have something slightly more specific and “Bedouins” related to mention before I sign off and let you get back to your lives…

If you scroll down a few posts you can read about a truly amazing organization called Kiini. Kiini contacted us and expressed a need for media, a lack of funds and skills to make the type of media that they need and a desperate desire for our (Bedouins’) help in tackling that obstacle; an obstacle that is seemingly holding back their organization from making the progress that they would like to be making.

We said YES.

So as mentioned before, we’ll be traveling to the heart of Kenya to spend a week with the fine people at Kiini touring their sites, interviewing the people they’re working with and documenting the progress and the need that they’re a part of there.

Want to help us out? I have a really cool way that you can make the Kiini Project possible.

Buy a book.

Here’s the deal – we put a lot of time into producing a really beautiful book for the Banquäla. The book has the stories of the amazing organizations that we were able to partner with over the last year and a half. It also has images from all over the world showing some amazing people doing some amazing work. It’s 160 pages hard bound.

So here’s my proposition. Buy a book. You get a really beautiful book that not only shares with you the stories of some amazing work happening around the globe and demonstrates the power of media to aid in that work, but you get a book that allows you to continue to spread the word about these organizations on your own.

The books cost $75 and we raise approximately $20/per book towards the Kiini Project from each one sold.

You’d really help us out if you did, and we really want to put these books in as many hands as possible.

**If you want to buy a book e-mail us at connect@bedouinsinternational.org

Thanks for reading, thanks for thinking, thanks for participating in our quest to refocus the heart of media – a quest that we’ve been thinking about that for several years now…glad you’re joining us!

-Stephen

Our lovely volunteer checker-inners:

Two of our speakers, Jonathan Smyth and Daniel Bashta chit chatting before they went on stage:

Big thanks to D’Armond Catering for the lovely spread!

Checking out the art:

Some more art:

Thanks to Wilder Adkins for the wonderful music!

To see more photos, check out our Flickr.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made the night a success! Can’t wait for Banquala 2010!

-Stephen

This is your chance to come and spend an evening hanging out with us, getting to know our vision, and learning how our vision can become your vision. Saturday night you’ll get to here some amazing stories, but you can also find out how you can become apart of telling on of the many other stories out there waiting to be told. Go to www.bedouinsinternational.org/banquala/ to find out more. We’ll to see you there!

Media is Relational from Bedouins International on Vimeo.

It still surprises me when someone comes up to me and says, “So I’ve been keeping up with you guys – where are you going next?” My first reaction is “You’ve heard of us?” And it shouldn’t be, I know, but I am still shocked and amazed.

I say that to say that I met a fellow artist at the show, and we started talking about the Banquala and what it really means, so I thought I’d share. First and foremost the Banquala is a call to all artists, both professional and non (because really, when it comes down to it, we are all artists of some kind) to come together and see firsthand how we can make this world a better place for those around us.

The Banquala is a starting point and a connection point. We want to connect artists with the untold stories – we want you to see how what you have and what you do can help someone. We all have something to give. And I think in the deepest part of us all, we really really want to give something.

In the past 2 years we have been able to be a part of something grand – using media to promote good. We are storytellers at heart, and we exist to tell the stories of those without a voice. But there are SO MANY STORIES. You really have no idea. Yet. The Banquala is our invitation to come and be a part of this grand adventure with us – help us tell these stories. Help us give a voice to the unheard. Hope to see you there.

(p.s. It was great talking to you Janell – thanks for keeping up with what we do!)

We’ve been able to produce media for many really amazing organizations over the past two years. We’ve traveled to some really beautiful places, met some incredible people and worked hard to tell their stories for them. But now we’re inviting you to help. We don’t want to be the only ones doing this. We want everyone to join in. We knew from the beginning that we want this to be more than us, bigger than we could be alone. But it took a lot of time, a lot of mistakes and a lot of prayer to realize exactly what that meant.

Understand that all along our intentions were to make the world a better place. But we’ve realized that might just be too big of a job for us to attempt to do alone. And that realization pushed us to the idea of including you. The past few videos have expressed some of our ideas on media: that it’s a powerful tool, that it’s interactive and takes time and effort to join in, and that it’s universal and really does connect the world. Today our video is “revolutionary”. We believe that Media is changing the world in new and exciting ways, and right now, to us that means opening up the door and inviting everyone to help out. Join the movement and revolutionize the way that the world is connected. Change things. Make a difference. You’re invited…what are you waiting for?

Media is Revolutionary from Bedouins International on Vimeo.

Media is Interactive from Bedouins International on Vimeo.

Bryan wrote a really awesome blog about Bedouins International a few days ago and is offering some free shoots to the first two people to make a $750 donation to us for our Banquäla! We’re so honored that he wanted to help us and took the time to feature us on his blog. Check out the blog post HERE and check out the rest of Bryan’s amazing work HERE.