For the past three years, Unit Souzou has set inspirational words as themes for the year to bring intention and connection to our work.  In 2016, we were motivated by our goals of deepening, expanding, and contributing. In 2017, unprecedented changes in our country and communities spurred goals of braving, listening, and galvanizing. Last year our inspiration came from the multiple meaning of our name souzou – creation, imagination, and noisy.

In ruminating about how we want to focus our energies this coming year, we brought all members of our group together to dream with us. This word cloud represents the full collection of our group’s commitments. Of these, the following especially resonate as we delve into an ambitious new year in 2019:

Spark. We are devising new taiko frameworks and creating story-centered art. We will light up fresh approaches as we push the boundaries of our art forms to create innovative risk-taking, relevant, and accessible work that breaks boundaries of taiko and folk dance with sound shaped by form and movement, forging new traditions for our evolving communities.

Vulnerability. Creating new art work demands that we come from a place of empathy and sincere openness in order to fully hear and share diverse and universal stories. Through our creative process, we will be asking challenging questions in order to take new risks in our expression. Through our art, we will bring our honest conversations that are sometimes behind closed doors to the foreground as a process of deep inquiry in order to create a brave space for courageous discovery.

Catalyze. Using our art form as an accessible entry point, we have an opportunity to engage our broad communities – including our known friends and colleagues, but also new connections and communities – in deep conversations that we hope can open up minds and hearts. We invoke our communities to join us in this space of dialogue and sharing through creative experiences we will be offering throughout this year.