PeaceTones

What is PeaceTones?

PeaceTones is a project created to alleviate poverty and to build peace through technology and education. PeaceTones trains artists from conflict zones and developing areas how to sell their work online. This includes training sessions that deal with technology, artists’ rights in a global market, and how to access free resources using the internet. A portion of the sales proceeds artists receive gets donated to local community projects such as supporting internet facilities or secular education, creating artist cooperatives, and many more. PeaceTones participants are accepted from all over the world and have recently developed a relationship with RESPE: Ayiti.

RESPE: Ayiti invited students from Balan to Tufts University in February 2009. During their visit, they explored the possibilities of developing an album of their community’s music and art for PeaceTones. The students were incredibly enthusiastic about reaching out to their community upon returning home to find the musicians and artists who would collaborate with PeaceTones to develop an album for sale during 2009. In August, 2009, recording sessions will take place in Balan which will involve bringing audio recording, video, and photography equipment from the US; finding suitable venues in Balan and its surrounding communities to record music, video, and take pictures; and uploading the material to the internet. In addition, we hope to meet with local attorneys who will donate their time to advise the artists from the Balan community about their legal rights in relation to the PeaceTones project so that they can sign the agreement to create and distribute their PeaceTones album. The album should be ready by the fall of 2009 or sooner for purchase on the PeaceTones website.

PeaceTones supports both the Balan community and RESPE: Ayiti creating connections with other groups based in the US that support Haiti. One such group is the Christian Haitian Entrepreneurial Society (CHES), which is working with PeaceTones in an effort to bring US based Haitian artists into the PeaceTones project. InternetBar first came into contact with CHES at their inaugural meeting at Bentley University at which several Haitian expatriates and the Haitian consul general were in attendance. CHES representatives will be in Haiti at the same time as PeaceTones this summer and will support the PeaceTones project in Haiti.

More information at: http://www.peacetones.org/