It is a moment that begs for reflection,..some fireworks, a brass band....and a triumphant review of our achievements. Sometime last February, Project Troubador turned twenty five.... an accomplishment for any organization, but particularly for an arts oriented, grassroots non-profit such as we are. Still, while statistics can be stacked to impress, they won’t reveal what we have been doing or why we feel it is important to continue doing it.

Over every one of those twenty five years, Project Troubador has been bridging the vast abyss between America and the developing world. Acting as both messenger and muse, the many musicians, dancers, actors and mimes we have sent to far reaches of the globe have provided an alternative, up-close-and-personal contact with our culture and our humanity, one that contrasts with what is presently reaching these areas through media, political or commercial interests. In and around each performance, from the mountaintop marketplaces of Guatemala to the dusty villages of Senegal, tens of thousands of “close encounters” have taken place. In these tender moments, with a wink or a smile that is returned, we have diffused the fear and misunderstanding that has preceded our arrival, and left a more hopeful notion to contemplate in our wake.

What has sustained us throughout is simple yet unquantifiable. It’s the feeling of being actively involved in social change... a feeling recgognized by the many members and funders who have made each performance possible, by the various Troubadors who have embodied those performances and by the hundreds of thousands who have witnessed them all around the world. It has joined us in laughter and song. It has permeated our separate lives... and made us inseparable.
25 years ago, stepping off a plane in Belize City, we simply had no idea. We could not have imagined that Project Troubador would evolve as it has. Now, as Louise and I look back over a quarter of a century... what amounts to half of our lives... we can’t imagine what we would do, or who we would be without it. Thank you for helping us come this far, please join us as we go forward.

Eliot Osborn
Artistic Director

“We who believe in freedom can not rest” * swirl the 14 voices in the van as it careers over the Cameroonian highlands. As if powering the vehicle with the breath of their desire, 5 American Troubadors and 9 Cameroonian women of Kongadzem join in song. Its the 10th dusty village in 4 days, with hundreds of waiting faces bright in anticipation of greeting us for our last performance of the day.

From our serene home office tucked in the woods of northwest Connecticut, I am struck by the vast gap between my privileged lifestyle and the marginalized existence of some 2 billion people on earth who live on less than $1/day. How each of us reckons with that enormous imbalance depends on one’s individual interpretation of his or her global responsibility.

It occurs to me that the more we venture beyond our insular existence, be it physical or intellectual, the more we yearn for the creation of an equitable world where life can flourish and justice is the common currency. We search for a personal way to participate in that challenge.

25 years ago Project Troubador tossed its pebble into a quiet pond. Gentle but constant, today we are grateful for its widening ripples. We watch our expanding roster of Troubadors, board members, festival volunteers and artists, collaborating organizations and donor sources encompass the hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised people we have served in 5 continents across the globe. We have created a ragtag army of irregulars, thirsty to wage war on the gap between privilege and vulnerability.

We invite you to read the following pages written by members of this brigade. We hope you may join or continue on with us in the struggle to balance the scales. Your personal contribution, be it money, energy or ideas, will strengthen the ripple effect as we drift towards a more sustainable future, one where we all share common ground.

“We who believe in freedom can not rest” - the verses fade but the chorus resonates.

Louise Lindenmeyr
Executive Director

* From “ Ella’s Song ” by Bernice Johnson Reagon