ART MAKES US MOVE
Lauren Paul! Molly Thompson! Pádraig Ó Tuama! Imani Perry! Ossie Davis!
Hello Beloved,
How are you? Some of you respond to that question and I love it when you do. It’s simple. If you’re receiving this via email, respond to me there. If you’re reading online, leave a comment below. When I ask you how you’re doing, I'm genuinely interested.
Sometimes I begin these emails by sharing a story, recounting a horrific injustice happening in the world, telling you some good news, or sharing a lesson I’m learning.
As we quickly approach the end of this year, I’ll begin this email by asking you to do something for me. Not all of the following but maybe one of them? And please do not worry if you’re unable to do any of them. Seriously.
❤️ In 2025, we have massive plans for the nonprofit arm of Let’s Give a Damn, the Let’s Give A Damn Foundation. We’ll focus on encouraging, empowering, and equipping artists who give a damn. This will include in-person gatherings, making lots of art, mentoring artists, a 3-day festival, and so much more.
I’m so fucking pumped about what we can (and will!) accomplish. We’re doing a fundraising push as we wrap up this year and I invite you to give a one-time gift or set up a recurring donation.
❤️ We’re on Patreon. In a very practical way, Patreon helps me make a living so I can keep giving a damn and help more people do the same. If you can, join. If not, don’t. I love you either way.
❤️ Elevate the podcast. We hope to create other podcasts and other types of media in 2025. I have so many ideas. But for us to do that, more people need to know about what we’re already doing. So many of you share and I’m incredibly grateful for that. But we need more of it:) We’ve release over 270 episodes and they’re top notch. Some of my guests are household names and some of them are complete strangers to you. But all of them are damn good humans just trying to do better and be better.
Here are some practical and very easy ways to elevate the podcast — listen, watch, like, comment, share (texts to friends or what we post on social media), and leave ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Doing any one of these means the world to me/us.
Speaking of the podcast, here are a few things I think you should read, watch, listen to, and consider as we head into the weekend:
🎧 LISTEN / WATCH
It’s Lauren Paul & Molly Thompson week on the Let’s Give A Damn podcast!
Lauren Paul (right) is the co-founder of Kind Campaign and Director, Writer and Producer of Kind Campaign's award-winning documentary, Finding Kind. Finding a way to start a conversation about bullying has been on Lauren’s heart ever since her own life-altering experience in middle school. After studying film at Pepperdine University, Lauren joined forces with her friend and fellow filmmaker, Molly Thompson and founded Kind Campaign, a multi-platform movement that has changed and saved hundreds of thousands of lives, friendships, classrooms and communities around the world. Kind Campaign is the nation's premier anti-bullying movement for girls and has impacted millions through their school assemblies, documentary film, Kind Club Curriculum and global movement.
Molly Thomson (left) hails from Texas where she lived for all of her life before moving to California to attend Pepperdine University where she met her “partner in KIND,” Lauren. During her time at the university, Molly studied acting and film/television production, joined Delta Gamma Fraternity, and studied abroad in Florence and London. This combination of experiences led her to understand even more that as girls, we weren’t all that different from one another, and that bullying often comes from a place of self-doubt and insecurity. She has spent many years now working to change the status quo and encouraging girls to ban together rather than farther apart.
Lauren and Molly joined me to talk about how and why Kind Campaign started over 15 years ago, the thousands and thousands of lives that have been changed over the years because of their work, and so much more.
✅ Follow Lauren on Instagram.
✅ Follow Molly on Instagram.
✅ Follow Kind Campaign on Instagram.
✅ Visit Kind Campaign’s website to get involved today!
✅ Last but not least, Click here to listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts or click below to watch it on YouTube.
Oh, before we move on, here is the first clip we released of our conversation. It’s so good! Watch, like, and share.
🗞️ READ
Interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African American culture, Imani Perry, wrote a must-read article a few days ago.
In it, she makes the argument for reading deeply, widely, and more often.
This: “Armed with a righteous moral imagination we can use the human need for story in the service of understanding the world with an eye towards bringing us closer to something like justice and decency.”
And this: “We become through reading as much as other life experiences. I become more fully as I read day be day. And I read broadly because I want to grow deep as well as wide.”
Do you want to help people? Read more. Do you want to become a better person? Read more. Do you want to think more critically? Read more. Do you want to become more empathetic? Read more.
Read the full piece on her Substack.
And if you ever need recommendations about what to read, hit me up. And keep an eye out for a possible LGAD book club in 2025. If we did launch a book club, would you join?
📺 WATCH
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a friend and one of my favorite living poets. He is a remarkable human with a big heart and a brilliant mind. He has another book of poetry coming out in early 2025 called Kitchen Hymns.
In this video, he recites his poem called There is Time for Time about a conversation between Jesus and Persephone — “two bruised and broken gods who are in hell.”
🧠 PONDER
This week’s quote is meant to encourage you to make art. Make more art. Make a shit ton of art. We need more art.
“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.” – Ossie Davis
👋🏽 GOODBYE!
That’s it for this week, Thank you for reading. I'm truly grateful. Consider forward this email to a friend? Or send them this link so they can sign up. And you can always email me about anything. I’ll be back soon with good news and steps we can take together to build intentional community and to make our world a much better place. We have a lot of work to do, y’all. Sending love.
Keep giving a damn,
NICK LAPARRA
🙏🏽 WAYS TO SUPPORT LET’S GIVE A DAMN
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✅ Leave a 5-star rating and review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
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