Forget everything that's negative about globalization for a moment to reflect on the scrupulously sincere worldview that drives Chloë Hopson. Chloë is a globe-trotting, culture-loving, heart-of-gold artist who lives her life and shares her trade under oath of a central yogi precept - namaste (the great perfection within me honors the great perfection within you). As an accomplished dancer, dramatist, singer, and educator, Chloë is well-known for her work as an artist-in-residence and for her diversity seminars that touch the hearts and minds of young people from around the world. As the founder and driving force of the collective Passport Project, Chloë Hopson has precious few moments to catch her breath. Luckily, she's perfected the technique of breath meditation in simultaneity with other activities - which she was able to do during a recent chat at Limbo on Larchmere (a Cool Cleveland cornerstone). They Say-er Kristin Bly checks in to find out what drives Chloë Hopson.

Kristin Bly: Tell me about Passport Project.
Chloë Hopson: The mission of Passport is "to build community through the arts, encourage respect for diversity and the rejection of racism and negative bias, and to inspire excitement for learning and the global community." Ultimately, we are interested in getting kids enthusiastic about creative learning, and open to the appreciation of diversity. Our programs are literacy-based, so we often start with a story, a folktale, or poem and develop events and residencies from that point. We facilitate the exploration of the stories through movement, through visual art, theatre, and music.

You mention "we". I know Passport now has a board and official non-profit status, but who makes up the "we" of Passport Project, and from where does it all stem?
I think much of my original drive to do something like this stems from my own experience of growing up as a fair-skinned African-American student in Shaker Schools, and sort of always falling through the cracks of these segregated ethnic clicks. Feeling uncomfortable in that way really gave me the life-motivation for bringing people together to effect change and to build community. I've always been involved with the arts, particularly dance. Then, my fire was really lit after attending a month-long summer institute with the Urban Bush Women. When I came back from that, I had an opportunity with Cleveland Schools to put some of my ideas into practice, and that opened the door for these great collaborations with other artists - dancers, musicians, visual artists… which really began a series of relationships that continues to form the "we" of Passport Project. We gather in different ways for different circumstances. The most recent branch, for example, is the Global Dance and Music Collective. We are a diverse group of people who come together to demonstrate and provide education about dance and music from around the world. But - like I said - every circumstance is different, and I often find myself calling upon a core group of friends and colleagues to do an event or project. It evolves to fit the specific needs of the undertaking.

It sounds like even the resources from where you develop your outreach come from a place of building community.
I approach people on a regular basis, and ask them to get involved in different ways. It's a really beautiful thing, to me, to see Passport Project bringing people together to do positive work, and to do it in a way that reflects the real world - the real world of diversity and respect.

How do you balance this real world of cultural diversity with the skepticism surrounding the notion of a global community? How do you find and teach what is good about globalization?
Well, ego is highly overrated. Race is a social construct. In order for us to get along, it doesn't require sameness, it just requires mutual respect. We are a society that devours, constantly consuming and being conditioned to have it all - and that really pits people against one another and creates all this horrible competitiveness. With Passport, we really try to get people to understand the inner connectivity, to see the inherent bond that ties us all together. You know, we do this exercise where the kids listen to a rhythm that imitates a heartbeat, and I ask them if that pattern sounds familiar. Someone always gets the heartbeat, and that becomes the root of everything. All the dance and all this music really springs from this; we teach this as a fundamental frame of reference for viewing the world, no matter where we come from, no matter what we look like - we all have this in common and we all share this connection. I want Passport to have a constructive impact on community - however you define community. It's really just about planting those seeds and cultivating positive openness.

Chloë Hopson talks a lot about planting seeds, and her work directly reflects an earnest passion for tolerance, respect, and shared communal experience. As she goes about planting seeds, Passport Project continues to blossom. Even as we were talking, she took me on a tour of the soon-to-come home base for Passport Project. Located in Shaker Heights, the Passport Project Global Community Arts Center provides a priceless resource for the local and regional community. Hopson's brilliant workshops will engage and enrich the larger community of artists, students, parents and children drawn to Chloë's charismatic nature that teaches us to calmly see the great perfection in one another. Register in advance for classes open to the public, starting Sat 5/22 at the new Global Community Arts Center located at 12801/12803 Buckeye Rd. Learn more about this amazing effort and call 721-1055 or email cloemar18@aol.com and keep your eye out for a website forthcoming at http://www.passportproject.org (:divend:)