Lacy MacAuley of D.C. is a full-time activist who is helping to organize the upcoming Sacred DC festival, June 21 at Malcolm X Park. Among the planned programs: Qigong, movement meditation, laughter yoga, street theater and “graffiti therapy.” The festival is co-sponsored by the D.C. arts commission. For information, go to sacreddc.com.
What is Sacred DC?
It absolutely is a new way of advocating for change. It’s a way to think about the healing that needs to happen and to positively visualize the world we want to live in. We all want to live in a more just society, in a more equal society, in a society that has a more healthy relationship with the planet.
Why are you involved?
As an activist and artist and healer, I definitely see that we need to work for change from the inside of our souls to the halls of Congress and the U.N.
What do you do?
For 13 years I had my own company doing massage therapy, before I decided to go full time into social change.
What will people find at the festival?
Free workshops on the healing arts, learning how to heal themselves on an individual basis, free workshops on social justice — anti-nuclear work, anti-war work. Green groups talking about how they’re working to heal our planet. And there will be performers expressing through their artistic modes what they want to see the world move toward.
How can yoga change the world?
If we can just find ways to be at peace in our own bodies, that eliminates a lot of the aggression. It eliminates a lot of the dominating parts of the human spirit that unfortunately lead to warlike civilizations, that lead to people doing unjustifiable things such as invading countries that they have no business invading, creating economic policy and trade policy that exploits other counties, and making bad decisions about how we interact with our planet Earth.
