Max Parthas on March Forth For Freedom

Tell us about your group and the cause you are forwarding.

I’m a co-founder of Prismatic Dreams, a contemporary Spoken Word organization, founded in 1999. We’re a group of social activists who use art as our medium for promoting worthy causes. Our influence and contributions on developing today’s generation and it’s culture of artists are extensive. We have a social network and resource center built in 2004 as a representation of our shared culture, aptly called The New Word Order.

We have supported a number of social causes over the years but none more important than the current one – the complete abolishment of the privatized corporate prison industrial complex. It is undoubtable modern day slavery where people are being bought and sold on wall street like chattel. On March 4th, 2010 we intend to hold a nationwide rally consisting of simultaneous local rallies across America. Our intention is to turn the courtyards of our nation’s jails and prisons into an open mic venue where our voices can ring out across America in one accord.

What are your roots?

This is always the hardest question to answer. My wife and I are a team in art and life. We have been deeply involved in social change on local, national and global levels for over 2 decades. The common theme has always been the use of art and social networking as a medium for positive change. Over the years, I’ve won a multitude of awards and garnered many achievements. In 2009, our critically acclaimed CD, END GAME, was considered for a Grammy nod and 5 of the 19 tracks reached #1 ranks on such industry charts like ourstage.com and Soundclick.com. More information can be found by visiting our personal website, MaximumImpactPoetry.com. Keeping busy, working with legends of our industry like The Last Poets and Amiri Baraka, and constantly traveling the nation as a performer has allowed me to hone my talents as a communicator and artist to the point where today I’m viewed as one of America’s most recognized and relevant contemporary Spoken Word artists. I’m often affectionately called the Godfather Of Spoken Word. Today all of that effort is applied to one single issue. Making our nation’s citizens aware of modern day slavery in our own country.

What are some actions people can take on this issue?

The most important thing you can do to help is become personally aware of the depth and seriousness of our claims. They are far from idle and based solely on fact. Just consider the implications of this one simple statement from the video Privatized Prisons and Prison is Slavery:

“They trade their stocks (on wall street) based on the number of people that are in jail. If that isn’t sickness I can’t tell you what is.”

Once you become aware you will be personally responsible for that knowledge. For a full listing of how you can add your voice to the MARCH FORTH FOR FREEDOM event simply visit the website we’ve developed for this cause. You can find it by visiting TheNewWordOrder.com.

More than anything else we need self-starting individuals with experience in organizing open mic/feature events. So far, over 24 states are involved and hundreds of artists nationwide. If that sounds like you, please contact our national director of events Heidi West at paradiseangel@gmail.com.

I want to personally thank you and WorldWideHippies for helping us to share this undeniably important information. Your website and blog is a wealth of knowledge and I hope many millions continue to be “edu-tained” through your efforts.

Your brother in the struggle against apathy.
Max Parthas