The Dare Dreamer Movement by Julene Fleurmond

A few years back I interned for Collegepreneur Magazine for young entrepreneurs, and created a website for their conference. Collegepreneur Magazine is a great resource for students to learn more about starting or growing their own business.

One of my latest projects was to develop creative video, web and print promotions for various universities.

Event Branding

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I really enjoyed The Dream Lives Special Presentation on today’s Oprah Winfrey Show. If you missed it you can read the stories on the website or even pre-order a copy of the presentation on DVD. It was inspiring to view stories about interracial relationships, the history of civil rights in the United States, and ways of how everyday people today are living Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of freedom and unity.

The last story was of how a bus driver in Los Angeles, Tanya, encouraged her students to improve their grades. She started an organization where she drove the children around and took them on trips to view places around the world, places like civil rights sites and “a marine biology cruise just a short ride away from the inner city”.

Tanya explained, “…a few of my students pulled me to the side and said, ‘Miss Walters, I didn’t realize there was a life outside my community,'” she says. “And that gave me the strength to know that I had a purpose in life.”

Tanya said that the trips began to change the children. She says, “They’re able to link history together, and I think that’s what our youth need right now is to know that people came from all walks of background and [have] struggled for all different reasons.”

“They go through life, and they think that they can’t achieve. They think that they won’t amount to anything. And it’s not such!” Tanya says. “My goal, when I bring our kids together, is for them to dream again, for them to bring back hope. Because when you have hope, you have determination.”

Watching that last story strung a cord in me, and made me begin to think about what could be done to help younger people, like those I saw everyday in my inner-city community in South Florida, keep dreaming. I think its so true that if young people don’t know what’s possible or what’s beyond the walls of their neighborhoods, they can’t really dream to full extent. Without dreams, there’s nothing to strive toward, nothing to wish for, nothing to drive one to keep going.

Langston Hughes said it the best in his poem:

Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams, For when dreams go
Life is a barren field, Frozen with snow.

– Langston Hughes

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Note: I’ll be taking a short hiatus from posting, because of my workload at school and business. I’ll be back the last week of February with all new posts!

Let the Dream Live
A Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King
By: DreamFleur aka Julene

They had a dream;
A dream of a world where people of all races
Of ALL colors
Could join hands in unity
To overcome injustice.
A dream –
Where one would “not be judged
By the color of his skin,
Buy by the content of his character.”
A dream of freedom,
Where a child did not have to fear
what he was, the way he was made
Did not have to be ashamed of himself
But could live, play, learn, in peace.
Are you living that dream today?

We must not be chained to
The lead weight of prejudice.
We must disperse the clouds of darkness
That blind us,
That cause us to discriminate even
Against our own kind.
We must not let our words,
Strip another of his right to live freely
Through gossip, criticism and judgment.
Instead we must realize that
We were all created equal,
By the same Creator,
Not the God of Black people
But the God of ALL people.
We must not let our words or actions
Separate us from one another;
Because “whatever affects one directly,
Affects all indirectly.”

We must realize
That our lives are not merely for our own gain
For our own pleasure,
For the pursuit of the physical, the material
For power, status, for wealth.
The true prize comes,
When we help one another
Reach the dream.
When we assist our brothers and sisters of ANY color
And resist the urge to live life for our own survival.
“We must learn to live together as brothers
Or perish together as fools.”

The dream, the sweat, the tears, the pain
That those who before us bore
Was not endured in vain.
The sky is boundless
To the possibilities that our lives can bring.
So let freedom ring from your actions
Let freedom ring from your passion in life
Let it ring from your words,
From your choices.
Let us not “satisfy our thirst for freedom
by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
Let us not let the darkness of ignorance
corrode, paralyze, confuse and plunge us
“Into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

Let us remember where we came from;
Let us celebrate what was done to get us here
Let us act to keep the dream alive.
Let us televise the dream
So that our children can see its beauty
So that others can notice the difference,
So that others can be inspired.
Let us live vigilantly until we are free at last,
Until “justice rolls down like waters and
Righteousness like a mighty stream.”

They had a dream
A dream for ALL of God’s children
Black, white, red, yellow, and brown
To be granted the right to live richly
Freely, purposely, confidently.
Will you live the dream, or
Will YOU let that dream die?

Quotations taken from various speeches of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

“Let us give the the phrase ‘living well’ a new, deeper meaning, not living well [just] in the material sense, but let’s try to live well by becoming more loving, more caring and compassionate, more generous and open-hearted to people in need, not only in our own country, but around the world.”

– Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)

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Note: This poem I wrote was previously published in my University’s Unified Newsletter.

Here’s a story that shows how God can reveal His purposes in the unlikeliest of places…

When I was little, writing was my favorite thing in the world to do. From little illustrated poems and storybooks I made for my family and friends as gifts to the little magazine I started and sold in elementary school, I’ve always loved to write. It seems recently though that other things have been taking over my life. I’ve felt so drained and confused lately as to if these other interests were what I should be pursuing fully, and if there was something missing.

I got an email a few weeks ago from a teacher I met in the first grade, Mrs. O’Connor (actually she was my brother’s 5th grade teacher at the time). She’s such a wonderful woman, and always encouraged me to write, and even encouraged me to try to get my stories published, even though I was only about six years old. I wrote so many stories and poems for her, and she nurtured my dream of expressing myself in the written word. She eventually became a family friend and even took my brother and I to see a movie for the first time in our little lives (I remember it was Aladdin) and swimming for the very first time (I was a really sheltered child). Wow, she was really a blessing to us, as my family was having difficulties at the time. We lost contact with her about a year or two after we first met, because my family moved to another state. That was 15 years ago.

Last year, an old card had sparked this teacher in my memory and I thought it would be great if I could find her contact information so I could write to to her and see how she was. I never could find her address.

That same teacher was cleaning out her basement a few weeks ago and found one of the stories I wrote for her. She decided to try “Googling” my name and found some websites I had designed and websites I’d been mentioned in, and eventually found my company’s website. She sent me an email, and I nearly cried when I saw that it was her contacting me. It was amazing and we were both so excited to be able to “reunite” online. We exchanged photos, addresses, and stories; it seemed like such a miracle that she found me after 15 years.

Just a few days ago I got a package in the mail, and was from my teacher, Mrs. O’Connor. When I opened it I found the little book I wrote way back when I was six, and stopped to look at the cover: scrawled on the faded construction paper were the words “The Christmas Story, A Ryme.” As I stood there and read the poem that my little hand had penned, a feeling came over me. It was like a gentle nudge saying – here is what you’re missing, your love for writing and sharing.

After I took the book from the envelope I took out the card in which my teacher had written an encouraging message to me, as she always had done. On the cover of the card (below) was also an appropriate message: “Where there is great love, there are always miracles.”

God is so awesome, and works in strange ways. I will leave you with a snippet of the poem that 15 years ago was paraphrased from the Bible to remember the miracle of Jesus’ birth:

“There was a woman named Mary
Who on a night so dark and dreary
Received a message from God,
She received it in a dream and saw
A light shining in her eyes
Coming from the midnight skies
Then appeared what seemed like a ghost
Who was sent by God, a heavenly host
“Fear not!” soothed softly the angel
“I have good news of great joy to tell
You who in God have found favor
Will have a son and soon give labor
And with God’s love your heart be full
For with God, nothing is impossible.”

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Thank you Mrs. O’Connor for sowing in me seeds of courage that have allowed me to bloom, and wings that have allowed me to soar torwards my dreams…