By Azell Murphy Cavaan
The Boston Herald – Living Arts
May 27, 2003

Imagine a pop culture in which parents and kids dance to the same beat. Project: Think Different, a nonprofit organization that uses the arts to teach children about community improvement, believes that world is within reach. “Our mission is to use popular culture to inspire and challenge people to live the change they want to see in the world,” said Scherazade Daruvalla King, founder and president of Project: Think Different.

The organization will showcase its first roundup of socially conscious artists during its official launch party tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Paradise, 969 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.

The event marks the debut of “Until,” a spoken-word CD by Ayisha Knight, a Boston-area poet and storyteller who is profoundly deaf. Reggae, hip-hop, folk and other spoken-word musicians will also perform during the event. Janet Wu, anchorwoman for WHDH-TV (Ch. 7), is the event’s host. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard Medical School is the chairman. Founded in 2002, the organization uses the talents of singers, poets, filmmakers, writers, rappers and other artists to provide young people with a hip alternative to the images of sex, violence and drugs prevalent in mainstream media. Knight said she uses acting, photography and even American Sign Language to break down walls of discrimination. “Art is as much a political act as it is a thing of beauty,” she
said.

But even more than entertaining young people in a way that makes them think critically about the world around them, Project: Think Different aims to move them to action. “We want to develop a message that wakes people up to the power they hold as changemakers,” King said. “We want them to see there’s an alternative to popular media and then we want them to leverage that influence on policymakers.”
Kwesi Johnson, a 22-year-old Boston filmmaker, will screen his work in progress, a documentary about the negative and positive influences of pop culture, during the launch party. Johnson, who interviews youths, social activists and artists in the film, said most young people recognize the prevalence of sex and violence in the media but are unaware of the “political and commerical machines” that control it. “All they know is, they see a lot of girls in bikinis,” said Johnson. “They don’t realize it’s an industry, that sex sells and it’s all about money.”

For more information about the Project: Think Different launch party, call 617-320-6433 or go to local.projectthinkdifferent.org.