Tools for Peace-Hello Magazine Canadian Edition (9th Oct 2006)(thanks Deb for Transcript and Photos)
kd lang is tired. It's 2PM and she is slumped, albeit
smiling, in a well worn armchair in one of the small
lounge areas at the Tools For Peace Camp she helped
to create in the Tehachapi Mountains of central
California. The devoted vegetarian is the camps
self-appointed chef and as such has the daunting
task of cooking three square meals a day for more
than 30 people, most of them meat eaters. But she
doesn't blink. "There are always red meat, chicken,
or turkey and tofu options," she says. When an offer
is made to help wash dishes-something that falls under
the umbrella of her kitchen duties-she wipes her hands
on the front of her white chef's apron and gratefully accepts.
"Yeah, sure there's lot's to do" That could be the
understatement of the year.
This is the maiden voyage of Toolds for Peace, a week
long camp designed to help teens learn to deal with day
to day problems. According to its mission statement,
the camp seeks to "train youth to cultivate the qualities
that lead to peace." Looking around the grounds, formaly
owned by the YMCA, it is clear that this is a work in progress.
"We are struggling financially," admits kd, whose gentle
demeanor and rosy cheeks belie her 25 years in the notoriously
cutthroat music industry. "But we hope to build cabins someday
for the kids, so they're not staying on our $100.00 Target tents,"
She laughs but this is clearly something about which the
Canadian superstar feels very strongly.
kd's own childhood was challening at times.
Born in Edmonton, she grew up in the small town of
Consort, Alta., with her mom and three siblongs.
(John, Jo Ann and Keltie). Her father left the family
when kd was just 12 years old and they've been enstranged
ever since. Despite this kd's mother was determined to give
her children the opportunity to excel, and drove all four
many miles a day to take piano lessons. However, k.d.'s
genius was to be found not in her ability to tinkle the
ivories but in her velvety voice.
Over the course of her impressive career, her musical style
has evolved from country to adult contemporary, and her
mesmerizing vocal and introspective songwriting have won
her four Grammys and eight Juno Awards. She is a Canadian
icon.
Todat k.d. sees herself as "just one of the staff members"
at the camp-albeit a highly influential staff member.
She has lent her celebrity to many causes during her
career-including acting as an unwitting spokesperson
for the lesbian community-but says Tools For Peace is
"really the only one that I'm truely passonite about."
At 45, the singer is commited to changing the world
one teenager at a time.
Taking us on a tour of the camp, she points out several
half completed small buildings and modestly owns up to
her role in their construction. "I laid the insulation
and I've learned to spackle," she says.
The tour continues past the towering pine trees
that characterize this serene place until she pauses
beside a dusty aluminium trailer.
"This is where my wife and I live," she says with a smile,
appreciating the incorgruity of it all."
A short trek up a small hill and past a bubbling brook,
over which a makeshift wooden bridge has been positioned,
and we find her "wife" Jamie Price, ensconced in the camps
formal classroom. Although not offically married, the
couple have been in a commited relationship the past
five years.
Jamie is one of the camp's guiding forces. She bought the land (190 hectares) and spent three years conceiving a curriculum that. she explains. "uses the blueprint of the Tbetan Shi-tro mandela to help campers understand and develope the qualities that promote peace." She then wrote the 107 page workbook that is distrubuted to each camper, and as if that weren't enough, she has pitched in as the camps resident volleyball coach, too.
Standing in the middle of the classroom, as open space where 20 campers, ranging in age from 14 to 16, sit together on benches at long tables enthusiastically working on art projects. Jamie beams. A dark-eyed boy brims with pride when a teacher congratulates him on his work.
Later that week, back at the house she shares with k.d in the Hollywood Hills, Jamie tells Hello! his story.
He's a kid from South Central (Los Angeles) who's had serious problems in the past with violence and has been in detention centres because of it. When he came to the camp, he said he wasn't sure what it was going to be about but what he did know was that he was going to get in a fight with someone because that's what he did. And in his mind, he'd already decided he wasn't going to like anybody.
Then, on the last day, he looked at everyone and said, "You guys are my family. I've never felt so safe and so open in my entire life." And he started to cry. He said, "this is the first time I've ever cried." As she tells the story, it's clear that he wasn't the only one crying that day.
"It was extraordinarily emotional interjects k.d. "it was like a roller-coaster ride. There were times when you would break down from exaustion and from going through it. You know, when you think of something shedding it's skin and opening up, it's a very diffiult thing, and when you're talking emotionally, it's really very painful sometimes because you're letting go of things that you thought were protecting you. And the counsellors went through the process as well...communicating in a way that you don't like to communicate, which is completely open and honest," she chuckles a bit at her own admitted shortcomings.
But the camp wasn't all hard work and emotional unheaval.
And k.d did step away from the stove to lead two or three music classes. To be sure, fun was an integral part of the master plan. Campers made jerelry, played basketball, baseball and volleyball, told stories and sang songs around the campfire while roasting s'mores. And on karaoke night, it was k.d who got the party started. "I had to kick it," she says smiling, "you know, loosen up the kids up, so I did a nice version of "Stand By Your Man."
When it is suggested that this might intimidate potential karaokers, she laughs, "I made sure that it was stupid enough that they all felt inspired to top me."
The kids even got a taste of the life of a recording star, laying down two tracks of their own original music that was later edited and produced by a professional sound engineer who was among the staff of eight full-tiome and four part-time counsellors. Over the course of the week, it became increasingly evident that these fun activities were key to the kid's emotional developement. One of them put it this way: "We live in an enviroment that's destroyed, nasty, angry, all violent in the streets where people die almost every single day...the campfires, the singing, the having fun, it's really a big thing."
"I had the privilege of driving a lot of the kids up the hill at the beginning of the camp, and then also driving them down at the end," Jamie recalls. "When I first picked them up, they were absolutely stone-cold silent and really shut down and dark and cold. And then on the last day, when I drove them down, they were completely open, talking and laughing, affectionate with each other and their faces just full of light. It was really striking, and I felt that the camp had been a success just based on that alone."
For her part, k.d. is already looking forward to next summer when they will return to Tehachapi for several more weeks of camp.
"My aspiration for the campers and for the camp is that it can help provide the key to unlock the best they canbe in terms of their emotions, their acceptance and their understanding." she reflects, "And that connectedness may not last past the six days they sspend at Tools for Peace, but if they catch a glimpe of it-their happiest, most positive nature-they will know that it exists inside them and maybe they will, secretly or outwardly, want to attain it again."
By Amanad Luttrell Garrigus
Photo's by Peter Bregg.
A bit larger photo at that link.
