Submit Your Own Breathe Poem!

Fill out your own Breathe Poem using this convenient template.   https://sites.google.com/site/breathecambridge/breathe-poem-form
Poems will be re-read and recorded for use in our sound art installation!

Also, consider downloading Audacity, the free open-source audio editing software that we use for BREATHE:Cambridge.  That way, after you write your poem, you can record your own voice and submit it for use in our project!  We'd love to hear from you.

you can download the latest version of Audacity here http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Cafe Luna: Voice Collecting and Community Connecting

The Breathe: Cambridge teens love to create their  own art, but it is always exciting to view other work as well. Especially if it is the art and words of fellow Cantabridgians! As a semi field trip and sound gathering experience the Breathe kids packed up and took the van to Café Luna in Central Square. There they were warmly welcomed by Jean-Dany Baptiste who was running the poetry readings of that night. The space was tight but  everyone squeezed in, giving the experience a more intimate and personal touch. With recorders in hand and two musicians forming the soundtrack of the night, the artists were able to witness local poets read their work aloud to open ears. One woman after reading her words, conducted a song which called for all the people in the venue to participate and sing along. Overall the night was fun and an exciting welcome into the artist community of Cambridge.  

- Matilda aka ducttapedheart

Breathe Art by Iona

Iona, a 'BREATHE' artist, created this amazing image this weekend at Cambridge Open Studios in between collecting voices.  It's a new version of one of her recent visual concepts.  Breathe is expanding into the visual realm in more ways than one as we move towards our Summer installation @ CAC Gallery.  - MJ

A Breathe Poem

This poem was collected at Cambridge Open Studios this past weekend.  We recorded about 100 community voices!  This poem in particular speaks to me.  - Mars Jupiter

Space Transformed: BREATHE's Final Voice Collection Outing

Transformation through communication is today's theme.  A culture of freedom was promoted through art at the former Blockbuster video space (above Pier 1 Imports in the above picture) in the Porter Square Galleria today during the final day of Cambridge Arts Council's 3-weekend-long Open Studios.  BREATHE: Cambridge was set up at the entrance to the space welcoming art appreciators to participate in our sound project as they entered a space occupied by photographers, painters, artisans, sculptors and more.  "Would you like to help us create some art?"  This questioned proved irresistible to visitors entering a space filled with inspiring works.  The first words collected today were read by a giggly little girl following a creative process of  pure bliss as her mother transcribed her responses to the prompts of the Breathe form poem.  We had our second beatbox cypher in two days, heard Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese languages, recorded infants and elders.  The afternoon opened into a collaborative process that I've honestly never imagined possible.  People, technology, time and space harmoniously converged in this relic of a dying (if not already post-mortem) era of media consumption.  A bankrupted Blockbuster and converted Jennifer Convertibles opened space up for a higher level of human interaction through art and conversation.  Destruction leads to rebuilding as the exhale opens space for the inhale.  BREATHE!
- MJ

Mars Jupiter offers a breath of fresh air with "Breathe To Lead"

                                                           "Breathe To Lead" Mars Jupiter
Mars Jupiter has debuted his first offering from his contribution to the Breathe: Sound Poetry project entitled "Breathe To Lead" available here ---> http://soundcloud.com/marsjupiter/breathe-to-lead  On his soundcloud page he says, "My tape recorder listened as the community spoke. I listened as the tape recorder played. My computer recorded my keystrokes as I played with recorded reality to create this sound scape. I hope it inspires you to realize your complete potential, have consistent motivation and to lead!"  This track was created with two Panasonic tape recorders, one Sony digital voice recorder, one Magnavox turntable, a condenser microphone, an Akai MPC-2000xl sampler, and Pro Tools, a potent combination of analog and digital.  It contains elements of 70's Jazz, musique concrete, cloudsourced voices and various handclaps and organic percussion sounds to create a rhythmic journey through self-definition.  Self: meaning one alone and many together, as the space for each individual's voice was created by a community that values self-expression.  Elements of Fhanillia, Manny, Shea and countless others find a solid ground in Mars Jupiter's beatwork to breathe their truth.  Leading the way towards a more transparent tomorrow through today's age of electrified information, love battles fear in a fight over reality and it's perception.  Addressing the fear with poetry and music seems to transform it's vibration from it's slow and low rumble into a higher vibratory frequency that charges us ahead into the loving bliss of self-knowledge.  Take a breath and take the lead!

Cambridge Open Studios

"I am rain, I wash away the day. I bellow thunder. I am part of this world. I travel without boundaries..."  These words were gifted to the Breathe:Cambridge project while we were setup at Cambridge Open Studios' North Cambridge edition earlier today.  Through our open venue for community voices we were able to capture a multi-hued spectrum of accents, languages and cadences from our community here in Cambridge.  From Eriko the photographer who plays in a dub-metal band to a distressed post-dentist 9-year-old named Nyela and Cambridge's Poet Populist Toni B. there was no shortage of powerful, unique voices in Porter Square this afternoon.  The latter voice was found at a COS poetry event at Porter Sq. Books, offering her words as well as those of Bob Marley's "Rastaman Vibration" to the rhythm of my beatbox which I had the pleasure of offering in a spontaneous collaboration.  It echoed the open artistic comraderie of an earlier beatbox duet that happened after I caught a unique voice attempting to pass our booth without contributing his apparent skill.  As I heard him manipulating his breath into a beat as he walked past I had to say something.  "Would you like to contribute your voice?"

Stay tuned to hear all the voices!  Hear some of our sounds @ http://soundcloud.com/breathe-soundpoetry "BREATHE:Cambridge" on display July - August 2010 @ CAC Gallery 343 Broadway Cambridge MA

-MJ