Johnny Flynn Quotes

Real, sustainable community change requires the initiative and engagement of community members.

The banner of the project is 'Casa de Colores.' Under that banner, I'm going to invite people to do a lot of good things. Perhaps working in groups, working on poetry.

I had this epiphany that I like the interaction with people. I wanted to make things happen at a grassroots level.

I still paint. I love the joy that color can give to our lives and to our communities. I try to bring something of the artist in me to my politics.

I think maybe since there isn't a great deal of access to the mainstream media and people don't understand the language of mainstream media, if you put music out there with lyrics that are loosely political, people absorb some of it and spit it back out.

People don't get involved with local charities or politics because they think it's hard to make a difference and the problem feels overwhelming. But I believe that if all I've time for this year is to write one letter to the local council, it's still worth doing.

Change happens from the bottom up - all of us as individuals deciding that we will and we do have an impact.

I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We're warriors. Soldiers.

I love being a part of something that is grassroots, and you can see the actual changes, the effect of what people do.

Change never comes from the White House. It comes from your house and my house.

If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people's lives are better, you know it's hard, and some people think it's boring.

I urge you to read the Occupy Manifesto, written by the New York City General Assembly. It is unavoidably clear. This is not directionless action. If it were, the media would have moved on.

The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community.

Things will only improve when the people - all of us - say to authorities, 'I will hold you responsible.' We should all be showing up at city council meetings, lighting up every community with activism and mobilization.

Our Revolution has been the keeper of the flame doing the vital work of building a grassroots movement that leverages the people's agenda.

I really feel like people who want to change things need to go out and change it themselves and not look to politicians to do that.

The most powerful thing we can do is get involved locally. Help our local community and become community activists in our own smaller circle.

I came from a tradition of demonstrations and protests, and I really believe in them. I think they are powerful ways of bring people together, to organize, to raise awareness, and most importantly to empower people.

I sort of have this feeling about change in general. We can make baby steps on a macro level. We can try to shift policy, voting and changing who's in office. But we can make huge, sweeping changes on a personal level and in your immediate circle, or just the people around you.

Art is meant to bring people together. It's meant to raise consciousness.

I thought my parents were always having card parties - and they were - but they were actually also having meetings to organize people. My older sister would be part of youth organizing, and she'd have dance parties. People would be dancing and talking about how to improve their neighborhood.

We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously.

We are intent on building a movement. The next step is grassroots town meetings. We must keep alive the dialogue around the covenants.

All change starts with a distant rumble at the grassroots level.

Being politically active is "more about doing things, not just standing for some platform or being involved in some political party."