Be a Voice, Not an Echo: 3-Min Dance and Poem Video

Where does the body live in creative change?

Can you feel it too? The unmistakable and intense signs that we’re in the middle of a massive societal transformation?

In times like these, we need more viewpoint diversity, not less. No single perspective holds all the answers to the complex, interconnected crises we face as a human species. We need each other’s questions, insights, and lived experiences to build a fuller picture of reality.

Yet political, racial, gender, and ideological identities—once expressions of liberation and diversity—are now increasingly used to control, divide, and shut down the very conversations that could move us forward. The constant flood of fear, outrage, and urgency in news and social media pump our bodies with adrenaline and dopamine—the same chemicals that drive addiction. Over time, we don’t just get hooked on the information itself, but on the feeling it gives us: the certainty, the righteousness, the identity it reinforces.

This is literally making us sick. It's draining our precious energy, hijacking our nervous systems, spiking our blood pressure, weakening our immunity, and eroding our sense of safety and trust in life. In a time when so much is happening in our heads and on our screens, I recently came across a question that stopped me in my tracks: Where does the body live in creative change?

My shuffle dance session in the streets of Minneapolis today felt like a much-needed release—an untangling of everything I’ve been carrying lately. When I got home, a poem poured out of me. It speaks to something I think we’re losing in this moment: our ability to truly see and hear ourselves and one another.

As political activist and embodiment facilitator Prentis Hemphill once put it, "What good is freedom if we don't feel it?" For me, dancing is a reminder that freedom isn’t just a material or symbolic destination for a healthy society. It’s an inner feeling, a state of being, a somatic embodiment of what we want to create in this world that inspires us and brings out the best in us. If and when systems collapse, what will we choose to build together?

Be a Voice, Not an Echo
By PEERS Director Amber Yang

Fear, emotionally-charged headlines, divisive algorithms.
They all compete for my attention.
Engineered media narratives distort reality.
Identity becomes armor, a weapon.

Our nervous systems forget how to feel safe—
With ourselves and each other.
Yet my body isn’t just wired for survival and fear.

I’m wired for pleasure, laughter, resilience.
I’m wired for creative thinking—
the kind that moves me beyond fear
and into possibility.

I’m wired to evolve
To change my mind
To grow beyond familiar truths
And comfort zones

There’s a thin line
between living your truth
and being owned by a label.
Your roots can anchor you,
But they don’t have to cage you.

The more fragile our identities become,
The easier it is for the system on any side
To manipulate us, tokenize us, divide us,
Or sell us illusions of justice that never touch root causes.

Your soul, your consciousness, your choices
Your capacity to hold different truths
To question what you’ve been told
I believe that’s where the real power lives.

True sovereignty is resilient.
It’s rooted inside of us—
Not in who holds power,
Not in who we fear,
And not in the echo chamber
Of those who look, think, or vote like us.

Be a voice, not an echo.
Open your mind, body, and heart.
Heal the divides.