Cutting Edge Ways to End Torture

Over the last six months, Citizens for Global Solutions has been working on a campaign to end torture in response to the ?enhanced interrogation? strategies employed by the Bush administration that directly violate the Geneva Conventions.  These officially sanctioned policies have enabled the CIA to act with impunity in the kidnapping and rendering of suspected enemy combatants to foreign regimes where they have been tortured.  This practice has had disastrous consequences for our country?s global reputation, alienating our allies and radicalizing our enemies.  

We are at a critical juncture in our history.  We need effective action and cooperation on an array of global challenges that confront us.  The necessary solutions to meet these challenges must be mirrored by a recommitment to the values that our country has always championed, including freedom from torture. 

Our ?End Torture Campaign? began with an interactive petition website.  The petition  urges Congress to create an Independent Bipartisan Commission on Torture and Interrogation Policy.  The campaign has proven to be a perfect platform for multiple outreach strategies. 

These strategies have allowed us to employ a broad range of tactics including community events, multimedia, social networking and spoken word.  Capitalizing on the astonishing momentum of our inaugural Virtual Poetry Slam Contest 2006, we decided to launch another online event around the issue of torture, as well as our first live poetry slam showcase. 

Last year?s contest shone a light into a vibrant, informed activist community both in D.C. and across America.  The issue of torture and human rights resonates strongly with spoken word artists.

We recently coordinated a live event at Busboys and Poets - an established Washington, D.C. café and bookshop.  It  caters to a progressive, socially conscious clientele.  The showcase, which ran over the course of an evening and included more than a dozen spoken word artists of all ages, was a huge success and demonstrated once again the resonance of our vision and mission and its appeal to multiple audiences. 

Among the performers was Gregory Pickett, who captured second place in the 2006 Virtual Poetry Slam.  His powerful poem, entitled ?It is the Screaming?? was a masterful take on U.S. interrogation policy and torture, and established an early momentum which continued throughout the evening.  Other poets included Eric Farrell, winner of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam; Laila Shareen, an Egyptian-American poet, currently Multimedia and Publications Editor at Georgetown University?s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies; Tim?m West, a critically acclaimed author, poet and scholar; and members of the D.C. Guerilla Poetry Insurgency ? a collaborative, pro-humanity artists? collective incorporating music, rhythm and spoken word. 

From start to finish, the evening was a politically charged, high energy event that reflected the passion of the performers and the power of the medium.  Encouraged by an enthusiastic crowd that filled the room, artists drew upon the energy of the audience as they delivered their impassioned soliloquies calling for a return to the path of human rights and freedom from torture.

Meanwhile, the 2007 online competition grew in strength from last year, garnering 5,500 new registrants.  It allowed for the words of engaged citizens to filter into the foreign policy debate.  The online contest was won by Tim?m West, with Gregory Pickett once again taking second place.  Third prize went to newcomer Lucia Misch of San Jose, California. 

At Citizens for Global Solutions, we have pushed the envelope over the past few years to pioneer cutting edge outreach tactics to integrate into our program and advocacy areas.  The End Torture Campaign has proven to be an extremely effective tool in this area.  Rooted deeply in the foundations of the social justice movement, performance poetry has demonstrated its malleability when used to reach diverse audiences on issues from the environment to human rights. 

The success of the showcase at the local level, and the virtual poetry slam across our country, also reflects the need to connect global issues to local concerns.  The poetry slam showcase was a local contribution in a broad effort to reshape our foreign policy in a way that can recommit our country to human rights and the rule of law.  Using this event as the catalyst for similar outreach efforts across America, we can continue to build a formidable activist core around torture and U.S. interrogation policy, and our broader organizational vision.