REFLECTIONS BY Monica Salazar - CO-FOUNDER OF EMA
So many thoughts have been stirring in my mind, and affecting my overall energy, as I’m sure a lot of you are feeling similar, shaken up, saddened, particularly because of the events that took place at the supernova festival. I’ve wanted to say something publicly, but have paused because of the sensitivity surrounding this situation. It’s complicated and we can all go down a rabbit hole about who’s right, and who’s wrong and what we should support. As one of the founding members of EMA, the essence of the organization has always been to reflect PLUR principles. We grew up in this rave, club, festival environment - our dance music community is party of US and so it hurt tremendously to see what happened on Saturday. Something I shared with Janine is my feeling for these fellow ravers, on an early Saturday morning, dancing to their hearts delight, watching the sunrise, and then the world turns upside down on them, dark and horrible. I keep reflecting on the need to pray. We need to pray for them, for their spirits so that we can help them transition. I’m not a super religious person, but I do believe that the intention and action behind prayer for our fellow dance community members can help us all push through this pain. I think about how I felt after the attack in Las Vegas and the pulse nightclub in Orlando, or the Bataclan in Paris and it brings up similar feelings, and those are not dance music community specific events. Those are country music fans, those are rock fans, and LGBTQ community that I also love.
Hate will grow and spread like wildfire if we allow it to. Let’s remind ourselves to be peaceful.
I became more involved in the dance music community in the mid-2000’s through my work with the EarthDance festival. This work comes into focus for me because the highlight of that festival was and is still the Prayer for Peace. The intention to send out peace universally at the same moment, synchronous in time, over lands, oceans, continents and to pull us all together as one unified soul spirit really. I know it may sound hippie dippy, but that’s what I love about our community and it saddens me to see people siding one way over the other. We all want and deserve peace and safety at home, at work, and in our communities. We all all want to live without fear of dying or being attacked, persecuted for our religious beliefs, who we love, or what country we pledge allegiance to.
Pledging of support reminds me a little about the EMA Party Pledge we created about 10 years ago. We commit to solving all problems without violence. So if we are to do anything, let's continue what this scene has always been about, supporting one another.
Read Janine Jordan's (EMA co-founder) unofficial comment, "Stay in Love".
