ROADIE COLLECTIVE

hi. we are Roadman and Daez.

May we ask: how are you feeling today? how is your body below the neck. in your shoulders chest tummy legs? before we jump in, we ask you to join us in taking three deep breaths.

Thank you. Now, you asked about our passion.

Have you heard the story of the six blind men who sought to know the nature of an elephant? They set about to feel it and thus understand what it was. One felt its trunk and concluded an elephant was like a snake. Another felt the animal's knee and knew, an elephant must be like a tree. One, feeling its tusk declared the elephant to be like a spear. No man could feel its entire being and so each feeling their piece labelled the magnificent creature based on what they had felt or known before. And so the elephant was also declared to be like a fan. a wall. a rope. And the six blind men each began to argue, each seeking to cast their image of the elephant as its true image:

And so these men of Indostan,

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion,

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

excerpt from Blind Men and the Elephant – A Poem by John Godfrey Saxe

Many of us humans today behave like these six blind men. Blinded by the limits of our perception, we feel the enormous and mysterious elephant for a while, and then forget what we were doing, swallowed up by the whirlwind of fighting to make others see what we see, feel what we feel.

Our elephant has many names — life. the universe. the divine. the mysterious. the "why are we here." God.

To be human is to be witness and receiver of uncountable daily miracles, within and without us. Daily, we marvel at the vast complexity of creation. We are born with the urge to feel it, to at least and try and understand what she really is. Why are we given her gift, what should we be doing with it? Each of us is born blind to the answer to this question. Yet as we seek understanding, we open ourselves to the infinite supply of chaotic beauty that orders Life.

When Thou saidst, “Seek ye My face,” my heart said unto Thee, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Psalm 27:8

Our passion lies in the seeking. Seeking is not bound to any religion, but can be understood through many spiritual practices. Importantly, this seeking has no end. As long as we are alive, we are learning what it means to be alive, and what to do with our lives. So to truly seek, we need to keep going. Accepting this allows us to accept change and diversity, which brings peace. When seeking stops, stiffness sets in and wars erupt, just as happened with the six men.

In seeking, we are called to express, as the men did in moving towards the elephant and then verbally articulating what it seemed like to them.

And, as this happens, something else happens. Creation.

Each man's expression birthed an image that then went up for consideration by their fellow companions.

Everyday we engage in creation as we articulate in speech and movement what it means to be a human witnessing and partaking in the miracles of life. Though we may not fully understand these miracles, when we express how it feels to be a part of them, we create. We crack a joke or a smile that creates joy or gratitude in a space. We co-create the morning traffic jam by joining our fellow humans to spend another day on the work grind. Or in the stillness of ourselves we consider how we feel, and draw from the chaos inside our vast selves to call forth the light. the night. the stars.

Seek. Express. Create. Repeat.

This is our passion cycle at ROADIE COLLECTIVE.

To stagnate in any one stage will cause suffering.

If you don't know what to seek, start with yourself. Hell, even if you do know what to seek, start with seeking it in yourself.

This was the mistake of the six blind men, who reached for other people's creations, for old experiences to try and describe this new sensation of an elephant's leg, or ear or tail. True expression is birthed from reaching down deep to listen to what Chaos is stirring. We see mirror instances of this behavior in modern day life. How many labels now have we created to describe the appearance of non-white people? non-straight people?

What type of expression becomes possible when we are no longer invested in pre-formed labels to navigate new situations?

Artistic expression allows for real human connection. the music that has shaped our lives, and which we as musicians now strive to create, had that impact because it expresses from a real place. Without experiencing what what they speak of, our favorite musicians and artists they put their words together in a way so real you can feel its intentionality and authenticity. B Being real allows you to relate to people because there's a universality to our experiences, for example, we all share the experience of being born.

At ROADIE COLLECTIVE believe people can and do exist in a world of their co-creation. We believe it's time for us to awaken to the true awesomeness of that power. We believe in providing spaces and opportunities for people to embrace their creative freedom to do weird shit with themselves, with their hands bodies minds and souls.

For this reason, the collective uplifts all forms of artistic expression: music video film fashion design poetry writing.

We have found that people want to hear what we have to say because we want to hear what they have to say. As musicians we regularly collaborate with a multitude of African creatives at our university. For instance on the Afrofusion song Gbana, Roadman collaborated with boistory, a Ghanaian artist, and produced the music video with videographers Daniel Semphere from Malawi and Karl Egbe from Ivory Coast and France. Actors were a variety of students who were part of our university's African creatives scene. People were open to working on the video because their input and creative energy was welcomed and brought the vision for the music video to life. Other collaborations include for Yeah Yeah Yeah which was done in collaboration with a Tunisian videographer Yassine Khalfalli, and a soon-to-be-released video project with Karl Egbe and Gambian creative Fatou Joobe.

No matter how different we feel we are, our similarities are as many as our differences. That's the beauty in life and exactly what should make us come together. The fact that we are as alike as we are different is what should make us come together — just imagine what we could learn from each other.

Our dream is to create a space of seekers who work on seeing the whole elephant through a personal journey of discovery, and sharing these experiences with each other. We believe that in this way we can create a more whole picture of what it means to be alive today, and what it means to truly see inside ourselves and each other.

Our vision is to set up a membership, flexible on a monthly basis for Roadie fellows. We will welcome those with interests in producing, writing, singing, filmmaking, video work, design and all-round creativity. New Roadies will receive a welcome pack: T-shirt, hat, and letter of inauguration in the mail upon joining. Weekly emails would alert them to meet-ups in their area and deliver newly released videos of jam sessions, and craft tutorials filmed by fellows seeking to better their understanding of a skill by teaching it to others. Articles and videos to support the journey of self-discovery would also be sent out. During meet-ups, Roadies are able to commune and share with like minds. With all our experiences in creating these spaces so far, we have found that this type of coming together does not feel like work, just like play among friends. Our mission is nothing more than to support the growth and self-actualization of our members in their artistic expression by providing the necessary tools, good vibes, and a fun, loving environment.

With your help, we can create a space that allows our generation and those who come after us to be their whole full selves, to crawl under and climb over the elephant in a bid to understand it, and themselves, as fully as they can.

May we exist in a world of our willful creation.