Celebrating 20 Years: Meet Carole Haas Gravagno

Carole Haas Gravagno knows the power of the arts to spark transformative change, and as a board member and founder, from day one, she helped foster that spark at Intercultural Journeys. Carole talked to IJ’s executive director, Carly Rapaport-Stein, about some of the seeds that blossomed into what IJ is today.

There are so many stories from IJ's founding years, but two jump out as particularly relevant to IJ today. With Udi Bar-David, I went to Israel to a beautiful village called Neve Shalom | Wāħat as-Salām, a village for people expressly interested in living together across the dividing cultural lines. We used music to open a discussion session, and one of the men said: "I passed you on the street, and I never saw you before." That's a critical founding principle of IJ -- we need to do something to see each other as humans, looking beyond the identifier to understand the nuanced human within. Music was that bridge, early on, and IJ's performances continue to be that bridge towards us finding each other.

The second memory I want to share is about being in Plum Village Monastery, in France, which was founded by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. When we were there, we meditated on love: as we swept the floors, washed dishes, and did our other chores, all while giving thanks and doing everything with love. As we stayed at the village, Thich Nhat Hanh asked Udi to play and for me to sing for them. It was the first time I'd ever sung in public alone, and I thought, if I can't do this here, where else could I? I see that love and boldness in IJ today, in the projects we're doing, and the dialogue that we're helping to foster.

My dream for IJ for the next 20 years is that we continue hearing each other's music -- finding ways to meld our sounds together into new combinations and ideas. I think we could be part of opening negotiations like that -- finding new pathways that open each other's hearts and minds. I hope in everything we do, we continue to find ways to help see the humanity and beauty in each other. 

If you want to help grow IJ’s work over the next 20 years, join us on May 10th to celebrate our 20 year history!