David LaMotte

Speaker • Author • Musician

Archives for 2013

They’re here! They’re here! They’re here!

Nov 6, 2013
UPS brought the new ‘Best Of David LaMotte’ CDs to the door last night after dark (it was a long, impatient wait!), and today we will be mailing them out. We’re really excited about the new record around here.  It contains fourteen songs, including new versions of some older songs with talented guest musicians joining […]

They’re here! They’re here! They’re here!

by David LaMotte

UPS brought the new ‘Best Of David LaMotte’ CDs to the door last night after dark (it was a long, impatient wait!), and today we will be mailing them out. We’re really excited about the new record around here.  It contains fourteen songs, including new versions of some older songs with talented guest musicians joining […]

New ‘Best Of David LaMotte’ CD release

Oct 12, 2013
It’s amazing to find myself putting out a retrospective record.  I’ve been a professional musician for twenty-two years, though, so I guess it’s time! Over those couple decades I’ve put out ten records, and the eleventh, coming out now, is a look back across my years of making music. I considered calling it “Greatest Hits,” […]

New ‘Best Of David LaMotte’ CD release

by David LaMotte

It’s amazing to find myself putting out a retrospective record.  I’ve been a professional musician for twenty-two years, though, so I guess it’s time! Over those couple decades I’ve put out ten records, and the eleventh, coming out now, is a look back across my years of making music. I considered calling it “Greatest Hits,” […]

Worldchanging in your town…

Oct 7, 2013
It’s been a whirlwind of a day with a few meetings related to releasing my new ‘Best Of’ CD, some writing for an online community, two connections with longtime friends, meetings with the folks at Kudzu, the design company I’m working with these days, to finalize this cool flier right here—–> …and a talk at […]

Worldchanging in your town…

by David LaMotte

It’s been a whirlwind of a day with a few meetings related to releasing my new ‘Best Of’ CD, some writing for an online community, two connections with longtime friends, meetings with the folks at Kudzu, the design company I’m working with these days, to finalize this cool flier right here—–> …and a talk at […]

Why I Am Changing My Vacation Plans

Aug 25, 2013
August 26, 2013 Dear Columbia City Council Members, I am writing to tell you why I am changing my vacation plans this week. I brought my son Mason, not quite five, to the EdVenture Museum in Columbia last year on an afternoon road trip to the coast. He’s young (and was even younger then), and […]

Why I Am Changing My Vacation Plans

by David LaMotte

August 26, 2013 Dear Columbia City Council Members, I am writing to tell you why I am changing my vacation plans this week. I brought my son Mason, not quite five, to the EdVenture Museum in Columbia last year on an afternoon road trip to the coast. He’s young (and was even younger then), and […]

Two new videos

Jul 15, 2013
Here are a couple of new music videos from a guest spot I did at the White Horse Black Mountain a few months ago. Death Come A-Knockin’, or Travelin’ Shoes, is a traditional slave song from the days of the Underground Railroad. I learned it from Ruthie Foster in Texas years ago, but this is […]

Two new videos

by David LaMotte

Here are a couple of new music videos from a guest spot I did at the White Horse Black Mountain a few months ago. Death Come A-Knockin’, or Travelin’ Shoes, is a traditional slave song from the days of the Underground Railroad. I learned it from Ruthie Foster in Texas years ago, but this is […]

The Klan went home, the community stayed

Apr 1, 2013
In the end, the best defense against bigotry is forging communities that are strong enough to withstand it. Really knowing each other is the starting place for healing all of our wounds. Learning each other's stories and struggles leads to a broader sense of who 'us' is, and there is no victory over 'them' so complete, or so healing, or so effective, as welcoming them into 'us.' That is the radical subversion of fear by love.... Read More →

The Klan went home, the community stayed

by David LaMotte

In the end, the best defense against bigotry is forging communities that are strong enough to withstand it. Really knowing each other is the starting place for healing all of our wounds. Learning each other’s stories and struggles leads to a broader sense of who ‘us’ is, and there is no victory over ‘them’ so complete, or so healing, or so effective, as welcoming them into ‘us.’ That is the radical subversion of fear by love…. Read More →

Klansmen, Crips, Clowns, Memphis and Me

Mar 27, 2013
This Saturday the Ku Klux Klan is promising to have one of its largest rallies ever in Memphis, Tennessee. I’m headed there too. The Memphis park formerly known as Forrest Park, after Civil War general, slave trader and first Grand Wizard of the KKK Nathan Bedford Forrest, now bears the innocuous moniker “Health Sciences Park” […]

Klansmen, Crips, Clowns, Memphis and Me

by David LaMotte

This Saturday the Ku Klux Klan is promising to have one of its largest rallies ever in Memphis, Tennessee. I’m headed there too. The Memphis park formerly known as Forrest Park, after Civil War general, slave trader and first Grand Wizard of the KKK Nathan Bedford Forrest, now bears the innocuous moniker “Health Sciences Park” […]

Nobel Peace Prize nominating season…

Mar 23, 2013
The American Friends Service Committee has opened a call for suggested nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize, and you are invited to submit your suggestions between now and May 1, 2013 for the 2014 prize. ... Read More →

Nobel Peace Prize nominating season…

by David LaMotte

The American Friends Service Committee has opened a call for suggested nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize, and you are invited to submit your suggestions between now and May 1, 2013 for the 2014 prize. … Read More →

The Fifth Annual Freedom Ball

Mar 20, 2013
As Christmas approached last year, my thoughts were very much with my friend Ed Chapman. Ed spent nearly fifteen years in prison, thirteen of those on death row, wrongfully convicted. He was exonerated five years ago. Exoneration doesn’t involve any restitution or declaration of innocence, they just let you go. In Ed’s case, he had […]

The Fifth Annual Freedom Ball

by David LaMotte

As Christmas approached last year, my thoughts were very much with my friend Ed Chapman. Ed spent nearly fifteen years in prison, thirteen of those on death row, wrongfully convicted. He was exonerated five years ago. Exoneration doesn’t involve any restitution or declaration of innocence, they just let you go. In Ed’s case, he had […]

California Dreaming and Changing the World

Mar 8, 2013
The alarm rang at 4AM yesterday, and that’s early for just about everyone. On the West Coast that was 1AM. And just to sweeten the deal, Sunday is the time change for Daylight Savings. Sleep schmeep! Spending my adult life as a professional musician, I’ve probably seen 4AM on the end of my day much […]

California Dreaming and Changing the World

by David LaMotte

The alarm rang at 4AM yesterday, and that’s early for just about everyone. On the West Coast that was 1AM. And just to sweeten the deal, Sunday is the time change for Daylight Savings. Sleep schmeep! Spending my adult life as a professional musician, I’ve probably seen 4AM on the end of my day much […]

The Moon and the Miracle

Feb 21, 2013
The moon and the miracle Santee, SC January 28, 2013 And on other nights (one night before full, or one night after)
, the moon does not make me smile or remember a lover who once held all of my tension and attention I don’t think of children’s rhymes or giddy night rides with the headlights off […]

The Moon and the Miracle

by David LaMotte

The moon and the miracle Santee, SC January 28, 2013 And on other nights (one night before full, or one night after)
, the moon does not make me smile or remember a lover who once held all of my tension and attention I don’t think of children’s rhymes or giddy night rides with the headlights off […]

News from Guatemala

Feb 11, 2013
Antigua, Guatemala  8AM Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 I’m waking up this morning in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (also known as Xela), realizing that it has suddenly been a week since I arrived. The time is going quickly, and it has been a whirlwind. Here are a handful of highlights from the last week: Camino Seguro — After […]

News from Guatemala

by David LaMotte

Antigua, Guatemala  8AM Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 I’m waking up this morning in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (also known as Xela), realizing that it has suddenly been a week since I arrived. The time is going quickly, and it has been a whirlwind. Here are a handful of highlights from the last week: Camino Seguro — After […]

A new song being born: Angelita

Feb 10, 2013
Antigua, Guatemala  8AM Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013 I wrote a song lyric yesterday that captures a bit of what I’m thinking and feeling on this particular trip to Guatemala, which must be about my tenth time here. I’m thinking about how the places we encounter literally become a part of us (and yes, I really […]

A new song being born: Angelita

by David LaMotte

Antigua, Guatemala  8AM Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013 I wrote a song lyric yesterday that captures a bit of what I’m thinking and feeling on this particular trip to Guatemala, which must be about my tenth time here. I’m thinking about how the places we encounter literally become a part of us (and yes, I really […]

Worldchanging Weekends

Jan 22, 2013
For over fifteen years David has been offering Worldchanging 101 workshops and keynotes. In them, he challenges some common, but largely unexamined, ideas about how large-scale social change happens and how it does not. We have put together a new flyer for colleges and churches about various ways to organize a weekend event or a […]

Worldchanging Weekends

by David LaMotte

For over fifteen years David has been offering Worldchanging 101 workshops and keynotes. In them, he challenges some common, but largely unexamined, ideas about how large-scale social change happens and how it does not. We have put together a new flyer for colleges and churches about various ways to organize a weekend event or a […]

Interview on peacemaking and activism

Jan 3, 2013
David Dault recently interviewed me for his podcast ‘Things Not Seen.’  It was a delightful conversation, and the edited version is here. I hope you will enjoy it. To listen, simply click here.

Interview on peacemaking and activism

by David LaMotte

David Dault recently interviewed me for his podcast ‘Things Not Seen.’  It was a delightful conversation, and the edited version is here. I hope you will enjoy it. To listen, simply click here.

2013 — Looky!

Jan 1, 2013
January 1, 2013, Chapel Hill, NC Last night Deanna and I celebrated New Year’s Eve at home, talking and laughing and trying to strengthen each other for what will be a challenging new year for us in some ways. We and Mason had not-so-gracefully showed up at a New Year’s party that afternoon—a full day […]

2013 — Looky!

by David LaMotte

January 1, 2013, Chapel Hill, NC Last night Deanna and I celebrated New Year’s Eve at home, talking and laughing and trying to strengthen each other for what will be a challenging new year for us in some ways. We and Mason had not-so-gracefully showed up at a New Year’s party that afternoon—a full day […]